Dani Pedrosa tops day 1 before the rain at Sepang 2 test

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

MotoGP is hexed by the weather, be it during race weekends or pre-season or post-season testing, rain has become an unpleasant companion for the riders and the first day of theSepang 2 test was more or less halted after lunch time because of it, ((Pedrosa, Bautista, Bradl, Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti did a few laps in the rain) so the best lap times were ‘frozen’ from the morning session.

The fastest rider of the day, or rather half day was again Dani Pedrosa who had led all three days during the previous MotoGP test at Sepang two weeks ago, but this time lap times were higher for everyone including Pedrosa whose best lap this morning was 2’01″580, compared to the 2’00″100 that he did at Sepang 1.

Just a little more than two tenths of second adrift was reigning World champion Jorge Lorenzo who continues his usual methodical set-up approach and race pace. Marc Marquezwas third, but he suffered his second crash with the RC213V and fortunately like last time was uninjured.

Probably the surprise of the day was LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl in fourth and just 0.015s from his old Moto2 rival, while Valentino Rossi continues to suffer from a chronic four tenths of a second gap from the front runners with his Yamaha M1 that put him in fifth.

Yamaha satellire rider Cal Crutchlow continues to impress with his Tech3 branded machine as he was 6th a little less than one tenth ahead of Alvaro Bautista who is continuing development of the Showa suspensions for Honda and he was the last rider to be within a second from Pedrosa.

Ducati factory riders were able to cut some of the previous gap they had from Sepang 1, with Andrea Doviziso in 8th and 1.2 seconds adrift while Ducati veteran Nicky Hayden was 9th and three tenths from his new team mate. MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith closed out the top ten but he suffered his first and hopefully last crash with the M1.

Aleix Espargaro also binned his ART but he ended up in 11th ahead of Ducati-Pramac riders Ben Spies and Andrea Iannone, who were separated by just 0.003s. Spies is still recovering from his shoulder problems and Iannone did a three day test at Jerez with Ducati’s test team after Sepang 1 test, so we expected a little more from the MotoGP rookie as we did from test rider Michele Pirro, who is present this time as are both Yamaha test riders Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Wataru Yoshikawa, while Honda has Takumi Takahashi. Missing from the time sheets is Michael Laverty with PBM’s new machine, they are still dialling in the Magneti Marelli electronics.

Sepang 2 day 1 test results:

01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 2’01.580 (43 laps)
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.235 (25)
03- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.362 (23)
04- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.379 (38)
05- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.448 (25)
06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.692 (28)
07- Alvaro Bautista – Go & Fun Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.782 (32)
08- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.221 (22)
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.563 (46)
10- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.052 (24)