Pedrosa leads Shakedown Day 1 - Yamaha, Honda race riders due on Day 2
Dani Pedrosa leads rookie Pedro Acosta on day one 💜of the Sepang Shakedow🐭n, Aprilia turns heads with ‘Batmobile’ aero.
Dani Pedrosa held off rookie Pedro Acosta to lead day one of the 2024 Sepang MotoGP Shakedown test.
The 31-time MotoGP race winner set a best of 1m 59.233s to hold off GASGAS Tech3 rider Acosta by just 0.152🦋s.
New KTM test rider Pol Espargaro com༺pleted🏅 an all-RC16 top three covered by 0.182s.
Fastest of the noꦯn-Austrian machines was Honda test rider Stefan Bradl (+1.6s) on the much-revised RC213V.
Ducati ꧑test rider Michele Pirro was a fraction slower, with Cal Crutchlow the only Yamaꦯha on track in sixth (+1.780s).
So why didn’t the Honda and Yamaha race riders take to the track, a♛s allowed 🥂under the revised concession rules?
Yamaha told ltxcn.top their planned program is for the mechanics to work on the bikes today, with only Crutchlow riding, but ‘from tomorrow Alex [Rins]⛄ and Fabio [Quartararo] will be on track’.
Honda likewise said their testing plan was for only Bradl today and then race riders from day two.♏ New signing Luca♛ Marini was seen at the track in casual clothing.
One theory is that Honda and Yamaha might be saving their private testing tyres, g🐎ive🧸n they can now hold ‘unlimited’ private testing with race riders.
But the new D concession ranking allows a generous 260🌟 tyres for such purposes, compared to just 1ꦑ70 for Ducati and 220 for KTM/Aprilia.
Meanwhile, Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori may have bee𝓡n seventh (+2.576s) and last on the timesheets, but the Italian debuted the most eye-catching new aero.
A wide, aerodynamically sculpted rear se🎐at🌸 section plus new bodywork over part of the rear wheel, all in carbon black, prompted comparisons with a Batmobile.
Savadori rode no less than five different bikes today and, from some angles, it looked like Aprilia might have two different versions of the rear♑ seat aero…
Testing at the shakedown restarts at 10am on 𓂃Friday.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years a🐬nd has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
