MotoGP Sepang Test
Day One – Half-time report
Jack Miller was taking some time to get up to speed on the KTM after the past few seasons with Ducati, but Repsol HRC exile Pol Espargaro looked to be taking a liking to the GASGAS/KTM right from the off, the 31-year-old Spaniard putting the RC16 on top of the timesheets early on with a 2m00.154s on his 14th lap of morning session.
15 minutes later Jorge Martin put a shot across the bows of everyone with a 1m58.737, almost 1.5-seconds quicker than the rest of the field. The 25-year-old Spaniard set the all time lap record at the Malaysian venue last year with a 1m57.790s pole lap, and went on to set the race lap record at 1m59.634 on the same weekend.
While Pol Espargaro looked to be enjoying the RC16, KTM exile Miguel Oliveira was in turn looking to be enjoying his switch to Aprilia. The 28-year-old Portuguese rider was quickly on the pace with a few laps in the 2m00s right from the off.
Aleix Espargaro was the second man to lap under the two-minute mark, dropping in a 1m59.771 on his 18th lap of the morning before then improving to 1m59.324 on his next circuit.
Luca Marini then joined the 1m59s club with a 1m59.660 on his 20th lap to go P3 and then improved further to 1m59.469.
Moto2 champ Augusto Fernandez had already benefitted from a few days on track during the recent shakedown test, something that none of the other MotoGP riders had enjoyed. Still, a 2m00.059 to go P4 behind Martin just before the two-hour mark an encouraging signal for the rookie.
Brad Binder started to get wound up as the opening day headed towards that two-hour mark. A 2m00.085 on his 18th lap pushing previous team-mate Miguel Oliveira back to P7 as Marco Bezzecchi then moved up to P5, pushing Binder back to P6 as they completed the opening two hours of the session.
At this two-hour point Marc Marquez was the fastest Honda in P13 while his brother Alex was trying to get his head around the Desmosedici in P17. Jack Miller was P20.
Enea Bastianini then stepped things up after midday (local time) with a 1m58.896 to go P2 and Maverick Vinales slotted ahead of his Aprilia team-mate Aleix Espargaro with a 1m59.305 to go P3. There were now two riders in the 1m58s, Martin and Bastianini, and three riders in the 1m59s, Vinales, Espargaro and Marini.
Pecco Bagnaia then made it a Ducati 1-2-3 after going P2 on his 23rd lap, a 1m58.857. Aprilia were P4-5 at this juncture then it was Ducati P6-7 with Luca Marini and Alex Marquez also in the mid 1m59s. The latter of that pair then had a technical problem that left him stranded out on track and stunted his progress a little.
Marc Marquez had been one of the relatively quick riders from the opening laps of the morning, a 2m00.467 on his third lap of the day but didn’t improve again until his 22nd lap, a 1m59.948 promoting him to P8, followed by a 1m59.424 to move into P6 ahead of both his brother and Marini. Marquez had four RC213V machines on his side of the pit garage to work through and evaluate different changes on.
At this halfway point on the opening day Joan Mir has put in the most laps (41), to Martin’s 40 laps.
Marco Bezzecchi has recorded the highest top speed at 335.4 km/h ahead of Bagnaia, Quartararo and Marini who all registered a best of 334.3 km/h.
MotoGP Sepang Test
Day One – Half-time rankings
- Jorge Martin (Ducati) 1m58.737
- Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) 1m58.857
- Enea Bastianini (Ducati) 1m58.986
- Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) 1m59.305
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) 1m59.324
- Marc Marquez (Honda) 1m59.424
- Luca Marini (Ducati) 1m59.469
- Alex Marquez (Ducati) 1m59.569
- Fabio DiGiannantonio (Ducati) 2m00.013
- Augusto Fernandez (GASGAS) 2m00.027
- Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati) 2m00.068
- Brad Binder (KTM) 2m00.085
- Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) 2m00.089
- Joan Mir (Honda) 2m00.106
- Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) 2m00.135
- Pol Espargaro (GASGAS) 2m00.154
- Jack Miller (KTM) 2m00.220
- Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) 2m00.255
- Johann Zarco (Ducati) 2m00.303
- Raul Fernandez (Aprilia) 2m00.319
- Alex Rins (Honda) 2m01.049
- Takaaki Nakagami (Honda) 2m01.204
- Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha) 2m01.204
