Team Suzuki Press Office – February 4. The Suzuki MotoGP Test Team completed the opening day of the official MotoGP Tests at Sepang in Malaysia today satisfied with the progress made with its new Magneti Marelli electronic ignition.
Test riders Randy De Puniet and Nobuatsu Aoki switched to the new MotoGP system after a few initial runs on the 5,543km circuit with its former ignition system then spent the entire day evaluating and making further adjustments for optimum performance.
De Puniet completed 75 laps during the session as the team worked tirelessly to find the best settings, recording his fastest time of 2:03.893ms on his 47th lap.
The team has two further days of testing in which it hopes to further develop the new ignition system.
Said Suzuki MotoGP Test Team Manager Davide Brivio: “It was a very important day because, after few runs on our usual electronic system, we then switched to the new Magneti Marelli system. Suzuki is busy redesigning the all-new software and today was a kind of first real shakedown for us.
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“We are quiet satisfied to have already found a good level of performance and we have spent some time on making adjustments. All our staff needs to get experience on this new system and we have to learn how to quickly adjust and use its potential.
So, as a first day, it was positive for us and we will continue over the next two days on our set-up and development. But in this Sepang test session, the electronic system development is our priority”
Sepang Test Times – Day 1: 1 Marc Marquez (Honda) 2:00.268, 2 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2:00.804, 3 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2:00.906, 4 Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2:01.082, 5 Alvaro Bautista (Honda) 2:01.240, 6 Stefan Bradl (Honda) 2:01.320, 7 Alex Espargaro (Yamaha) 2:01.419, 8 Andrea Iannone (Ducati) 2:01.538, 9 Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) 2:01.634, 10 Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 2:01. 876, 19 Randy De Puniet (Suzuki MotoGP Test Team) 2:03.893.
While I didn’t expect Suzuki to be in the top 3, 2 full seconds per lap behind 10th place means they have a lot of work to do.