Luis Salom and Zulfahmi Khairuddin lower lap times and place third and fifth, respectively. Arthur Sissis improves to go fifteenth.

A second day of testing in Valencia saw the Red Bull KTM Ajo team on top form. Luis Salom was once again one of the fastest in the class, closing the day third behind Maverick Viñales and Álex Rins. Zulfahmi Khairuddin was fifth, cutting almost a second off his Day 1 time, whilst Arthur Sissis was fifteenth overall.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo were the first out on track at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo this morning. Good weather from the early hours allowed Salom, Sissis and Khairuddin to enjoy two productive hours of testing. The Australian and the Malaysian riders were two of the participants with the most laps to their names, with 34 and 28, respectively. The three Red Bull KTM Ajo riders were all in the top ten, with Luis Salom third fastest in the morning after 16 laps.

In the one-hour session exclusively for Moto3 riders (the other two sessions were undertaken sharing the track with participants from Moto2), Luis Salom stepped forward and improved his morning pace to top the timesheets. Khairuddin was ninth and Sissis twenty-first. From 3pm, with the wind getting stronger, the Australian called a close to his day. Teammates Khairuddin and Salom continued their adaptation to the 2013, KTM 2013, achieving their best times of the day. The Spaniard stopped the clock at 1’40.435, third fastest and 0.267 off pacesetter Maverick Viñales. Fourth in the final session and fifth overall, Khairuddin improved his pace to claim a 1’40.961 lap.

The Official Moto3 Test in Valencia concludes tomorrow.

Luis Salom

Audio

“The feeling was good today. We ended up very happy, because we clocked a good time despite there being a lot of riders on track. The pace was good too, so I’m happy with that. The team are working really well. In the morning we focused on out pace and trying out the setup, then in the afternoon it was all about finding a good feeling. I think that tomorrow we can get a really strong time.”

Arthur Sissis

Audio

“In the morning I felt very comfortable on the bike, every time was better than the last and I could set a good time with worn tyres. In the afternoon it started to get windy and I do not usually go very well in those conditions. I tried to find a good setup, but I could not go fast, so I decided to stop –I had already done enough laps in the morning. There was no point if I could not beat the times from the first session and it was best to continue working tomorrow. I’m happy, because we found a good setup and I was able to go fast. Tomorrow we will continue on this path, trying to finish setting up the bike and improving our times.”

Zulfahmi Khairuddin

Audio (English) – Audio (Malaysian)

“The setting of the bike worked really well today. We improved a lot compared to yesterday, by almost a second. We did a lot of testing with weight distribution and solved a chattering problem. Tomorrow there will be more things to try and I hope to lower my times yet further.”