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Thread: MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

  1. #1
    Senior Member The Black Knight's Avatar
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    MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

    Well testing is over. Was wondering what might be some thoughts as to the outcome of the testing? Grant it, being early in the year, it's hard to gauge what might be for the future of the season. But so far, I'm liking what I'm seeing.

    Marquez - shatters Stoner's previous Sepang record. Lays down blistering lap after blistering lap. Fastest Lap - 1:59.533

    Rossi - is within one tenth of Marquez!! Seems Rossi has found a lot of speed and where ever Marquez went, Rossi seemed to follow by turning laps getting him close to the front runner. And how about Rossi breaking into the sub-two minute barrier at Sepang as well with a 1:59.727. Even Rossi was close to breaking Stoner's old lap record. Looks like Rossi can re-assume his position as one of the "Aliens" in MotoGP. Especially after his three day performance where he was consistently in front of Lorenzo and at times, by a lot.

    Lorenzo - Not sure if he's bummed out or what. He looks as though he's struggling with the new steering characteristics of the bike. Doesn't like the fuel load, doesn't like the tires being used, doesn't like the power delivery of the bike. Doesn't like a lot of things with the new 2014 bike. He may be playing it off now in some of the interviews, but I think he's worried about Marquez and Rossi's pace.

    Pedrosa - yeah typical Pedrosa. Not much to say here. Fast, consistent and as usual will fade during the races.

    A. Espargaro - awesome to put a customer M1 in 4th place with a sub-two minute lap!!! If the kind of performance that A. Espargaro is showing is indicative of the new customer M1, then it should be a good year with plenty of battles.

    And then, the rest of the field who all posted good times but nothing out of the ordinary or exceptional. I am kind of laughing at Crutchlow, he's off already slamming the new bike. It's like damn bro, you knew what you were getting when you went there. Don't be pissed about it now.


    Lap Times:
    1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 59.533s (Lap 10/40)
    2. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 1m 59.727s | +0.194s (11/55)
    3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 1m 59.866s | +0.333s (2/65)
    4. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing (FTR-M1) 1m 59.998s | +0.465s (7/43)
    5. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 2m 0.112s | +0.579s (11/3
    6. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 2m 0.223s | +0.690s (29/55)
    7. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 2m 0.370s | +0.837s (10/40)
    8. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 0.655s | +1.122s (8/65)
    9. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 2m 0.725s | +1.192s (13/57)
    10. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 2m 0.788s | +1.255s (3/63)
    11. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 0.896s | +1.363s (10/65)
    12. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 2m 1.057s | +1.524s (58/5
    13. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 2m 1.514s | +1.981s (21/59)
    14. Colin Edwards USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing (FTR-M1) 2m 1.731s | +2.198s (41/47)
    15. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Rider (Desmosedici) 2m 1.782s | +2.249s (12/67)
    16. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 2m 2.383s | +2.850s (61/66)
    17. Randy De Puniet FRA Suzuki Test Rider (XRH-1) 2m 2.486s | +2.953s (17/67)
    18. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 2m 2.556s | +3.023s (31/65)
    19. Kosuke Akiyoshi JPN Honda Test Rider 2m 2.619s | +3.086s (3/5
    20. Katsuyuki Nakasuga JPN Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1) 2m 2.788s | +3.255s (13/3
    21. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R) 2m 2.833s | +3.300s (42/60)
    22. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 2m 3.187s | +3.654s (12/41)
    23. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki) 2m 3.204s | +3.671s (49/54)
    24. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 2m 3.402s | +3.869s (40/43)
    25. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki) 2m 4.516s | +4.983s (28/5
    26. Nobuatsu Aoki JPN Suzuki Test Rider (XRH-1) 2m 5.686s | +6.153s (10/12)
    27. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 2m 5.974s | +6.441s (6/12)


    Blue = Factory class - Control ECU hardware, but manufacturer software.
    20 litres of race fuel, five engine changes for the season. All engines must be identical throughout the year, within the same team (development freeze).
    Red = Open class - Full control ECU system, hardware and software.
    24 litres of race fuel, twelve engine changes for the season. No engine development freeze, plus a softer rear tyre allocation relative to the Factory class.

