The Spaniard was the only rider in the MotoGP field to break into the 2:00 bracket on the Malaysian circuit, setting the fastest time of 2:00.770 in the morning session. Pedrosa tried out the new Honda engine on Wednesday and, needless to say, he was enthused with it, especially since he put more than 6 tenths of a second between him and teammate Casey Stoner.
“I think it's the first time I've ridden so fast on this track, but you're just fresh in the morning and I did four very good first laps,” admitted the Spaniard.
“Today I tried the new engine, which has improved from Valencia, some chassis configurations and rear shocks. Tomorrow the plan is to continue comparing both bikes and it would be great to come away with the chassis and engine decided for the next test.”
HRC Honda almost made it three out of three today, hadn't it been for Yamaha's Ben Spies squeezing into 3rd place overall, only 0.004 second faster than Honda's factory rider Andrea Dovizioso.
The Japanese manufacturer's domination continued all the way through 6th place, as the two Gresini Honda riders Marco Simoncelli and Hiroshi Aoyama finished the day just behind Dovizioso. Reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo tried out a new chassis for his Yamaha M1 and eventually finished in 7th place, ahead of Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista, Tech 3's Colin Edwards and Aspar Ducati's Hector Barbera.
Ducati's works riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi, still struggling with his shoulder injury, finished the day on some distant 11th and 13th places respectively,
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