Recapping Sepang MotoGP Test Day Two – Quotes/Times/Speeds

MotoGP Sepang Test Day Two

Rain once again stayed away from the Sepang International Circuit as the MotoGP grid enjoyed an uninterrupted day of running.

Ducati Lenovo Team’s Enea Bastianini claimed top spot thanks to a new, albeit unofficial, outright lap record. Five riders all bettered 2023 Champion Pecco Bagnaia’s (Ducati Lenovo Team) pole position lap from late last year, with The Beast firing in a historic 1m57.134 to once again prove his pace in Malaysia.

Enea Bastianini

“Well, I’m happy also about the second day. This morning some little problem have taken me out through the time attack and it was important for me to do a time attack today because the qualifying is really important, and you know many times I’m starting from behind and it’s difficult to close this gap in the race, but during the afternoon my approach with the team has been really good and we have adjusted the set-up and also we have tried the new solution, the new Aero and a new exhaust and well the bike was good. For me this 24 bike is better compared to the 23 but it’s early to think about this and it’s necessary to arrive at Qatar to confirm that sensation, but for me today has been a good day in the time attack.”

Prima Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin had to settle for second in the end after leading the pack for the vast majority of the day. The Spaniard finished 0.139 seconds adrift of 2023 Malaysian Grand Prix winner Bastianini.

KTM and Aprilia were hot on the heels of the Ducati duo too, with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) completing the top three ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing).

After an under-the-radar opening day in Sepang, 2023 World Champion Bagnaia also joined the party, claiming the final spot inside the top five with a 1m57.469, leaving him just over three-tenths behind his team-mate.

Bastianini, Martin and Bagnaia all put themselves under the lap record on Wednesday, with all three doing their laps with the Bologna factory’s much-improved new engine. The bulk of their work was focused on aerodynamics, however, with a united consensus yet to be reached. Michele Pirro was also back out subbing for Franco Morbidelli.

A late tumble for Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) couldn’t dampen what was otherwise another positive day for The Doctor’s squad.

Marco Bezzecchi

“I’m sorry for the ending, the crash wasn’t necessary. I’m happy with the work done, we tried different things and gathered a lot of information. I’m not completely satisfied yet, because I can still make a step in riding. I’m not at 100%, but we already have some ideas for tomorrow. At the moment, if things remain like this, I don’t think we will do a race simulation. I prefer to focus on the setup, but we don’t rule out the possibility of finding some good solutions tomorrow and thus changing our plan.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio was one of the riders on top form in the second half of 2023, and he’s carried that momentum into 2024 despite the team switch.

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Fabio Di Giannantonio

“I am surprised, in a positive way obviously. In the morning we struggled a bit, I tried two front tyres and I wasn’t completely comfortable in riding. We were a little late on the plan, but in the afternoon we tried a change that made us take a big step forward also in terms of quality. We went very fast, we worked well and we moved in the direction we wanted. In terms of flying lap, maybe we’re missing something, but I’m not worried. I’m really happy with the pace and tomorrow maybe we’ll try a Sprint Race simulation.”

Nobody did more laps than Gresini Racing’s Marc Marquez as he looked to make up for some lost time yesterday after a couple of small issues. The eight-time World Champion clocked 72 laps in total, 10 of which were an impressive Tissot Sprint simulation alongside his team-mate.

Marc Marquez was just over 2 seconds quicker than the Sprint-winning time in 2023. But Alex Marquez was a further two seconds quicker again.

Binder led the KTM charge on Wednesday, while superstar rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) found yet another step forward.  Second fastest on Tuesday, which was already impressive for the young rookie, things got even better for Acosta on Wednesday after he improved his fastest lap to 1m57.726 after just 14 laps in the morning, half-a-second quicker than Tuesday. Had he been a MotoGP rider back in November, that lap time would have put him fifth on the grid of the 2023 Malaysian Grand Prix. A  small crash at turn 9 called it out for the morning session as the team headed to their lunch break, and the action resumed at 1600. Overall, race pace has improved for the Spaniard who is feeling more and more comfortable on the RC16.

Pedro Acosta

“Just like yesterday, the lap time was not our main target, but it is obviously very good to finish the day half a second faster than day 1. We improved our pace, I am also getting accustomed to the electronics, and I understand everything a bit more in general and my feedback when I arrive at the box is also getting more complete as days go by. This is a good feeling in general. The other riders are very experienced and are a lot faster, but remember that it is my third time in Malaysia. Considering this, my pace is very good, and I would say that we are on our way!”

Augusto Fernandez continued his search for a better feeling in general, as he tried different settings, still using the carbon chassis. The feeling improved, and there were positives to take from this second day on track after fifty laps of hard work to get the progress going.  A crash at around 5:30pm put an end to his day, but the third and final one awaits him on Thursday as he aims to make a step and head to Qatar next week with a clearer vision on the directions to take for the season.

Augusto Fernandez

“We continued to try different things, different settings so I could feel comfortable on the bike, in addition to working on the aerodynamics. We have improved compared to yesterday, but we are still too slow. I ended the day with a late crash with just half an hour to go. This is not an easy test for us, nor an easy start to 2024, but we have pointed out the issues, so we know what we have to do tomorrow.“

On the orange side, Jack Miller joined Binder in working their way through KTM’s various aerodynamic upgrades. The Australian finished 15th as the two take up the workload first refined by test riders Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro in the Shakedown.

There were some contrasting emotions in the factory Aprilia box with Aleix Espargaro taking that impressive fourth, whilst Maverick Viñales was struggling with rear grip and, as a result, didn’t push for a time attack. But he reported the aim, regardless, is to be fast all year, not just one lap. Vinales was 18th on Wednesday, one place and one-tenth ahead of a similarly frustrated Miguel Oliveira.

Miguel Oliveira

“It was a long day. We had short stints and were trying a lot of things just to get a better understanding of the bike. Finally, to sum up the end of the day; I’m not having a lot of feeling at the moment and a bit of a hard time to understand how I can push and go faster. But anyway, I think I gave good feedback in the garage. We sit down tonight and look what we can improve for tomorrow. For sure, one of the most important points for me with this bike was the corner speed and that’s where I’m losing the most time. We are getting into that. Right now, the important thing is to know how to go fast because we have a good lap from Aleix (Espargaro). In terms of pace, we are not so far off, but we didn’t get a real good the time attack, so we miss around a second to the front.”

The Aprilia trio also lapped together in the midday sun, ostensibly to check out the effect of the slipstream and potentially to put the machine through its paces in the heat, something that was tricky for the factory at times in 2023. Lorenzo Savadori, meanwhile, is the replacement for Raul Fernandez at Trackhouse for the rest of this test as Fernandez recovers from a crash on Day 1.

Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini and Idemitsu LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami put together the longest runs of anyone on Wednesday: 13 consecutive laps apiece. 10 of Marini’s laps were in the 1:59s, compared to only two 1:59s between all four Honda riders in last year’s Sprint and Grand Prix.  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.

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.”

Joan Mir (Repsol Honda Team) just snuck into the top ten. The 2020 World Champion was six-tenths quicker than his Q1 performance last year, but reiterated that a lot of work is still to be done.    He said they’re still suffering a lack of pace during time attacks, something they’ll continue working on.

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 lap time 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.”

Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR), meanwhile, was another tenth and a half off Mir – but he’s been the Honda rider most praising the leap already made.

Quartararo continued to show his motivation at the Sepang Test, completing 53 laps in total during which he tried various set-ups. The Frenchman showed off the 2024 YZR-M1’s top speed, clocking 338.5km/h. However, he is still looking to improve his time attack results. Electronics was the key focus for Yamaha, but Fabio Quartararo was left wanting a little more. The Frenchman managed to improve on his best lap from last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix but he was still three-quarters of a second adrift of top spot, ranking 11th fastest on Wednesday.

Fabio Quartararo

“We are first on top speed today, but that’s not what we aimed to be first in. The bike is very fast, but we still have to improve our fast lap. We’re finding little improvements, but nothing great. We have to find a solution, especially on the rear grip, where I think we are missing out a little bit. Hopefully we can make a step tomorrow and in the Qatar Test.”

Alex Rins a quarter of a second further back in 13th after resuming his work on electronics and bike set-up. Getting more and more used to the YZR-M1 over the course of 50 laps, he bettered his time by 0.606s compared to Day 1. His 1’58.110s, set on lap 49, had him end Day 2 in 13th place, just under a second from the top.

Alex Rins

“We are quite happy with the results we got today. We focused a little bit more on the electronics side, just trying to improve the things we tried yesterday. I also tried some different swingarms, and we also worked on the set-up. Overall, I made some kilometres on the bike, and I’m able to understand the M1 better, so I can try to find a better set-up to adapt the bike to my riding style. The engine that Fabio tested in Valencia and that they brought here – but a modified version – works quite well. So, we will start the season with this engine, for sure.”

Thursday is the final day of on track action in Malaysia. The paddock then packs up and heads towards Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit for two more days of testing across February 19-20, ahead of the March 10 season opener at the same venue.

Sepang MotoGP Test
Day Two Times

MotoGP Sepang Day Two Top Speeds

Provisional 2024 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar (Updated)

Reserve Event: Hungary – Balaton Park Circuit.
Portugal & India remain subject to contract.
Kazakhstan is subject to contract and homologation.