Espargaro fastest from Quartararo as rain stops play on Shakedown day 2
Pol Espౠargaro leads Fabio Quartararo on day two of the Sepang Shakedown.
KTM remained on top of the 2024 Sepang MotoGP Shakedown test timesheets despite the arriva🥀l of Honda and Yamaha race riders on day two.
After Dani Pedrosa had set the pace with a 1m 59.♔233s on Thursday, it was the tu♍rn of new KTM testing team-mate Pol Espargaro to take the limelight.
Last year’s GASGAS racer w🧜as quickest for most of the day courtesy of an early 1m 58.241s, comfortably under the official race lap record but still 0.7s from the pole record by Francesco🅘 Bagnaia.
Closest to Espargaro was Fabio Quartararo, the former world champion heading a list of six race riders joining the action on day two, courtesy of the ꦫnew concession rules for Yamaha and Honda.
Meanwhile, GASGAS Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta tur𒐪ned heads in third, the Spanish teenager cutting almost one-second from his day one best to finish just 0.290s from Espargaro and effectively equal with Quartararo.
An intense storm forced red flags to be wa♕ved at 4:30pm. Once the storm had passed, the track re-opened at 5:30pm, but only Savadori elected to make a brief appearance on wet tyres.
Quartararo’s new factory team-mate Alex Rins moved to fourth place (+0.409s) just before the storm arrived, demoting Pedrosa to fifth (+ꦅ0.431s).
Joan Mir was the top Honda rider in sixth place (0.846s), a fraction ahe♈ad of new LCR rider Johann Zarco.
Mir’s Repsol ꧃team-mate Luca Marini was the final rider within one-second of Espargaro.
Takaaki Nakagami (LCR), HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow, Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori completed the 13-rider line-💫up.
Factories gathered more data on their latest aero, including the debu🔥t of an innovative front fender mid-wing at KTM, but many suspe💃ct some manufacturers still have more up their sleeve.
It is also not yet😼 clear how many different types of engine🐲 specification each factory has available this week, let alone chassis and electronics upgrades.
The third and final day of the Shakedown takes place tomorrow, followed by a two-day break and then the start of the Offi꧙cial test, featuring all the 2024 grid (assuming Franco Morbidelli is passed fit to ride).
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 yea🌊rs and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
