Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner has stormed to the top of the MotoGP test timesheets at Sepang today, setting a 2'00.895 lap to wrestle the number one slot from yesterday's leader Jorge Lorenzo.
Stoner, who did not ride yesterday due to a back strain, did 29 laps of the Malysian circuit and just headed off Factory Yamaha's Ben Spies who was a little over a tenth slower than the Aussie. Spies did shock the paddock when his final laptime came in at a 1'58s but it was found to be an error with the circuit timing.
"It was great to be able to ride today and everything went pretty well, although I would have liked to have done a few more laps. We spent most of the day on the new chassis comparing it back to back with the one we had in Valencia and we found a good direction and where we want to go. As usual it would be great to take some elements from one chassis and some from the other, but at least we found the direction we are happy to follow," said the Aussie.
"We used the hard front tyre this afternoon but found we had more chattering with it so we have to work on this, there is still room for improvement. We didn't get a chance to use the new spec tyres that Bridgestone have brought here, we'll try them out tomorrow and go from there."
Lorenzo, on the other works Yamaha, only managed a 2'01.068, which was half a second faster than yesterday while Stoner's team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, just managed to keep Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow at bay for fourth place. The Briton is only seven-tenths off Stoner's maximum pace.
Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi ended the day in seventh place and nearly a second off the pace but the GP12 is a brand new motorcycle. He lapped in 2'01.886 compared to 2'02.392 yesterday so is continuing to make progress on a bike he says he now enjoys riding.
Sepang MotoGP test day two - conditions dry
1 Casey Stoner 2:00.895 - - 29
2 Ben Spies 2:01.052 +0.157 +0.157 37
3 Jorge Lorenzo 2:01.068 +0.016 +0.173 40
4 Dani Pedrosa 2:01.508 +0.440 +0.613 35
5 Cal Crutchlow 2:01.565 +0.057 +0.670 42
6 Hector Barbera 2:01.788 +0.223 +0.893 50
7 Valentino Rossi 2:01.886 +0.098 +0.991 44
8 Alvaro Bautista 2:01.933 +0.047 +1.038 46
9 Andrea Dovizioso 2:02.160 +0.227 +1.265 42
10 Nicky Hayden 2:02.354 +0.194 +1.459 41
11 Stefan Bradl 2:02.414 +0.060 +1.519 41
12 Karel Abraham 2:02.598 +0.184 +1.703 66
13 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 2:02.941 +0.343 +2.046 40
14 Franco Battaini 2:04.311 +1.370 +3.416 38
15 Colin Edwards 2:05.603 +1.292 +4.708 37
16 Ivan Silva 2:10.297 +4.694 +9.402 16
17 Jordi Torres 2:11.893 +1.596 +10.998 2
18 Robertino Pietri 2:12.546 +0.653 +11.651 5
