Latest MotoGP Results

Dani Pedrosa was once again fastest on the final day of testing at Sepang, topping the timesheets for the fifth time in six total days of testing at Sepang. Though the Repsol Honda man looks to be the preseason favorite so far, he does not leave the test as fastest overall, however. That honor goes to Jorge Lorenzo, who put in a scorching lap on Wednesday to set the fastest time over all three days of the test.

The riders got off to a late start on Thursday, rain meaning that the bulk of the riders kept to their garages until the track started to dry out at the end of the morning. A few men put in laps in the wet, but once the track dried out, enough riders started putting in laps to clean the worst of the dirt left by the rain from the track, though track conditions were never as good as on the first couple of days. Pedrosa soon took charge of proceedings, later knocking another half a second off his time late in the afternoon. Rookie Repsol teammate Marc Marquez impressed yet again, taking 2nd on the timesheets with his very last lap, after the final 30 minutes of the session turned into a qualifying session. Marquez continued to concentrate on learning the ropes on a MotoGP machine, and the longer runs he put in were a little further off the pace of Pedrosa, and still not as consistent as they will need to be, but he proved with his flying lap that he will be starting from the front of the grid by the time the season starts.

Jorge Lorenzo ended the final day of the test with the 3rd fastest time, but leaves Sepang as fastest overall. Lorenzo's best time was over four tenths slower than Pedrosa's on Thursday, but the Spaniard spent the latter part of the day working on race set up, ending the test with a mightily impressive race simulation of 20 laps, 16 of which where in the 2:01s, most of them fast 2:01s. Lorenzo's race simulation follows the pattern from his championship-winning season in 2012, making a very long race simulation to test the bike and himself in punishing conditions. Less characteristic was a mistake the Spaniard made, putting in one lap of 2:05 towards the end, an anomaly among the scorching laps that surround it.

Dani Pedrosa has taken up at the second Sepang MotoGP test where he left off after the first. The Repsol Honda man led for most of the day, having set a fast time fairly early in the morning. His rival at the Factory Yamaha squad did much the same, Jorge Lorenzo taking 2nd a couple of tenths behind Pedrosa.

Marc Marquez continues to impress, the Spanish prodigy ending the day with the 3rd fastest time, just over a third of a second off his Repsol Honda teammate, and a little over a tenth behind reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo. Also  impressive was Stefan Bradl, the LCR Honda man achieving his stated aim for the test of matching the pace of Valentino Rossi. The strong times by Marquez and Bradl demoted the Factory Yamaha returnee to 5th, though the difference was minimal, just a few hundredths separating the threesome.

Cal Crutchlow led another close duo, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man some seven tenths off the pace of Pedrosa and a quarter of a second behind Rossi. He just kept ahead of Alvaro Bautista, the Gresini Honda rider taking 7th less than a tenth behind Crutchlow.

The return of rain and fog to Jerez meant that much of the final day of testing for both the Moto2 and Moto3 classes went to waste, with a depleted field taking to the track in the morning, before packing up and leaving in the afternoon. Jack Miller was the fastest man in the rain, the Caretta Technology RTG rider ending the day faster than Alex Rins on the Estrella Galicia KTM, and RW Racing's Jakub Kornfeil. 

The teams now pack up and head home for a month, preparing for the final test in mid-March. They visit Jerez one more time between 18th and 21st of March, before flying out to Qatar for the season starter.

Official times after the final day of testing at Jerez for the Moto3 class:

Maverick Viñales took control of the Moto3 class on the second day of the test at Jerez, lapping under the 125cc record on a day which saw much better weather than the rained out first day. Viñales did not have it easy: fellow Spaniard Alex Rins got within six thousandths of the time of Viñales, setting the 2nd best time on Wednesday. Luis Salom completed a Spanish and KTM clean sweep, the Red Bull KTM man three tenths behind Viñales.

