Pedrosa Heads The Morning Session At Sepang
- Oct 23, 2015
- 2 min read
Conditions were hot and humid for the start of the seventeenth round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.
Dani Pedrosa topped the time sheets in FP1 after surpassing the circuit record on his third lap with a 2:00.412. The Spaniard has a very good record at Sepang, in both the dry and the wet, and was two tenths clear of the rest of the field. Team-mate Marc Marquez was the focus of a scathing attack from Valentino Rossi on Thursday regarding his riding in Australia and how he thought he'd mugged him about to allow Jorge Lorenzo to break away as revenge for their clashes in Argentina and Assen. None of this seemed to phase the 2014 Sepang winner and he was on searing pace from the off, eventually ending the session third fastest with a lap of 2:00.736.
Lorenzo was Pedrosa's closest challenger in the morning session in second with a best lap of 2:00.622. Interestingly, both Honda riders set their best laps on their third tours of the circuit whereas both Yamaha riders set theirs on the eight and ninth laps of their programme. Rossi was on much better Friday form than normal, admitting in the pre-event press release that he needs to be on it every session. His best effort was a 2:00.915, half a-second adrift of Pedrosa but just 0.3s from his team-mate. The Italian is set to start his 329th career Grand Prix, setting a new record previously held by Loris Capirossi. Fittingly, this record comes on a weekend where the Italian can wrap up his tenth world title.
Both Satellite Honda-mounted Brits enjoyed a very productive morning. Scott Redding was an impressive fifth, with Cal Crutchlow recovering from a crash at turn five earlier in the session to go sixth quickest. The LCR rider's time also came on the hard rear tyre, so one has to assume that there is still a little time to come from him. This should be a good circuit for both, providing the RC213V behaves itself. The high humidity saps some power from the engine, so the Honda powerplant shouldn't be as powerful as normal and therefore a little less aggressive.
Andrea Iannone was seventh fastest after FP1, a second off of the best pace, whilst Andrea Dovizioso was a slightly more encouraging tenth after his Phillip Island nightmare. Dovi still has a lot of work to do to close the 0.5s gulf to his team-mate however. Hector Barbera used the soft rear tyre to perfection to leap into eighth position. Leading Loris Baz by just two points in the Open class standings, the Spaniard will be looking to extend that this weekend at a track he went well at last year on the Open Ducati.
Full results can be found here: http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2015/MAL/MotoGP/FP1/Session.pdf?v1_50331991
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