Moto GP Sepang/Jerez Testing

[SALEEN S7R]

Well the final Moto GP tests of 2005 have been completed today and some interesting results have cropped up. Rossi perhaps unsuprisingly set the fastest time at Sepang over the course of the 3 days on the new Yamaha and seems pretty upbeat about the potential of the new bike, Melandri was 2nd fastest on the Fortuna Honda and seems to be settling in well with the new team. The biggest suprise for me though was Pedrosa, I knew he was going to be fast, but 3rd fastest over the 3 days? Wow! Hopefully he can carry his winter testing form over into the pre season testing. If he can then perhaps he could be a challenger for the title in 2006, unlikely yes, but defintely not beyond the bounds of possibilty. IMO.

The new Ducati is going very well too, lapping very near the Ducati qualifying times of 2005 on qualifying tyres today and lapping 5 tenths faster on race tyres than what the Ducati's acheived last year at Jerez. Its also worth noting that the track conditions are signifcantly worse than that of the race in 2005, with that in mind its safe to assume that had conditions been better the lap times would have been signifcantly faster. Could the Ducati be a constant challenger to Honda and Yamaha next year? There were signs that Ducati had closed the gap towards the end of the 2005 season and it would be good to get a 3rd manufacturer right up there fighting for race wins consistantly. IMO.