| MotoGP: Day 2 of Sepang Testing |
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| Written by Ron Lieback |
| Friday, 05 February 2010 23:12 |
After the track dried a bit after typical Malaysia rain, the 30-year-old reigning champion rode his Yamaha YZR-M1 to a lap of 2:00.925, knocking of 0.486 seconds off of his best time of 2.01:411 during Thursday's testing. “After yesterday this second day has been very good as well, even though we lost a few hours to the rain, and the end we were still able to finish all our work," the Fiat Yamaha rider said. "We worked on the new bike to find a better setting and I was happy to be the fastest overall - even though this is just testing this is important for me!, said Rossi at the end of the day.” And as Rossi remained on top for the second day of testing, his rival, Ducati Marlboro rider Casey Stoner remained second fastest, just as he did on Day 1 of testing. The Australian rode his Ducati Desmosedici GP10 to a 2:01.320 on Friday. Stoner said the bike was much more balanced than the first day of testing. “We are quite happy with the test,” Stoner said. “Today didn’t start really well because of the rain and the wet track, which set us back a few hours, but when it finally did dry out we were able to make some progress. We have definitely improved the set-up of the bike, trying some different things with the swingarm. There is work to do but we have two more test sessions before the season starts for real. In general I am really pleased with how it’s gone.” Bumping up two spots from Day 1 testing to third fastest was Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard rode the most of any laps of the 17 riders Friday, completing 60 by the end of the session. Lorenzo commented on how pleased he was with the ongoing developments of his YZR-M1. “I felt much better today and I was able to be fast straight away,” Lorenzo said. “It wasn’t a big problem yesterday, it’s just that after such a long break I forget how to ride a little bit! I need a bit of time, but it was much better today.” After working diligently on the Öhlins suspension setup on the RC212V, Dani Pedrosa dropped his Day 1 time down to over a full second faster, helping him achieve the fourth fastest lap of the day at 2:01.822. And posting the fifth quickest lap was reigning World Superbike Champion and rookie MotoGP rider Ben Spies. Riding his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 to a 2:02.266, the Texan knocked off a half-second from his Day 1 testing. “I rode as good and as hard as I could considering how I’ve been feeling,” Spies said. “I’m not wanting to make any excuses but I didn’t feel really good with the jetlag. It was still a good test because I learned a lot about improving my riding and adapting my style to suit the Yamaha MotoGP bike. It is hard to break some of my old superbike habits at the moment but I made some big improvements in a couple of places on the track where I was really struggling, particularly in the braking. It started to feel more natural today and I got down to some decent times on race tires.” There was only one accident during Friday's testing. Marco Simoncelli high-sided his Gresini Honda halfway through the session, but the Italian didn't suffer any injuries. He finished testing later in the afternoon, posting the 15th-fastest time. Always talking of improvement, nine-time World Champion Rossi said: “At the next test we will have a few more new things but we're already happy because we're fast and strong. There is room to improve of course; Sepang is always a good track for the Yamaha so we will have to wait until Qatar to get a better understanding of our level, but we have made a great start." All 17 riders will return to Sepang in two weeks to complete additional testing in this year’s reduced pre-season schedule. Day 2 Sepang Test Times: 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 2’00.925
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As he did during the first day of
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