The first official test of 2016 will start tomorrow at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit where Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa are looking forward to getting back in action on their RC213V after two months of test ban.

Waiting for them in the Repsol Honda Team garage there are two bikes equipped with two different engine specs: the one they used in the last test at Jerez and an evolution spec.

HRC test riders Hiroshi Aoyama and Takumi Takahashi have spent the past two days performing several preliminary tests with the new RC213V prototype that will be now faced by the official riders over the coming three days.

Takeo Yokoyama - Technical Director

“We’re just one day before the start of pre-season testing. Of course now the regulations are completely new, with Michelin tyres and the common software, so there are many things to test. First though, Marc and Dani must find their rhythms after two months with no riding.

Here both riders have two bikes equipped with two different engine specs, the one they already tried at Jerez in November and an evolution. We’ll carry out a comparison between the two and of course we’ll work also on chassis, electronics and tyres. We hope that after three days we’ll be able to see the direction of the bike development, which will help us in the tests at Phillip Island and Qatar. For the last two days, we’ve been testing with our test riders Aoyama and Takahashi. The track conditions are far from perfect, but even so we’ve found some good directions. The things that worked will be given to our official riders, Marc and Dani, and we hope that they too will find that we’ve gone in a good direction”.





Sepang Circuit

Specifically built for speed and exciting racing, the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is one of the world’s best. The 2,300 acre complex which also houses a hotel, shopping centre, golf course and other sports facilities cost around £50m to construct and was built in just 14 months, holding its first Grand Prix in April 1999 and setting the standard for race circuits worldwide.

With four slow corners following two long straights and ten medium to high-speed corners, the wide track is particularly favourable to overtaking manoeuvres and plenty of open throttle. One of the longest laps in MotoGP is made all the more gruelling for riders by intense heat and humidity. Sepang is located around 50km south of Kuala Lumpur city.


Length  -5.543 kilometres / 3.444 miles
Width   - 25 metres
Left corners  - 5
Right corners  - 10
Longest straight  - 0.920 kilometres / 0.572 miles
Constructed  - 1998


Sepang International Circuit Klia Pahang Malaysia -  View in Google Maps  

Records

Pole Position - 1m 59.053s (167.6km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2015)
Race Lap  - 2m 00.606s (165.4km/h) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha, 2015)
Race Time  - 40m 37.691s (163.7 km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2015)
2015 Race Winner  - Dani Pedrosa (Honda)