Source: MotoGP.

The MotoGP paddock was once again greeted with some pretty extreme weather as they returned for the second day of the penultimate pre-season test at the Sepang International Circuit.

It turned out to be an all action morning, as with the temperatures due to reach the high 30’s later on in the day, teams tried to make the most of the relatively cooler weather before the levels of grip worsened at the Malaysian track.

Many of the teams ran race simulations through the afternoon, although a sudden drop in temperature with only a few minutes to go resulted in a number of riders taking advantage of the extra grip available to post much quicker times.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez re-established himself at the top of the time sheets after a first day which his team admits was a complete write-off due to brake problems he experienced on his RC213V which meant they could not do any meaningful testing until today.

Whatever the issue was though, it was clearly no concern for Marquez this morning, as the young Spaniard was one of only two riders to break the 2 minute mark, registering a 1m59.844s lap and claiming the top spot.

Only 0.058s behind the reigning world champion was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who was extremely pleased with his pace after admitting he is still experiencing quite a few problems around the Malaysian circuit.

It was an excellent day for the Ducati Team, with Andrea Iannone one of the riders to put in a late flying lap, managing to post a time good enough for third and just 0.254s off the pace of Marquez.

His teammate Dovizioso set his best lap earlier on in the day, which was over a second quicker than his time from the previous day which he set on the GP14.3 machine, highlighting just how much an improvement the new GP15 is an improvement over the older bike.

Dani Pedrosa had to settle for 5th after spending the day tweaking his suspension to try and get more feedback from his RC213V, although he did manage to shave 0.3s off his time from yesterday.

After leading the time sheets in the early part of the morning, Valentino Rossi, who was evaluating two different types of front forks on his Movistar Yamaha YZF-M1, couldn’t quite match the pace of his team mate Lorenzo as the day wore on. Rossi finished in sixth with a 2m00.308s which while an improvement on his time from day one, was 0.4 seconds back from Marquez.

Heading out late in the day to set his fastest laps, Bradley Smith launched himself from outside the top ten up to seventh in the final minutes of the session on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, beating his teammate Pol Espargaro in the process and improving by almost a whole second from day to day.

He also managed to finish ahead of compatriot Cal Crutchlow on the CWM LCR Honda who set a 2m00.509s, good enough for eighth place on the leaderboard, but more importantly fro Crutchlow was that he seems to be finally getting to grips with wringing the best out of his RC213V on fresh tyres, having set his fastest lap on a brand new set.

It was another good day for the factory Suzuki team as they continue to develop their GSX-RR bike, with Aleix Espargaro knocking another half a second of his day one time to end up in ninth with a 2m00.409s. He also managed to score bragging rights over his younger brother Pol on the second Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, whom he managed to out pace by almost three-tenths of a second, relegating him to 10th.

Showing a dramatic improvement in 11th was Danilo Petrucci who took 1.5s off his time from the previous day for Pramac Ducati, as he continued to fine tune his suspension and chassis set up. His team mate Yonny Hernandez managed to get within 1.168s of Marquez as he continued his comeback from the injury that forced him to miss Sepang 1.

Maverick Viñales on the second Suzuki managed to get within 0.9 seconds of Marquez in 12th, finishing just ahead of an improving Scott Redding on the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Honda, who stated that he is pleased with the way he is closing the gap to the leaders.

Forward Racing’s Stefan Bradl finished in 16th place, half a second faster than the Drive M7 Aspar Honda RC213V-RS of Nicky Hayden, while the American’s new teammate Eugene Laverty will be happy with his days work as he managed to improve his pace from yesterday by almost a second to claim 19th.

Loriz Baz escaped an early crash at turn 14 without injury to end up 24th, after complaining yesterday of not having a great feeling on his Forward Racing bike, while the rookie Aussie Jack Miller was another to take advantage of the improving conditions late in the day on his RC213V-RS, to post a 2m01.968s and end up 21st.

Alex De Angelis could not quite match his day one pace down in 25th as he continued development of his Octo Ioda ART machine and it was a disastrous day for the Aprilia Racing team Gresini as they seemed to take a step backwards with both Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri both slower than they were on day one.

Bautista managed a disappointing lap time of 2m02.221s which was only good enough for 23rd, although he still faired better than his team mate Marco Melandri who despite today trying a chassis more like the one he was used to on his Aprilia World Superbike, was dead last and almost four and a half seconds behind Marquez.

2015 MotoGP World Championship
Sepang 2 test

Day two results:
1. Marc Marquez 1m59.844s
2. Jorge Lorenzo 1m59.902s
3. Andrea Iannone 2m00.098s
4. Andrea Dovizioso 2m00.250s
5. Dani Pedrosa 2m00.275s
6. Valentino Rossi 2m00.308s
7. Bradley Smith 2m00.329s
8. Cal Crutchlow 2m00.333s
9. Aleix Espargaro 2m00.409s
10. Pol Espargaro 2m00.689s
11. Danilo Petrucci 2m00.713s
12. Maverick Viñales 2m00.731s
13. Scott Redding 2m00.762s
14. Hector Barbera 2m00.847s
15. Yonny Hernandez 2m01.012s
16. Stefan Bradl 2m01.131s
17. Nicky Hayden 2m01.633s
18. Michele Pirro 2m01.897s
19. Eugene Laverty 2m01.944s
20. Karel Abraham 2m01.945s
21. Jack Miller (AUS) 2m01.968s
22. Mike Di Meglio 2m02.006s
23. Alvaro Bautista 2m02.221s
24. Loris Baz 2m02.426s
25. Alex De Angelis 2m03.499s
26. Katsuyuki Nakasuga 2m03.755s
27. Marco Melandri 2m04.313s

Click here for detailed results