Racing

Day Two: Who Really Was the Fastest Around Losail?

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Continuing our thought on who really was fastest at the Qatar test, the idea of comparing best lap times again seems more than moderately preposterous, considering last night’s sessions were for testing purposes. That’s not to say however that some basic understanding of how teams are shaping up before the season cannot be divined, and by looking at the individual lap times we can get at least an impression of whom is finding some consistency on the desert track.

Again starting with MotoGP’s listing with the riders ranked by their best lap time from Day Two of testing in Qatar, we see a strong showing by the Hondas, with a Yamaha and a Ducati sprinkled in there for good measure. The Hondas are certainly there as far as speed goes, and Randy de Puniet’s style seems to be meshing well with the Ducati Desmosedici GP11, while the Yamaha effort has seemingly been lead by sophomore Ben Spies, and not reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Pos. Rider Team Fastest lap Prev. Gap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team 1:55.681 46
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1:55.745 +0.064 +0.064 39
3 Ben Spies Yamaha Factory Racing 1:56.294 +0.549 +0.613 45
4 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:56.433 +0.139 +0.752 70
5 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1:56.439 +0.006 +0.758 58
6 Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Team 1:56.445 +0.006 +0.764 67
7 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing 1:56.707 +0.262 +1.026 48
8 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:56.716 +0.009 +1.035 57
9 Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro Team 1:56.726 +0.010 +1.045 68
10 Hiroshi Aoyama San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:56.740 +0.014 +1.059 73
11 Hector Barbera Mapfre Aspar Team 1:56.798 +0.058 +1.117 62
12 Alvaro Bautista Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1:56.931 +0.133 +1.250 63
13 Valentino Rossi Ducati Marlboro Team 1:56.988 +0.057 +1.307 50
14 Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing Team 1:57.345 +0.357 +1.664 62
15 Cal Crutchlow Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:57.730 +0.385 +2.049 28
16 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing 1:57.846 +0.116 +2.165 49
17 Toni Elias LCR Honda MotoGP 1:58.536 +0.690 +2.855 57

However if we reshuffle the rankings, using an ordering system that takes into account the number of laps done at a certain pace (some tweaking was done to account for the number of laps ridden, and obvious last minute runs done purely for posting a good time), a new order emerges that suggests who is capable of sustaining the blistering speeds seen in the desert night. Day Two of testing at Qatar sees the order more or less stay the same at the top and bottom of the time sheet, while the middle sees a bit of a reorganization.

Perhaps most alarming is Valentino Rossi’s position behind teammate Nicky Hayden & satellite rider De Puniet. Meanwhile Lorenzo’s “awful” session doesn’t look nearly as bad, as the Spaniard spent most of the evening lapping around in the 1:57’s, and touching the 1:56’s almost as often as his teammate. Still not a good showing, but not as bad as he made it out to be in the press debriefs.

Most impressive were the Gresini Hondas, with Marco Simoncelli showing potential to keep up with the pace, assuming Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa don’t find themselves at the front of the pack, and able to check-out from the race completely. The newly crowned “factory” riders lapped the most around Losail, and showed not only improvement throughout the night, be eery repetition of lap times.

In other news Toni Elias actually went slower on his second day at Qatar, raising more than a few eyebrows, and bringing up questions as to why he raced in Moto2 last year.

Pos. Rider Team Best Time 1:57’s 1:56’s 1:55’s Laps
1 Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team 1’55.681 4 16 7 46
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1’55.745 7 11 1 39
3 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’56.433 16 9 0 70
4 Ben Spies Yamaha Factory Racing 1’56.294 4 8 0 45
5 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing 1’56.707 27 5 0 48
6 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1’56.439 21 5 0 58
7 Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro Team 1’56.726 18 6 0 68
8 Hiroshi Aoyama San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’56.740 26 2 0 73
9 Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Team 1’56.445 18 2 0 67
10 Alvaro Bautista Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’56.931 17 1 0 63
11 Valentino Rossi Ducati Marlboro Team 1’56.988 14 1 0 50
12 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’56.716 9 3 0 57
13 Hector Barbera Mapfre Aspar Team 1’56.798 4 2 0 62
14 Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing Team 1’57.345 3 0 0 62
15 Cal Crutchlow Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’57.730 2 0 0 28
16 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing 1’57.846 1 0 0 49
17 Toni Elias LCR Honda MotoGP 1’58.536 0 0 0 57

Photo: © 2011 Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved

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