Bridgestone Sepang test II summary

Stoner on song at second Sepang test

Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Hazrin Yeob Men Shah

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Hard & Extra-Hard; Rear: Medium & Hard
Weather: Tue: Dry/Wet, Wed: Wet/Dry, Thu: Dry. Ambient 26-34°C; Track 34-59°C (Bridgestone measurement)

The second Sepang pre-season test concluded today with fine weather on the final day allowing teams to make up for lost time following extended rainy periods over the first two days of the test.

In a repeat performance of the first Sepang test, Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner was again the fastest rider, stopping the clocks at 2:00.473 on a combination of the hard front and medium rear tyre. Dani Pedrosa’s best time of 2:00.648 was good enough to ensure a Honda lock-out at the top of the timesheets, while Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Andrea Dovizioso was the fastest Yamaha in Sepang, his best lap of 2:00.802 placing him third overall.

Perhaps the most telling statistic of the second Sepang test was a gap of only 1.1 seconds among the fastest laps recorded by the eleven riders comprising the factory and satellite Honda, Yamaha and Ducati teams. Colin Edwards’ tireless work saw him cut the gap to the prototype bikes drastically as he set a best time just 3.2 seconds shy of Stoner’s benchmark, while Avintia Racing also improved their performance with a best lap that was 1.6 seconds faster than they managed at the first Sepang test.

Bridgestone’s tyre development programme now heads to Europe where it will supply tyres and engineers for both the private CRT test at Aragon on March 8-9 and the final pre-season test of the year at Jerez from March 23-25.

Shinji Aoki - Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“I am pleased with the performance of the 2012 specification tyres at the second Sepang test as track conditions varied greatly over the three days. Tyre durability is very important at Sepang and I was encouraged at how the tyres performed during the longer runs as there was very little variation in lap time which indicates that the grip characteristics of the tyres over their operating life are quite predictable.

“We also continued evaluation of the experimental front tyre we introduced at the first Sepang test and overall the rider feedback on all the 2012 spec tyres continues to be very positive. We leave Malaysia having successfully completed our testing programme so I would like to thank all the teams and riders for their support during this time.”