The final day of the MotoGP Sepang 2 test was rather complicated as the riders were met with a wet track that began to dry out and by the afternoon the surface was dry and they could get back to using racing slicks.
In the morning session several riders went out to do a few laps with wet tires and Repsol Honda rookie Marc Marquez recorded a crash – at turn 12 – after touching the slippery white line, but he turned out to be okay, as Jorge Lorenzo was the fastest rider in the wet with rival Dani Pedrosa second and adrift by more than four tenths of a second.
By 1pm the track was dry and lap times began dropping and Dani Pedrosa regained command of the timesheets with a best lap of 2.
00.
562 that would remain unbeaten (even if Lorenzo holds the best lap of 2′00.
282 for this test) while team mate Marc Marquez suffered still another tumble – his second of the day -but that didn’t stop him from doing a last hot lap in the dying minutes, that put him in second and just 0.
081s from Pedrosa and pushing Jorge Lorenzo to third.
The reigning World Champion had been second all afternoon with his 2.
00.
992 lap before doing his doing his proposed 20 lap race simulation, that saw him with a race pace in the 2.
01s.
Both Pedrosa and Lorenzo cut testing short and skipped the final hour.
After struggling all day around 7th place and almost a second adrift with the Ducatis closing in on him, Valentino Rossi also did a single hot lap in the finale that put him into fourth and half a second from Pedrosa, which was more than anything just a pride thing, but it was enough to push back Alvaro Bautista and Cal Crutchlow to 5th and 6th, and they were seperated by just 0.
032s from the Italian.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was 8th and he just missed lapping within a second from Pedrosa by just 0.
088s which shows that Borgo Panigale has made a step forward.
Nicky Hayden was 9th but he was more than half a second from his team mate and 1.
5s from the top of the charts.
Bradley Smith closed out the top ten, while Andrea Iannone was 11th and a little more than 2 seconds adrift.
Ducati’s test rider Michele Pirro was 12th ahead of Aspar CRT rider Randy de Puniet, and recovering Ben Spies.
After debuting the PBM CRT machine for the first time yesterday and getting in very few laps that was more a shakedown test, Michael Laverty finished the day in 22nd ahead of riders Lukas Pesek, Danilo Petrucci, Claudio Corti, team mate Yonny Hernandez and Bryan Staring.
MotoGP Sepang 2 Day 3 Test Results:1 PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 2:00.
562 2 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 2:00.
643 0.
081 3 LORENZO, Jorge Yamaha Factory Racing Team 2:00.
992 0.
430 4 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing Team 2:01.
062 0.
500 5 BAUTISTA, Alvaro GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2:01.
078 0.
516 6 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.
094 0.
532 7 BRADL, Stefan LCR Honda MotoGP 2:01.
309 0.
747 8 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 2:01.
650 1.
088 9 HAYDEN, Nicky Ducati Team 2:02.
070 1.
508 10 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:02.
314 1.
752 11 IANNONE, Andrea Energy T.
I.
Pramac Racing Team 2:02.
566 2.
004 12 PIRRO, Michele Ducati Test Team 2:02.
773 2.
211 13 DE PUNIET, Randy Power Electronics Aspar 2:02.
863 2.
301 14 SPIES, Ben Ignite Pramac Racing Team 2:03.
055 2.
493 15 NAKASUGA, Katsuyuki Yamaha Factory Racing Test Team 2:03.
154 2.
592 16 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Blusens 2:03.
155 2.
593 17 YOSHIKAWA, Wataru Yamaha Factory Racing Test Team 2:03.
257 2.
695 18 ESPARGARO, Aleix Power Electronics Aspar 2:03.
423 2.
861 19 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing 2:04.
066 3.
504 20 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:04.
102 3.
540 21 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Avintia Blusens 2:04.
512 3.
950 22 LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 2:04.
546 3.
984 23 PESEK, Lukas Came IodaRacing Project 2:04.
674 4.
112 24 PETRUCCI, Danilo Came IodaRacing Project 2:04.
686 4.
124 25 CORTI, Claudio NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:04.
718 4.
156 26 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Paul Bird Motorsport 2:04.
722 4.
160 27 TAKAHASHI, Takumi HRC Test Team 2:04.
749 4.
187 28 STARING, Bryan GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2:05.
313 4.
751