Sepang Testing Roundup

MotoGP testing resumed in Sepang over the last few days with a much-depleted field. With only the Fiat Yamaha team and the Gresini and Repsol Honda teams testing, along with test teams from Yamaha and Kawasaki it was a lot less busy than the previous Sepang test.

Repsol Honda were further hampered by the temporary absence of Dani Pedrosa, currently recovering from a broken hand in Spain. Honda have been forced to leave the development work of the 2008 RC212V to Nicky Hayden, a fact Pedrosa has been non too complimentary about.

Day One

The first day began well for rookie Jorge Lorenzo as the Spaniard went fastest, this obviously sparked something in the other “half” of the Fiat Yamaha team as Valentino Rossi came out flying and by the end of the day had smashed his own circuit pole record by 3 10ths of a second.

Former champion Nicky Hayden was also quick,setting his fastest time on race tyres. Shinya Nakano slashed a second off his fastest time to edge out Jorge Lorenzo who finished 3/4 of a second quicker than fellow rookie Alex de Angelis.

Valentino Rossi – Yamaha - 2′00.300
Nicky Hayden – Honda – 2′01.949
Shinya Nakano – Honda – 2′02.317
Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha – 2′02.654
Alex de Angelis – Honda – 2′03.231
Olivier Jacque – Kawasaki – 2′03.655

Day Two

The second day of testing ended much like day one with Rossi heading up the timesheets, dipping below the official pole record for the second consecutive day. Valentino was also quick on race tyres, running under the 2′01 barrier for 19 out of the 70 laps.

Nicky Hayden was once again the hardest working man on the track as he racked up a massive 90 laps of testing (a total of over 300 miles of riding at full intensity!), and Hayden was at the top of the timesheets for a brief period with a 2′00.900.

Shinya Nakano was the fastest of the rest aboard the Gresini Honda, ahead of Rossi’s team mate Jorge Lorenzo and Nakano’s own team mate Alex de Angelis.

Valentino Rossi – Yamaha – 2′00.472
Nicky Hayden – Honda – 2′00.900
Shinya Nakano – Honda – 2′02.049
Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha – 2′02.396
Alex de Angelis – Honda – 2′02.646
Olivier Jacque – Kawasaki – 2′03.513

Day Three

The third and final day of the Sepang test saw an already thin field reduced even further by Nicky Hayden’s decision to head home early. That left only the Fiat Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo and the Gresini Hondas of Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis running laps, with the Kawasaki and Yamaha test teams making up the numbers.

Valentino Rossi’s fastest lap of 2′01.190 led the timesheets for much of the day, until “teammate” Jorge Lorenzo started to test qualifying tires, the Spanish rookie coming within a tenth of a second of the existing pole record. On the harder race tires, however, the 250cc world champion wasn’t quite as impressive, only occasionally dipping into the 2′02 bracket.

The Gresini Honda men finished the test behind Rossi, still some way off the pace, with Shinya Nakano once again beating his rookie team mate Alex de Angelis.