The second round of pre-season testing for MotoGP is underway with Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista setting the pace at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

Despite track conditions not being as favourable as the previous test at the track earlier this month, and the Spaniard’s time was 1.3 slower than the time set by World Champion Marc Marquez during the last visit.

With Marquez absent due to injury with a broken leg, Bautista was working heavily with the rear of his machine concentrating on shock, swingarm and linkage configuration on the hard Bridgestone tyre.

Only 0.052s behind was Aleix Espargaro on an ‘Open’ machines has on a softer specification rear tyre on the Forward Yamaha. Tyre durability and engine performance over race distance will be crucial to converting fast times in testing into World Championship points once the season starts.

Espargaro’s brother Pol also impressed, slotting the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike up into third with a late best time 0.15s off Bautista’s pace. The younger Espargaro worked with on electronics, tried different a wheel size and tested small engine parts. His teammate Bradley Smith was ninth.

Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso was fastest for the Italian factory in fourth.

Double MotoGP title winner Jorge Lorenzo ended the day fifth, with the Yamaha Factory Racing team focusing on refining set-up for the new harder rear tyre option. Dani Pedrosa is doing all the testing Repsol Honda and sixth on the day. Valentino Rossi was second overall at ‘Sepang1’ but he ended Wednesday in seventh spot, continuing his preparations for his 15th season in the premier class.

Team Suzuki MotoGP are again present at this test, with Randy de Puniet and Nobuatsu Aoki in attendance. De Puniet carried out an epic 73 lap workload on Wednesday for the manufacturer who have an eye on returning to MotoGP racing in 2015.