It was a new day for the orange duo Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez at the beautiful Pertamina Mandalika Circuit for the second day of the Official MotoGP Mandalika Test, as both rookies returned to track-action this morning at 9:00 local time. Unlike yesterday, the weather conditions were on our side for the first half of the day, and despite some dark clouds threatening the MotoGP paddock at lunch time, the day went on with no interruption.

As per his habit, Raul Fernandez was amongst the first riders to leave the pit box this morning following the start-signal in order to continue his learning-process of the new circuit. With a dry track, we witnessed times going down for all the riders, and it was no exception for the number 25 who managed to improve his best-lap time from yesterday by 0.651 seconds within the first hour of the day. Shortly after that, Raul had already registered thirty-one laps by 11 00 local time and got his best-lap of the day in 1’32.401. Within the final hour, the KTM Factory rider suffered a crash in turn 12. Nothing too serious came out from the medical check, and the Spaniard will now get some rest before heading back on track tomorrow for the final day here in Mandalika.

On the other side of Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s box, Remy Gardner also continued his progress while being cautious with his injured wrist. Just like his teammate, the Australian rapidly improved his feelings on the brand-new layout as well as his lap-time from yesterday. Before lunch break, he had already done forty-one laps with a best-lap time of 1’33.110. The afternoon was dedicated to the trial of different bike set-ups, and some good directions came out of it as the number 87 got his best-lap time of the day in 1’32.598 on lap 66/69. Remy also practiced starts during the final fifteen minutes of the day dedicated to practice-starts.

Raul Fernandez

Position: 21st

Time: 1'32.401

Laps: 52

"In general, we had a positive day again because I was in the Top 15 all day long, which is important for us. Of course towards the end of the day I crashed, but I feel good overall, despite a small pain in my head. When you ride at 300km/h, a crash that seems stupid is not so stupid in the end, so I will get some rest tonight. I am happy with the work done today, and I will try to give my maximum for the final day tomorrow."

Remy Gardner

Position: 23rd

Time: 1'32.598

Laps: 69

"Today has been a long day because we ended up doing many laps, 69. At midday, the track was nearly sixty degrees, so we waited quite a while to go back on track, and towards the end of the day, we found some good directions, although we still need to make big improvements. We are not completely off the pace right now, which is good, so we continue to work, try to improve and find better solutions before Qatar. It is a very physical track with a lot of fast changes of direction and I am struggling a bit with my wrist so maybe tomorrow I will try to do less laps."