Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveria topped the Moto test timesheets after two days’ testing at Valencia while team-mate and reigning Moto3 champion Brad Binder was forced to sit out the sessions with injury.

Portuguese rider Oliveira was the only one below the 1’36 barrier with a 1’35.887 but Fabio Quartararo was less than two tenths behind in. The French rookie put in more than 100 laps at the track with a best of 1:36.057, after already breaking the century barrier late last year in testing.

“We’ve had two days of hard work and a lot of laps, especially today because the temperature was ideal for riding and there was much less wind than yesterday. We did a very good job and were able to test a lot of things, focusing on improving the rear of the bike. We didn’t look for a fast lap and instead did some race preparation with used tyres,” said Oliveria.

“The setting for the shock has changed, although this was something we had already taken into account. At Jerez, a very different circuit to this one, we will be able to try softer tyres and continue working on the rear. We already have many ideas in mind for what we want to test there.”

Edgar Pons, on the other side of the Paginas Amarillas HP40 box, completed just over half the laps of his French teammate.

Marcel Schrötter (Dynavolt Intact GP) was another two tenths back from Quartararo with a 1’36.260, and the German completed a good amount of laps as the Intact team switch to a Suter chassis for 2017. Ricky Cardus once again stood in for injured 2016 Moto3 World Champion Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) to test his Moto2 machine, as the South African was forced to have a second operation on the arm he injured in testing in November. Binder expects to be back on track at the next test.

Also present on track was local rider and fellow Moto2 rookie Jorge Navarro (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2), although the Valencian was using the time as training on a Yamaha R6 ahead of his next taste of his new Moto2 machine.