The second day of the second Sepang test took place today on a track surface that was still lacking grip compared to the first session here last month. Intense heat throughout the day made for difficult conditions as only Jorge Lorenzo, the fastest rider of the day, came anywhere close to the 'two-minute mark' (2'00.282). He was closely followed by Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow, who outpaced factory pair Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi.
POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Aleix Espargaró continues to dominate the CRT field despite confessing to barely having slept for the past two nights. The Spaniard, who was twelfth fastest overall today, clocked his best time on his penultimate lap of 45, a 2'02.905 representing an improvement on yesterday's best but still falling short of his pace from the first test here at Sepang. Randy De Puniet made progress today after encountering various problems yesterday that he was able to solve thanks largely to some electronic updates. The Frenchman was able to set his best lap time of preseason at Sepang, finishing 18th fastest overall.
12th Aleix Espargaró 2.02.905 (45 laps): “I have been waking up in the middle of the night for the past two nights, which is unusual but for some reason I have struggled with jetlag on this trip. I was really tired this morning so I had something to eat at lunchtime and had a little rest. We did some aerodynamic tests this afternoon, working with different fairings, and tried some electronic updates. We have done 45 laps and tested a lot of little things, the majority of which were positive. We are still not on the pace from our last visit here to Sepang because the track conditions are not as good but we are still the leading CRT and it's important to stay on top. The only other CRT rider with a similar pace to me is my team-mate Randy – the rest are one-off laps – so I am happy with that.”
18th Randy De Puniet 2.03.518 (57 laps): “Even though the track is still quite slippery I had a better feeling with the bike today. We worked a lot with the electronics and the rear suspension and I was able to improve on my lap times from the first test. My best lap actually came on used rubber because when we put a fresh tyre in to push for a time it was faulty, but that's okay because it shows that we still have room to improve. The objective tomorrow is to keep working in the same way and to keep moving forward. We are still struggling with the rear but we are on the right lines to solving our problems so hopefully that will be the case tomorrow.”
Power Electronics Aspar Press Release
You can give your opinion on our Facebook page here
Get the latest update on our Twitter page here
