Danilo Petrucci headed a Ducati 1-2-3-4 to end the three-day Sepang MotoGP test on top with rookie Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia impressing in second.
It seemed like a calculative intent from Ducati on the final day of the three-day MotoGP test at Sepang International Circuit with the Top 4 positions occupied by their four riders from among the factory team and the satellite Pramac outfit.
Petrucci set the pace eventually with a record lap of 1m58.239s from MotoGP rookie Bagnaia (1m58.302s), only 0.063s aloof. His Pramac teammate Jack Miller (1m58.366s) slotted in third with factory rider Andrea Dovizioso (1m58.538s) in fourth.
The riders did not do whole lot of laps in all with Petrucci completing only 32 due to a crash late in the day, with Bagnaia doing only 21, while Miller did the most at 47 despite a fall and Dovizioso undertaking 36 in the end.
Day 2 pace-setter Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales (1m58.644s) ended up fifth with a mammoth 79 laps to his name as he tested the new fairing the team used on Friday. He led LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (1m58.780s) with the British rider doing 71 laps.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro (1m59.022s) had a improved run to be seventh with 52 laps as Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli (1m59.141s) did well in eighth from LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagmi (1m59.148s) and Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (1m59.155s) in the Top 10.
Crutchlow was the last rider in the 1m58s bracket with Espargaro leading the riders in the 1m59s bracket. In terms of the laps completed, Morbidelli did 66 in all with Nakagami completing 61 and Rossi undertaking 62 in the end.
After complaining of a sore shoulder, Honda’s Marc Marquez (1m59.170s) decided to rest again with only 39 laps to be 11th as he now gears up for the Qatar test, although the reigning champion has already said that he won’t be 100% until Argentina round.
After a good showing in the first two days of the test, Suzuki’s Alex Rins (1m59.180s) was only 12th but he did 75 laps to collect data, with Jorge Lorenzo stand-in Stefan Bradl (1m59.368s) ending up 13th from Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat (1m59.485s).
In lap count, Bradl did 57 to Rabata’s 41. Suzuki’s Joan Mir (1m59.486s) was 15th with Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo (1m59.497s) in 16th ahead of KTM lot of Johann Zarco (1m59.640s), Pol Espargaro (1m59.751s) and Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira (1m59.949s).
Mir undertook 53 laps to Quartararo’s 77 with Zarco, Espargaro and Oliveira doing 44, 57 and 38 laps respectively. It was also improvement from Tech 3 KTM’s Hafizh Syahrin (2m00.766s) to be 21st behind Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham (2m00.378s).
The Malaysian did only 21 laps though with Abraham undertaking 36 himself. Suzuki tester Sylvain Guintoli (2m00.990s) continued his work to be 22nd from Aprilia’s tester Bradley Smith (2m00.995s), who got his first chance due to Andrea Iannone’s ill health.
KTM’s tester Mika Kallio (2m01.120s) slotted in 24th with Yamaha’s two test bikes in 25th and 26th respectively as the #32 led #31. Guintoli did 56 laps which was same as Smith while Kallio undertook 38 laps in all.
[Check: Day 2 report]
