First reflections after Sepang MotoGP Test | Form Guide | Test Times

Sepang MotoGP Test 2022

The fast times came thick and fast right from the off at Sepang this morning. Aleix Espargaro set the fastest ever lap of the 5543 metre, 15-turn complex that is the Sepang GP Circuit on his eighth lap of the morning session but the Spaniard’s glory did not last long.  Enea Bastianini then undercut the 1m58.157 set by Aleix with a 1m58.131 of his own to take early bragging rights. 

With only 90-minutes gone in the session, the top 17 riders, covering all brands, were in the 1m58s. Bastianini leading the way on that 1m58.131 followed by Aleix Espargaro (1m58.157), Jorge Martin (1m58.243), Maverick Vinales (1m58.261) and Francesco Bagnaia (1m58.265). That top five all under Fabio Quartararo’s 1m58.303 qualifying lap record from 2019. Speaking of the World Champ, he was seventh at this juncture, just ahead of Marc Marquez.  However, Quartararo was the only Yamaha inside the top 20…

Just after the two-hour mark Alex Rins also dipped under that previous qualifying lap record. There was not much movement at the top of the table in the hours after that as the heat of the day really started to build and few riders were on track. The riders that were braving the heat in the low grip conditions were those who really wanted to work on their rear grip, primarily that was the Honda and Yamaha riders. 

Both Joan Mir and Marco Bezzechi slid off at turn 15 during the morning session. 

Rain came down at the halfway point of the eight-hour session which kept riders in their pit garages for some time. The sun started peering through the clouds again 30-minutes later as riders and team personnel waited to see if the track would dry out enough for a last time attack run. Alas, the rain came down again before the track had even dried thus that was largely it for the day.

Some of the rookies took to the track to get a feel for a MotoGP bike on wets. Pecco Bagnaia, Johann Zarco, Luca Marini, Brad Binder and Andrea Dovizioso also braved the rain. 

But at the end of the day Enea Bastianini has first bragging rights for season 2022 and leaves Malaysia after setting a new outright benchmark at Sepang. 

Enea Bastianini – P1

“It was very exciting to get back on the bike. We were very quick both yesterday and today: if yesterday we had to shake some rust off, today we worked on speed. Due to the rain we only managed to do one time attack, but it went quite well. We also had a look at our race pace these two days as we made a few set-up changes, and we improved a lot despite starting already from an excellent base. Now we need to test a new track – we will all start from zero and we will work for the race: we want to be quick there, too.”

But how close can it get… 

I can’t think of any other motorsport discipline that has such close competition.

The top 13 within half-a-second… And this is not a short track with 1m20s lap times, we are talking lap-times of nearly two-minutes, and yet still the the top 18 within a second. 

So who looks to have made the most progress…?

Ducati have always been fast here during testing, half a dozen riders have lapped in the low 1m58s on the Desmosedici as far back as three years ago. Thus no real progress to show…?  Well it is not quite that simple. This is a new bike, a lot of the Ducati riders did not get a chance to put a soft tyre in the bike late today due to the rain, and the sheer number of riders they had on track will give them an astronomical amount of data for their engineers to trawl through between here and Indonesia. I attended a post race web conference with Luigi Dall’Igna and to say he look relaxed would be a significant understatement. Unfortunately, due to embargo, you will have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what the 55-year-old Italian conjuror said… 

Yamaha have generally had good pace here, Fabio Quartararo holds the qualifying lap record at 1m58.303, and Valentino Rossi has the race lap record at 1m59.661.  Fabio Quartararo was on his qualifying lap record pace today but didn’t better it.  Incidentally the last time MotoGP raced here, 2019, it was an all Yamaha front row. Quartararo on pole with a 1m58.303, Maverick Vinales 1m58.406 and Franco Morbidelli third on 1m58.432.  During this test only Quartararo got into the 1m58s..  The defending champion said that while there was some improvement to the engine of the YZR-M1 it was very marginal and they were still lacking top speed. The quickest Yamaha through the traps today was Quartararo at 327.2 km/h. That is two km/h quicker than he set on his record pole lap here in 2019.  Still, the Frenchman was less than two-tenths off Bastianini’s new outright benchmark. Without Quartararo Yamaha wouldn’t have had a rider in the top 20 at Sepang this weekend. The next quickest Yamaha was test rider Cal Crutchlow in P21… 

Overall, the lack of pace from the other Yamaha riders has to be terrifying for Yamaha management, despite what they say to the contrary.  Quartararo though claimed his fast lap came on a ‘really old rear tyre’. How much they paying him…? Probably not enough, as it stands right now they would be back-markers if not for Fabio. 

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director

“First of all, it was great to be back on track. Especially here, after two years. But I have to say that two days of testing, after the riders not having touched the bike for two months, was probably not enough. Luckily, we are now moving on to Indonesia, where for sure the test will be more productive. We spent the first day getting the riders back up to the speed they were on before the winter stop and having them get back their confidence on the bike. This second day was the most important one. It‘s impossible to make a solid decision already, because we need to test all the items at another track. Luckily, we have the Mandalika Test next week. We tried two chassis specs and different aerodynamic items. We are now going to analyse and study all the information we gathered and compare it with the feedback of the riders. In Mandalika we will try to confirm everything, and there is where we will make our final decision on how we will start the season.”

