MotoGP 2015

Marquez and Pedrosa finish first test on top

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa have finished the first three-day test of 2015 on top of the time sheets, with both riders over half a second faster than their closest rival.

This morning during the cooler temperatures, 2014 World Champion Marc recorded the fastest ever time on two wheels around the Sepang circuit with his time of 1’58.867 on lap 8 – of 52 – (beating his own record of 1’59.533 from the 2014 Winter test), as all the riders took to the track in a time attack. In the afternoon, Marc completed a 20 lap race simulation, and gained valuable data about the current spec Honda.

Dani, who’s morning time was just 0.139 off Marc, also did a 20 lap race simulation in the afternoon – with 10 laps under 2’01 – and fine tuned his settings on his 2015 RC213V in preparation for the next test here in two weeks. He recorded his time of 1’59.006 on lap 11 of 41.

The HRC engineers will now take the data collected from this test back to Japan to analyse and prepare for the second Sepang test, due to take place on the 23-25 February.

Marc Marquez⁹³

1st 1’58.867 (52 laps)

"The truth is that when I saw the time I was surprised, just like everyone else! In any case, I must say that today the track was fast, as we all rode faster than before. I'm glad I was able to set a good lap, but more important is the fact that I felt very comfortable, right from the start. We did a race simulation later on, which also went very well and was perhaps even more important than a single lap. During the race simulation we tested different mapping and in every part we tried different things. The positive is that with the new bike we are already at the same level as in 2014, and there is still plenty of room for improvement. Now I can’t wait for the second test and to see what progress we can make.”

Dani Pedrosa²⁶

2nd 1’59.006 (41 laps)

"I'm happy with the work we have done today, because we have made progress in some aspects with the rear. There is still room for improvement, but overall we've taken some pretty positive steps in this test and I think that's a very good thing. The team have also integrated well and we have worked very smoothly together, so I'm very happy about that. We did a race simulation in which we tested the bike for the first time in such a scenario. Obviously there are some things to improve but, considering it was the first time, the findings have been pretty good!”

Results Session

Weather: Sunny | Humidity: 57% | Track Temp: 50°C | Air Temp: 32°C

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	MARQUEZ Marc	93	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'58.867
2	PEDROSA Dani	26	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'59.006
3	IANNONE Andrea	29	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'59.388
4	ROSSI Valentino	46	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'59.401
5	LORENZO Jorge	99	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'59.624
6	ESPARGARO Pol	44	SPA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1'59.851
7	DOVIZIOSO Andrea	4	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'59.874
8	BRADL Stefan	6	GER	NGM Forward Racing	Forward Yamaha	2'00.294
9	SMITH Bradley	38	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	2'00.384
10	ESPARGARO Aleix	41	SPA	Team Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	2'00.486
11	CRUTCHLOW Cal	35	GBR	CWM LCR Honda	Honda	2'00.536
12	VINALES Maverick	25	SPA	Team Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	2'00.964
13	PETRUCCI Danilo	9	ITA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	2'00.970
14	AOYAMA Hiroshi	7	JPN	HRC Test Team	Honda	2'01.029
15	BARBERA Hector	8	SPA	Avintia Racing	Ducati	2'01.183
16	PIRRO Michele	51	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	2'01.232
17	REDDING Scott	45	GBR	Marc VDS Racing Team	Honda	2'01.263
18	HAYDEN Nicky	69	USA	Drive M7 Aspar	Honda	2'01.508
19	BAZ Loris	76	FRA	NGM Forward Racing	Forward Yamaha	2'01.624
20	MILLER Jack	43	AUS	CWM LCR Honda	Honda	2'01.895
21	BAUTISTA Alvaro	19	SPA	Factory Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	2'01.924
22	DI MEGLIO Mike	63	FRA	Avintia Racing	Ducati	2'02.128
23	ABRAHAM Karel	17	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	Honda	2'02.297
24	LAVERTY Eugene	50	IRE	Drive M7 Aspar	Honda	2'02.334
25	NAKASUGA Katsuyuki	T1	JPN	Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	2'02.363
26	TAKAHASHI Takumi	72	JPN	HRC Test Team	Honda	2'03.113
27	DE ANGELIS Alex	15	RSM	NGM Forward Racing	Forward Yamaha	2'03.471
28	MELANDRI Marco	33	ITA	Factory Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	2'03.641

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Location Information

Specifically built for speed and exciting racing, the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is one of the world’s best. The 2,300 acre complex which also houses a hotel, shopping centre, golf course and other sports facilities cost around £50m to construct and was built in just 14 months, holding its…read more.

Length	5.543 kilometres / 3.444 miles
Width	25 metres
Left corners	5
Right corners	10
Longest straight	0.920 kilometres / 0.572 miles
Constructed	1998