Sepang MotoGP Shakedown Test results – Day 1 (FINAL)

Yamaha finished day one of the Sepang Shakedown test on top of the timesheets, with one of its three test machines setting the pace by the time a mid-afternoon downpour soaked the circuit.

The Yamaha test bikes do not have named riders – with Cal Crutchlow, Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Kohta Nozane thought to be swapping between machines – but the Englishman, twelfth in last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix as a stand-in at RNF, is understood to have been on the ‘T2’ machine when it set a 2m 1.146s.

While the track steadily dried after the rain shower had passed, and many riders returned to the circuit, they remained on wet tyres to the 6pm finish.

Factory test riders from all five MotoGP manufacturers, plus 2023 rookie Augusto Fernandez (GASGAS Tech3) are eligible to take part in the Shakedown, which runs from Sunday February 5 until Tuesday February 7.

Moto2 champion Fernandez finished just 0.185s behind the top Yamaha in second place, completing 28 laps on his main bike and 6 on the other.

Like Yamaha, the test riders from the other four factories are also using multiple bikes, with Stefan Bradl’s best good enough for fourth for Honda (+0.459s), Michele Pirro seventh for Ducati (+0.969s) and Lorenzo Savadori tenth (+1.700s) for Aprilia.

New aerodynamic parts, kept under wraps during recent team launches, are expected to be one of the main talking points of the Malaysian tests and there were plenty of new carbon fibre-black fairings on show during day one, plus a new swingarm at Yamaha.

In terms of top speeds, the fastest recorded was 332.3km/h by Savadori (Aprilia), followed by 330.3km/h for both the Yamaha and Bradl (Honda).

That compares with a weekend best of 335.4km.h by Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia at the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend, while the new Yamaha engine effectively matched the 330.2km/h set by Fabio Quartararo at the event.

However, Quartararo’s best speed was recorded during qualifying, on a lap almost two seconds faster than today. That suggests the Frenchman would have been exiting the final corner quicker and that the new 2023 engine therefore probably has something extra. Time will tell…

The 2023 engine had shown promising top speed at Barcelona and Misano, but Quartararo and Morbidelli were left disappointed by its performance at Valencia last November.

The Shakedown test runs from Sunday until Tuesday, with the track open from 10am to 6pm each day.

The Official Sepang MotoGP Test, for all race riders, will then be held at the Malaysian Grand Prix venue from February 10-12.

Official Sepang MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Jorge Martin SPA Ducati 1m 57.790s (2022)
Fastest race lap:
Jorge Martin SPA Ducati 1m 59.634s (2022)