With Marc Marquez eighth and Pol Espargaro tenth it might look as though Honda are in trouble. But, this is a completely new bike that they are only just starting to scratch the surface of development with, and it is already significantly quicker than the previous incarnation of the RC213V.  From what I can ascertain, Marc Marquez never managed a 1m58 on the old bike at any point, either testing or during a race weekend, yet after a long time off, still not 100 per cent fit, and with a completely new bike, he went almost a second quicker around Sepang than he ever has before. Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro was only a tenth behind him, Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez were also in the 58s. 

Likewise I don’t believe a Suzuki rider has ever lapped Sepang in the 1m58s before.  Both Alex Rins and Joan Mir finished in the top ten here during the race in 2019, but during the race neither of them recorded a sub two-minute lap.  But this weekend both riders have been right on the pace both days. 

Shinichi Sahara – Suzuki MotoGP Project Leader

“We came here with 2022 spec. bikes, which we’d already seen promising signs from last year, and we brought some new items to try. Our test riders and race riders found some of the new items were working in good way, but we couldn’t finish checking a few things due to rain this afternoon – we will try them in Mandalika next week. But the overall feeling is that we are more competitive. Our riders and all the team are feeling very positive and motivated to start another test in Indonesia, and to be ready for the first round in Qatar. I would like to say thank you to everyone for giving their all in these tests, and for their help launching our new bike.”

Last time MotoGP visited Malaysia for a race weekend no KTM made it into Q2, and the fastest race lap achieved by a KTM rider was 2m00.648. However, during the 2019 pre-season test here three KTM riders were in the 1m59s, a 1m59.640s the fastest lap by a KTM and it came at the hands of Johann Zarco.  This time around Miguel Oliveira was the pacesetter for the Austrian brand, a 1m58.701 ahead of Brad Binder on 1m59.016. Rookies Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner also impressed. 

Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager

“We had a productive one-and-a-half days here. We collected a lot of information between the four MotoGP riders – as well as our test riders Dani and Mika – and we tested different aero packs and the new engine spec was delivered. There were a few other important items. We have three more days of work in Mandalika next week and those will be important to evolve our ideas in different circumstances to be ready for the first race. A lot of comments from the riders here matched and that’s important in terms of finding the right direction. Hopefully that will be enough to make the ideal combo for the start of the season.”

And now we come to Aprilia. Yes it’s testing… And yes they have had more days on track than the others. But, this is an all new bike and both riders were at the pointy end of the time-sheets, a 1m58.157 for Aleix to go P2, and a 1m58.261 for Maverick Vinales in P5. All the various ‘testing only’ disclaimers aside, that is pretty significant. Aleix Espargaro goes well here, he was seventh during the 2019 Sepang Test with Aprilia on a 1m59.022, and this is also a track where Maverick Vinales has often showed awesome pace during testing. But, still, for MotoGP’s smallest manufacturer this will be a huge shot in the arm for the technicians working hard back at Noale and will spur them on for the season ahead. 

Aleix Espargaró – P2

“I must thank the staff in Noale. Albesiano and all the engineers did a good job. From the first time I swung a leg over, during a photo shoot, I noticed how sleek and compact the new RS-GP is, and I know how hard it is to achieve this result. The ergonomics, the frame and all the new features make it extremely agile, letting me improve on corners speed, especially in fast turns. However, we still need to consider that this is just the first test and that we are all extremely close. The current level of MotoGP is absolutely incredible. We’ll keep working and I can’t wait to turn laps on the new Mandalika circuit too.”

Somewhat curiously, nobody got near the top speed record that was set by Andrea Iannone at 339.6 km/h back in 2015…. The quickest through the traps today was Enea Bastianini and Johann Zarco, both at 335.4 km/h. 

Of course this is only testing and with such limited time on track to chase lap times, due to a massive list of things to work through for their respective factories in order for them to firm up or shelve various developments, but one thing this weekend really underlined is that Yamaha would be nowhere if not for Fabio Quartararo. 

The MotoGP travelling roadshow now gets packed up into containers for the 3000 kilometre journey south-east to the Indonesian island of Lombok and the Mandalika Circuit for a three-day test at the new 17-corner, 4.3 kilometre facility.  The riders get to hit the new circuit for the first time this Friday, February 11.  Then just three weeks later the lights will go out at Qatar for the season opener….  

Sepang MotoGP Test Times Day Two

Sepang MotoGP Test Combined Times

The previous benchmarks

Fabio Quartararo holds the qualifying lap record at Sepang with a 1m58.303. The top speed record is held by Andrea Iannone at 339.6 km/h. Valentino Rossi holds the race lap record at 1m59.661. Outside of a race weekend, Danilo Petrucci set the previous outright benchmark at 1m58.239 during testing here in 2019 when it was a Ducati 1-2-3-4 atop the time-sheets.

Sepang Test Top Speeds

2022 MotoGP Entry List

2022 Provisional MotoGP Calendar

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