Yamaha led a clean sweep of the timesheet on day two of the official MotoGP test at Sepang principally because Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa were kept off track while technicians explored an engine failure and then, like yesterday, the heavens opened and teams switched to wet settings.
Pedrosa got a dash warning light on his final run yesterday and technicians sent the engine back to Japan for analysis. It was thought both riders would return to the track this afternoon but the weather had other ideas, so it was left to the Yamaha men to set the fastest times.
Spies' time of 2'01.285 was one and a half seconds faster than he managed yesterday and quicker than Stoner's time from yesterday by five-tenths while Lorenzo was only eight on-thousandths behind him.
“Today went well, the rain caught us out again but we got everything we needed to do done before lunch including some different chassis set ups and some electronics which we were pretty happy with. The rain started to come down so we waited until it subsided a little bit but with still a full wet track with standing water which we needed," said Spies.
"We haven’t ridden the thousand in the rain and I’ve never ridden this track in the rain so it was good to get some laps in. I had quite a good feeling with the bike in the rain; straight away it felt pretty good so we rode in full wet conditions and stayed on wets when it dried out a little and was greasy. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow so we’re hoping for a dry day!”
It was a good day for Yamaha all round as Tech3 new boy Andrea Dovizioso was only a quarter of a second behind the 2010 World Champion and his team-mate Cal Crutchlow was only a further two-tenths in arrears. Nicky Hayden was again fastest Ducati in fifth on a 2'01.748 with Hector Barbera next along.
Valentino Rossi put in a 2'02.130, a second faster than yesterday, with Ducati tester Franco Battaini again standing in for the injured Karel Abraham who has gone home after being unable to ride following a Jerez testing crash.
Unsurprisingly, Colin Edwards was fastest of the CRT bikes.
Sepang MotoGP test day two - conditions dry then biblical
1 Ben Spies Yamaha Factory Racing 2:01.285 - - 35
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing 2:01.293 +0.008 +0.008 26
3 Andrea Dovizioso Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.522 +0.229 +0.237 18
4 Cal Crutchlow Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.695 +0.173 +0.410 22
5 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 2:01.748 +0.053 +0.463 32
6 Hector Barbera Pramac Racing Team 2:01.989 +0.241 +0.704 26
7 Valentino Rossi Ducati Team 2:02.130 +0.141 +0.845 18
8 Franco Battaini Cardion AB Motoracing 2:03.566 +1.436 +2.281 20
9 Colin Edwards NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:05.816 +2.250 +4.531 7
10 Ivan Silva Avintia Racing 2:07.813 +1.997 +6.528 31
11 Yonny Hern?ndez Avintia Racing 2:08.213 +0.400 +6.928 16
