MotoGP 2015 Sepang Test Photo Gallery and Results

In cool conditions on the morning of the final day, Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez was the first ever MotoGP rider to lap the Sepang circuit in the 1'58 bracket to ultimately set a time 0.139 seconds quicker than his teammate Dani Pedrosa, who was second quickest in Malaysia. Third quickest overall was Ducati Team's Andrea Iannone, with the Italian rider enjoying his graduation from Pramac Racing to the factory Ducati team with a lap time of 1'59.388, over 1.3 seconds quicker than his best time in last year's opening group test.

Thirty riders – including a total of five test riders from Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha – took part in the first group test of 2015, completing a total of 4429 laps (24,550 kilometers) on Bridgestone tires. The gap in lap time from the quickest to slowest rider at the first Sepang test was 7.323 seconds.

Dry conditions were present during the three days of the test, with a peak track temperature of 53°C recorded on the afternoon of the second day. Track conditions were usual for Sepang, with only moderate grip levels and certain sections of the circuit being quite bumpy, but the combination of fine weather, the latest MotoGP machinery and Bridgestone’s 2015 specification tires resulted in the test being run at record pace. The slightly cooler conditions on the morning of the final day allowed the riders to extract maximum performance from their tires, with the top seven riders on the timesheets able to set times in the 1’59 bracket.

Marquez was the standout rider in terms of outright pace and his best lap time from the test compares favorably with his own 1’59.791s pole record at the track set in 2014 and with the 1’59.533 he set at the Sepang 1 test last year.

His Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa (+0.139s) was second on the timesheet. Both HRC riders carried out race simulation runs later in the day with Pedrosa logging 10 consecutive laps under the 2’01 barrier.

Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone concluded the test in third place overall on the GP14.3, the Italian 0.521s down on Marquez but also half a second ahead of his compatriot and teammate Andrea Dovizioso who was seventh overall. The Ducati pair have the delivery of the new GP15 bike to look forward to at the Sepang 2 test before the end of the month.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi lapped just over half a second behind Marquez in fourth overall, with teammate Jorge Lorenzo (+0.757s) also in the top five. Lorenzo later enjoyed a consistently quick race simulation somewhat down on Pedrosa’s pace and later admitted that he was impressed by the progress of his Honda rivals.

Rossi also undertook a longer run but did not manage the consistently quick times of Lorenzo or the Repsol Honda duo. The Italian carried out an electronics experiment for the run and also used new swingarm, adjusting his engine mapping during the simulation which affected his times.

In sixth place overall was Pol Espargaro (+0.984s) who had crashed without major consequence on Friday morning – his third crash in three days. Espargaro’s teammate Bradley Smith has been riding with an ankle injury sustained recently in private training and the Englishman was ninth fastest on the timesheet, 1.517s behind Marquez.

Stefan Bradl (Forward Racing Team) finished as the top Open equipped rider in eighth and will be pleased with his performance at this test, with an engine upgrade still to come before the season starts.

The Sepang 1 test saw good progress for the Team Suzuki MotoGP pair of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales. The new team is working on reliability and top end power and also developing their chassis as they return to premier class racing this year.

Espargaro ended the test in 10th place overall, with an improvement of just under two seconds from day one to day three. His new rookie colleague Maverick Viñales gained confidence and pace on the GSX-RRs over the three days improving by well over two seconds and closing the gap on his teammate.

CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was 11th best as he continued to put in the laps on his RC213V, with Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS rider Scott Redding 0.7s behind his compatriot on the same machine.

Drive M7 Aspar’s Nicky Hayden was the fastest rider on the Open spec RC213V-RS package +2.641s down on Marquez in 18th place, with CWM LCR Honda rookie Jack Miller (+3.028s) behind the American in 20th on the same spec bike.

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri will aim to cut the gap to the top riders at Sepang 2 in less than two weeks having finished the test down the timesheets in 21st and 28th places respectively. The second MotoGP official test will take place at Sepang on February 23 through 25.