Pedrosa leaves Sepang test on top

Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa has completed the three-day pre-season test at Sepang in Malaysia where he started – on top of the time sheets.

Pedrosa’s teammate Marc Márquez gave everyone a scare in the morning as he crashed in the final turn at speed, although he walked away unscathed and continue on his second bike. A record lap set by Pedrosa of 2:00’100 was not beaten all day, as Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo ended just over three tenths off, himself focussing on a race simulation later in the day.

“We can leave Sepang with a good feeling, because we had good lap times on all three days,” said Pedrosa.

“We were able to put in a lot of laps and, above all, try out some important things with the engine and the bike weight to adjust to the three kilos more for this season – dictated by the new rules. Today we focused on rear tyres, in particular the new Bridgestone hard compound. It is similar to the old one with a little more grip in some areas, but it also creates more chatter.”

Valentino Rossi showed that he could get below the 2:01 mark, leaving it until just before lunch to post his fastest time that saw him end the day in third behind his teammate. Márquez, despite going quicker again today, was this time unable to finish in the top three. Cal Crutchlow, the last rider below the 2:01 mark, on his 2012 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine was fifth.

Ducati finished the Sepang visit better than it started with Nicky Hayden gaining over a second over the three days to be ninth while teammate Andrea Dovizioso was less than a hundredth behind. Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was the first outside of the top ten, in front of Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró, who put in a tremendous effort to place his CRT 12th, and just over 2.5s off the top.

Although he was at the bottom of the time sheets, Australia’s Bryan Staring gained plenty of experience over the three days in Sepang.

TIMES : Day 3 Testing – Sepang