Marc Marquez made the ideal start to preparations for his MotoGP title defence by topping the timesheets on day one of testing in Malaysia. The world champion dominated proceedings at Sepang, finishing half a second clear of Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa.
For his rivals, the consistency of Marquez will have been cause for concern with the 20 year old lapping in the 2:00s bracket with relative ease, something Rossi and Pedrosa could only do once each all day. Marc’s quickest lap of 2:00.286 came towards the end of the day as temperatures dropped, Dani and Valentino doing likewise.
Jorge Lorenzo clocked a 2:01.082 to initially put him second before the late improvements from his teammate and Pedrosa, demoting him to fourth ahead of satellite Honda riders Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl. Aleix Espargaro was next up in seventh on Forward Racing’s FTR-Yamaha, the leading open class rider in the field, with Andrea Iannone eighth ahead of the Tech 3 Yamahas of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith and Colin Edwards on the second Forward FTR machine.
Despite rumours of a switch to open class themselves, Ducati’s factory squad didn’t go that route today, although they may experiment with an open-spec motorcycle at the second Sepang test. Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow ended the day twelfth and fourteenth respectively, sandwiching test rider Michele Pirro.
Elsewhere, Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama were seventeenth and eighteenth on the production Hondas with Suzuki’s Randy de Puniet just behind while Scott Redding was 21st, four seconds off the ultimate pace.
MOTOGP OFFICIAL TEST – SEPANG (TUESDAY 4TH FEBRUARY) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | RIDER | MOTORCYCLE | TEAM | TIME | |
1 | MARC MARQUEZ | HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 2:00.286 | REPORT |
2 | VALENTINO ROSSI | YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 2:00.804 | |
3 | DANI PEDROSA | HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 2:00.906 | REPORT |
4 | JORGE LORENZO | YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 2:01.082 | |
5 | ALVARO BAUTISTA | HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 2:01.240 | |
6 | STEFAN BRADL | HONDA | LCR HONDA MOTOGP | 2:01.320 | |
7 | ALEIX ESPARGARO | FTR YAMAHA | NGM MOBILE FORWARD RACING | 2:01.419 | |
8 | ANDREA IANNONE | DUCATI | ENERGY T.I. PRAMAC RACING | 2:01.538 | |
9 | POL ESPARGARO | YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 2:01.634 | REPORT |
10 | BRADLEY SMITH | YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 2:01.876 | REPORT |
11 | COLIN EDWARDS | FTR YAHAMA | NGM MOBILE FORWARD RACING | 2:02.483 | |
12 | ANDREA DOVIZIOSO | DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 2:02.497 | REPORT |
13 | MICHELE PIRRO | DUCATI | DUCATI TEST TEAM | 2:02.552 | |
14 | CAL CRUTCHLOW | DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 2:02.860 | REPORT |
15 | YONNY HERNANDEZ | DUCATI | IGNITE PRAMAC RACING TEAM | 2:02.891 | |
16 | K. NAKASUGA | YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY TEST TEAM | 2:03.126 | |
17 | NICKY HAYDEN | HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 2:03.319 | |
18 | HIROSHI AOYAMA | HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 2:03.328 | |
19 | RANDY DE PUNIET | SUZUKI | SUZUKI TEST TEAM | 2:03.893 | |
20 | KOSUKE AKIYOSHI | HONDA | HRC TEST TEAM | 2:04.267 | |
21 | SCOTT REDDING | HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 2:04.431 | |
22 | HECTOR BARBERA | FTR KAWASAKI | AVINTIA BLUSENS | 2:04.922 | |
23 | MIKE DI MEGLIO | FTR KAWASAKI | AVINTIA BLUSENS | 2:05.825 | |
24 | BROC PARKES | PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 2:05.889 | |
25 | MICHAEL LAVERTY | ART & PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 2:06.070 | |
26 | KAREL ABRAHAM | HONDA | CARDION AB MOTORACING | 2:06.755 |