Tagged: CRT bikes

Jerez Grand Prix Qualifying Practice 1 results and times: Bradl and Smith edge Espargaro to make it into QP2.

Stefan Bradl and Bradley Smith were just 0.005 seconds apart as both made it through to the second part of qualifying. Alexi Espargaro put in a valiant effort, but ended up 0.1 behind Smith. He did manage however to out qualify Michele Pirro on the Ducati ‘lab bike’.

QP1 times:

Pos. Rider Team Time Lead. Gap Prev. gap
1 Stefan BRADL LCR Honda MotoGP 1’39.985
2 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’39.990 0.005 0.005
3 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 1’40.085 0.100 0.095
4 Michele PIRRO Ducati Test Team 1’40.182 0.197 0.097
5 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar 1’40.466 0.481 0.284
6 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens 1’40.654 0.669 0.188
7 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 1’40.852 0.867 0.198
8 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1’41.324 1.339 0.472
9 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’41.513 1.528 0.189
10 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’41.536 1.551 0.023
11 Yonny HERNANDEZ Paul Bird Motorsport 1’41.779 1.794 0.243
12 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 1’41.935 1.950 0.156
13 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 1’43.220 3.235 1.285
Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing

Austin Grand Prix Qualifying Practice 2 results and times: Marquez puts it on pole

Marc Marquez becomes the youngest ever premier class pole sitter and claims the front slot on the grid by a quarter of a second from Dani Pedrosa.

Thing is, that gap doesn’t really do Marquez justice. For much of the session he was nine tenths faster than his teammate, and his first hot lap was still faster than Pedrosa’s fastest. With four laps in the 2.03s, Marquez appears to have supreme race pace, and his partial lap times put his best potential lap four tenths faster than his fellow Repsol rider. This could be Marquez’s race to throw away.

Jorge Lorenzo managed to limit the damage and stick his Yamaha M1 into third place on the grid, but he’s losing almost a second to Marquez in the middle two sectors, and his best lap is 1.079 slower than Marquez. If he manages to stay with the Repsols in the early laps of the race, he’ll need to really hassle them to slow them down.

Further down the grid Cal Crutchlow stole 4th from Stefan Bradl, and Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati beat Alvaro Bautista to 6th. Poor Valentino Rossi compounded his poor practice performances to only qualify 8th, 2.3 seconds off the pace.

Worse for Rossi is the performance of Aleix Espargaro. Lapping only 0.009 slower than the Italian, 9th is a phenomenal performance. While the CRTs were given a softer tyre for the COTA race, Espargaro seems to be the only CRT rider to get the tyre to work and unlock the extra performance. It seems CRTs, with the right setup, rider and importantly tyres, can be more competitive than we thought.

QP2 times:

Pos. Rider Team Time Lead. Gap Prev. gap
1 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 2’03.021
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 2’03.275 0.254 0.254
3 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 2’04.100 1.079 0.825
4 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2’04.267 1.246 0.167
5 Stefan BRADL LCR Honda MotoGP 2’04.445 1.424 0.178
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 2’04.873 1.852 0.428
7 Alvaro BAUTISTA GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2’04.942 1.921 0.069
8 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha Factory Racing 2’05.380 2.359 0.438
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 2’05.389 2.368 0.009
10 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 2’05.568 2.547 0.179
11 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2’06.740 3.719 1.172
12 Ben SPIES Ignite Pramac Racing 2’07.044 4.023 0.304

Austin Grand Prix Qualifying Practice 1 results and times: Espargaro claims QP1 top spot

Qualifying Practice 1 ended with the favourites safely getting through to QP2; Aleix Espargaro, Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone. Need a Qualifying rules refresher? Head over to my new MotoGP Qualifying Rules page.

Anyway, Espargaro really seems confident with the ART Aprilia and despite giving away some 18km/h to the prototype Yamaha and Ducati, still lapped almost half a second faster than second placed man Smith. Even more impressive, Randy De Puniet, on the same machine, only managed a lap a second slower than the Spaniard. One of the reasons Esparagrao is so competitive compared to Smith and Iannone is the new, softer rear tyre that is allowed only for CRTs and Circuit of The Americas, but he appears to be the only CRT who’s able to get the most out of it.

