The second day of Sepang Test saw Maverick Viñales taking the first place during the final stages. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider set one lap in 1’58.897 and he was just 67 milliseconds slower than Lorenzo at 2018 race. Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizioso finished the day in second and third place, while the top rookie was Francesco Bagnaia (12th).
While the other riders showed their best performance in the morning, Maverick Viñales did his best laps when the temperatures were much higher. The riders started improving their times in the final hour of the test day and so there were many changes in the final classification.
For what concerns Ducati, Dovizioso and Petrucci performed a long-run try in the afternoon. One of the new parts tested is an interesting thing appeared on the forks of factory Ducati bikes and it was also interesting to see a new fuel tank in Alma Pramac Racing. It’s the one that had been asked by Lorenzo during last season and Miller seemed to quite like it. Some steps forward were made by Tito Rabat, riding Ducati GP18 machine.
The riders showing the best pace (also on used tyres) were the Yamaha ones, whose fairing had some new “winglets”. A particular situation happened in Petronas Yamaha SRT: Fabio Quartararo had a “spec B” M1 machine, different from the one used by Morbidelli. However, the Frenchman is actually using a bike, which is the same as the one ridden by Morbidelli. To be remarked: the bikes having numbers 31 and 32 are the “test machines” used by Yamaha and ridden by test riders Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Kohta Nozane and Jonas Folger.
About Honda, many new parts were tested (including a new engine), while the RC213V ridden by Márquez had a different rear part. The reigning World Champion keeps struggling with his shoulder, but he tried to do a short race simulation anyway. Furthermore, the Spaniard still struggles with new tyres, as he showed his best performance on the used ones. On the LCR side, a small crash involved Cal Crutchlow, who’s still recovering from last year’s ankle fracture.
A new aerodynamic profile is what appeared on the machines of Suzuki. In the Japanese team, they worked very hard on electronics and pace and also on the bike’s stability in the braking moments. The latter aspect was remarked by Alex Rins, who’s dreaming big after the great speed shown today and yesterday.
Much work was done on all areas by both Red Bull KTM Factory and Red Bull KTM Tech 3. A remarkable part of such work has been Pol Espargaró, who performed 66 laps. The Spaniard had a highside crash during today’s testing, but fortunately he escaped the accident uninjured.
