Espargaro struggling with rear grip on slippery Sepang track

The MotoGP teams are on their way home following the completion of a second three-day preseason test at Sepang, where overnight rain had made for a greasy track surface at the start of the final day this morning. Most riders opted to wait until the afternoon before doing any meaningful work, lapping right up until the track closed at 6pm, although the majority struggled to improve their best times from yesterday. Dani Pedrosa was the fastest rider on track today although Jorge Lorenzo’s time from yesterday was the quickest overall lap of the test.

POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Randy De Puniet was one of the few riders to step his pace today and he did so in impressive fashion, finding seven tenths of a second from yesterday to clock the fastest lap of the test by a CRT rider. Once again the main focus of his work was on rear suspension and electronics, his best time coming on the penultimate lap of 45. His team-mate Aleix Espargaró did the same number of laps today and although he struggled with rear grip issues today his time of 2’02.628 from the final day of the previous test remains the quickest overall CRT lap during six days of preseason here.

18th Aleix Espargaró 2.03.423 (45 laps): “The track was really slippery today and we had a lot of trouble with the rear, even though we used the same set-up as the last two days. We went back to the configuration from the last test and it felt a little better but we need to work hard in the next test at Jerez to improve it and get more stability. Anyway, I am happy with the new chassis, which is an improvement on 2012, and we have more or less found a base set-up we’re happy with so it’s a case of working on small details and finding more rear grip. We have had six productive days here at Sepang and set the fastest CRT lap so we’re very satisfied.”

Source: Aspar Team Press Release