Predictably, reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez returned to the top of the timesheets on day two of testing at Sepang after recovering from his braking problems yesterday which saw him off track more than once.
But the increased track temperature at the Malaysian circuit is making it tough for anyone to replicate their pace from the first test earlier this month - even Marquez is a second slower than his own outright lap record of 1’58.867 and only he and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo went under the 2’00 barrier with 1’59.844 and 1’59.902 respectively.
Given how hot the place is, and how new their motorbike is, Ducati’s Andreas Iannone and Dovizioso are liking the GP15. The pair haven’t yet got a base setting and are switching between three or four different setups but still managed to be faster than Dani Pedrosa and find a second over yesterday's debut pace.
Iannone was third quickest on a 2’00.098 with team-mate Dovizioso just over a tenth behind in fourth. This bodes well for tomorrow and for the rest of the season as the pair can only get faster as more is known about the bike and setups nailed down.
Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa was fifth on a 2’00.275, spending time tweaking suspension settings to find more feedback and mechanical grip while yesterday’s fastest man Valentino Rossi who, along with Jorge Lorenzo, is getting familiar with the new seamless gearbox.
Rossi has also been evaluating two different types of Ohlins forks and started the day fastest but couldn’t match the increase in pace of Lorenzo or Marquez.
Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro are using the test to fine tune setup as they don’t have much in the way of new parts, while Cal Crutchlow found the business end of three quarters of a second over yesterday, putting in a 2’00.333 to be only 0.5s off the pace.
He has been looking at corner entry stability problems and put in his fastest time at the end of the day on fresh tyres, something he struggled with at the first test.
Scott Redding is just two-tenth behind his Honda stablemate but has both Suzukis, a Monster Yamaha and Danilo Petrucci on last year’s Ducati between himself and Crutchlow.
