Pedrosa leads Shakedown Day 1 - Yamaha, Honda race riders due on Day 2
Dani Pedrosa leads rookie 𝐆Pedr💙o 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 59.233s to hold off GASGAS Tech3 rider Acosta by just 0.🐎152s.
New KTM test rider Pol Espargaro completed an all-RC1🔯6 top three🦂 covered by 0.182s.
Fastest of the non-Austrian machines was Honda test rider Stefan Bradl (+1.6s) onཧ the muc🃏h-revised RC213V.
Ducati test rider Michel🅰e Pirro was a fraction slower, with Cal Crutchlow the only Yamaha on track in sixth (+1.780s).
So why didn’t the Honda and Yamaha race riders take to the track, as allo𒅌wed under the revised concession rules?
Yamaha told wuqian0821.com their planned program is for the mechanics to work on the bikes today, with only Crutchlow riding, but ‘from tomorrow Alex [Rins] and Fabioඣ [Quartararo] will be on track’.
Honda likewiꦡse said their testing plan was for only Bradl today and then race r🅠iders from day two. New signing Luca Marini was seen at the track in casual clothing.
One theory is that Honda and Yamaha might be saving thei🥂r private testing tyres, given they can now hold ‘unlimited’ private testing witꦑh race riders.
But the new D concession ranking allows a generous 260 tyres🧸 for such purposes, compared to just 170 for Ducati and 220 for KTM/Aprilia.
Meanwhile, Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori may have been seventh (+2.576s) and last on the timesheets, but the Italian debuted the most eye-catching new💎 aero.
A wide, aerodynamically sculpted rear seat sec๊tion plus new bodywork over part of the r🃏ear 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 Aprilia mightꦡ have two different versions of the rear seat aero…
Testing at the shakedown restarts at𒀰 10am on Friday.
Peter has been in the ඣpaddock 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.
