New Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales topped the times on the third and final day of testing at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on Wednesday, the y9ung Spaniard bettering Andrea Iannone's time from day two by eight hundredths of a second.
With rain playing a major part in the first two days here, day three proved to be cooler and drier with teams and riders making the most of the conditions before more rain fell later in the day.
"This morning we knew it would be important to make the most of the dry and cooler track conditions so we started testing as soon as we could,โ said Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli. โWe are satisfied about the way that the development proceeded over the last three days. We have been able to evaluate many items without facing any difficulties.โ
โWe have been testing the frame, fairing, electronics, mapping and the tyres and we've collected a lot of data but, even more importantly, we have already been able to make some decisions for the 2017 season. We also received good feedback on the tyre life, which is one of the topics we focused on most during this test and this allowed us to not only to be quicker but also increase our consistency.โ
โLeaving Sepang with the fastest lap time to our name, we are now looking forward to head to Phillip Island where we will continue the development of our bike. Maverick, Valentino, the team and the Japanese engineers all did an excellent job and we are feeling confident about the next test.
Marc Marquez was second fastest on the final day for Honda, however his best time was only good enough for third overall for the combined times.
Andrea Dovizioso was the quickest Ducati rider followed by Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, who is still adjusting to the new bike.
โToday was another fairly positive day, we got quite a few things tested before a little bit of rain disrupted us but we still got some good track time towards the end of the day as well,โ Stoner said. โWe got to do a lot of configurations between chassis, swing-arms, engine mappings and different things like this, so all in all it was quite positive and hopefully we got some good things to take away from this test.โ
SEPANG TEST โ COMBINED CLASSIFICATION AFTER DAY 3:
1. Maverick VIรALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1:59.368 - Session 3
2. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1:59.452 +0.084 - Session 2
3. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 1:59.506 +0.138 - Session 3
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 1:59.553 +0.185 - Session 3
5. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 1:59.578 +0.210 - Session 3
6. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1:59.589 +0.221 - Session 3
7. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1:59.628 +0.260 - Session 3
8. Casey STONER, Ducati Test Team - 1:59.639 +0.271 - Session 3
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 1:59.728 +0.360 - Session 3
10. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 1:59.767 +0.399vSession 3
11. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1:59.772 +0.404 - Session 3
12. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 2:00.057 +0.689 - Session 3
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 2:00.108 +0.740 - Session 3
14. Danilo PETRUCCI, Octo Pramac Racing - 2:00.310 +0.942 - Session 3
15. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 2:00.312 +0.944 - Session 3
16. Hector BARBERA, Reale Esponsorama Racing - 2:00.352 +0.984 - Session 2
17. Jack MILLER, Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 2:00.439 +1.071 - Session 3
18. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 2:00.445 +1.077 - Session 3
19. Scott REDDING, Octo Pramac Racing - 2:00.645 +1.277 - Session 3
20. Loris BAZ, Reale Esponsorama Racing - 2:00.873 +1.505 - Session 3
21. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 2:01.338 +1.970 - Session 1
22. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 2:01.338 +1.970 - Session 3
23. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 2:01.341 +1.973 - Session 3
24. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Test Team - 2:01.382 +2.014 - Session 2
25. Katsuyuki NAKASUGA, Yamaha Factory Test Team - 2:01.658 +2.290 - Session 3
26. Takuya TSUDA, Suzuki Test Team - 2:01.812 +2.444 - Session 1
27. Kouta NOZANE, Yamaha Factory Test Team - 2:02.187 +2.819 - Session 1
28. Tito RABAT, Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 2:02.189 +2.821 - Session 2