Daniel Pedrosa fastest on final day of testing at Valencia

While Yamaha had headed to Aragon to find some sun, the rest of the teams stayed in Valencia for the second and final day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

While the weather conditions at Valencia were again mixed, first sunny and then some rain while several riders still decided to brave the track conditions like Aleix Espargaro, MotoGP rookies Andrea Iannone on the satellite Ducati and and impatient Bradley Smith who finally debuted on the Yamaha

When it finally stopped raining it took the new surface a long time to form a dry racing line, but everyone was finally able to grab some dry testing time in the last two hours of the afternoon session.The fastest rider of the day was Sunday’s race winner Dani Pedrosa who posted a best time of 1.32.322, his 25th lap of the 30 he did and using the new 2013 machine that is heavier due to the new weight regulations (in 2012 they added 4kg and for the 2013 season they’ve had to add another 3kg - for a total of 160kg).

Marc Marquez finally made his debut and he stayed on the 2012 bike and at the end of the day his fastest lap was in 1′33.403, making him the 7th fastest rider of the day after a total of 28 laps and just 1.081 off his teammate.

Cal Crutchlow finished 2nd fastest and + 0.349 adrift from Pedrosa, despite nursing a broken hand from his crash on Sunday, while team mate Bradley Smith was 11th fastest.

Stefan Bradl who now has an extra year on his contract and HRC backing was third. Ducati’s Nicky Hayden was fourth and a little more than six tenths off pace, while his new and very methodical team mate Andrea Dovizioso, who seems to be coming to grips with the recalcitrant Ducati was sixth with a best lap of 1:33.238 and nine tenths of a second from Pedrosa. Alvaro Bautista was fifth doing a comparison test between his 2012 machine and an upgraded version.

Ducati’s new test rider Michele Pirro who is filling in for injured Ben Spies was the most Stakhanovist, putting in 51 laps in both and wet dry conditions concluding the day in eighth and just 2 tenths from Dovizioso. While the other MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso was 9th.

The next MotoGP test will be at Sepang in February while Marc Marquez will get an extra three days later this month always at Sepang.

MotoGP Valencia 2012 test day 2 results:

01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’32.322
02- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.349
03- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.491
04- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.634
05- Alvaro Bautista – Go & Fun Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.787
06- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.916
07- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.081
08- Michele Pirro – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.303
09- Andrea Iannone – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.511
10- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1.759
11- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.216
12- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – ART GP12 – + 2.987
13- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda Suter BMW – + 3.081
14- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 6.926
15- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 11.195

with TWOWHEELSBLOG