During the three days spent at Sepang, there were “Time Attacks”, that is to say the times achieved on a single lap with maximum attack. These are made to judge the maximum potential of the motorcycle-rider combination on a lap, and you know the main points: Maverick Vinales looks like a scarecrow, ahead of Andrea Iannone, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi, Alvaro Bautista, Casey Stoner, Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo and Johann Zarco, all within the same half-second.
This is generally done with a new, soft rear tire, during a run of three to five laps maximum, including the start and stop laps.
Then there are the racing simulations. Generally carried out on the last day of testing, these are long runs during which the drivers complete laps without stopping.
If we consult the analysis sheets, we see that Maverick Vinales, the fastest man in these tests, did not do so. Andrea Iannone, the second, neither.
On the contrary, Marc Marquez, despite his complaints at the start of the tests, proved to be the fastest in this exercise.
Dani Pedrosa did not do any, unlike Valentino Rossi who tried it but could not be consistent enough for its curve to appear in our table.
Cal Crutchlow made one of eight laps and showed up in the same time as that carried out by Johann zarco et Jorge Lorenzo, the most diligent.
But the big surprise comes from Jonas Folger, who not only managed to complete 12 regular laps, but quite simply proved to be second best in this exercise, behind a certain Marc Marquez!
Certainly, with Johann Zarco's "Time Attack" in half a second and Jonas Folger's excellent racing simulation, Hervé Poncharal has every reason to be very satisfied with this Malaysian campaign... and we therefore understand why all the Yamaha officials came to congratulate the two Tech3 riders on the last day.
To be complete on the racing simulations, Pol Espargaro proved to be less regular and slower than Jack Miller, while Sam Lowes turned in 2'03.
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