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Lorenzo Quickest At Second Official MotoGP Test At Sepang
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Hard, Extra-hard. Rear: Soft, Medium, Hard (Asymmetric)
Weather: Tue: Dry/Wet, Wed: Dry, Thu: Wet/Dry. Ambient 26-34°C; Track 30-54°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo posted a fastest lap of 2’00.282 on the second day of testing to finish on top of the timesheets at the second Sepang pre-season MotoGP™ group test.
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Lorenzo set his benchmark time on the combination of the hard front and medium rear slicks to finish 0.280 seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, while third quickest over the three days was fellow Repsol Honda rider and 2013 rookie Marc Márquez whose personal best time was 2’00.643.
Power Electronics Aspar was the quickest CRT outfit again, but this time it was Randy de Puniet who proved to be the best of the CRT riders, with a best lap time of 2’02.863 placing him in 13th position overall. The total spread of lap times at the second Sepang test was 5.031 seconds compared to 5.870 seconds at the first Sepang test, while the gap between the top ten riders was also reduced from 2.177 to 1.741 seconds.
Weather conditions were variable over the three days of testing, with riders experiencing wet and dry conditions and track temperatures ranging from 30-54°C. The two experimental hard rubber compounds developed by Bridgestone that were assessed at the first Sepang test were not evaluated this time around, with riders instead focusing on getting the best out of the current hard compound. The CRT-specific soft rear slick was again extensively used at Sepang and received further positive feedback from riders.
The next and final MotoGP™ pre-season group test is scheduled for Spain’s Jerez Circuit from March 23-25, with the first race of the 2013 season at Qatar’s Losail Circuit taking place two weeks later on April 7.
Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department
“This was another productive test at Sepang with riders having a wide variety of track conditions on which to evaluate the tyres, so lots of useful data was acquired. No experimental tyres were evaluated at the second Sepang test, instead the teams focused on testing our existing tyre specifications and how these interact with the bike developments they have made for this season.
“Testing at Sepang is quite tough physically and mentally, so I’d like to extend my thanks to all the teams and riders for their cooperation over the last few days. The Bridgestone Motorsport team will now convene at Jerez at the end of March for the final official MotoGP test before the season starts, and we will also be supporting teams in their private testing programmes over the coming weeks.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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