Jorge Lorenzo put Yamaha on top of the testing timesheets for the first time this year with his quickest lap of the winter at Sepang. The reigning world champion finally knocked Dani Pedrosa off the top with a stunning 2:00.282s lap, almost four tenths quicker than his fellow countryman.
Lorenzo was the man to beat right from the start on Wednesday, taking advantage of the improved conditions from day one, and broke straight into the 2:00s bracket on his second flying lap on the morning. The quickest time overall came shortly before lunch but Lorenzo’s consistency was particularly impressive, pumping in seventeen other laps inside 2:01 before the chequered flag came out.
By contrast, Pedrosa could only achieve that on four occasions, including his quickest lap of 2:00.651, but the Repsol Honda rider was unworried as he experimented with different suspension settings. Cal Crutchlow produced a superb lap on the Tech 3 Yamaha late in the morning to take third, edging out Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi by a tenth of a second.
After his impressive showing on day one, Stefan Bradl slipped to seventh behind Alvaro Bautista while the Ducatis of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso remained eighth and ninth, although the teammates had swapped places from the previous day. Bradley Smith completed the top ten, putting his Tuesday spill behind him, with fellow Moto2 graduate Andrea Iannone moving Pramac Ducati ahead of the Aspar CRTs with his best lap of the winter. Ben Spies endured a day to forget on the sister GP13 with a crash at turn one before further pain in his shoulder brought his afternoon to an early finish.
After delays on day one, Paul Bird Motorsport gave their home-built chassis its debut outing in the hands of Michael Laverty. The Northern Irishman was the slowest rider overall but with only nineteen laps completed, more is surely to come in tomorrow’s final day.
| Official MotoGP Test – Sepang (Wednesday 27th February) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Best Time | Laps | |
| 1 | 99. Jorge Lorenzo |  |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 2:00.282 | 58 | Report |
| 2 | 26. Dani Pedrosa | |
Repsol Honda Team | 2:00.651 | 55 | Report |
| 3 | 35. Cal Crutchlow |  |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 2:00.907 | 59 | Report |
| 4 | 93. Marc Marquez | |
Repsol Honda Team | 2:00.992 | 64 | Report |
| 5 | 46. Valentino Rossi |  |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 2:01.065 | 63 | Report |
| 6 | 19. Alvaro Bautista | |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini | 2:01.208 | 58 | |
| 7 | 6. Stefan Bradl |  |
LCR Honda MotoGP | 2:01.485 | 54 | Report |
| 8 | 69. Nicky Hayden |  |
Ducati Team | 2:01.778 | 69 | Report |
| 9 | 04. Andrea Dovizioso | |
Ducati Team | 2:01.803 | 49 | Report |
| 10 | 38. Bradley Smith | |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 2:02.023 | 63 | Report |
| 11 | 29. Andrea Iannone | |
Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | 2:02.608 | 47 | |
| 12 | 41. Aleix Espargaro | |
Power Electronics Aspar | 2:02.905 | 45 | |
| 13 | 51. Michele Pirro | |
Ducati Test Team | 2:02.920 | 60 | |
| 14 | T2. Katsuyuki Nakasuga |  |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 2:02.946 | 43 | |
| 15 | T1. Wataru Yoshikawa | |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 2:03.354 | 40 | |
| 16 | 8. Hector Barbera | |
Avintia Blusens | 2:03.428 | 55 | |
| 17 | 11. Ben Spies | |
Ignite Pramac Racing | 2:03.460 | 36 | |
| 18 | 7. Hiroshi Aoyama | |
Avintia Blusens | 2:03.518 | 57 | |
| 19 | 14. Randy de Puniet |  |
Power Electronics Aspar | 2:03.990 | 57 | |
| 20 | 9. Danilo Petrucci | |
Came IodaRacing Project | 2:04.279 | 50 | |
| 21 | 17. Karel Abraham |  |
Cardion AB Motoracing | 2:04.350 | 68 | |
| 22 | 37. Takumi Takahashi | |
HRC Test Team | 2:04.512 | 77 | |
| 23 | 5. Colin Edwards | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 2:04.656 | 44 | |
| 24 | 68. Yonny Hernandez |  |
Paul Bird Motorsport | 2:04.671 | 58 | |
| 25 | 71. Claudio Corti | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 2:04.709 | 29 | |
| 26 | 67. Bryan Staring |  |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini | 2:05.439 | 44 | |
| 27 | 52. Lukas Pesek | |
Came Ioda Racing Project | 2:06.206 | 45 | |
| 28 | 33. Michael Laverty | |
Paul Bird Motorsport | 2:07.721 | 19 | |
