Tuesday, 26 February 2013
After a two week absence it was time again for the MotoGP™ grid to descend on the Malaysian Sepang International Circuit to commence their second three-day test of 2013, with Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa leading the early proceedings ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Márquez at the mid-day point.
Pedrosa once again started where he had left off as he had set the quickest time at the 2pm local-time mid-day point of the test with a 2.01’580. The Spaniard, who is working on bike set-up and longer runs, is once again joined by his rookie teammate Marc Márquez, who went third fastest as he tests Pedrosa’s bike set-up from the Sepang test one and continues to build his confidence. He had a small off this morning, though walked away unscathed.
The Yamaha Factory Racing duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi ended the morning in second and fifth respectively, with the pair both working on race-distance runs on their M1. Rossi had cited after the first test that this was still his weakest point compared to his teammate. His team from last year, Ducati, has turned up with a new fuel tank for riders Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden to try, as the Italian went eighth fastest and Hayden ninth early in the day.
LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl was the quickest satellite machine out of the blocks, as the German ended the morning in fourth ahead of Rossi, as he looked to choose between the two setting options the team worked through in the first test, whilst he also continues to dial in the Öhlins suspension and Nissin brakes. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista was seventh quickest as he continues his work with the RC213V paired with Showa suspension.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow continued his impressive form from early February in sixth, with his British rookie teammate Bradley Smith doing the same as he establishes himself further in the premier-class in tenth. Pramac Racing’s Ben Spies stared the test in 13th as he looks to recover further from his shoulder injury, whilst his teammate Andrea Iannone was working on evaluating two different engines for Ducati with different weight distributions in 14th.
The three factory teams once again have a raft of test riders present with Yamaha’s Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Wataru Yoshikawa, Honda’s Takumi Takahashi, as well as Ducati’s Michele Pirro.
Topping the CRT standings at the mid-day point was Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró in 12th despite a small crash, just over 2.3 seconds off the top. His time is impressive from the off, with the next best CRT being Hiroshi Aoyama in 17th on his Avintia Blusens machine. He is followed by Aspar’s Randy de Puniet, Came IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci, Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham and Paul Bird Motorsport’s Yonny Hernandez. NGM Mobile Forward Racing riders Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti have already looked to have improved over the last test, as they both lead from Avintia’s Héctor Barberá, Gresini’s Bryan Staring and Ioda’s Lukas Pesek.
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