Mahindra Racing ends pre-season testing on positive note

Mahindra Racing finished their pre-season testing at Jerez, Spain on a good note with its two new riders recording the sixth and 16th fastest timing respectively out of 33 participating riders in the Moto3 class.
The Indian outfit's two new riders -- Portugal's Miguel Oliveira and Spaniard Efr�n V�zquez -- ended the three-and-a-half days testing on a positive mood, adding to their solid performances at the previous tests in Valencia and Jerez in February.
The riders have completed a combined total of 2,427 trouble-free kilometres at Jerez, venue for the third round of this year's MotoGP World Championship. The bikes will now be packed up and shipped directly to Qatar for the season-opening race on April 7.

"I am very satisfied with the package we have put together since last season in terms of the riders, team and bike," explained Mahindra Racing CEO Mufaddal Choonia.
"Everything has gelled well and we are achieving the targets we set after some very hard work from all concerned over the winter. This is an entirely new bike developed between our new Swiss base and Mahindra in India. I think it looks great and the feedback from the riders has been good."
Oliveira's best lap time of 1:47.548s (almost half a second quicker than he went at the February test), was the fourth fastest of the final day.

"We have created a good, solid base to start the season. This has been a really good start with no problems with the engine and we have not finished developing the bike yet, so I am sure we can make more improvements," he Oliveira said.
His Spanish team-mate, V�zquez added: "In testing you have four days to produce a lap time, whereas in Qatar we'll only have four sessions of 40 minutes before the race. We now have a good base and seem to have a good rhythm from our first laps out in each session.