Moto3: Valencia Test Day 1, Maverick Vinales and the KTMs at the top

Maverick Vinales' adventure with the KTM Moto3 starts off on the right foot. The Spanish rider who last year made a sensational gesture in order to switch from the FTR Honda to the Mattighofen manufacturer's bike (he had not shown up on the track in Sepang, justifying his absence with the lack of competitiveness of his bike) was in fact the fastest in the first of the three days of Irta testing on the Valencia circuit.

The Team JHK T-Shirt rider (in the photo by MotoGP.com) who lapped in 1:40.715 preceded three KTMs, respectively those of Luis Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo), Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0'0) and Zulfahmi Khairrudin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jonas Folger's Kalex KTM.

First of the Italian riders is Romano Fenati, 6th on the FTR Honda of San Carlo Team Italia. However, the rider from Ascoli Piceno has a heavy gap, 1.717 compared to Vinales. At the moment the KTMs seem much more competitive and even if the start of the world championship is still a while away, this is a worrying sign for the competition.

The other Italian riders are Matteo Ferrari 16th with the FTR Honda of Team Ongetta, Lorenzo Baldassarri 17th with the FTR Honda of Team Gresini, Francesco Bagnaia 29th with the FTR Honda of San Carlo Team Italia and Alessandro Tonucci, 32nd with the Honda of Team La Fonte Tascaracing.

Of note is the twelfth time of Ana Carrasco, female rider of Team JHK Laglisse t-shirt who put herself behind many "boys".