The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team used the Portimao Moto2 & Moto3 Official Test to prepare for the upcoming 2023 Moto2 action. With the season due to start next weekend, also at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Manuel Gonzalez and Kohta Nozane made the most of their time on track to get their base set-up ready. They finished in 12th and 27th place in the combined Day-3 classification.
Gonzalez needed little time to get back into the swing of things and completed the first day with a best lap of 1’43.319s, which earned him ninth in the Day-1 results. However, rain during the night and early morning dampened his testing plans for FP4 at the start of Day 2. A crash in FP5 cost the Spaniard further time, and it caused him to slip back to 24th in the combined Day-2 rankings. But fully fit to continue riding on Day 3, Manugasss made a strong comeback. On the sunny last day, the number-18 rider set a 1’42.780s in FP9 to wrap up in 12th place in the Day-3 combined timesheets.
The team was delighted with the progress made by new recruit Nozane. He comes from the WorldSBK championship (2021-2022) and therefore was already familiar with the Portimao circuit and its elevation changes. The Japanese rider also already had some Moto2 Wild Card experience (once in 2012 and three times in 2013), allowing the number-5 rider’s professionalism to shine through during the official test. Despite crashes on Day 2 and 3, he continued to put in meticulous work and improved by over 1s in the space of a weekend. He jumped from a best time of 1’45.659s on Day 1 to a 1’44.362s on Day 3, ranking 27th in the Day-3 timesheets.