    Black = Test Rider.
    Last edited by The Black Knight; Thu Feb 6th, 2014 at 07:06 AM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Ted's Avatar
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    Re: MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

    Whats the matter with the XRH-1 ? Kosuke and Katsuyuki about the same, but Nobuatsu seems to be lapping in CRT territory... I say give elder Espagaro seamless already
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  3. #3
    Senior Member The Black Knight's Avatar
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    Re: MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

    Not sure, Randy was lapping close(well sort of) to everyone on Day 1. Then, once the top guys started dropping the hammer and their times, he just kept fading back. Which is a bummer as being a huge Suzuki fan, I would've liked to seen the new Suzuki GP bike doing better than it is. Then again, it's Randy De Puniet doing the testing. I'm sure if you had Casey Stoner testing the bike, it would develop faster and it would show it's true potential.

    As far as the Honda customer bikes are going, I think it's a real bust. Mainly again, I believe much of it is the rider. There's no denying that Casey Stoner is still one of the fastest guys out there. So when he swings his leg over the RCV1000R it's going to produce lap times very close to a factory RC213V.

    But honestly and this is no slam at the guys riding the new Honda production bike, none of them are in Stoner's class. Hayden is coming off of 5 years riding a Ducati shitbox and Aoyama, Redding and Abraham aren't that great(at least not among this bunch of talented riders). So the performance of the new customer bikes is going to suffer regardless. Even I think Hayden(who's) the best of the Honda production riders isn't going to get much of a sniff in the Top 10 this year. Unless they can extract a lot more performance from the new bike he's going to be just a grid filler.

    On Day 1 he'd(Hayden) been complaining that the new bike is way down on power. Said he'd be coming out of several corners wide open and the bike just wasn't going anywhere. Said he'd try to follow other riders and they'd just streak off in the distance or be completely gone by the time he would get to the next corner. It has to be frustrating to him, as he's always had good potential.

    Also it would be interesting to see A. Espagaro with a seam-less transmission. Although in his post testing interview article he said that he wasn't capable of those lap times consistently. He could bang out a couple fast laps but once the tires started to go off, he said he lost pace and quickly. Not sure what tires he was on, as the "Open" bikes get to choose from different compounds(mainly the new Soft) from Bridgestone.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member The Black Knight's Avatar
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    Re: MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

    On another note, many people on Crash.net are talking about "Race Sims" which give the teams good data on what will transpire during a full race duration and during race temperatures. Marquez did his race simulation in the early stages of the morning, which is why he'd been able to show consistent 2.00 and even a 1.59 lap times within his race sim. Rossi on the other hand did his race sim at 4PM Sepang time, in order to gauge the bike's fuel consumption during the hottest part of the day. Which is when the actual race in Sepang takes place(is in the hot afternoon hours). Although Rossi's lap times were a full second down on Marquez, Rossi still was lapping under last year's lap record. It would have been nice to have seen Marquez do a race sim in the hotter 4PM range. Would have given more accurate race temperature lap times.

    With that being said, seeing what Rossi has done. I can only say someone has lit a fire under him. He looks to be back with a vengeance. I watched the testing close on all three days and when Lorenzo would go up on Rossi, Rossi would then come back out and put Lorenzo down another 3 or 4 tenths. If anything I think Rossi is trying to prove a point to Yamaha. He's trying to show them he's still fast, and the quickest way to do that would be to beat your own teammate.

    I will say this, when everyone else Lorenzo included were complaining about the heat, tires, settings on the bikes and so forth. Rossi when asked what he was concerned about, all he said(to paraphrase him) was "Marquez"..
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  5. #5
    Gold Member madvlad's Avatar
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    Re: MotoGP Testing Sepang Feb. 4-6

    Rossi is looking good man, consistent finally and brake problem solved so that's huge. Also Suzuki is running on their OEM ECM and not the GP one, they're still working out the kinks with that. I think Suzuki will be a good contender then
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