Enea Bastianini breaks Sepang lap record after dominating MotoGP test Day 2

Enea Bastianini broke the Sepang lap record after dominating on the second day of the 2024 MotoGP pre-season test.

Ducati factory’s Enea Bastianini edged Pramac’s Jorge Martin in the last moments of the official 2024 MotoGP pre-season test day two, setting a new lap record at Sepang Circuit in the course of proceedings.

Bastianini recorded a time of 1m 57.134secs in the final hour of the second day, which dropped the previous day record set by his stablemate Martin.

Earlier, just after the green flags went up to kick off track action, Martin appeared certain to top the timesheets for a second day in a row after he emerged fastest following a series of lightning-fast times.

Almost every rider improved their lap times in the first hour, including Martin, who went a massive 0.7 seconds faster than his personal best on Tuesday, finishing in 1m 57.273s, two tenths quicker than Pecco Bagnaia’s 2023 Malaysian MotoGP pole-winning mark.

Bagnaia was not the only rider to see significant gains as Brad Binder of KTM and Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia all finished below their previous benchmark.

As one of the few riders who did not attempt a Q2 simulation in the early going, Bastianini did, however, have the chance to shine when the circuit was run in at the end of the day.

The Malaysian MotoGP winner took advantage of the conditions to improve even further and enjoy a well-deserved return to the top of the timesheets. The outcome will significantly boost Bastianini’s confidence although his testing results won’t fully reflect his current form following a season marred by injury setbacks.

Jorge Martin came in second ahead of Brad Binder as Aleix Espargaro and Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the top five with all riders recording their respective laptimes early in the session.

Fabio di Giannantonio placed fifth on the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Ducati, with his stablemate coming in seventh and Pedro Acosta taking eighth place after an early tumble at Turn 5.

Although Marco Bezzecchi had to settle for ninth place, he seemed to be running more quickly as he caught up to Bastianini after delivering some fast laps towards the end.

While Bezzecchi recorded sectors that would have classified him as the first MotoGP rider to earn a spot in the 1m 56s class at Sepang, he crashed on his final attempt after making errors on his previous two.

Joan Mir finished in the top ten marking the first Honda although the spotlight was taken away by his teammate Luca Marini, who was credited for putting in an impressive race simulation on the sister Honda RC213V.

While Fabio Quartararo dropped to 11th place on the timesheets, he had the distinction of having his Yamaha dominate the speed charts for the better part of the day, presumably validating Tuesday’s comments that the M1 will be significantly faster on a straight line this season.

Marc Marquez was unquestionably the most active rider of the day after running an incredible 72 laps. Meanwhile, Johann Zarco was the only other rider to crash twice on the LCR Honda besides Acosta and Bezzecchi.

Michele Pirro filled in for the injured Franco Morbidelli at Pramac Ducati, while Lorenzo Savadori stepped in for Raul Fernandez at Trackhouse Aprilia with Cal Crutchlow joining the action as Yamaha only fields two GP entries in MotoGP.

2024 MotoGP Official Pre-Season Testing Results Sepang Day 2