Marc Marquez completed an active second day of testing at Phillip Island, finishing second with a time of 1’29.309” recorded on lap 20 of 107 (more than any other rider). On a day again marked by fine weather conditions (air 20° C, track 40° C), the reigning MotoGP World Champion continued his work on the setup of his RC213V. In the final hour he did two long runs of around 15 laps each, with most laps in the 1’29” range.
Dani Pedrosa woke up with a sore throat and a bit of a fever, and after a check-up in the Clinica Mobile, he and his team decided it would be prudent for him to rest for a while in an effort to recover some strength. Dani finally took to the track around 3 p.m. and bravely completed 40 laps despite his less-than-ideal condition. His best lap time of 1’30.245” placed him in 16th position. He hopes to feel better for the third and final day of the test tomorrow.
Marc Marquez, 2nd – 1:29.309, 107 laps – 476 km
“It’s been a day of really hard work, and I’m a little bit tired, but it was the plan we had for today with the team and we did it! Together with my Engineers we decided to do many laps to try a few things, and we focused on riding as consistently as possible, trying to avoid any mistakes. I also did two long runs at the end of the day, to try different configurations of the electronics, and that allowed us to gather a lot of information. Anyway, as I said yesterday, we’re still missing something, because I’m not 100% comfortable, but we’re working in a good way. Hopefully these two long runs will allow us to find the areas where we can take a step forward. I also tried a new Michelin front tire and tomorrow we’ll try the rear one, as today we had no time to do it.”
Dani Pedrosa, 16th – 1:30.245, 40 laps – 178 km
“Unfortunately, near the end of yesterday’s session I started feeling a bit strange and things got worse overnight. This morning I couldn’t have breakfast as I wasn’t feeling good in my stomach and I had a bit of a fever and no strength. I could eat absolutely nothing until around 2 o’clock, so I just waited. I tried to do some laps in the afternoon, starting slowly, and although I improved a little lap by lap, I didn’t push hard. Anyway, now I’m feeling better and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be in better shape for the final day of the test.”
