Rossi and Stoner once again dominate in Sepang

Added on Friday, February 26th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor

There was a familiar look to the time sheets at Sepang on day three of the official MotoGP test, with Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner once again dominating proceedings.

Rossi, who has been the fastest on the three previous pre-season testing sessions in Sepang, kept up his 100% record with a time of 2:00.271 on day three this week’s test, 0.241 seconds ahead of title rival Casey Stoner.

Nicky Hayden was the surprise package however, with the American riding his Ducati to a time of 2:00.703 and there was very much an American flavour to the top five, with Tech 3 Yamaha duo Colin Edwards and Ben Spies making up the top five with just 0.026 seconds between them.

It was another tough session for Honda, with both Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa failing to make an impression whilst Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli also had a session to forget, lapping slower than the Yamaha test rider, almost three and a half seconds off the pace.

The teams will no prepare for the final test of the season in March, where they’ll work under floodlights in Qatar.

MotoGP Test, Sepang Day Three:

Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Valentino Rossi	ITA	Fiat Yamaha	2:00.271
2	Casey Stoner	AUS	Ducati Marlboro	+ 0.241
3	Nicky Hayden	USA	Ducati Marlboro	+ 0.432
4	Colin Edwards	USA	Monster Tech 3 Yamaha	+ 0.717
5	Ben Spies	USA	Monster Tech 3 Yamaha	+ 0.743
6	Loris Capirossi	ITA	Rizla Suzuki	+ 1.049
7	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Repsol Honda	+ 1.168
8	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	Repsol Honda	+ 1.207
9	Hiroshi Aoyama	JAP	Interwetten Honda	+ 1.421
10	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	Rizla Suzuki	+ 1.461
11	Randy de Puniet	FRA	LCR Honda	+ 1.709
12	Marco Melandri	ITA	San Carlo Gresini Honda	+ 1.807
13	Hector Barbera	SPA	Aspar Ducati	+ 1.809
14	Mika Kallio	FIN	Pramac Ducati	+ 1.811
15	Yamaha Test		Yamaha	+ 2.016
16	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Pramac Ducati	+ 2.096
17	Marco Simoncelli	ITA	San Carlo Gresini Honda	+ 3.418