If the rest of the MotoGP field had any hopes of catching Marc Marquez during the second day of official tests at Sepang, they were firmly put to rest when the reigning World Champion smashed through the 2 minute barrier, posting a time of 1:59.926 on his 38th lap of 65.
He is the only rider to post a time below 2 minutes but with the third and final day of testing tomorrow the others will be hot on his heels. Honda fill the first three positions on the grid with a confident and comfortable Valentino Rossi in a strong fourth position, buoyed by a successful first day back on his Yamaha M1 yesterday.
Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow has also shown some improvement, lifting himself to 12th position in the standings on the Desmosedici, albeit a second off the pace of the leaders.
Marquez gets all the attention. Here’s one of Rossi instead
1 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 1:59.926 38 / 65
2 PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 2:00.336 0.410 12 / 62
3 BRADL, Stefan LCR Honda MotoGP 2:00.339 0.413 13 / 52
4 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing 2:00.464 0.538 18 / 61
5 ESPARGARO, Aleix NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:00.547 0.621 16 / 42
6 LORENZO, Jorge Yamaha Factory Racing 2:00.573 0.647 27 / 49
7 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:00.603 0.677 27 / 66
8 IANNONE, Andrea Pramac Racing 2:00.855 0.929 9 / 49
9 BAUTISTA, Alvaro GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2:00.897 0.971 51 / 55
10 ESPARGARO, Pol Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.061 1.135 4 / 49
11 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 2:01.146 1.220 8 / 45
12 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Ducati Team 2:01.396 1.470 11 / 48
13 PIRRO, Michele Ducati Test Team 2:02.177 2.251 6 / 56
14 HAYDEN, Nicky Drive M7 Aspar 2:02.287 2.361 25 / 58
15 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:02.545 2.619 0.258 8 / 35
16 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 2:02.675 2.749 13 / 45
17 AKIYOSHI, Kosuke HRC Test Team 2:02.692 2.766 8 / 68
18 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Drive M7 Aspar 2:02.825 2.899 65 / 66
19 NAKASUGA, Katsuyuki Yamaha Factory Test Team 2:02.970 3.044 49 / 56
20 DE PUNIET, Randy Suzuki Test Team 2:03.064 3.138 73 / 96
21 REDDING, Scott GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2:03.117 3.191 39 / 53
22 LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 2:03.528 3.602 37 / 41
23 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Racing 2:04.551 4.625 2 / 37
24 PARKES, Broc Paul Bird Motorport 2:04.619 4.693 42 / 43
25 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing 2:05.261 5.335 21 / 32
26 DI MEGLIO, Mike Avintia Racing 2:05.355 5.429 4 / 34