Honda riders have once again topped the time sheets in 2011 pre-season testing — this time at the Losail circuit in Qatar — continuing the dominant form they’d shown during the previous six days of testing at Sepang. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner finished 1-2 in Sunday night’s session, with Hiroshi Aoyama of the satellite San Carlo Honda Gresini team, just 0.173 seconds off the pace, in third. Factory Yamaha riders Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo rounded out the top five. Valentino Rossi was the fastest Ducati rider on Sunday, putting in his best performance of the pre-season thus far (even after crashing) to get within 0.767 seconds of Pedrosa and finish eighth. But the seven-time MotoGP champion lost ground again on Monday night and fell to 13th, only faster than just four other riders. Crashing for the second time in as many days and claiming to still be hindered by his healing shoulder injury, Rossi was 1.307 seconds adrift of Casey Stoner who narrowly bested Dani Pedrosa for the top spot in the final pre-season test. The next closest rider, Ben Spies, was over half a second back of the Repsol Honda team-mates, and the only non-Honda machine in the top five. San Carlo Honda Gresni’s Marco Simoncelli was fourth fastest and Repsol Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso, fifth. Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo finished the day in 7th spot behind Pramac Racing’s Randy De Puniet.
The opening race of the 2011— the fifth and final 800 cc MotoGP season — takes place at the same Losail circuit in Qatar next Sunday, March 20.
Qatar MotoGP test times March 13
1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 56.271s
2. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda Team 1m 56.414s
3. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 56.444s
4. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 56.563s
5. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 56.682s
6. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 56.742s
7. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 1m 56.780s
8. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 57.038s
9. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 57.137s
10. Randy de Puniet FRA Pramac Racing Team 1m 57.143s
11. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 57.226s
12. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 57.302s
13. Hector Barbera ESP Mapfre Aspar Team 1m 57.325s
14. Loris Capirossi ITA Pramac Racing Team 1m 57.437s
15. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 1m 57.499s
16. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 57.737s
17. Toni Elias ESP LCR Honda MotoGP 1m 58.250s
Qatar MotoGP test times March 14
1. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda Team 1m 55.681s
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 55.745s
3. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 56.294s
4. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 56.433s
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 1m 56.439s
6. Randy de Puniet FRA Pramac Racing Team 1m 56.445s
7. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 56.707s
8. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 56.716s
9. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 56.726s
10. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 56.740s
11. Hector Barbera ESP Mapfre Aspar Team 1m 56.798s
12. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 56.931s
13. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 56.988s
14. Loris Capirossi ITA Pramac Racing Team 1m 57.345s
15. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 57.730s
16. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 1m 57.846s
17. Toni Elias ESP LCR Honda MotoGP 1m 58.536s
