Sepang J2 half-day private tests: Stoner and Guintoli on track. Lorenzo next.

When the test drivers met in the pits of the Malaysian circuit this morning, the track was still wet, although it had not rained for twelve hours. There is a serious drying problem since the coating was redone.

The good surprise was the presence of Sylvain Guintoli who came to try out a new Suzuki GSX-R, prepared by Yoshimura for the Suzuka 8 Hours. Sylvain is riding this year in British Superbike with the Hawk Racing team (with a MoTec electronic box obligatory in BSB, without anti-skid or anti-slip, and with Pirelli tires) while the 1000 endurance is equipped with Bridgestone. Guintoli would be an excellent recruit for Yoshimura for the Suzuka 8 Hours because in 2010 he won the Doha 8 Hours on Suzuki for Dominique Méliand's SERT, with Vincent Philippe and Freddy Foray. Yoshimura had invited Guintoli here, as well as Suzuki MotoAmerica riders Toni Elias and Roger Lee Hayden to develop alongside Nobuatsu Aoki.

Alongside Sylvain Guintoli, Casey Stoner also made his debut this Thursday, after only his teammate Michele Pirro carried out the first tests for the Desmosedici the day before. Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso will drive them next week. Very involved in the life of his new family, the Majorcan pilot is already there. Also present were Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Kohta Nozane for Yamaha, Hiroshi Aoyama for Honda, Mika Kallio for KTM and Takuya Tsuda for Suzuki.

If “Guinters” came to Malaysia to test the Yoshimura Suzuki for the Suzuka 8 Hours, endurance is also represented by the new Honda Fireblade, of which one of the two official Musashi RT Harc-Pro teams hires Takumi Takahashi who should share the machine which he is currently developing at Sepang with Nicky Hayden, and perhaps Stefan Bradl during the next edition of the 8 Hours on July 30.

Hiroshi Aoyama on Honda