Yamaha Factory Racing Press Release:
Yamaha Factory Racing today completed an exhaustive three days of testing at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, the second official IRTA test at the track. Wet weather at the start of the day followed by a drying track and extreme heat temperatures delivered challenging conditions for riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi. Despite the heat, Lorenzo used the final day to complete a long race simulation, gathering valuable data for the engineers. The reigning MotoGP World Champion recorded the fastest wet time in the morning, signing off the final test day in third position with 2’00.992 seconds, 0.43 from first. Lorenzo recorded the fastest lap time of the test overall with yesterday’s blistering 2’00.282 seconds.
Team-mate Rossi opted to spend the remaining day continuing work on bike set up, the Italian still looking for the optimum mix of traction and balance on the YZR-M1, especially as tire wear increases. The Italian wrapped up his second Sepang test in fourth position, just 0.07 seconds behind his teammate.
Jorge Lorenzo – Laps 56, Time – 2’00.992:
“The practice was wet at the beginning of the day so we exited and tried the bike on the wet. It wasn’t bad, I made the fastest wet time but when the track became dryer it was never the same as yesterday. It was much more slippery and so harder to equal yesterday’s time. We made a complete simulation, it was a little worse than I expected because we had some problems with the front tire in braking; it didn’t give me much confidence so I slowed my pace a little. The conditions were extreme this time so it was harder to equal the simulation we made in the first Sepang test.”
Valentino Rossi – Laps 61, Time – 2’01.062:
“This test at the end is positive because we are in fourth place and not so far from the front. We are struggling a little more than the first test though; we were unlucky and suffered a little electrical problem that lost us some time and some other little problems. We tried to improve our performance and we fixed some problems but not all. The balance is positive; we have had another three days with the bike, and ridden more kilometres to take the bike back to the top and closer to the limit. Now we are looking forward to Austin.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager:
“Sepang test two has come to an end and we are quite happy with the result, we tested everything we had to. We completed the long run today under very hot circumstances which was one of our aims because it is very difficult to keep the pace and know what can happen after ten or 11 laps here. We have a lot of data and I think we are getting to where we want to be. Of course the season hasn’t started yet so we still hope to find more improvements.”
Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director:
“It has been a successful test for us. In terms of speed, data and race pace for sure we are still missing some things but the direction is good and I think if we have to judge after first two tests the package is really good. Now we are looking to Austin, it is important to go there and get some valuable data so we can prepare for the race as best as possible. The riders and team have been extremely professional over the test, working hard through very hot and humid conditions.”
Crutchlow and Smith leave Sepang positive after successful test
Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith ended a successful three-day test at the Sepang International Circuit on a high note after the British pairing both finished inside the top 10 on the final timesheets. Heavy rain that fell this morning gave the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo the chance to complete a handful of laps on Bridgestone’s rain tires, with Crutchlow completing nine and Smith seven laps before the track started to dry out in extreme heat. The morning rain had a clear impact on grip levels for the remainder of the final day, with both Crutchlow and Smith unable to better their pace from the second day’s action in Malaysia. Crutchlow completed a total of 59 laps today to set a best time of 2.01.094, which put him in sixth position and less than 0.1s away from the top three as he worked on improving corner entry performance on his YZR-M1 machine. A best time of 2.00.907 set yesterday meant Crutchlow finished fourth fastest on the overall leaderboard.
Smith completed an exhaustive testing schedule today, the 22-year-old building up his knowledge by using a range of different settings on his YZR-M1 machine to set a personal best time of 2.02.070. That time placed him 10th on today’s time-sheets and he managed to reduce the gap to the leading group to just over 1.7s. Smith was 10th overall at the conclusion of the second Sepang test courtesy of a best lap of 2.02.023 set on the only full dry day of the test yesterday.
Cal Crutchlow – Laps – 59, Time – 2’01.094:
“I am leaving this test in a positive frame of mind because I am fourth overall and although I was only sixth quickest today I actually think I could have been fastest. When everybody was pushing hard for a fast lap time at the end of the day I got held up on every lap but I am not worried about that. We have worked very hard this week to improve our package and today we gained more valuable information. I still lose a bit in the braking area and rolling into the corner. We tried to improve that but made the braking worse. But when we make the braking better we have no grip. So it is finding a compromise. We tried two different settings on the different.
1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda (RC213V) 2m 0.562s (Lap 41/57)
2. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda (RC213V) 2m 0.643s (54/54)
3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory (YZR-M1) 2m 0.992s (23/56)
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory (YZR-M1) 2m 1.062s (60/61)
5. Alvaro Bautista ESP Honda Gresini (RC213V) 2m 1.078s (13/43)
6. Cal Crutchlow GBR Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 1.094s (57/59)
7. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda (RC213V) 2m 1.309s (7/46)
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (GP13) 2m 1.650s (35/44)
9. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team (GP13) 2m 2.070s (23/53)
10. Bradley Smith GBR Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 2m 2.314s (46/64)
11. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (GP13) 2m 2.566s (46/52)
12. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Rider (GP13) 2m 2.773s (36/38)
13. Randy De Puniet FRA Aspar (ART CRT) 2m 2.863s (44/45)
14. Ben Spies USA Pramac Racing (GP13) 2m 3.055s (31/33)
15. Katsuyuki Nakasuga JPN Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1) 2m 3.154s (24/32)
16. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 2m 3.155s (37/42)
17. Wataru Yoshikawa JPN Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1) 2m 3.257s (22/26)
18. Aleix Espargaro ESP Aspar (ART CRT) 2m 3.423s (18/45)
19. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB (ART CRT) 2m 4.066s (33/57)
20. Colin Edwards USA Forward Racing (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 2m 4.102s (21/42)
21. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Avintia (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 2m 4.512s (15/51)
22. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM CRT)* 2m 4.546s (21/24)
23. Lukas Pesek CZE IodaRacing (Suter-BMW CRT)* 2m 4.674s (32/33)
24. Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing (Suter-BMW CRT)* 2m 4.686s (18/36)
25. Claudio Corti ITA Forward Racing (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 2m 4.718s (48/51)
26. Yonny Hernandez COL Paul Bird Motorsport (ART CRT) 2m 4.722s (46/47)
27. Takumi Takahashi JPN Honda Test Rider (RC213V) 2m 4.749s (63/65)
28. Bryan Staring AUS Honda Gresini (FTR-Honda CRT) 2m 5.313s (15/40)
* Control ECU.
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