Marc Márquez finished his second day of testing at Sepang in the same place he finished the first, i.e. seventh. His time under two minutes shows that he is in the rhythm of the best and he could undoubtedly have done better without an inconsequential fall at the end of the exercise. During this Monday, the World Champion discovered a new fairing for his RC213V and continued to work on the engine. Result ? He is not convinced by the aerodynamics while the first doubts arise about the mechanics…
It's not yet time to see Marc Marquez at the top of the timesheet. While the Yamahas shared the first two places, at HRC, we continued to carry out heavy development work affecting all the essential points of the bike. And this Monday, it was the aerodynamic part that came into play. A question that seems to remain unanswered in the Honda box: “ the aim of the new fairing is to control wheeling and generate downforce. In fact, you also lose speed » explains the teammate Dani Pedrosa.
« When you have this fairing, you gain stability when braking. But motorcycling is also more physical, harder to understand. In fast curves, it is less easy. With this type of fairing, we need to find the right settings. On one lap I can drive well, but over the distance of a race I'm afraid of overheating the front tire or something like that. ».
Development is therefore underway, as well as on an engine which began to raise its first questions after the enthusiasm of its discovery… “ There is a lot of focus on the latest version of the engine. However, we are not letting go of Valencia. On this Sepang track, you can make mistakes because its configuration allows you to make up for them with power and torque. You are then fast, and you feel good ».
« Like all the other Honda drivers, I would tend to go for the new engine, but nevertheless I have doubts about what it could give on another type of circuit. We would then be in more difficulty. Only two or three tracks on the calendar are like that of Sepang. It will be very important to decide tomorrow on the best choice to make ". To be continued…
MotoGP #SepangTest J.2: Chronos
1. Maverick Vinales, Yamaha, 1:59,355 min
2. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, +0,035 sec
3. Cal Crutchlow, Honda, +0,088
4. Jorge Lorenzo, Ducati, +0,143
5. Jack Miller, Ducati, +0,154
6. Johann Zarco, Yamaha, +0,347
7. Marc Marquez, Honda, +0,375
8. Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati, +0,377
9. Danilo Petrucci, Ducati, +0,392
10. Andrea Iannone, Suzuki, +0,562
11. Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia, +0,570
12. Dani Pedrosa, Honda, +0,644
13. Alex Rins, Suzuki, +0,687
14. Pol Espargaro, KTM, +0,907
15. Tito Rabat, Ducati, +1,151
16. Bradley Smith, KTM, +1,165
17. Franco Morbidelli, Honda, +1,307
18. Mika Kallio, KTM, +1,346
19. Álvaro Bautista, Ducati, +1,373
20. Karel Abraham, Ducati, +1,559
21. Takaaki Nakagami, Honda, +1,597
22. Sylvain Guintoli, Suzuki, +2,037
23. Scott Redding, Aprilia, +2,101
24. Yonny Hernandez, Yamaha, +2,199
25. Xavier Siméon, Ducati, +2,334
26. Tom Lüthi, Honda, +2,455
