MotoGP: Overall Times from the Sepang (2) Three-Day Test:

Valentino Rossi leaves the second Sepang test as fastest overall, after finding a burst of pace early in the day to crack the two-minute barrier. So happy with his progress in testing this year was the Italian that he told the press afterwards he was already seriously considering a contract for 2015 and 2016, as long as his results during race weekends improve along the same lines as his pace in testing.

Dani Pedrosa took second spot, finishing with the same time as Rossi after chasing a time at the end of the day. But the Repsol Honda man had to cede top spot to Rossi, as Rossi had posted faster times during the day.

The clear progress Ducati have made with the GP14 was evident from Andrea Dovizioso’s time, the Italian setting the fastest ever time on a Ducati around the Sepang circuit. Clear improvement on braking and corner entry have made a big difference to the performance of the bike.

Dovizioso set his best time using the factory software, though he later did a long run using the Open configuration, running a string of laps in the high 2’01s and low 2’02s.

Aleix Espargaro was 4th fastest, just a tenth slower than Rossi. Espargaro also posted a long run, in around the same pace as Dovizioso on the Ducati. From the timesheets, both riders appear to have suffered a bit of a drop in tire life at the end of their long runs, the later laps slower than the early laps.

Stefan Bradl took 5th spot, the first of the two satellite Hondas, though a third of a second quicker than Alvaro Bautista. Jorge Lorenzo continues to struggle, though not as badly as on the first two days, closing the gap by half a second. The gap is stil six tenths of a second, though, and that was with Marc Marquez being absent from the test.

Cal Crutchlow also made steady progress with the Ducati, eight tenths behind Rossi, but ahead of the Tech 3 Yamahas of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro. Smith saved his honor in the battle for Tech 3 supremacy, posting a quick lap at the end of the day to get ahead of his teammate Pol Esparagaro.

The factory teams and satellite teams now pack up and go their separate ways. The factory teams head south to Phillip Island, while the satellite and Open teams ship west to Qatar. The two groups will have their own separate tests, ahead of the start of the 2014 season on March 23.

Overall Times from the Sepang (2) MotoGP Test:

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff.	Diff. Previous
1	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha M1	1:59.999	–	–
2	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	1:59.999	0.000	0.000
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati GP14	2:00.067	0.068	0.068
4	Aleix Espargaro	Yamaha FTR Open	2:00.101	0.102	0.034
5	Stefan Bradl	Honda RC213V	2:00.164	0.165	0.063
6	Alvaro Bautista	Honda RC213V	2:00.506	0.507	0.342
7	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha M1	2:00.619	0.620	0.113
8	Cal Crutchlow	Ducati GP14	2:00.790	0.791	0.171
9	Bradley Smith	Yamaha M1	2:00.804	0.805	0.014
10	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha M1	2:00.999	1.000	0.195
11	Andrea Iannone	Ducati GP14	2:01.173	1.174	0.174
12	Randy De Puniet	Suzuki Test	2:01.430	1.431	0.257
13	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati GP13 Open	2:01.497	1.498	0.067
14	Colin Edwards	Yamaha FTR Open	2:01.748	1.749	0.251
15	Nicky Hayden	Honda RCV1000R Open	2:01.924	1.925	0.176
16	Michele Pirro	Ducati GP14 Test	2:02.029	2.030	0.105
17	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda RCV1000R Open	2:02.070	2.071	0.041
18	Hector Barbera	Avintia Kawasaki	2:02.149	2.150	0.079
19	Scott Redding	Honda RCV1000R Open	2:02.228	2.229	0.079
20	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha M1 Test	2:02.802	2.803	0.574
21	Mike Di Meglio	Avintia Kawasaki	2:03.499	3.500	0.697
22	Karel Abraham	Honda RCV1000R Open	2:04.304	4.305	0.805
23	Nobu Aoki	Suzuki Test	2:06.482	6.483	2.178