Casey Stoner was the fastest rider at the Sepang II test for the third day in a row, as Honda continued its domination of pre-season testing, taking the top four spots on the time sheets during the final day at Sepang. Dani Pedrosa joined Stoner in achieving a sub two minute lap (they being the only riders to do so), but was 0.138 sec. adrift of his Repsol Honda team-mate. Third fastest was San Carlo Honda Gresni rider Marco Simoncelli who ran 0.378 seconds quicker than Andrea Dovizioso. Yamaha’s Ben Spies rounded out the top five, just over a second slower than Stoner.
For the second day in a row Aspar’s Hector Barbera put in the best performance on a Ducati; he placed tenth. Behind him were factory Ducati riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, both 1.804 seconds slower than Stoner. Rossi, who missed yesterday due to a fever, was not able to hide his disappointment about today’s result. He admitted that though his team had done much work on the bike, “we didn’t fix our problem.”
“We are not fast enough in the corners. We have a problem for turning the bike, so I always have to slow down too much to make the good line. I cannot ride the Desmosedici in the right way,” said Rossi.
“The position is bad, because we are just eleventh, but especially the distance from first. We are quite worried. We have to try to work to improve our performance.”
“Missing one day was a disadvantage, but it is not just that. I mean we can make the bike a little better, but anyway the distance from the Hondas is big.”
The third and final 2011 pre-season MotoGP test will be held at Qatar from March 13-14.
2011 MotoGP Sepang 2 Test Results – Day 3
1. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda Team 1m 59.665s
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 59.803s
3. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m 0.163s
4. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 2m 0.541s
5. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing 2m 0.678s
6. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 0.966s
7. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing 2m 1.003s
8. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2m 1.194s
9. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m 1.328s
10. Hector Barbera ESP Aspar Team 2m 1.346s
11. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Team 2m 1.469s
12. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team 2m 1.469s
13. Loris Capirossi ITA Pramac Racing Team 2m 1.493s
14. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 2.034s
15. Randy de Puniet FRA Pramac Racing Team 2m 2.155s
16. Toni Elias ESP LCR Honda MotoGP 2m 2.410s
17. Bike #T1 JPN Yamaha Test Rider 2m 2.457s
18. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 2m 2.506s
19. Bike #T2 JPN Yamaha test Rider 2m 3.016s
