The second day of the official MotoGP test at Sepang took place today with the Repsol Honda Team completing another battery of pre-season tests in the blazing Malaysian heat. Despite looming black clouds as the chequered flag came out at 6pm, the circuit was completely dry for the entire two-day test - allowing the teams to make full use of the limited time available for testing before the season opener in Qatar in April.
Andrea Dovizioso was happy with his day’s work and brought his lap time down by a further two tenths from yesterday as he completed 46 laps on his Repsol Honda in the oppressive humidity. In the afternoon the Italian completed a three-quarter race distance at a promising pace and, given that the 23-year-old hadn’t been able to extract the maximum from the softer option Bridgestone tyres today, he leaves Sepang in positive spirits.
His team-mate Dani Pedrosa was just behind Dovizioso in eighth today after recording his fastest lap on the 56th of his 57 laps - an impressive feat considering the withering heat at Sepang. The Spaniard fought hard all day to improve his machine settings and he and his crew will be looking to take another step forward at the final pre-season test at Qatar, which begins on 18 March.
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 2m 01.439s “If we consider the two days in total this second test session has represented a big step forward compared to the last time we came here at the beginning of February. I’m satisfied that we could lap consistently and for the race this is very important. We did a race simulation and the pace with race tyres was good. Today I can’t be totally satisfied with seventh on the timesheets and this was because I wasn’t able to use the soft tyre at its best to improve the lap time. It’s something we’ll have to analyse because getting a good grid position for the race is important. Of course there is still work to do to get closer to Valentino and Casey, but anyway, all-in-all I’m very confident.”
DANI PEDROSA “We put in a lot of work today and tried many things on the machine to improve our pace. We made some progress with the feeling from the engine which is positive, though we didn’t really get the results we were looking for elsewhere, and some of the issues we had yesterday are still there. So, there’s plenty for us still to do before Qatar. The team is working really hard and we’re positive that there’s a lot more to come. Of course I can’t say that eighth is where I want to be on the timesheets at the end of this test, so we’ll definitely look to move things forward in Qatar.”
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