Dennis Noyes analyses the Sepang test in order to get a sense of the pecking order that could materialize at the dawn of the 1000cc MotoGP era.

The 2012 MotoGP World Championship season is just around the corner and now, after the conclusion of a second three-day test in Sepang, we can at least start to recognize some emerging patterns. But until they actually line up alongside to race each other in Qatar, we can only base it on test results.

The teams have all run their fuel consumption simulations on the test bed and have been able to confirm (or not) these results on track in Malaysia. However, the only rider to run a full race simulation was Jorge Lorenzo on the works Yamaha (Andrea Dovizioso also attempted a simulation on the Tech3 Yamaha but did not complete it). The total of 19 consecutive flying laps put up by the 2010 World Champion can be compared with Valentino Rossi’s race winning time of 2010 at Sepang. There was no race run in 2011 because of the fatal accident that took the life of Marco Simoncelli at the beginning of the race.

If we eliminate the opening lap of Rossi’s win in 2010 in order to compare only the consecutive flying laps of Jorge on the Yamaha 1000cc (although we don't really know the exact capacity) and Valentino two years ago on the Yamaha 800cc, we see that the Spaniard’s average flying lap was done in 2:01.750 compared to Rossi’s old average of 2:02.683...more