Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez are both confident of upping the pace in the remainder of the Sepang test after finishing first and third today. Pedrosa was the quicker of the two, edging out his rookie teammate by 0.044s with reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo splitting the pair.
Pedrosa was happy with the RC213V right from the get-go this morning and expects set-up tweaks to reap further rewards over the next two days’ testing.
“It’s the first day back testing after the winter break. We’ve spent three months off the bike and the feeling from the first day testing is positive. The track was in good condition and we were able to put in a lot of laps at a good pace, thanks to it not being especially hot. I haven’t ridden since the November test in Valencia, so today has been a first step to getting back on the pace. We didn’t play about with the setup today, but we will move onto that in the remaining two days of testing”
Marquez’s performance was an ominous sign given his lack of MotoGP experience and the Moto2 champion doesn’t think his time today is representative of his potential either, believing there is much more time to find.
“I’m very happy with how the first day went, because you always have a few nerves after a couple of months out. I thought that I would take a little longer to get back ‘on it’, but right from the opening laps I felt very comfortable on the bike. We picked up confidence from the start, although obviously we can still improve. I don’t think the result today should be used as a reference point, because we are all trying out new things. I focused on simply finding a good setup and getting comfortable on the bike. I tried to put in a good time so that the day’s testing had a purpose”
