The Marc VDS Racing Team are on their way back to Spain, for next week’s final preseason test at the Jerez circuit in Andalucía.

The Jerez outing, which runs for four days and gets underway at midday on Monday 18th March, will be the first time that the Moto2 field have tested with the 2013 race engines that they’ll use this season.

Scott Redding heads to Jerez in a confident mood, having been quick in both wet and dry conditions during the test at the same circuit back in February. Having already tested a number of setting changes on his 2013 Kalex Moto2 machine, Redding will focus this time on refining his riding style to get the best from the bike.

After a difficult test at Jerez last month, Mika Kallio’s confidence received a much-needed boost during two days of testing at Albacete this week, with the 30-year-old Finn declared himself much happier with the 2013 Kalex, after finding improvements to both the weight distribution and the front end set up.

Having been forced to sit out a planned two-day outing at Le Mans due to snow, Livio Loi is also keen to resume testing at Jerez. The 15-year-old Belgian impressed with his wet weather lap times last time out, but is hoping for better weather this time around at Jerez, where he’s aiming to further refine the dry set up on his Kalex-KTM Moto3 machine.

Scott Redding #45:
“We’ve been building up over the last two tests, trying a lot of different things on the bike and finding a good direction with the set up. At this final test in Jerez we won’t change so much on the bike, leaving me to work on refining my riding style to get the most from the bike. If the feeling is good then I’ll be pushing for lap times at the end of each day, but we’ll have to see how it goes. I head to Jerez with some confidence after my times in the wet and the dry there last time out, but there’s always room for improvement and that’s exactly what we’ll be looking for next week.”

Mika Kallio #36:
“Although the weather conditions weren’t ideal at Albacete, where the track temperature was cold and the grip limited, we did find a few things with the bike. We made some improvements with the distribution of the extra weight we have for this year and also to the front end set up on the bike. We will need to confirm the changes at Jerez, where I hope the conditions will be better. Now I just need more time on the bike, without making any big changes, to build confidence. As my confidence increases the lap times will come, we know this from previous seasons.”

Livio Loi #11:
“Hopefully the weather at Jerez will be better than at Le Mans, where we sat out a two-day test this week because of snow! My feeling with the bike was good in the wet during the last test at Jerez, but we still have some work to do with the set up of the bike for the dry. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us for once and I can start to close the gap to the top of the timesheet in dry conditions during this final test.”