ESPARGARO ENDS MOTOGP TESTING ON TOP

Pol Espargaro finished MotoGP World Championship pre-season testing as the pick of the field, topping both the final day timesheets and combined standings in Indonesia.

The Spanish Repsol Honda rider clocked a 1m 31.060s around Mandalika Circuit, the quickest time of the three days, to pip reigning champion Fabio Quartararo by 0.014s.

“I’ve never been so fast,” Espargaro said.

Pol’s brother Aleix was third fastest on the third day of running, recording a 1m 31.385s on his Aprilia machine.

Italian pair Franco Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia managed the fourth and fifth fastest times, while Alex Rins was the quickest Suzuki rider in sixth.

Maverick Vinales, Johann Zarco, Brad Binder and Alex Marquez rounded out the top 10 for the day, all getting within 0.6s of Espargaro.

Aussies Jack Miller and Remy Gardner were again in the bottom half of the field, running 15th and 21st, respectively.

Similarly to Espargaro, most riders achieved their personal best times on the final day, while seven of the 24 recorded theirs on Day 2.

Luca Marini may not have graced the top 10 on Day 3 but his winning time on the second day was enough to earn a top three combined placing.

In the combined standings 21 riders down to Gresini Racing rider Fabio Di Giannantonio were split by just 0.8s heading to Qatar.

Miller was within that closely matched group, but Gardner fell outside, finishing up 23rd as he continues to recover from injury setbacks.

Six-time champion Marc Marquez was successful in his comeback from injury, sneaking into the top 10 of the combined standings with a 1m 31.481s on Day 2.

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