Both Repsol Honda Team riders made improvements as they continued to work on their 2024 machines, Joan Mir rounding out the top ten and Luca Marini in 17th.
Rain once again stayed away from the Sepang International Circuit as the MotoGP grid enjoyed an uninterrupted day of running. The Repsol Honda Team powered ahead with their testing programme, both riders able to make a step forward in their outright speed.
Wednesday in Sepang saw a return to positive progress for Joan Mir and his side of the Repsol Honda Team garage as they found some of the speed which had illuded them on the opening day. Already over half a second faster than his Qualifying time from the 2023 Malaysian GP and almost a full second faster than his time from the day before, Mir would ultimately end the day in tenth place with 39 laps completed. This left the #36 content with the work done and eager to make further improvements on the final day.
Another busy day in the Malaysian heat saw Luca Marini complete 41 laps with a best time of 1’58.394 – over half a second faster than his quickest time from Tuesday. In the afternoon, Marini turned his attentions to putting together a longer run to better understand the Repsol Honda Team machine over race distance. The exercise provided the Repsol Honda team and Marini with further areas to explore on the last day and later in Qatar.
The third and final day of the Sepang Test will begin at 10:00 Local Time.
Joan Mir:
“Yesterday we tried a lot of things and today was about confirming those things which were working well. Today we had a base that I was comfortable with, so that is a great step to have made here and as a result I was able to improve my laptop by quite a lot. Already 0.6s faster than Qualifying here last year where I was ahead of my teammate. We are seeing the potential that’s there and I am happy with what we’ve done today, but we have to stay grounded and keep on working because there is still some margin. One last day here before we start thinking about the Qatar Test.”
Luca Marini:
“It was another busy day in Sepang. I did a long run alongside trying many different things. The long run showed us many things and we were able to understand the work we need to do because I was wanting a bit more from it. It was positive to understand the bike and how it changes with the tyre wear during the course of a race. With new tyres I feel quite good so we need to match that feeling when the tyres are more used. This is why we go testing, to understand these points and to use the time we have to keep working on them. Time to rest and prepare for the last day here in Malaysia.”