QP1 times:

Pos. Rider Team Time Lead. Gap Prev. gap
1 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 2’06.112
2 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2’06.591 0.479 0.479
3 Andrea IANNONE Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 2’06.872 0.760 0.281
4 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar 2’07.129 1.017 0.257
5 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 2’07.717 1.605 0.588
6 Yonny HERNANDEZ Paul Bird Motorsport 2’07.738 1.626 0.021
7 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 2’08.259 2.147 0.521
8 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2’08.475 2.363 0.216
9 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2’08.792 2.680 0.317
10 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 2’08.825 2.713 0.033
11 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens 2’09.062 2.950 0.237
12 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini 2’10.098 3.986 1.036
13 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 2’10.507 4.395 0.409
14 Blake YOUNG Attack Performance Racing 2’10.606 4.494 0.099
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’23.317 17.205 12.711

Qatar Grand Prix Qualifying Practice 1, times and results: Espargaro leads, with Iannone second

The first in the new type of qualifying has ended with Aleix Espargaro pulling out a pretty special lap to make it through to QP2. Ben Spies made a valiant effort, but was clearly sore from his crash in FP4, and lacking confidence in the front end of his Ducati. On the other side of the Pramac garage though Andrea Iannone was beaming and lapped 0.052 behind Espargaro to get a chance to prove his mettle in QP2.

It’s not only Spies who’ll be disappointed either; Randy De Puniet only managed to get within 0.400 of his teammate Espargaro’s time. So fast was Espargaro that only two more riders got within a second of his. These were rookie Lukas Pesek, who looked impressive on the Ioda-Suter CRT, and Yonny Hernandez, a fan favourite who always gives 100%.

Next up is QP2 to decide the front four grid rows.

QP1 results:

Pos. Rider Team Time Lead. Gap Prev. gap
1 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 1’57.151
2 Andrea IANNONE Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1’57.203 0.052 0.052
3 Ben SPIES Ignite Pramac Racing 1’57.440 0.289 0.237
4 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar 1’57.551 0.400 0.111
5 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 1’57.926 0.775 0.375
6 Yonny HERNANDEZ Paul Bird Motorsport 1’58.058 0.907 0.132
7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens 1’58.263 1.112 0.205
8 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’58.271 1.120 0.008
9 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’58.361 1.210 0.090
10 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 1’58.486 1.335 0.125
11 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’58.755 1.604 0.269
12 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 1’58.806 1.655 0.051
13 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1’58.912 1.761 0.106
14 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 1’59.572 2.421 0.660

MotoGP Jerez test times, 23-25 March: Day 3

Pretty much as soon as the track opened Spanish rain fell from the sky, but eventually the track dried and the riders got on track. When all was said and done, it was Cal Crutchlow who stood on top of the pile, lapping the Jerez circuit faster than anyone else during the entire three day test. Considering he has the exact same bike he had last year, it’s an impressive feat, and he managed to improve his time from 12 months ago too.

The factory Yamaha of Valentino Rossi followed, two tenths down, although his job for the day was testing new chassis. Stefan Bradl was the fastest Honda, sitting in 3rd, with Jorge Lorenzo 4th. The Yamaha man ran a 22 lap race simulation, nailing mid 1:40s and setting his fastest time during this stint. At only 0.6 behind Crutchlow’s effort, Lorenzo’s race pace is solid as ever.

What of the other Hondas? Dani Pedrosa sat out day 3 for two reasons. He reckoned he had no more work to do, and felt a muscle spasm in his neck. He felt the same thing during testing in Austin, so it looks likely the main reason was this. Whether it’s a temporary niggle or something more serious we’ll hopefully find out soon, but we should hope for the former; a fast Dani is a healthy Dani. Marc Marquez snuck into the top five, just six tenths away from Crutchlow’s fastest time, and he managed to slash his best lap by 0.6 seconds too.

A Ducati train followed Marquez with Andrea Iannone being the fastest. He lapped 0.8 seconds behind Crutchlow, and it has to be said looks good aboard the Ducati. 0.039 seconds behind was Nicky Hayden, with Andrea Dovizioso another tenth back. With all the Ducatis including Michele Pirro within 1.4 seconds of the fastest times, the Ducati seems to be easier for more people to get to grips with, although still a bit off the pace. Ben Spies decided to skip day 3 testing as his shoulder, recently operated on, was causing him problems, and the morning’s wet weather didn’t look like it would ease off.

In CRT news Randy De Puniet nudged his ART Aprilia into the top ten, just 1.4 seconds behind the leader. For a little bit of comparison, at last year’s test Casey Stoner’s fastest time was just under two seconds faster than the best CRT. De Puniet’s best lap of 1:40.9 would have qualified him 6th fastest at the Jerez 2012 race too.

