Marquez goes fastest in Valencia testing

Valencia, November 16: Marc Marquez followed up his fourth MotoGP title win by going fastest in Valencia over the two days of testing, almost four tenths clear of Reposl Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa - with a best of 1:30.033.

On the second day, Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was the fastest Yamaha, and the Frenchman put in 65 laps to go third overall - just pushed back down the timesheets in the latter stages by Pedrosa.

Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo finished fourth while Yamaha's Maverick Vinales, who dominated the opening day timesheets was fifth fastest after 66 laps.

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, meanwhile, put in a mammoth 72 laps on day 2 to go sixth fastest as he also begins work on Honda's 2018 push for glory while Italian great Valentino Rossi finished seventh on the timesheets after 62 laps and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso 15th

After the conclusion of the two-day official pre-season tests at Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit, some teams head for Jerez for more testing on November 22 and 23, before the next official outing lights up Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia at the end of January.

Marquez, who completed a total of 61 laps on day two in Valencia was quite happy with the way testing went and he is already looking forward to the Sepang tests.

"Overall it was very positive. We tried many things and I had a good pace, so I'm happy with how it went. We had a few issues to sort out with the new bike, and of course it has some positives and negatives, but that's completely normal for a test when you put a completely new engine and machine on the track," said Marquez, who annexed his fourth MotoGP crown and sixth overall world title last Sunday.

Nos despedimos de esta temporada con buenas sensaciones! / We say bye to this season with good feeling! 👋🏼2017 pic.twitter.com/4fWkKrBr3y

— Marc Márquez (@marcmarquez93) November 15, 2017

"Valencia is a particular track, a small circuit, and the conditions were very good, so we'll need to re-confirm everything at another circuit. It;ll be very important to prepare well for the next time we'll be on track, which' ll be the Malaysia test at the end of January," the Spaniard added.