Sepang GP test: Day 2

Loris Capirossi again set the fastest time during a scorching day in Sepang, Malaysia, where track temperatures reached as much as 58 degrees.

Ducati are proving better prepared for 2005 after a disastrous season in 2004. Learning from last year’s mistakes they have opted for an evolution of the Desmosedici rather than the revolution that they failed to tame last season.

World Champion Valentino Rossi took the second fastest time having a much more successful time than he did yesterday.

Rossi: “I am quite happy with the work we’ve done today. We worked on suspension and set-up and the bike gave us some good data and a good feeling. Yesterday we went the wrong way with some things but today we’ve made some modifications and we’ve found the right way forward. We’ve worked mainly on making the bike more agile and trying to make it more like the 2004 bike in this area, and we had a really good run of improvements this morning.”

The badge of fastest Honda went to Sete Gibernau, closely followed by Alex Barros and Max Biaggi.

Biaggi is still not completely fit after a supermoto in November and was a bit staggered to be going so fast so soon. “There must be a mistake. I was not expecting to ride this fast right after the injury and more on the last year’s bike. We scored excellent laps even if we were not working for it. I really like the team spirit. HRC people are very motivated to do good.”

Ruben Xaus was enjoying his debut on the Yamaha M1 until he crashed it. He escaped unhurt but admitted he’d got a bit carried away.

Xaus: “With not knowing the M1 and everybody wanting to try different things – especially me – we got a bit lost. After the crash the Yamaha engineers came to the box and told us to start from scratch again. It was the right decision because in the afternoon I felt much more comfortable and the M1 ran much better, allowing me to set the lap of 2’03.4. I carried on riding without really testing anything because the most important thing right now is to adapt and get to know the YZR M1”.

Unofficial lap times:

Loris Capirossi (Ducati): 2:01.98

Valentino Rossi (Yamaha): 2:02.16

Sete Gibernau (Honda): 2:02.2

Alex Barros: (Honda): 2:02.307

Max Biaggi (Honda): 2:02.35

Kenny Roberts (Suzuki): 2:02.38

Colin Edwards (Yamaha): 2:02.48

Nicky Hayden (Honda): 2:02.49

Makoto Tamada (Honda): 2:02.69

Marco Melandri (Honda): 2:02.70

Toni Elías: (Yamaha): 2:03.20

Rubén Xaus (Yamaha): 2:03.40

Troy Bayliss: (Honda) 2:03.918