The Shakedown is coming to an end at Sepang, an exercise that Cal Crutchlow has officially dominated since day one reading the timesheet. But unofficially, Dani Pedrosa and his KTM would not be that far from the Yamaha, or even in front. The fact remains that the Iwata firm continues to send positive messages about the evolution of its engine with an improvement in top speed which was verified this morning in Malaysia.
Cal Crutchlow thus offered himself a 334,4 km/h on the Sepang track this morning, in finally favorable conditions, the rain forgetting at the start of Tuesday the site dedicated since Sunday to MotoGP. This straight line performance is 4 km/h faster than the M1 driven by Fabio Quartararo during last October's race weekend. We note that the Ducati de Pirro reached 336,4 km/h. The difference between the Japanese machine and the reference in the field designed in Borgo Panigale is here of the order of tolerable.
After the Englishman seemed to do all of Yamaha's development work so far, reviewing the three test bikes (T1, T2, T3), Katsuyuki Nakasuga took to the track today on the black 'T2' M1 at the start of the day. Crutchlow was also in action again, with the new fairing, on the T3 machine.
At Sepang, Honda is the only manufacturer not to impress with its new features
When it comes to aerodynamics, it's always Aprilia which arouses the greatest curiosity, and it is not this last shot above revealing part of the skeleton of the RS-GP which will reduce attention to it... These MotoGP prototypes have definitely changed a lot! At the house of Ducati, we promise to reveal its developments during the official tests which will begin with the titular drivers on February 10. It's the same for KTM who worked this winter on the subject with F1 experts from Red Bull Advanced Technologies.
In all this debauchery of novelties, Honda is the brand that gives the impression of being missed. The RC213V does not surprise the naked eye nor in its performance with Stefan bradl. Marc Marquez However, expect a lot from the new HRC opus. The eight-time World Champion was undoubtedly impatient to begin his work this Friday to find out the end of the story...
Otherwise, we note the good theoretical performance of the rookie Augusto Fernandez who held the top of the rankings until Cal Crutchlow does not carry out his attack at the time of the Malaysian lunch break. The Shakedown will continue until 18:00 p.m. local time, which will mark midday here.
MotoGP Test Sepang Shakedown J3: mid-day times
Classification credit: GP One
