Pedrosa stays top at Shakedown, Lorenzo arrives

The Sepang MotoGP Shakedown test may be about preparing for the future, but it was a pair of retired grand prix racers that captured the attention on day two.

The first was KTM test rider Dani Pedrosa, who defended his place at the top of the timesheets despite all of the factory's race riders also fitting timing transponders (only rookie Brad Binder had done so on day one).

31-time MotoGP race winner Pedrosa upped his pace from a 2m 0.625s on Sunday to 1m 59.841s during his 50 laps, which was enough to keep KTM race star Pol Espargaro at bay by 0.131s.

Pedrosa's former rival and newly announced Yamaha test rider Jorge Lorenzo then caused a stir by arriving at the circuit late in the afternoon.

The triple MotoGP champion even changed into his leathers and watched a #99 Monster Yamaha being warmed up in pit lane… but it was just a final check and the Spaniard won't head out on track, for his first Yamaha laps since 2016, until Tuesday's final day.

Having now missed two days of the Shakedown, there is surely a very strong chance that Lorenzo will also ride at the Official Test from February 7-9.

While Lorenzo won't start testing until tomorrow, Repsol Honda replacement Alex Marquez needed to pack-up after day two in order to join brother – and reigning MotoGP champion - Marc at tomorrow's team launch in Indonesia.

Alex cut over one-second from his Sunday time to claim third (+0.429s) behind Pedrosa and Espargaro despite a late fall at Turn 5, which brought out the red flags. The reigning Moto2 champion was declared 'ok'.

Tech3 KTM's Miguel Oliveira, making his return from shoulder surgery, was tied for fourth (+0.854s) with Ducati test rider Michele Pirro. Honda test rider Stefan Bradl was the only other rider to get within one-second of Pedrosa.

Behind Bradl were Binder (+1.058s), Suzuki test rider Sylvain Guintoli (+1.284s), Aprilia test rider Bradley Smith (+1.399s) and Tech3 KTM's Iker Lecuona (+2.105s).

Although Lorenzo didn't test, some Yamahas did appear on the timesheets.

However, as was the case a year ago, the bikes are anonymously designated 'Yamaha Test 1', 'Yamaha Test 2' and 'Yamaha Test 3' - presumably due to Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Kohta Nozane and from tomorrow Lorenzo, swapping between the different machines.

Either way, the timesheets listed Yamaha's day two running as only 10 and 12 'shakedown' laps for bikes 1 and 3 respectively. Assuming that's all the factory has done so far at the Shakedown, it's in stark contrast to the extensive running by its rivals, but a similar situation occurred a year ago.

On that occasion, it was rumoured that Yamaha had placed strict mileage limits on its latest prototype engines...

Completing the day two timesheets was Lorenzo Savadori, who has a 2019 spec Aprilia to try this week, to help gain MotoGP experience pending the outcome of tomorrow's FIM hearing for Andrea Iannone.

Savadori clipped 1.2s from his lap time to sit 3.765s from Pedrosa.