Day 3:

Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Lead. Gap Prev. Gap Laps
1 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:39.511 22 / 30
2 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing Team 1:39.735 0.224 0.224 24 / 32
3 BRADL, Stefan LCR Honda MotoGP 1:39.975 0.464 0.240 20 / 26
4 LORENZO, Jorge Yamaha Factory Racing Team 1:40.105 0.594 0.130 22 / 42
5 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 1:40.130 0.619 0.025 23 / 34
6 IANNONE, Andrea Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team 1:40.331 0.820 0.201 24 / 25
7 HAYDEN, Nicky Ducati Team 1:40.370 0.859 0.039 41 / 42
8 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 1:40.516 1.005 0.146 29 / 30
9 PIRRO, Michele Ducati Test Team 1:40.881 1.370 0.365 40 / 44
10 DE PUNIET, Randy Power Electronics Aspar 1:40.971 1.460 0.090 21 / 24
11 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:41.134 1.623 0.163 56 / 56
12 ESPARGARO, Aleix Power Electronics Aspar 1:41.218 1.707 0.084 38 / 39
13 CORTI, Claudio NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:41.443 1.932 0.225 42 / 44
14 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Avintia Blusens 1:41.772 2.261 0.329 40 / 41
15 PESEK, Lukas Came IodaRacing Project 1:41.791 2.280 0.019 49 / 49
16 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing 1:41.864 2.353 0.073 29 / 36
17 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Paul Bird Motorsport 1:42.363 2.852 0.499 20 / 25
18 PETRUCCI, Danilo Came IodaRacing Project 1:42.428 2.917 0.065 17 / 18
19 LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 1:42.470 2.959 0.042 28 / 36
20 STARING, Bryan GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1:43.525 4.014 1.055 31 / 41
21 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:56.281 16.770 12.756 14 / 14
22 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Blusens 1:56.897 17.386 0.616 2 / 5

MotoGP Jerez test times, 23-25 March: Day 2

Millions of fans clad in highlighter-yellow rejoice as Valentino Rossi tops the timesheets once again. Of the 46 laps he did – maybe he did 46 on purpose – the 29th was a 1:39.525, so he actually dipped below Jorge Lorenzo’s pole set last year. The gap back to Lorenzo in the test is 0.015 seconds, but Rossi is undoubtedly filled with confidence.

The Hondas didn’t make it into the top three, Cal Crutchlow nabbing third spot and sits only 0.049 seconds behind Rossi. It seems the layout of Jerez favours the handling prowess of the M1. Dani Pedrosa was just over a tenth behind the leader, and then a small gap opened up to the rest of the riders. Still, gap or no gap, the rider sitting in 5th fastest was a real surprise; Andrea Dovizioso. Only eight tenths of a second behind Rossi, the Italian might have just nailed the setup of the Ducati to be at least within touching distance of competitiveness. It looks unlikely to be a Ducati-wide fix though as Andrea Iannone sits 9th and Nicky Hayden 10th, both well over a second behind Rossi’s leading time.

It appears that Marc Marquez may have hit a wall in his rider development. He knows Jerez, but not on a MotoGP machine and was lapping almost 1.2 seconds behind Rossi, and a second slower than Pedrosa. Jerez is a tight track, and getting to grips with the extra size and power of a MotoGP machine might finally be causing Marquez some issues. He mentioned that the lines he needs to take are different to the ones he used on a Moto2 machine, and unlearning the track is taking some time. It’s only day 2 though, and we’ll know more tomorrow about whether he’s really struggling or just in a bit of a rut.

It looks like some of the CRT machines are really motoring. The lead CRT was Hector Barbera on board the FTR Kawasaki. With a time only 0.051 slower than Hayden, and 1.8 behind Rossi, everyone should be impressed with the effort put in. In fact, Aleix Espargaro was also under two seconds slower than Rossi, and all the riders going way back to 22nd placed man Colin Edwards were within 2.7 seconds of the fastest time. However, further improvement to catch the prototypes is going to be almost impossible. This two and a bit second gap is likely to be as close as you’ll see a CRT machine to the leaders all year, a result of the Jerez track being a short one, and the layout apparently hindering the prototypes.

Day 2:

Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Lead. Gap Prev. Gap Laps
1 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing Team 1:39.525 29 / 46
2 LORENZO, Jorge Yamaha Factory Racing Team 1:39.540 0.015 0.015 22 / 34
3 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:39.574 0.049 0.034 29 / 44
4 PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 1:39.630 0.105 0.056 31 / 31
5 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 1:40.322 0.797 0.692 21 / 30
6 BAUTISTA, Alvaro GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1:40.686 1.161 0.364 25 / 35
7 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 1:40.714 1.189 0.028 21 / 36
8 BRADL, Stefan LCR Honda MotoGP 1:40.783 1.258 0.069 30 / 32
9 IANNONE, Andrea Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team 1:41.088 1.563 0.305 15 / 15
10 HAYDEN, Nicky Ducati Team 1:41.325 1.800 0.237 29 / 35
11 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Blusens 1:41.376 1.851 0.051 22 / 25
12 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:41.398 1.873 0.022 28 / 41
13 ESPARGARO, Aleix Power Electronics Aspar 1:41.444 1.919 0.046 44 / 48
14 PETRUCCI, Danilo Came IodaRacing Project 1:41.529 2.004 0.085 31 / 32
15 PIRRO, Michele Ducati Test Team 1:41.603 2.078 0.074 25 / 32
16 DE PUNIET, Randy Power Electronics Aspar 1:41.686 2.161 0.083 24 / 34
17 CORTI, Claudio NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:41.701 2.176 0.015 24 / 26
18 SPIES, Ben Ignite Pramac Racing Team 1:41.702 2.177 0.001 28 / 29
19 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing 1:41.916 2.391 0.214 23 / 35
20 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Paul Bird Motorsport 1:42.050 2.525 0.134 21 / 32
21 STARING, Bryan GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1:42.107 2.582 0.057 39 / 39
22 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:42.154 2.629 0.047 31 / 33
23 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Avintia Blusens 1:43.959 4.434 1.805 25 / 25
24 LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 1:44.185 4.660 0.226 16 / 21
25 PESEK, Lukas Came IodaRacing Project 1:44.874 5.349 0.689 25 / 33

MotoGP Sepang test 1, 5-7 February: The roundup…Pedrosa hits three in a row

As has been the case with MotoGP of late, the riders seem to compete in a few distinct groups. At the top is Dan Pedrosa, followed closely by Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. These were the fastest and most consistent riders, with Pedrosa completing all three days at the top.

A quick note about Marquez. He seems to be every bit the rider we wanted him to be, and the rider the series might need to attract more fans and grow. An aggressive style, super fast and even strong media skills, he has been instantly fast, faster than he has any right to be, and was consistently at the sharp end of things. It’s a long shot for him to go for the title, but on this form podiums are definitely in sight come race time.

Interestingly, it looks like Cal Crutchlow is the man that’s come out of winter training best. He ended just a tenth off of Marquez’s time and had clear daylight behind him to Stefan Bradl. If there’s a space for a fifth rider to mix it with the above riders, he’s your man.

Ducati. The marque still struggles, and the two second gap to Pedrosa is large. Very large. We all want Ducati to be up their challenging, but at this rate, Nicky Hayden and co will not be having a fun year.

The CRTs are looking good. Aleix Espargaro especially seemed to drag lap time out of his ART Aprilia and ending just 2.5 seconds off of the leaders, on a track with such long straights, is encouraging stuff. Michael Laverty too impressed, and although he’ll be using a different Aprilia powered machine during the season, his times and skill will shut up many who said he shouldn’t be here.

The rest of the CRTs were performing much as we’d expect, 4 second plus off the pace. Randy De Puniet was 1.4 seconds behind his teammate Espargaro, which must be worrying him, and he has Hector Barbera breathing down his neck. The CRT competition looks pretty tight, all in all, and should give us some decent racing.

MotoGP Sepang test 1 times, 5-7 February: Day 3

Not only did Dani Pedrosa top all three days of testing, he also lapped under the existing pole record and finally opened up a gap on Jorge Lorenzo, finishing 0.3 seconds ahead of the Yamaha man. Worryingly, Pedrosa said he wasn’t really going for a fast lap, but was merely testing the bike…

In third place on the timesheets was Valentino Rossi, putting just under a tenth between him and Marc Marquez and ending 0.4 behind not-really-trying Pedrosa. Cal Crutchlow kept his hold on 5th place and ended a very respectable 0.6 seconds behind the leader. The top eight places were filled with the Yamaha and Honda factory and satellite machines with the Ducatis of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso just behind. They sit two seconds off the pace.

There’s also some very interesting CRT news. Bridgestone brought a new tyre compound specifically for the CRT machines. It seems to be a decent bit of rubber too, with Aleix Espargaro ending up a third of a second off of Dovizioso, and ahead of Andrea Iannone on the Pramac Ducati. We also need to talk about Michael Laverty who jumped in at 15th place in the timings. It’s his first time at Sepang, his first time on Bridgestones tyres, and his first time with carbon brakes, but he’s only 3.774 seconds behind Pedrosa. He’s also the second fastest CRT machine ahead of the highly rated Randy De Puniet.

