Yesterday there was a glitch when they indicated that Ben Spie had lapped in 1.58, but there wasn’t any glitch today when Casey Stoner posted a 1’59″607 with his RC213V. His lap on the third day of testing at Sepang and early this morning was 0.058s faster than the lap time he set during the 2011 Sepang tests with his highly evoluted 800cc machine.

The Australian champion is still suffering from back pain, stating that it seemed that he’d ‘felt like he had done three rounds with Mike Tyson’ but his fast lap set a warning shot to his rivals, despite the fact that both he and Repsol Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa have yet to solve the chattering issues that emerged with the new Bridgestone tires.

Casey Stoner:

“It’s been a good test in general, we only managed two out of the three days unfortunately but the weather has been really good to us and we’ve been able to do what we planned. The day I missed hasn’t affected us too much and we’ve managed to complete our testing programme, to be honest I think track conditions on the first day weren’t that great anyway as the lap times were not so fast. I’m still not feeling great with my back but the bike is ok, so we’ve made progress in reducing the chatter a little more and trying a few different things, some small settings on the shock that we haven’t tried before amongst other points. So far it’s been pretty positive, we’ll just have to wait and see what we have for the next test and hopefully improve a little more. Now I’m looking forward to getting home to Switzerland to see Adriana and await the arrival of our baby!”

Dani Pedrosa:

“Three days testing here in Malaysia is very tiring. This morning when I woke up I was pretty sore and stiff, but once I got running I was a little bit better. Anyway, it’s been worth it to do a general test of the engine, chassis and tyres and overall it is the biggest test we have done on this bike and we have good data to analyse and can start to build up points we need for the second test. As I said yesterday, the biggest point to improve is on braking, and we are also working on the electronics to improve the management of the power and the grip level. The chatter is still there, I know it’s something very difficult to fix, but I’m sure Honda is working hard on it. In general, it’s been a positive test for us and we will come back here in three weeks with new ideas. This bike is physically more demanding, you feel the power in the acceleration, the speed under hard braking and also the extra weight, but it’s alright. I will keep working hard physically to prepare for the second test.”

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Just a little more than three months ago, Marco Simoncelli lost his life during the Sepang GP and now the MotoGP teams are back in Malaysia for the official pre-season three day test that kicks off tomorrow and it will be a very emotional return for everyone present.

To remember that fatal afternoon and to pay their respects to one of their own, yesterday in the silence that will be soon be broken by the scream of the 1000cc engines, numerous members of HRC’s pit crew gathered at the particular part of the circuit to lay a bouquet of flowers and a silent pray for late rider.

We’ll be missing you, Sic.

Photo Source | hrc motogp@twitter.com

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We haven’t completely wrapped up with the three days of MotoGP testing at Sepang, after our first gallery of pics here’s our second to last group of photos from the Malaysian circuit, that will tide you over until the Sepang 2 tests that will be held from February 22-24.

Enjoy the pics.

Continue reading: More Photos from MotoGP Sepang test

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That Marco Simoncelli and his team were coming to grips with the complex electronics of his Honda was already obvious towards the end of last season and during these last two days of testing at Sepang with a 4th and 5th spot, but did anyone expect him to lead on this 3rd day of testing?

Simoncelli is not only leading the field at 2pm, but he’s already under 0.013s of that scorching lap that Dani Pedrosa laid down early yesterday morning, but the bushy haired Italian is closely followed by another Italian on a Honda, Andrea Dovizioso who is also under the 2.01 mark.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies are also tagging the the Honda pair in third and fourth respectively, while Casey Stoner who crashed this morning is running in 5th.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang test: Marco Simoncelli leader of the pack

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From the first day of MotoGP testing at Sepang, we can now give you a mega gallery of photos for you to check out. Enjoy the pics.

Continue reading: Mega gallery of photos from Sepang

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Dani Pedrosa is testing a new Honda engine at Sepang and it must be a beauty, because the Spanish rider at 1pm is currently on top of the charts with a best time of 2′00″770, which makes his new team mate Casey Stoner yesterday’s top time of 2′01″574 actually look slow.

Following Pedrosa are Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo in second, third and fourth respectively, and a little more seven tenths of a second off the pace, but the three are separated by mere thousandths of seconds.

Casey Stoner finds himself in fifth with the still surprising Alvaro Bautista hanging closely onto his tail.

Nicky Hayden has moved up to the tenth spot and much faster today, but is still a big 1.6s off the top of the charts, while team mate Valentino Rossi is struggling down in 14th and finds himself behind not only the Honda test rider, but also behind the two satellite Ducati’s ridden by Randy de Puniet and Hector Barbera.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang test: Dani Pedrosa gets a booster shot

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If Honda is estatic with their riders, Yamaha isn’t exactly upset with a second and fifth place on the first day of testing, with Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies both riding under last year’s race times (Lorenzo took third and Spies 4th at Sepang in October).

Spies totalled one his M1’s early this morning that needed a rebuild and he was one of the first riders to stop testing before the 6pm curfew call, satisfied with his fifth place and expecting better times tomorrow.

