Pedrosa fastest on Day 1 of Sepang MotoGP test

Dani Pedrosa has finished the year’s opening day of official MotoGP testing fastest thanks to a late flyer at Sepang.

Pedrosa pulled out a 1:59.427s on his Repsol Honda to be more than 0.3s faster than the Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Both spent two separate spells at the top of the timesheets after the track dried out, as did Valentino Rossi.

However, Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) was ultimately relegated to sixth in the latter minutes, behind Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team), Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati), and Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati).

Defending world champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) was seventh-fastest.

Johann Zarco was fastest early on, when the track was wet for a number of hours after earlier rain, while his best slick tyre time put the Tech3 Yamaha rider eight-fastest.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and the lead Red Bull KTM rider Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 10.

The three-day test continues tomorrow.

Pre-season testing: Sepang: Day 1

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time	Gap 1st/prev
1	26	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:59.427
2	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1:59.770	0.343/0.343
3	99	Jorge LORENZO	ESP	Ducati Team	Ducati	1:59.802	0.375/0.032
4	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	2:00.123	0.696/0.321
5	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	2:00.178	0.751/0.055
6	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	2:00.233	0.806/0.055
7	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	2:00.290	0.863/0.057
8	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	2:00.421	0.994/0.131
9	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	2:00.522	1.095/0.101
10	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	2:00.568	1.141/0.046
11	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	2:00.627	1.200/0.059
12	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	2:00.664	1.237/0.037
13	25	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	2:00.714	1.287/0.050
14	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	2:00.866	1.439/0.152
15	53	Tito RABAT	ESP	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	2:00.912	1.485/0.046
16	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	2:01.027	1.600/0.115
17	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	2:01.099	1.672/0.072
18	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	2:01.161	1.734/0.062
19	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	2:01.728	2.301/0.567
20	50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Suzuki Test Team	Suzuki	2:01.864	2.437/0.136
21	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	2:01.962	2.535/0.098
22	33	Yamaha TEST 3	JPN	Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	2:02.044	2.617/0.082
23	68	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	2:02.053	2.626/0.009
24	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	2:02.088	2.661/0.035
25	32	Yamaha TEST 2	JPN	Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	2:02.527	3.100/0.439
26	10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	2:02.946	3.519/0.419
27	12	Tom LUTHI	SWI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	2:03.732	4.305/0.786
28	31	Yamaha TEST 1	JPN	Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	2:03.786	4.359/0.054
29	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ducati Test team	Ducati	2:04.767	5.340/0.981
30	36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	KTM Test Team	KTM	2:05.932	6.505/1.165