Sepang MotoGP test: Marc Marquez fastest again on day two
Marc Marquez continued his strong start to his MotoGP championship defence by topping the second day of 2014 pre-season testing at Sepang
The Honda rider, who was comfortably fastest on day one, flew to a new benchmark of 1m59.926s, leaving him the only rider to crack the 2m00s barrier.
Last year's pole time at the Malaysian track was a 2m00.011s, set by Marquez's works team-mate Dani Pedrosa.
The Spaniard was Marquez's closest challenger, but was still more than four tenths of a second off.
Stefan Bradl meanwhile ensured a top three lockout for Honda, going third fastest - just three thousandths of a second down on Pedrosa - for the LCR satellite squad.
Yamaha's works duo Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo wound up fourth and sixth respectively, both men finishing within 0.7s of Marquez.
They were split by Aleix Espargaro, who continued Forward Racing's excellent start to its new programme with Yamaha-based Open class machinery.
Bradley Smith backed up his works counterparts by putting his satellite Tech 3 Yamaha seventh, three hundredths of a second down on two-time champion Lorenzo.
As was the case on the first day, none of the factory Ducati riders made it into the top 10, although the Italian marque was represented as Andrea Iannone put his satellite Pramac machine eighth overall.
Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista and the second Tech 3 Yamaha of 2013 Moto2 champion Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 10, ahead of Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow.
Nicky Hayden finished best of the rest for his new Aspar team, one of three outfits using Honda's production racer this season.
Pos Rider Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Marc Marquez Honda 1m59.926s 65 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m00.336s +0.410s 62 3. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m00.339s +0.413s 52 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m00.464s +0.538s 61 5. Aleix Espargaro Forward FTR-Yamaha 2m00.547s +0.621s 42 6. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m00.573s +0.647s 49 7. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 2m00.603s +0.677s 66 8. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 2m00.855s +0.929s 49 9. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m00.897s +0.971s 55 10. Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 2m01.061s +1.135s 49 11. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m01.146s +1.220s 45 12. Cal Crutchlow Ducati 2m01.396s +1.470s 48 13. Michele Pirro Ducati 2m02.177s +2.251s 56 14. Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 2m02.287s +2.361s 58 15. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Yamaha 2m02.545s +2.619s 35 16. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 2m02.675s +2.749s 45 17. Kosuke Akiyoshi Honda 2m02.692s +2.766s 68 18. Hiroshi Aoyama Aspar Honda 2m02.825s +2.899s 66 19. Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha 2m02.970s +3.044s 56 20. Randy de Puniet Suzuki 2m03.064s +3.138s 96 21. Scott Redding Gresini Honda 2m03.117s +3.191s 53 22. Michael Laverty PBM Aprilia 2m03.528s +3.602s 41 23. Hector Barbera Avintia-FTR Kawasaki 2m04.551s +4.625s 37 24. Broc Parkes PBM Aprilia 2m04.619s +4.693s 43 25. Karel Abraham Cardion Honda 2m05.261s +5.335s 32 26. Mike di Meglio Avintia-FTR Kawasaki 2m05.355s +5.429s 34
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments