SEPANG: Repsol Honda Team rider, Marc Marquez blazed the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) to top the timesheet on the first day of the 2019 MotoGP pre-season winter test, here today.
The Spaniard, who will be celebrating his 26th birthday on Feb 17, upped his pace at midday to set his fastest lap time of one minute and 59.621 seconds to leave him 0.259s clear of his compatriot, Alex Rins of Team Suzuki Ecstar.
The reigning world champion, who is recovering from an operation on his left shoulder over the winter break, took the scorching session to set the time in his lap 26 of 29 laps done today at the 5.543 km circuit.
The Sepang Circuit track temperatures soared to 56 degrees Celsius during midday and cool down to 49.2 degrees Celsius at the end of today’s session.
Another Spaniard, Marverick Vinales of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP in third place with a time of 1:59.937s, while his team mate and seven-time premier class world champion, Valentino Rossi of Italy in sixth place with his fastest lap time of 2:00.054s.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s owned MotoGP team, Petronas Yamaha SRT riders, Franco Morbidelli (Italy) and Fabio Quartararo (France) clocked their best time of 2:00.460s and 2:00.985s respectively.
Malaysia’s sole MotoGP rider, Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah of Red Bull KTM Tech 3 laid at the bottom of the time sheet with 2:01.853s.
The three-day pre-season test was held from 10 am to 6 pm and the eight-hour official pre-season test continues tomorrow. – Bernama
