What went on in rain-disrupted second day of Sepang MotoGP test

Ducati was quickest again on the second day of MotoGP 2023 pre-season testing at Sepang, as Jorge Martin led the way in a rain-disrupted session.

Martin, who declared the 2023 Ducati engine he’s using as being better in all areas than what he campaigned last year, led the way with a 1m58.736s.

But he also subsequently had a crash at Turn 7 – the first corner of the double right-hander – that could be a potential complication for the final day of the test.

“I’m OK, I could be a bit better for sure – I burned my hand, it’s really painful, I hope tomorrow I can ride in a good way without any pain,” Martin told MotoGP.com.

His benchmark lap was still nearly three tenths of a second off what VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi had managed on the opening day – reflecting the stop-start and ultimately limited nature of Saturday’s running.

The track was damp to begin the eight-hour session, and though it did eventually dry enough for meaningful running, rain reared its head again just past the halfway point.

It then came again an hour later but was considerably more substantial, rendering the final 150 minutes or so completely irrelevant in terms of laptime improvements. But riders did explore the wet conditions, allowing RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira to finish with a credible pack-leading 52 laps – 15 fewer than Martin and Vinales managed to lead the mileage rankings on the opening day.

“I think so far it’s gone better than it normally does here!” claimed KTM’s Brad Binder, placing 10th, regarding the weather conditions.

“Last year we literally did the first day, second day we maybe got 10 laps each. Happy to have tomorrow to test as well, and I think the weather is meant to be OK – or at least better than today.

“We’ve got here and we’ve got [two days at] Portimao to sort things out, I think we’ve got plenty of time.”

Oliveira was second to Martin, having improved substantially relative to his Friday effort. The same was true for Tech3 Gas Gas rider Pol Espargaro in third.

Fabio Quartararo completed a top four made up of four different bikes, on a day his Yamaha team set aside for trying out a variety of aero packages.

Quartararo’s 2022 title rival, reigning champion Pecco Bagnaia, completed the top five for Ducati – after having had a minor collision with Espargaro.

LCR Honda’s Alex Rins was the fastest of the RC213V runners in eighth, eight places up on fellow Suzuki-to-Honda convert Joan Mir – who said on Friday that he was finding single-lap pace hard to come by at Sepang, in contrast to his late-2022 Honda debut at Valencia in which it was pace consistency that was the issue.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro had a particularly disrupted day, first crashing and then being halted by a dashboard message he later described as a “misunderstanding”.

There was also a crash for opening-day pacesetter Bezzecchi, who was seen limping away from the site of the accident.

Session results