MotoGP – Marquez the fastest and Syahrin still adapting to the KTM

Bruno Gomes

February 6, 2019

Photo credits: News.com.au

The first of three days of official testing for MotoGP riders ended a few minutes ago at Sepang International Circuit, where a scorching heat was the worst enemy for riders, and their bikes, with the asphalt reaching as high as 56ºC. Coming in straight from Spain and still recovering from injury, MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was the fastest rider on track, while Malaysian star Hafizh Syahrin showed that he’s still adapting to his new KTM RC16.

Marc Marquez took the new RC213V of the Repsol Honda team for only 29 laps around Sepang, probably taking this first day as a test to his physical fitness and to check if he is in good conditions to ride the bike at a fast pace.

And the truth is, even though Marquez isn’t in full fitness, the five-time MotoGP champion showed right from this first day of testing in Malaysia that he’s here to defend his title in 2019, and clocked the best lap of the day with 1m59.621s.

Second fastest was Alex Rins on his Ecstar Suzuki GSX-RR. The Japanese team doesn’t have all the technical benefits that they had until the end of last season, but that doesn’t seem to slow them down, with the Spaniard showing promising times along the test day. Rins finished the day only 0.259s behind Marc Marquez.

Good news also for the Monster Energy Yamaha factory team, with Maverick Viñales taking the new YZR-M1 to the third spot on the final standings for this first day at Sepang. The new M1 seems to be working much better than the previous generation, and that gives hope to Yamaha Racing that this season will be much better in terms of results than last season.

The fourth best time was a surprise: Tito Rabat, on the private Ducati Desmosedici GP18 of the Reale Avintia team, was able to beat Danilo Petrucci on the factory Desmosedici GP19 of the Mission Winnow Ducati team, and Rabat was the last rider to lap Sepang under the 2-minute barrier.

As for Hafizh Syahrin, the Malaysian rider is still on the early stages of knowing the new KTM RC16, and even if he remained with the Tech3 team, the change from Yamaha machinery to KTM is proving a bit more difficult than anticipated for Syahrin. He finished the day with the 26th fastest time, 2.2 seconds behind Marc Marquez.

The fight for the best MotoGP rookie promises to be an interesting one, with Moto2 champion Francesco Bagnaia and Moto2 runner-up Miguel Oliveira continuing their personal fight from last season. Bagnaia took his Ducati from the Alma Pramac team to 15th spot, while Miguel Oliveira, Hafizh Syahrin teammate on the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, was close behind in 16th.

Tomorrow the second day of official MotoGP tests will show riders and teams testing more parts for the upcoming season, and lap times should get even better. Follow iMotorbike for all the updates on the results of MotoGP pre-season tests, and news on how Hafizh Syahrin is doing on his new Red Bull KTM Tech3 team.