According to the Yamah press release, tomorrow both riders will be working on various areas of the 2011 race bike’s development along with testing tyres for Bridgestone and explained the reason why the M1’s were on track with a plain black carbon fibre fairing instead of the expected corporate colors.

Continue reading: Everyone happy with Day 1 at Yamaha (w/video)

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Vittoriano Guareschi and Franco Battaini spent three days at Jerez last month testing all those new parts that Filippo Preziosi came up with to solve the front end woes of the Ducati, unfortunately both Ducati riders were way back on the charts during today’s testing at Sepang, making it hard to understand if the solutions are a step in the right direction.

We know that Valentino Rossi is still struggling with his shoulder (pain, loss of strength) and he told fans that he still wouldn’t be in shape for the test, with Ducati coming up with a new shaped gas tank to allow him to tuck in better behind the windscreen and that Nicky Hayden underwent carpal tunnel surgery at the end of the season, but we expected something slightly better and little more closer to the top from these two riders, even if they’re riding the difficult Ducati.

Valentino Rossi 12th, 2’03.365 (41 laps)

“Rarely have I been this happy with a twelfth place, because after the test at Misano, we were pretty pessimistic considering how bad I felt there. It went better here though, especially in the morning, and we were able to do 20, 25 laps at a decent speed. Although we still have a lot of work to do, but we did a lot today: we worked on the riding position, and we’re starting to understand, among the many details that we can adjust on this bike, what the best solutions are. The Ducati’s DNA doesn’t need to be changed; we have to take advantage of the positive aspects and improve the others. Unfortunately, it became more difficult when I lost a lot of strength in the afternoon, but in the end I was able to do about fifteen more laps. Let’s say that at the moment, I have quite a bit of pain and not much strength, whereas the opposite would be preferable! The hardest parts are the straights and on hard braking into right corners, like Turn 1 and Turn 4; there alone I lose about a second, whereas the rest of the lap is okay, because compared to Valencia, I’m able to ride much better. It will be important to be able to rest well tonight in order to regain some mobility so that I can do 30 or 40 laps tomorrow. I’ll have a relaxing massage and put ice on it.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi more or less happy with 12th, Nicky Hayden is not with 13th

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A little track action from the first day of MotoGP Sepang testing that took place at the beginning of this month with Valentino Rossi coming out on top on both days.

For those of you who don’t know Italian and are interested, we’ve translated the two very brief interviews that Sportmediaset did with Valentino Rossi and disheveled rookie Marco Simoncelli.

VR: “Yes, the engine is the most important thing. Yamaha has worked very hard to try to have an engine that goes fast, but also at the same time that will also last a lot of kilometers according to the new rules, the first approach was positive because the bike is pretty fast, but we still have to work on it.”.

MS: “It wasn’t bad, I felt pretty good even if we’re still working to try the right set-up for the bike and understand the right geometry to go with.Yeah, I’m happy, both Aligi and I and the other guys of the crew are still learning and it’s important to work well.”

MotoGP testing will return to Sepang February 25-26th.

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After the computer theft from the Aspar team garage that occured at Sepang, there was another small mystery in the paddock surrounding Ben Spies’ helmet.

The Texas Terror usually wears a HJC FC-15 lid, but on Thursday Spies was sporting on track an Arai RX-7 GP Colin Edwards Red helmet with the Arai logos blanked out.

The question is why was Elbowz wearing his teammate’s helmet? Did he forget his helmets at home, did the airline lose them, were they stolen like the Aspar computers? If anyone knows the answer to our question, please let us know, so we can rest easier.

Source | motoblog

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To accompany today’s riders quotes, we’ve got a batch of pics from today’s MotoGP test in Sepang, some official and some from Motoblog who has its own blogger who’s reporting directly from Malaysia.

Valentino Rossi - 1st 2′01″411 Laps: 54

“Today was very important because this year we have just six days of testing in which to set the bike, so we can not waste any time. This first day was very positive, we tried the new bike for 2010, with a different chassis and a new engine, which can do more kilometres, and it is quite fast. Yamaha has worked very well over the winter. Now we need to spend time on setting some electronics and other things. This is only the start but it seems we’re already in good shape.”

Casey Stoner - 2nd 2′01″902 Laps: 42 laps

“This first day was a bit difficult to understand: we started off with a setting that was quite good and that allowed us to make reasonably good lap times. We thought we would improve as the day went on but we had a few problems with chatter. We tried a lot of different combinations trying to make the bike feel a little bit better but we couldn’t really get an improvement. To be honest it was difficult to work out why because the track conditions were particularly difficult — it was so hot that it was actually hard to understand if you were make an improvement on the bike or not. In any case I’m really happy with the new engine, I think that with the other one we would have struggled more. Now the bike in general feel very good, very balanced and I’m happy with it. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler tomorrow so that we can understand better if the changes we try are the right ones”.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang Test Thursday: Pics and Rider Quotes

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