Day 3:

Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Lead. Gap Prev. Gap Laps
1 PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 2:00.100 4 / 44
2 LORENZO, Jorge Yamaha Factory Racing 2:00.429 0.329 0.329 4 / 60
3 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing 2:00.542 0.442 0.113 43 / 60
4 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 2:00.636 0.536 0.094 32 / 54
5 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:00.734 0.634 0.098 5 / 53
6 BRADL, Stefan LCR Honda MotoGP 2:01.003 0.903 0.269 14 / 43
7 BAUTISTA, Alvaro Go & Fun Honda Gresini 2:01.502 1.402 0.499 29 / 48
8 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:02.093 1.993 0.591 43 / 48
9 HAYDEN, Nicky Ducati Team 2:02.184 2.084 0.091 19 / 60
10 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 2:02.277 2.177 0.093 37 / 43
11 NAKASUGA, Katsayuki Yamaha Factory 2:02.616 2.516 0.339 12 / 21
12 ESPARGARO, Aleix Power Electronics Aspar 2:02.628 2.528 0.012 37 / 47
13 IANNONE, Andrea Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team 2:02.864 2.764 0.236 17 / 35
14 AKIYOSHI, Kosuke HRC Test Team 2:03.082 2.982 0.218 14 / 28
15 LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 2:03.874 3.774 0.792 40 / 47
16 DE PUNIET, Randy Power Electronics Aspar 2:04.066 3.966 0.192 38 / 39
17 YOSHIKAWA, Wataru Yamaha Factory 2:04.137 4.037 0.071 5 / 18
18 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Blusens 2:04.211 4.111 0.074 31 / 41
19 TAKAHASHI, Takumi HRC Test Team 2:04.288 4.188 0.077 37 / 46
20 PETRUCCI, Danilo Came IodaRacing Project 2:04.531 4.431 0.243 32 / 34
21 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing 2:04.766 4.666 0.235 57 / 65
22 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Avintia Blusens 2:04.915 4.815 0.149 49 / 51
23 CORTI, Claudio NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:05.107 5.007 0.192 13 / 41
24 PESEK, Lukas Came IodaRacing Project 2:05.321 5.221 0.214 39 / 40
25 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Paul Bird Motorsport 2:05.407 5.307 0.086 46 / 48
26 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:05.913 5.813 0.506 44 / 46
27 STARING, Bryan Go & Fun Honda Gresini 2:05.970 5.870 0.057 38 / 41

MotoGP CRT Sepang test 3-4 February: The roundup…the luckless CRTs

I’d love to be able to go into loads of detail and analyse everything…but unfortunately the main thing that’s clear is that the CRT bikes on test so far are not ready. Yes the weather didn’t help on day 2, but electrical issues and engine problems are tricky to fix, and before you go fast, this is the kind of thing that needs to be under control. Without a decent ECU it’s also clear the CRTs will struggle to compete with the satellite prototype machines, regardless of whether they can make use of the extra fuel they’ll have access to. As for the riders? Well Hector Barbera gets his head down and will ride anything hard, Danilo Petrucci the similar, while Colin Edwards just doesn’t look or sound happy with his choice of riding a CRT machine.

MotoGP CRT Sepang test times, 3-4 February: Day 2

How do you make a test schedule that’s already been affected by machine problems worse? Add some rain. And that’s exactly what happened to the CRT teams in the second day of testing at Sepang.

The good news for Danilo Petrucci is that he ended up on top of the timing sheets. The bad news was that he only managed 4 laps and his time of 2:23.456 was almost 17 seconds slower than his time from day 1, due to wet weather. When the teams go testing they need to test the bikes to the max, not run around 17 seconds off their best pace. He had plenty of electrical problems too, meaning team mate Lukas Pesek got the valuable Magneti Marelli ECU on his bike, and managed 19 laps. He’s been out of GP racing for a couple of seasons and needed time on track to get used to the bike. Wet time is better than no time, but he still needs to adjust to the unusual slick Bridgestones,

Hector Barbera finally got to ride his bike a bit, the team remedying his wiring loom issues in the afternoon, and in 20 laps he was half a second off of Petrucci. His teammate, Hiroshi Aoyama, decided against risking further injury to his recovering wrist on the slippery track and sat out the session.

Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti both managed to get some laps under their belts (hooray!), managing eight and seven respectively. Edwards had a torrid time, ending up last, some 6.5 seconds off the pace. Both machines had problems with the setup of the spec ECU.

Next up on the testing schedule, the CRT teams are joined by the other MotoGP teams at Sepang. If the weather’s good, everyone might just get some work done for a change!

Day 2:

Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Prev. Gap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 2:23.456 4
2 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 2:23.973 0.517 0.517 20
3 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 2:24.023 0.050 0.567 19
4 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team 2:24.027 0.004 0.571 7
5 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team 2:29.973 5.946 6.517 8