MotoGP riders seem to attract lousy weather wherever they go, even during off-season testing.
Honda MotoGP riders Marc Marquez (who was in Japan these past few days for a wind tunnel test and taking part in Honda Racing’s 2012 Thanks Day with Dani Pedrosa) and Alvaro Bautista and joined by test riders Kousuke Akiyoshi and Takumi Takahashi were at the Sepang International for the first day of private testing and once again the day was a washout as they could only get in three hours of dry time.
Marquez managed to complete 28 laps in his second outing with the RC213V after Valencia, before the rain started falling around 2pm halting all track activity.
The new rookie reportedly did a best lap of 2′03″650 compared to Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista who did 2’02″190 with his satellite Honda now sponsored by Go&Fun.
“I did my first laps in MotoGP in Valencia, so today we started to try some things with the bike, but overall I’m quite happy,” said Marquez.
“We only did 28 laps because the track was wet in the morning and in the afternoon it was raining.
Sure I would like to have done more laps, but we have two days to go, so we need to be quite happy, because the most important thing is that we came here.
Maybe the difference from here to Valencia is bigger than in Moto2, because this circuit has more speed and more braking points.
The most important thing is that every run, every time I go out, I improve everything.
My feeling with the bike at the moment…the biggest point is the acceleration compared to Moto2, but here you also feel the brake points a lot, because they are longer and we have a little bit more speed on the straight than Valencia.
And this, lap-by-lap, I need to understand more.
At the moment I need to ride the bike more, but maybe if I improve everything, my confidence, my feeling and the lap time, maybe I will try the 2013 bike.
” While Bautista said, “This morning we had to wait in the box more than two hours because the track still had some wet patches and we preferred to wait until the track was completely dry.
This morning the track was not perfect for grip, but to compare the new front fork that Showa brought us it was enough.
I tested the new suspension, new front suspension, and we also tested different settings.
We didn’t really find what we expected, but we found something good, just not what expected.
In the afternoon we could test in the wet, and I remembered the last race here in the wet.
I remembered that I had a problem in the braking area, and today we tried to improve.
It was not enough, as we still have that problem, so for sure it has not been the perfect test for us.
But we have two days more to improve the Showa suspension, and they have more material to give me and to try and improve our problem.
For us this test is important, because it’s the last chance Showa have to give us good material and something that works.
We will try to do our best and find a good solution.
After this test we will decide which suspension we will have next year.
We have a good reference with Showa and we will see what happens.
”Kousuke Akiyoshi, Honda’s test rider and also the 2010 and 2011 All Japan Superbike champion and the winner of the last two editions of the Suzuka 8 HOurs completed 32 giri with a best lap in 2’04″21.
Takumi Takahashi (no relation to Moto2 rider Yuki) who turned 23 today, had his MotoGP debut at the Malaysian circuit.
The 2010 Suzuka 8 Hour winner did 18 laps posting a 2’09″91 as his best time.
Testing at Sepang is due to conclude on Wednesday.
