MotoGP stars upstaged on final day of test

Italian Marco Simoncelli has upstaged the MotoGP stars to end the Sepang test as the fastest man.

The second-year rider took his San Carlo Gresini Honda to a fastest time of 2:00.757s – enough to see the 24-year-old edge out former World Champions Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.

Stoner had a minor fall in the morning, but was pleased with his day regardless.

“Today was definitely the best day, despite the crash,” he said.

“In general we made some nice steps forwards, alternating between the different chassis, trying to get a good feeling for them.

“We managed to make the bike work a lot better with used tyres and a different traction control system that catches the tyres a little quicker when they start to spin – which assisted with our corner speed.”

The Australian’s team-mates Andrea Dovisioso and Dani Pedrosa ended a strong three days for the Repsol Honda team with the fourth and sixth fastest times respectively, split by Texan Ben Spies on the second Yamaha.

Nicky Hayden was the fastest of the six Ducatis in eighth – some 0.8s slower than Simoncelli.

See below for the fastest times from Day 3 in Sepang.

1	Marco Simoncelli	Honda	2:00.757
2	Casey Stoner	Honda	2:00.811
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	2:00.845
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	2:00.945
5	Ben Spies	Yamaha	2:01.002
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	2:01.241
7	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	2:01.353
8	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	2:01.534
9	Colin Edwards	Yamaha	2:01.651
10	Valentino Rossi	Ducati	2:01.842
11	Hector Barbera	Ducati	2:02.030
12	Loris Capirossi	Ducati	2:02.057
13	Randy De Puniet	Ducati	2:02.159
14	Karel Abraham	Ducati	2:02.645
15	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	2:02.717
16	Toni Elias	Honda	2:02.916
17	Kousuke Akiyoshi	Honda	2:03.452
18	Noburu Aoki	Suzuki	2:04.700