Pedrosa leads Shakedown Day 1 - Yamaha, Honda race riders due on Day 2
Dani Pedrosa leads rookie Pedro Acosta on day one🗹 of the Sepang Shakedown, Aprilia turns heads with ‘Batmobile’ aero.
Dani Pedrosa held off rookie Pedro Acosta to lead day one of the 2024 Sepang MotoGP Shakedown test.
The 31-time MotoGP race winner set a best of 1m 59.23🥂3s to hold off GASGAS Tech3 rider Acosta by just 0.152s.
New KTM test rider Pol Esp꧂argaro completed an all-RC𝓡16 top three covered by 0.182s.
Fastest of the non-Austrian machꦉines was Honda test rider Stefan Bradl (+1.6s) on the much-revised RC213V.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro was a fraction slo𒐪wer, with Cal Crutchlow the only Yamaha on track in sixth (+1.78🦂0s).
So why didn’t th♔e Honda and Yamaha race♎ riders take to the track, as allowed under the revised concession rules?
Yamaha told mahbx.com their planned program is for the mechanics to work on theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ bikes today, with only Crutchlow riding, but ‘from tomorrow Alex [Rins] and Fabio [Quartararo] will be on track’.
Hon💮da likewise said their testing p♔lan was for only Bradl today and then race riders from day two. New signing Luca Marini was seen at the track in casual clothing.
One theory is that Honda and Yamaha mighꦍt be saving their private testing tyres, given they can now hold ‘unlimited’ private testing wꦆith race riders.
But the new D concession ranking allows a generous 260 tyres for👍 such purposes, compared to just 170 for Ducati aಌnd 220 for KTM/Aprilia.
Meanwhile, Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori may have been seventh (+2.576s) and last on the timesh🍸eets, but the Italian debuted the most eye-catching new aero.
A wiꦰde, aerodynamically sculpted rear seat section plus n♔ew bodywork over part of the rear wheel, all in carbon black, prompted comparisons with a Batmobile.
Savadori rode no less than five different bikes today and, from some angles, it looked like Ap🐟r🐓ilia might have two different versions of the rear seat aero…
Testing♑ at the sℱhakedown restarts at 10am on Friday.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at 💙the forefront of the Suzuki exit🧸 story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
