After missing a day of testing on Tuesday due to a strained muscle, Casey Stoner gradually worked his way back into his leadership pace and topped the second day’s times at the Official MotoGP™ Test at Sepang. The Austrailian’s19th lap on Wednesday aboard his 1000cc RC213V stood firm as the fastest of the day at 2’00.895, with Spies following 0.157 seconds behind and Lorenzo a further 0.016s off the Repsol Honda rider.
With the geometry and chassis set up adjusted to their ridings styles the previous day, the Yamaha Factory pair spent Wednesday smoothing out the YZR-M1’s electronics and power delivery which had Spies topping the timesheet at the midday point.
A second to the last of 35 laps put Dani Pedrosa fourth for the day, his time of 2’01.508 set as the Spaniard focused on the chassis of the new Repsol Honda.
Cal Crutchlow again completed the top five, doing well to reacquaint himself with riding a motorcycle having spent the off-season largely away from two wheels. The British rider’s best time of 2’01.565 at the controls of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine was just over two tenths quicker than Pramac Racing’s Hector Barbara, who worked on solving a chatter issue and testing new parts for his GP12 Ducati.
Valentino Rossi was the final rider within one second of Stoner, as he and the Ducati Team spent the majority of the day testing new parts for the GP12. Still recovering team-mate Nicky Hayden reported the new Desmosedici is producing a better feeling in the front, although lack of strength from his recently injured shoulder gave him some trouble and the American passed the reins of his Ducati to test rider Franco Battaini for part of the day.
Another rider recovering from injury, Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), produced a time while getting to know his Yamaha that ranked him 9th for the day, two tenths behind Alvaro Bautista aboard his San Carlo Honda Gresini bike. MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) followed in 11th with Karel Abraham taking the 12th spot as the Czech rider tested a new chassis on his Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati today.
Colin Edwards improved his time on the Suter-BMW by over a second from his time set in the morning, as he and the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team worked on setting up a different electronics package from yesterday.
Avintia Racing was not able to complete the day of testing due to issues with the engines in their BQR-FTR machine. Rider Ivan Silva completed just 16 laps with test riders Robertino Pietri and Jordi Torres making a handful of round each.
source: motogp official
