Pedrosa continues Sepang dominance in second test of 2013

Dani Pedrosa picked up where he left off at the Sepang International Circuit today at the second MotoGP test of 2103 with the Spaniard finishing fastest ahead of reigning MotoGP Champion Jorge Lorenzo close behind in second place while rookie sensation Marc Marquez continues his blistering form and placing his RC213V in third position.

Heavy rain a number of days at the Malaysian track on the run up to todays test made for difficult and slippery conditions for the riders to deal with but the 27 riders in the paddock took no time in laying down the Bridgetsone rubber with everyone looking to get as much track time as possible with the unpredictable nature of the Malaysian weather.

Pedrosa was busy working on his suspension set up and engine mapping systems while also focusing on corner entry on his machine while Marquez was once again familiarizing himself with the RC213V and even suffered a slight lowside today without any damage to himself or the bike. Lorenzo was happy just to work on some modifications on his YZR-M1 with no new parts to test at the moment but nevertheless the Spaniard placed himself closely behind Pedrosa on the timing sheets for the majority of the session.

Pedrosa’s best time of 2m 1.580s was just enough to stay ahead of Lorenzo on a best lap of 2m 1.815s while Marquez came away with a best day one time of 2m 1.942s. LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl had a very good day today finishing fourth fastest (2m 1.959s) while Valentino Rossi’s second time back on the YZR-M1 saw him register the fifth fastest time of 2m 2.028s with the Italian suffering a technical problem on his 2013 machine forcing him to ride most of the session on last year’s bike and setting a 2m 1.815s lap.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow continues to knock on the door of the top riders finishing in 6th place today with a best time of 2m 2.272s ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Honda Gresini) who set a best lap of 2m 2.362s. The final riders in the top ten came in the form of Ducati Racing teammates Andrea Dovizioso in 8th (2m 2.801s) and Nicky Hayden in 9th (2m 3.143s) and rounding off the top ten was the British rookie Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) with a best laptime of 2m 3.632s.

Speaking after his first day and finishing on top Pedrosa said, “Today we continued trying things out with the bike here in Sepang, focusing most of all on suspension. We also worked a little on the electronics. The track wasn’t 100% after the rainfall from the past few days, but we were able to ride well. In the afternoon it rained again, and we used this to perform some laps in the wet. Tomorrow we will continue with the work that we have scheduled.”

Lorenzo said improving his machine’s acceleration was the main priority saying, “Today we just tried to improve our current settings. We made some modifications but nothing special. We need to improve the acceleration a little bit but for the moment no new bits to try. The track was more slippery than the first test due to the rain which has left the tarmac in a worse condition.”

Despite having limited track time, Marquez wasn’t too displeased. He said, “Today went pretty well. It's just a shame that the track was so slippery, because we weren't able to collect all the data that we wanted due to the times not being so fast. We were not able to ride a lot in the afternoon either, because as soon as we got on the pace it started to rain and we aborted the session. We hope that the surface is better tomorrow, with more grip and less rain. Our aim is to be able to put in laps, gain experience and test out a lot of things that we have pending.”