Marc Marquez day 1 of testing in Sepang

MotoGP Official Test Day 1, Sepang, Feb, Tues 4th-World Champion Marc Marquez topped the timesheets as this week’s Sepang Official MotoGP™ Test began today. The Repsol Honda Team rider led the way from Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi and Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, with leading Open rider Aleix Espargaro seventh for NGM Mobile Forward.

Honda, Marc Marquez, “I’m happy with how this first day went and to have achieved my goal of regaining my feeling on the bike. Of course, at the start I was a little stiff, but gradually I was able to pick up the pace. Today I tested the new rear tyre from Bridgestone and it felt similar to last year. Tomorrow we will continue with our plan: testing out the setup and beginning to draw conclusions from our findings. We put in a lot of laps today and I’m sure that tomorrow I will feel it; even though we train in the gym over the winter, here you work your muscles in a different way.”

Honda, Dani Pedrosa- “It was a very long, hard day. We put in a lot of laps and despite us being fresh as it’s the first day, I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll be feeling it! It was fun, as I had not been on the bike for a long time and was curious to see how I would feel after my operation last year. In general things went well and we focused on trying out the rear brakes, clutch and engine mapping today.Tomorrow we will work on the chassis and the new tyres. The bike seems very similar to last year’s model; we still need more time to work on things, but it appears as if there are no huge differences required in terms of riding style.”

Following the usual break for lunch in the middle of the day, the final of the eight hours saw track temperatures drop which allowed riders to push for quicker lap times. This duly saw Marquez post 2’00.286, half a second up on Rossi as both the Italian and Marquez’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa jumped ahead of Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha in the final minutes of the day. The top six was completed by GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl.

At Repsol Honda, this year’s RC213V features a larger air intake in an attempt to increase top speeds and improve throttle response on the exit of corners, with Marquez posting the leading effort fresh from historically claiming the title in Valencia last year. In the Yamaha garage, Rossi continued to develop his working relationship with new Crew Chief Silvano Galbusera, who first worked alongside the nine-time World Champion for the post-race test after the final Grand Prix of 2013.

Yamaha, Valentino Rossi– “I’m happy about the first day, it’s a good start. I feel good and I’m in a good shape. I’m happy because we’ve been very fast and always stayed in the top three positions. We worked a lot on the bike and on the new stuff to try and improve my problems. We already found something. I’m happy because I feel good with the bike and was able to go into the 2’00 minute mark, that was my target. It’s a positive day.”

Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo – “As always it’s difficult to come back again in a good shape after the Winter, some months without training changes you a lot so the first day is always tough! The bike has changed quite a bit compared to last year. The new regulation of 20 litres fuel allowance makes us change quite a lot of electronics so the bike is not working exactly how I would like. I know we will find a solution in the next two days.”

Much attention was on Ducati Team, with talk continuing to circulate that the outfit could elect to race under the new Open regulations this year; this would allow up to 24 litres of fuel as opposed to the 20 of the Factory Options, as well as working on engines during the season and not being limited by the new engine freeze.

Ducati – Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 12th (2m02.497s)“Today was a bit of a strange day, the first day of testing in Malaysia should not be taken with too much importance because you have to find the right feeling again after months of inactivity. We had a different bike to test, but we were not able to do a lot of laps and test everything we had scheduled. Luckily we’ve got another couple of days here in Malaysia so it won’t be too much of a problem. It was the right decision to start with the 2013 bike to resume where we left off last season, then we immediately switched to the new bike to see the difference, but unfortunately I only managed 27 laps today. I feel sure that things will go a lot better tomorrow.”

Ducati – Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 14th (2m02.860s)“First and foremost, it was good to be able to get back onto a bike after two and a half months off. We rode the GP13 in the morning and the GP14 in the afternoon, and it’s clear we have some work to do because the bikes are not too dissimilar at all. Most of the changes are cosmetic, but the feeling of the bikes is similar. The GP14 enters the corner a bit better, which is what we were looking for. We only used two sets of tyres all day so now it’s about building confidence to go faster with this bike. We also had a lot of electronics stuff to try so I never did too many runs in the afternoon. Ducati are definitely working hard and I’m excited about that.”

Also this season, all bikes in the field are running the spec ECU hardware for the first time; however Factory Options are free to use their own software, whereas Opens must adapt the spec software as supplied by Dorna Sports and Magneti Marelli.

The leading Open representative on this occasion was Forward’s Aleix Espargaro (seventh position), with Factory Option riders Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing), Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3 team-mates) helping to complete the top ten. Colin Edwards (Forward) overcame early technical difficulties to finish 11th quickest, as Ducati Team filled spots 12 to 14 with Andrea Dovizioso, test rider Michele Pirro and Cal Crutchlow. The leading Honda RCV1000R customer bike was that of 2006 title winner Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) in 17th place.

At Paul Bird Motorsport, Michael Laverty (25th position) suffered a frustrating start to proceedings, plagued first by brake problems and then by an engine failure. All teams were present with the exception of IodaRacing, which plans to make its 2014 track debut at the second Sepang test which is to run at the end of the month.

Testing continues at the Sepang International Circuit over the next two days, again running between 10am and 6pm local time (GMT +8).

Day One Test Times

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 2m 0.286s (Lap 52/62)

2. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 2m 0.804s | +0.518s (58/61)

3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 2m 0.906s | +0.620s (73/75)

4. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 2m 1.082s | +0.796s (26/47)

5. Alvaro Bautista ESP GoFun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 2m 1.240s | +0.954s (48/52)

6. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 2m 1.320s | +1.034s (10/25)

7. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing (FTR-M1) 2m 1.419s | +1.133s (19/26)

8. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 2m 1.538s | +1.252s (38/44)

9. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 1.634s | +1.348s (42/48)

10. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 1.876s | +1.590s (54/55)

11. Colin Edwards USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing (FTR-M1) 2m 2.483s | +2.197s (25/26)

12. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 2m 2.497s | +2.211s (21/27)

13. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Rider (Desmosedici) 2m 2.552s | +2.266s (47/48)

14. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 2m 2.860s | +2.574s (16/38)

15. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 2m 2.891s | +2.605s (28/49)

16. Katsuyuki Nakasuga JPN Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1) 2m 3.126s | +2.840s (14/35)

17. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 2m 3.319s | +3.033s (53/56)

18. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 2m 3.328s | +3.042s (49/51)

19. Randy de Puniet FRA Suzuki Test Rider (XRH-1) 2m 3.893s | +3.607s (47/75)

20. Kosuke Akiyoshi JPN Honda Test Rider 2m 4.267s | +3.981s (27/64)

21. Scott Redding GBR GoFun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R) 2m 4.431s | +4.145s (41/48)

22. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki) 2m 4.922s | +4.636s (34/44)

23. Mike di Meglio FRA Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki) 2m 5.825s | +5.539s (50/51)

24. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 2m 5.889s | +5.603s (32/40)

25. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 2m 6.070s | +5.784s (14/14)

26. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 2m 6.755s | +6.469s (21/41)