Photo: motogp.com
With reigning champion Marc Marquez missing the second MotoGP test at Sepang in Malaysia, we though the first day would be dominated by the other three top riders, namely Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa or Valentino Rossi. Well, it looks like the new Open class is really making MotoGP a lot more interesting as the leader of the day was no other than Alvaro Bautista, but Aleix Espargaro was close behind him.
The satellite GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider did not go under the magic 2-minute and was indeed 1.3 seconds slower than Marquez’ former marker, but it was the day’s best time, with the rest of the grid even slower. Now, it’s true that the first day of testing is never seeing riders giving their absolute best or even trying, but still, this looks promising.
Even more, Aleix Espargaro also showed consistent riding aboard his all-new Open-class FTR-Yamaha machine, 0.052s slower than Bautista and a tenth of a second faster than his brother Pol, on the Yamaha Tech3 Cal Crutchlow rode last year.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso came in as a surprising 4th rider and was followed by Jorge Lorenzo, 0.310s adrift from Bautista. Pedrosa, Rossi, Bradl and Smith followed through top 9 and under a second slower than the leader, while Nicky Hayden and his Aspar Honda RCV1000R was 10th, but 1.379s slower than the top rider.
Crutchlow went up the time sheets form the last test, being 11th fastest, with Iannone extremely close behind him. Colin Edwards was14th, followed by Yonny Hernadez and his GP13 Ducati. Suzuki’s best placement of the day came from Randy De Puniet who was clocked the 17th fastest, with his team mate Nobu Aoki last, some 6.5 seconds adrift.
In case the remainder of the Sepang test sees the Open machines performing just as well, then this makes the whole championship so much more interesting and the kick-off round at the Losail circuit in Qatar an amazing, haute-tension debut. Stay tuned for more. Day 1 results below.
Even more, Aleix Espargaro also showed consistent riding aboard his all-new Open-class FTR-Yamaha machine, 0.052s slower than Bautista and a tenth of a second faster than his brother Pol, on the Yamaha Tech3 Cal Crutchlow rode last year.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso came in as a surprising 4th rider and was followed by Jorge Lorenzo, 0.310s adrift from Bautista. Pedrosa, Rossi, Bradl and Smith followed through top 9 and under a second slower than the leader, while Nicky Hayden and his Aspar Honda RCV1000R was 10th, but 1.379s slower than the top rider.
Crutchlow went up the time sheets form the last test, being 11th fastest, with Iannone extremely close behind him. Colin Edwards was14th, followed by Yonny Hernadez and his GP13 Ducati. Suzuki’s best placement of the day came from Randy De Puniet who was clocked the 17th fastest, with his team mate Nobu Aoki last, some 6.5 seconds adrift.
In case the remainder of the Sepang test sees the Open machines performing just as well, then this makes the whole championship so much more interesting and the kick-off round at the Losail circuit in Qatar an amazing, haute-tension debut. Stay tuned for more. Day 1 results below.
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