World champion
Jorge Lorenzo shaved more than half a second off his fastest lap from the opening day of the official
MotoGP test at Sepang before rain interrupted play in the afternoon.
However, it wasn't enough to give the factory Yamaha star the top spot on the timesheets on the penultimate day of the three-day shakedown in Malaysia as Repsol Honda's
Dani Pedrosa also improved on his day one pace on the RC213V to retain the number one spot.
Lorenzo's fastest lap on Wednesday of 2m 0.568s was a mere 0.019s behind Pedrosa and he 'easily' bettered his times from Tuesday.
“Today in the morning the conditions were good and I could easily do the lap times from yesterday, I improved by more than half a second,” said Lorenzo.
“Later we tried some little parts we couldn't try yesterday, but not so much and the bike didn't improve a lot.
“In the last hour it started to rain so I decided to exit and ride in the wet.
“We made more than eight laps in the rain. I think it was important to find the feeling in these conditions and also try the new tyre.”
Lorenzo and teammate
Valentino Rossi experimented with different set-up positions on their YZR M1 machines and tested a variety of chassis and engine specifications as they made up for lost time after poor weather thwarted the post-season test at Valencia last November.
Rossi continued to show he has lost none of his old sparkle as he again ended the day in fourth, less than half a second behind Pedrosa.