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 | ![]() |
HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 2:00.286 | REPORT |
2 | ![]() |
YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 2:00.804 | |
3 | ![]() |
HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 2:00.906 | REPORT |
4 | ![]() |
YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 2:01.082 | |
5 | ![]() |
HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 2:01.240 | |
6 | ![]() |
HONDA | LCR HONDA MOTOGP | 2:01.320 | |
7 | ![]() |
FTR YAMAHA | NGM MOBILE FORWARD RACING | 2:01.419 | |
8 | ![]() |
DUCATI | ENERGY T.I. PRAMAC RACING | 2:01.538 | |
9 | ![]() |
YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 2:01.634 | REPORT |
10 | ![]() |
YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 2:01.876 | REPORT |
11 | ![]() |
FTR YAHAMA | NGM MOBILE FORWARD RACING | 2:02.483 | |
12 | ![]() |
DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 2:02.497 | REPORT |
13 | ![]() |
DUCATI | DUCATI TEST TEAM | 2:02.552 | |
14 | ![]() |
DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 2:02.860 | REPORT |
15 | ![]() |
DUCATI | IGNITE PRAMAC RACING TEAM | 2:02.891 | |
16 | ![]() |
YAMAHA | YAMAHA FACTORY TEST TEAM | 2:03.126 | |
17 | ![]() |
HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 2:03.319 | |
18 | ![]() |
HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 2:03.328 | |
19 | ![]() |
SUZUKI | SUZUKI TEST TEAM | 2:03.893 | |
20 | ![]() |
HONDA | HRC TEST TEAM | 2:04.267 | |
21 | ![]() |
HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 2:04.431 | |
22 | ![]() |
FTR KAWASAKI | AVINTIA BLUSENS | 2:04.922 | |
23 | ![]() |
FTR KAWASAKI | AVINTIA BLUSENS | 2:05.825 | |
24 | ![]() |
PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 2:05.889 | |
25 | ![]() |
ART & PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 2:06.070 | |
26 | ![]() |
HONDA | CARDION AB MOTORACING | 2:06.755 |