Bautista fastest on Sepang day one

The first day of the Sepang 2 MotoGP test has thrown a number of surprise packages to the fore, as Alvaro Bautista and the Espargaro brothers took advantage of unusual track conditions to finish the day one-two-three.

Bautista spent most of the day inside the top ten, but a flying lap just minutes before the track closed, his sixtieth of sixty-one, left him fractionally ahead of Aleix Espargaro on the Forward Racing open class Yamaha.

Espargaro, taking advantage of the super-soft tyre only available to the open class machines, led the field for large portions of the day, on a machine that’s still largely a satellite Yamaha M1 as the team await their British-built FTR chassis, similar to what brother Pol took to third for the Tech 3 squad.

Andrea Dovizioso was fourth, as the Ducati factory debate their options in making the move to the open class for the season, but teammate Cal Crutchlow had a less successful day, finishing in eleventh.

Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were fifth and seventh, split by the sole Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa as Marc Marquez recovers from his broken leg.

Testing continues tomorrow at the Malaysian track, but conditions so far have proven far from perfect. A Ferrari event between this test and the previous one has reportedly left the track dirty and slippy, and with the tropical country currently in the midst of a drought, the surface hasn’t been given a chance to clean.

1 BAUTISTA, Alvaro GO&FUN Honda Gresini  2:00.848 60 / 61
2 ESPARGARO, Aleix NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:00.900 0.052 28 / 31
3 ESPARGARO, Pol Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:00.999 0.151 53 / 57
4 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team   2:01.029 0.181 46 / 47
5 LORENZO, Jorge  Yamaha Factory Racing  2:01.158 0.310 54 / 56
6 PEDROSA, Dani  Repsol Honda Team  2:01.160 0.312 46 / 47
7 ROSSI, Valentino Yamaha Factory Racing  2:01.349 0.501 28 / 65
8 BRADL, Stefan  LCR Honda MotoGP  2:01.491 0.643 32 / 50
9 SMITH, Bradley  Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.644 0.796 47 / 54
10 HAYDEN, Nicky  Drive M7 Aspar   2:02.227 1.379 53 / 55
11 CRUTCHLOW, Cal Ducati Team   2:02.319 1.471 45 / 48
12 IANNONE, Andrea Pramac Racing   2:02.334 1.486 30 / 51
13 AOYAMA, Hiroshi Drive M7 Aspar   2:02.709 1.861 57 / 59
14 EDWARDS, Colin NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:02.743 1.895 29 / 47
15 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 2:02.823 1.975 45 / 50
16 BARBERA, Hector Avintia Racing   2:02.975 2.127 45 / 47
17 DE PUNIET, Randy Team Suzuki MotoGP  2:03.341 2.493 66 / 73
18 REDDING, Scott  GO&FUN Honda Gresini  2:03.553 2.705 50 / 51
19 PIRRO, Michele  Ducati Test Team  2:03.991 3.143 37 / 40
20 NAKASUGA, Katsuyuki Yamaha Factory Test Team 2:04.165 3.317 41 / 45
21 DI MEGLIO, Mike Avintia Racing   2:04.885 4.037 27 / 59
22 ABRAHAM, Karel Cardion AB Motoracing  2:05.638 4.790 31 / 36
23 AOKI, Nobuatsu  Team Suzuki MotoGP  2:07.302 6.454 3 / 10