Marc Marquez set the fastest ever two-wheeled lap of the Sepang International Circuit to finish the opening pre-season test on top. The world champion took almost a second off his own 2014 pole position as Repsol Honda raised the bar significantly on Friday, putting half a second between them and the rest of the field.
Jorge Lorenzo held the quickest time of the week after two days but it took Marquez two laps to knock him off his perch. His initial benchmark was a 1:59.904 but within minutes, Marc had improved by another quarter of a second to extend his lead at the front. The Ducatis had looked strong earlier in the test and Andrea Dovizioso soon joined Marquez in the 1:59s but the world champion soon moved the goalposts completely, setting a scarcely believable 1:58.867 to put a second between himself and the competition.
Cool conditions were certainly contributing to the faster lap times but Marquez’s pace was in another league to anything Yamaha could manage, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo unable to do better than a mid-1:49. Instead it was left to Dani Pedrosa to challenge Marquez with the 29 year old coming within a whisker of joining his teammate in the 1:58s. His 1:59.006 was good enough for second though with Andrea Iannone utilising the softer tyre to snatch third ahead of the two Movistar Yamahas.
Pol Espargaro kept up his record of crashing on every single day of the test while setting the sixth fastest time, fractionally faster than Dovizioso’s Ducati, while the Bradley Smith finished ninth on the second Tech 3 Yamaha, just behind leading open-class rider Stefan Bradl.
Suzuki ended the test on a high with Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales tenth and twelfth, sandwiching the CWM-LCR Honda of Cal Crutchlow but Aprilia leave Sepang with work to do after Alvaro Bautista ended the final day over three seconds off the pace.
2015 MotoGP Testing: Sepang – February 6
1 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Repsol Honda Team | 1:58.867 |
2 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | Repsol Honda Team | 1:59.006 |
3 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | Ducati Team | 1:59.388 |
4 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 1:59.401 |
5 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 1:59.624 |
6 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:59.851 |
7 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati Team | 1:59.874 |
8 | Stefan Bradl | Forward Yamaha | Forward Racing | 2:00.294 |
9 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 2:00.384 |
10 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | Team Suzuki MotoGP | 2:00.486 |
11 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | CWM LCR Honda | 2:00.536 |
12 | Maverick Vinales | Suzuki | Team Suzuki MotoGP | 2:00.964 |
13 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | Pramac Racing | 2:00.970 |
14 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | HRC | 2:01.029 |
15 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | Avintia Racing | 2:01.183 |
16 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | Pramac Racing | 2:01.232 |
17 | Scott Redding | Honda | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | 2:01.263 |
18 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | Drive M7 Aspar | 2:01.508 |
19 | Loris Baz | Forward Yamaha | Forward Racing | 2:01.624 |
20 | Jack Miller | Honda | CWM LCR Honda | 2:01.895 |
21 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 2:01.924 |
22 | Mike di Meglio | Ducati | Avintia Racing | 2:02.128 |
23 | Karel Abraham | Honda | AB Motoracing | 2:02.297 |
24 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | Drive M7 Aspar | 2:02.334 |
25 | Katsuyuki Nakasuga | Yamaha | Yamaha Factory Test Team | 2:02.363 |
26 | Takumi Takahashi | Honda | HRC | 2:03.113 |
27 | Alex de Angelis | ART | Octo IodaRacing Team | 2:03.471 |
28 | Marco Melandri | Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 2:03.641 |