The second Sepang test has begun in Malaysia with the return of the customary thunderstorm at 16h00. All riders took to the track early this morning to get to work on their individual test schedules before taking a break at lunchtime as track temperatures reached 59ºC.
Dani Pedrosa spent this first day working on mapping settings and suspension and finished his day with a run in the wet. He finished the day second fastest with his time of 2’00.543 on lap 20 of 52, just 0.129s off fastest man, Rossi. Marc Marquez unfortunately suffered a problem with brake discs that affected him for the whole session. He completed a total of 43 laps with his best time of 2’01.190 on lap 24.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
6th – 2:01.190, 43 laps, 238 km.
“Today was a slightly strange day and not very productive, because I had some difficulties with the front brakes from the first run-out. We focused on improving that aspect of the bike and could only do runs of one or two laps. That took up the time we had allotted for trying other things and prevented us from progressing. Now we will try to find the source of the problem and tomorrow we hope to continue with the testing plan.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
2nd – 2:00.543, 52 laps, 288 km.
“Today we focused on testing different setups for the bike and I think it went well. We have not tried any new parts, instead confirming our findings with what we had at the last test, even though the track was not perfect. It rained at the end, so we could also ride a little in those conditions. Tomorrow we will continue testing some changes to the setup, to see if we can come up with some improvements that allow us to ride more comfortably.”