The three Spaniards were clearly faster than the rest, Jonas Folger the best of the chasing group, getting within a second of the JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse rider on his Mapfre Aspar Kalex KTM. The Mahindras continued to perform well, Miguel Oliveira setting the 5th best time, ahead of a surprisingly strong Juan Guevara, the Technomag CIP rookie grabbing 6th spot on the TSR Honda.

The weather cooperated in the afternoon at least. The sun finally burned off the last remnants of fog in the bottom section of the track some time after noon, allowing everyone to set a competitive time. The rain looks set to return on Thursday, threatening to bring the three-day test to a premature end.

Times from day 2:

At a wet, windy and miserable Jerez, the Moto3 riders had their second opportunity to prepare for the 2013 season. On Tuesday, their time on the track was most spent on working a wet set up, rather than pushing the development of their Moto3 machines.

The conditions saw a reversal of the dry weather tests at Valencia last week, in many different respects. At Valencia, Spanish riders on KTMs had dominated; in the wet at Jerez, English-speaking riders on Honda-powered bikes took charge. Top of the pile was Ambrogio Racing's Danny Webb, who led from the start, and then put on a late charge in the afternoon on his Suter Honda, heading up his teammate, the South African Brad Binder. Australian Jack Miller took 3rd spot, riding an FTR Honda for Caretta Technology RTG. Zulfahmi Khairuddin was the first non-English speaker, and first KTM, the AirAsia rider finishing ahead of Luis Salom, Jonas Folger and Maverick Viñales, the three men who had led for much of the Valencia test.

In difficult conditions, several riders crashed, chief among them the rookies. Livio Loi, Florian Alt, Francesco Bagnaia, Philipp Oettl and Matteo Ferrari all took a trip to the gravel trap, though there are no reports of serious injury.

Testing continues tomorrow and Thursday, with hope that the conditions will improve before the teams pack up on Thursday evening.

Maverick Viñales has dominated all three days of testing for the Moto3 class at Valencia, at the head of a trio of Spaniards consisting of himself, Alex Rins and Luis Salom. These three head to the Jerez test next week as the hot favorites for the Moto3 championship, though there is still a lot of testing to be done.

The list of times showing the improvements made by all of the riders over the course of the three-day test shows that much progress has been made, both by the teams and especially by the rookies coming into the class. Notable among the riders who have improved the most is John McPhee, the young Scotsman taking over four seconds off his time from the first day, and improving by two seconds every day. The rookies are also making good progress: Livio Loi is the fastest of the lot, and also made a big step forward, nearly three-and-a-half seconds quicker from the first day to the last. Ana Carrasco made steady improvement, but promises to be genuinely competitive. While Italian riders Francesco Bagnaia, Lorenzo Baldassarri and Matteo Ferrari also made positive progress.

Below are the overall times for the three days of the test, and a comparison list, showing the amount each rider has improved by.

Maverick Viñales has topped the Moto3 timesheets for the third day in a row, the Spaniard taking two seconds off the Moto3 lap record, and getting very close to the lap records posted by the 125cc bikes which Moto3 replaces. Viñales once again leads a Spanish trio, with Alex Rins impressing again in 2nd and Luis Salom just a third of a second behind Viñales. 

The Caretta Technology RTG team were also impressive, with John McPhee setting the 4th fastest time, and teammate Jack Miller blasting to 6th, ahead of Romano Fenati. The three FTR Hondas made inroads into the dominance which the KTMs had displayed on the first few days. Miller was the last rider to get within a second of Viñales, however.

Elsewhere, the Mahindra project - a Suter-designed and built engine, with help from Mahindra's Indian engineers, in a modified version of the Suter chassis built for the Honda - put on a strong showing, grabbing 9th and 10th places on their first foray to the circuit. Livio Loi was the fastest of the rookies, the young Belgian securing 14th spot, under a second and a half from the leaders, while Ana Carrasco also had a very good day, ending just over 1.6 seconds behind her JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse teammate Viñales.

The teams now pack up and head down to Jerez, where testing will resume again next week.