Lorenzo makes Yamaha return as shakedown ends

Jorge Lorenzo turned his first laps since 2016 on a Yamaha MotoGP bike as the three-day shakedown session at Sepang came to an end on Tuesday.

The three-time MotoGP champion, who was announced as a Yamaha tester last week, set 46 laps aboard the M1 bike, recording a best time of 2m00.506s.

That left him eighth overall on the third and final day of the test, 1.062s away from the fastest time of the day set by KTM rider Pol Espargaro.

Lorenzo did not take part in the opening two days of the test, both of which were topped by KTM tester Dani Pedrosa.

Espargaro's fastest lap on Tuesday therefore gave the Austrian brand a clean sweep of fastest times for the test, which was also open to race riders from non-concession teams and rookies as well as test riders from all manufacturers.

Aleix Espargaro was second-quickest on his first day on the radically-revised 2020 Aprilia RS-GP after having sat out the first two days of testing, 0.178s down on his brother.

Tech 3's Miguel Oliveira made it two KTM representatives in the top three, another tenth back, followed by Ducati tester Michele Pirro and another KTM rider, Brad Binder.

Pedrosa sat out Tuesday's action, but his best time on Monday was enough to leave him fourth overall, just behind Oliveira.

Alex Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

Likewise not in action was new Repsol Honda recruit Alex Marquez, whose time on Monday left him seventh overall, ahead of HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, while Bradley Smith also did not take part in Tuesday's session for Aprilia.

Lorenzo Savadori, drafted in by Aprilia for the absent Aprilia Iannone as the Italian faces his FIM appeal regarding a doping infraction, concluded the test 16th overall.

Shakedown times:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Bike	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
1	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	-	1:59.972	1:59.444
2	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	-	-	1:59.622
3	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	-	2:00.695	1:59.748
4	26	Dani Pedrosa	KTM	2:00.625	1:59.841	-
5	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	2:00.642	2:00.695	1:59.922
6	33	Brad Binder	KTM	2:01.616	2:00.899	2:00.099
7	73	Alex Marquez	Honda	2:01.317	2:00.270	-
8	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	2:01.637	2:00.749	2:00.441
9	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	-	-	2:00.472
10	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	-	-	2:00.506
11	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	2:01.220	2:01.125	2:00.655
12	38	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	2:02.760	2:01.240	-
13	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	-	2:01.946	2:01.659
14	Y1	Yamaha Test 1	Yamaha	-	2:02.713	2:01.908
15	Y2	Yamaha Test 2	Yamaha	-	2:03.348	2:02.704
16	32	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	2:05.888	2:03.646	2:02.795
17	Y3	Yamaha Test 3	Yamaha	-	-	2:02.843