2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test Times Comparison: Day 1 vs Day 2, 2012 vs 2013

Times dropped for the MotoGP men on the second day of testing at Sepang, much as you might expect once the riders have had a night's sleep to assimilate what they have learned from the previous day's testing. Comparing the times between the first and second days of testing provides an interesting view of where improvements were found, and who had gained the most between the two days.

The average improvement for all of the riders was around seven tenths of a second between the first and second days, but there were a few truly notable exceptions. The gains - or in some cases, losses - are shown in the two tables below, the first sorted in order of the fastest times set on the second day of testing, the second table sorted by improvement. 

Biggest winners of the day are Ben Spies and Colin Edwards, both gaining over two seconds over their times from Tuesday, but as both are suffering with injury - Spies is still coming back from major shoulder surgery at the end of last year, while Edwards suffered a recurrence of a neck problem - there are extra factors at play here.

Of the uninjured riders, the biggest leap was made by Bradley Smith, the young British rider making huge steps on the Tech 3 Yamaha. Smith cut over 1.5 seconds off his time from Tuesday, and is rapidly gaining confidence on the Yamaha M1. The improvement is visible from his body language - Smith admitted to being very tentative on the bike yesterday, while feeling much more comfortable on the second day - but it is also clear in his times. When comparing Smith's progress with Stefan Bradl from 2012 (see table at bottom), Smith is on target to match Bradl's trajectory in 2013. Smith is already nearly half a second quicker than Bradl was on the second day of the first Sepang test in 2012, and he is also closer to the front runners. In 2012, Bradl was 1.5 seconds slower than fastest man Casey Stoner, today, Smith was 1.4 seconds behind Dani Pedrosa.

Danilo Petrucci also had a good day, as the teams start to get to grip with the spec Magneti Marelli ECU. Petrucci took just under a second and a half off his best time from yesterday, helped in no small part by the spec ECU, with the IODA team now able to start switching on functions like traction control. Petrucci is closing in on the Aprilia ART machines, and the pace of progress is good. The bike is still a long way off the prototypes, but the CRT field is starting to bunch up.

Good news also at Ducati, where the three riders without an injury also made a big step forward. Andrea Iannone improved the most, taking 1.331 seconds off his best time from yesterday, but the factory men of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso also made big steps forward, 1.226 and 1.156 seconds respectively. The Ducatis are still a long way behind - Hayden is over a second and a half behind Pedrosa - but the gap is not as embarrassing as it was on Tuesday. 

Of the favorites, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo improved by nearly identical amounts, both men taking six tenths off their best times from Tuesday. Valentino Rossi found fractionally less on his second full day back on the Yamaha, improving by 0.57 seconds, while Marc Marquez made the least improvement, taking just under four tenths off his time from the day before. Given how fast Marquez already is on just his fourth full day on the bike, he could be forgiven for not improving quite so rapidly. He was much more consistent, however, and this too is important.

The comparison with the test times from 2012 continues after the day 1 vs day 2 tables.

Day 1 vs Day 2 Times, ranked by Day 2 time

Day 1 vs Day 2 Times, ranked by improvement

Comparing the improvements between the second day of testing in 2013 with the second day of testing in 2012, the biggest surprise is just how much faster Dani Pedrosa is this year. Pedrosa is nearly a second faster than he was at the 2012 test and goes from being fourth fastest to topping the timesheets. Pedrosa's improvement is second only to Stefan Bradl, but Bradl's improvement is expected, given that 2012 was the German's first year on the bike. The third most improved rider is Valentino Rossi, another unsurprising name given the Italian's switch from the Ducati, on which he struggled so badly, back to his beloved Yamaha.

Jorge Lorenzo also made a good step forward, improving his time by exactly half a second from the year before, while the median improvement is around two tenths of a second, Cal Crutchlow, Nicky Hayden, test rider Katsayuki Nakasuga and Alvaro Bautista all improving by around the same amount.

Comparing the plights of Ben Spies and Andrea Dovizioso is also interesting. Spies is nearly two seconds slower than on the Factory Yamaha last year, when he was second fastest at the test behind Casey Stoner. How much of that is down to his recovering shoulder is unclear, but it will be a factor. The difference in Dovizioso's times is positively intriguing: Sepang was the second opportunity at which Dovizioso had a chance to ride the Tech 3 Yamaha last year, and he took some time to adapt his style. Dovizioso was just 9th fastest after the second day of testing in 2012, 1.265 behind Stoner. In 2013, on the Ducati Desmosedici, Doviziosi was 10th, 1.830 slower than Pedrosa. Yet he is only two tenths slower than he was last year, giving some insight into both how hard it is to switch bikes - even when switching from the Honda to the Yamaha, both of which are acknowledged to be much easier to ride - and that the Ducati may not be quite as bad as it looks. If Dovizioso can find some of the improvement he found during 2012 on the Yamaha as the season progressed, the Italian could do better than many fear he will do. The numbers suggest that this story is not quite as cut and dried as many believe.

Sepang 1 Day 2 2013 vs Day 2 2012 Times

Rookie Comparison: Bradley Smith 2013 vs Stefan Bradl 2012, Sepang 1, Day 2