from TWOWHEELSBLOG
Dani Pedrosa regained the top spot on the timesheets on the final day of test at Sepang and he even managed to keep Marc Marquez at bay even if he cut testing short, and the rookie fired off a fast lap at the end of the day that pushed him into second and mere 0.081s from his team mate.
Out of the six days of testing at Sepang, Pedrosa lead five times out of six and his 2.00.100 (during the previous test) still remains the benchmark, even if rival Jorge Lorenzo came close on Wednesday.
Pedrosa continued to work on suspension set-up and during the morning session was second fastest in the wet.
“This morning we were able to try out the wet weather set-up; it was only for a short time, but nevertheless we were able to put in some laps with it. In the afternoon, with the track dry and with slicks, we continued working on suspension settings. Overall, it’s been a positive three days. Now we’re off to Austin, and this is going to be an interesting test for the team and for myself. We’ve never ridden there and it’s a new track.” commented Pedrosa.
Marquez showed off his speed with lightning fast lap but he gave his Repsol Honda mechanics a lot of work to do as he crashed two times and both times luckily escaped unscathed, as he continued to focus on electronics and set-up and picking up even more confidence with his RC213V.
“It’s been a good day, overall. In the morning we rode in the wet and I felt very good on the bike, even though I had a small crash. I clipped the white line and lost the front, but neither myself nor the bike were affected at all. When the track dried out we went back to our work on the electronics and with the bike setup -above all with the front. On the initial laps I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the front end and had another small crash at the hairpin when I was forcing it a bit too much. In the final hour we set the bike up the way we had been fastest at this test, and I think that we got a good time again with it. We can leave here feeling positive about how things went” said Marquez.
Honda and Yamaha will resume testing at the COTA circuit, in Texas in two weeks time.
