The World Champion emphasizes his hegemony in the Malaysian track signing a record time this Thursday after dominating the time sheet over three days in the first official Test of 2014. The duo of Yamaha Racing and a surprising Aleix Espargaró, less than half a second of the Repsol Honda rider.
Outstanding in the chronos since the start of this first date of the season, Márquez has rounded off an impeccable start of the season, signing the best lap of time in the Asian track during the first part of the session. The Leridano had just completed nine laps when he scored a perfect turn in the track and stopped the chronometer at 1’59,533, a new reference that exceeded 74,000 times Casey Stoner’s time during the preseason 2012 with 1’59,607. Afterwards, he has continued to work on his RC213V to accumulate a total of 40 turns.
The new zarpazo al crono of Cervera has neutralized the also substantial improvement of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, his closest rivals. Italian and Spanish have shot for the first time under two minutes and both have lowered their top ten times on Wednesday Wednesday, a final effort that has reduced their handicap with respect to the leader in 0194s. and 0.333s. respectively. The two have done long runs in the court before finishing this first pre-season appointment.
Aleix Espargaró (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) has been re-inserted into the fastest group. After signing the fifth place in the table yesterday, the Granollers driver has taken a new step forward as he is the last of the group that has been able to roll under 2 minutes. His timing – the best in 1.59.998 – confirms the great potential of the FTR-Yamaha that leads in 2014 and places him unquestionably as the most prominent ‘Open’ pilot.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) has maintained the fifth place in which he had settled in the first hours of the day, when he had barely completed 11 rounds. The brother suffered a fall in the first curve of the track, the same point where he fractured his ankle during the Grand Prix disputed in October, but this time he has gone unharmed and has continued to roll without major problems until completing a total of 38 laps . Behind Bradl, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) signs the sixth best time
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) had a slower start, in addition to a track start during the morning rally, tomorrow, but later climbed positions until finishing in the sixth position with a time of 2.00.223.
Andrea Dovizioso also finished the essay, placing himself in a more hopeful position than in the first two days. The Ducati Team’s Italian left on Thursday 2.00.370, one of the best chronicles signed in Sepang by a Desmosedici. In fact Dovizioso’s time has meant an improvement of 0.776s on his best record on Wednesday. Those 7 tenths are those that in the end have separated him from his teammate Cal Crutchlow, who has closed his participation in the twelfth position. The two Ducati drivers are expected to receive updates for their mounts in Sepang’s second test by the end of this month.
Like his brother Aleix, debutant Pol Espargaró has also impressed with his solid performance in Sepang, ending up as the fastest pair of Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Pol has been eighth to 1.122s of Márquez.
His teammate Bradley Smith has been 11th at the end of a session in which he has shown something out of the way. The British hopes to improve their competitiveness if the team can finally offer the Yamaha seamless gearbox in the near future, a tool that satellite pilots do not currently have.
Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Álvaro Bautista (GO & FUNHonda Gresini) have completed the top 10, both drivers a little over a second from the leader.
Motogp.com
