The premier class teams and riders returned to Malaysia for the second MotoGP winter test at the 5.548km Sepang circuit, after a three-week break. The 16 official riders were greeted by warm humid weather conditions and a good, clean track surface, conditions that allowed for optimum rider performances and fast lap times. Two days of testing at the Malaysian circuit concluded today with Rossi on the top of the timesheets with the best time of 2’00.271.
HRC engineers and the LCR Team technicians had used the intervening time to further develop the RCV based upon the data gathered at the first Sepang test. LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Randy De Puniet, who turned 29 some days ago, made the most of the hot, sunny weather at the Malaysian circuit to complete two days of development work with the new RC212V. The Frenchman improved his first test lap time of 1.063s clocking his fastest lap time of 2’01.980 today on lap 4 of 58. De Puniet put in a massive 134 laps of the 5.548km circuit throughout the two days of testing and will be back on track the 18th and 19th of March in Qatar for the ultimate test session before the season’s “kick off”.
De Puniet: 11th– 2’01.980
De Puniet: “If we consider the two days in total we made some progress with the suspension set up which was our main issue in the first outing here some weeks ago. Basically we have worked to develop the machine base set up using the data we gathered before and I am pretty satisfied about this second test session and about the lap time I have clocked up today. It could be even better (maybe half second) as, at the end of the day, we have found a better suspension set up to test but we had just used tyres left. We did a race simulation and I feel more comfortable on the bike thanks to the step forward we made on the machine balance and on the weight distribution. Of course there is still work to do but I am more confident now ahead the last test session in Qatar”.
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