Dani Pedrosa set the fastest time of the opening day of the Sepang test, with a mark of 1’59.427” on his 55th lap (out of 56), while Marc Marquez ended seventh overall with a best time of 2’00.290” on his 50th lap (out of 51).

In typical Malaysian fashion, the morning dawned under heavy rain, so the asphalt was still wet when the track opened at 10 a.m.

Marquez made one run on wet tyres, Pedrosa a few more, but both riders really began working on development of the RC213V after lunchtime, by which time the track had properly dried. They completed a few laps on the 2017 bike and then went out on the prototype 2018 machines, which were using different engine specifications.


Dani Pedrosa - 1st 1:59.427 (56 laps)

“Of course it’s good to start the testing with the fastest time, so we’re happy with that. We had some rain in the morning and therefore the chance to do a few laps on rain tyres, and we felt good from the beginning. In the afternoon, when the track dried, the asphalt kept improving lap by lap, and that was positive for the many changes we had to try. We have three bikes here, and they have the same setup but different engines. Basically, we worked on the engine package, trying to collect as much information as possible and to get a feeling with each different specification; that’s one of the main areas we have as a target for this test. There are still points we need to work on in order to understand more. We also need more laps on used tyres, as we didn’t get any long runs in today. Of course we’re still in the early stages but so far the feeling is good.”

Marc Marquez - 7th 2:00.290 (51 laps)

"I think today was a busy day for everybody because when you get back on your bike after the winter, you need to find the rhythm again and get used to riding at a demanding track—especially here. That said, I’m quite happy with how we started because we were working on three different bikes with different engines, one from last year and two with different specifications, and therefore it was quite an intense day. We had to adjust many, many things, which is quite normal, but so far it seems the new engine is better. Of course we have two more days to improve the setup and keep working on the engine, electronics, aerodynamics, and so on. It was just the first day and the feeling and rhythm were positive already!”


1 PEDROSA Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1:59.427
2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 0.343
3 LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA Ducati Team Ducati 0.375
4 PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA Alma Pramac Racing Ducati 0.696
5 MILLER Jack 43 AUS Alma Pramac Racing Ducati 0.751
6 ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 0.806
7 MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.863
8 ZARCO Johann 5 FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 0.994
9 CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Castrol Honda 1.095
10 ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1.141
11 RINS Alex 42 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1.200
12 NAKAGAMI Takaaki 30 JPN LCR Honda Idemitsu Honda 1.237
13 VINALES Maverick 25 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1.287
14 ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1.439
15 RABAT Tito 53 SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 1.485
16 IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1.600
17 SMITH Bradley 38 GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1.672
18 MORBIDELLI Franco 21 ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1.734
19 BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA Angel Nieto Team Ducati 2.301
20 GUINTOLI Sylvain 50 FRA Suzuki Test Team Suzuki 2.437
21 REDDING Scott 45 GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 2.535
22 TEST 3 Yamaha 33 JPN Yamaha Test Team Yamaha 2.617
23 HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2.626
24 ABRAHAM Karel 17 CZE Angel Nieto Team Ducati 2.661
25 TEST 2 Yamaha 32 JPN Yamaha Test Team Yamaha 3.100
26 SIMEON Xavier 10 BEL Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 3.519
27 LUTHI Tom 12 SWI EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 4.305
28 TEST 1 Yamaha 31 JPN Yamaha Test Team Yamaha 4.359
29 PIRRO Michele 51 ITA Ducati Test Team Ducati 5.340
30 KALLIO Mika 36 FIN KTM Test Team KTM 6.505