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Originally Posted by MJS A year of Honda domination ahead? |
It's not unknown for Rossi to sandbag!
He may well be working on getting the bike setup right rather than pushing for the fastest time. It's his first proper test of the GP11, so expect to see things improve over the next two tests.
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Originally Posted by MJS Interesting the times are faster than the race weekend last October but slower than the test there this time last year |
Yes, you would expect the race times to be slower than test/qualifying as they carry more weight in fuel at the start and have less grip in the tyres at the end, so there's never the right combination of both.
As for last year's test times, let's take a look compared to the previous year... (see attachment) ... you can see that it's only Rossi who has not improved on his 2010 Sepang test time! Nicky Hayden has improved by nearly 1 second, which I think tells us that either the bike is getting better or Nicky is improving? Given Nicky's ability, I would say it was the bike.
Interestingly, Stoner has "only" improved on his 2010 time by 0.5sec, so not as big a jump as it first appears. Both Pedrosa (1.05sec) and Dovi (1.33sec) have improved by quite a jump, so maybe the Honda was slow last year?
The biggest jump is Simoncelli - nearly 2.5sec quicker!!