Marquez fastest on 2014 bike at day two of test

New world champion Marc Marquez has finished the second day of post-season testing at Valencia over a second quicker than the fastest lap of Sunday’s race, as he lapped only 0.3 off his qualifying lap.

However, he was lucky to remain upright for the whole day, only just catching a crash at Turn 6 on his knee and elbow to save it and remaining upright, before going on to set the fastest time of the day on his penultimate of 75 laps.

Yesterday’s fastest man, Jorge Lorenzo, was able to improve his best time from yesterday, taking half a second off his 1’31.257 to finish the day on 1’30.768.

Pedrosa was third, 0.4 off Marquez on 1:30.948. Interestingly, all three of them set their fastest times of the day on 2014 spec machinery, after running back to back comparisons with 2013 bikes.

Bradley Smith had a good day on his Tech 3 Yamaha, lapping with a 2014 engine in his current bike to set a lap that left him sixth behind Bradl and Bautista after 78 laps.

Valentino Rossi, who completed 57 laps, was back in seventh, as he worked to the Japanese factory’s testing plan with new engineer Silvano Galbusera.

Cal Crutchlow, still on the 2013 Ducati, was 11th, as he failed to improve on his time from yesterday. Ducati will introduce their new 2014 machine at the Sepang tests in February. Teammate Dovizioso was eighth, faster than his Sunday race pace.

1  MARQUEZ, Marc  Repsol Honda Team 1:30.53  75 / 77 
2  LORENZO, Jorge  Yamaha Factory Racing 1:30.768 58 / 60 
3  PEDROSA, Dani  Repsol Honda Team 1:30.948 67 / 72 
4  BRADL, Stefan  LCR Honda MotoGP 1:30.990 57 / 60 
5  BAUTISTA, Alvaro GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1:31.208 41 / 72 
6  SMITH, Bradley  Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:31.397 77 / 78 
7  ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing 1:31.414 56 / 57 
8  DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team  1:31.661 55 / 62 
9  ESPARGARO, Pol  Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:31.836 66 / 72 
10  IANNONE, Andrea  Pramac Racing  1:31.844 61 / 68 
11  CRUTCHLOW, Cal  Ducati Team  1:32.114 53 / 53 
12  PIRRO, Michele  Ducati Test Team 1:32.473 47 / 65 
13  HAYDEN, Nicky  Power Electronics Aspar 1:32.576 76 / 76 
14  HERNANDEZ, Yonny Pramac Racing  1:32.800 26 / 27 
15  ESPARGARO, Aleix NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:32.847 17 / 18 
16  EDWARDS, Colin  NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1:33.149 21 / 34 
17  LAVERTY, Michael Paul Bird Motorsport 1:33.672 32 / 43 
18  DE PUNIET, Randy Paul Bird Motorsport 1:33.833 22 / 37 
19  REDDING, Scott  GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1:34.541 22 / 23 
20  DI MEGLIO, Mike  Avintia Blusens  1:34.618 29 / 42