The first day of MotoGP testing took place earlier today at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia and Marc Márquez picked up right where he left off. The defending champion was fastest on day one by over a half second faster than Valentino Rossi. Dani Pedrosa was third, just a little over a tenth of a second back of Rossi with Jorge Lorenzo in fourth. Álvaro Bautista was fifth making it four of the top five for Spain.
Stefan Brandl was sixth, giving Honda four of the top six with Aleix Espargaró in seventh place, the highest of the Open entries riding for Forward Racing. The fastest Ducati was the satellite factory bike of Andrea Iannone of Pramac Racing in eighth. The Tech3 Yamahas of defending Moto2 champion Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith.
Colin Edwards was eleventh on the second Forward Racing bike. Factory Ducatis took the next three spots on the time charts with Andrea Dovizioso leading test rider Michele Pirro and newcomer to the Italian stable Cal Crutchlow. Yonny Hernández was fifteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry.
Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was sixteenth ahead of the Aspar Honda Open bikes of Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama. Randy de Puniet was nineteenth on the Suzuki test bike as the manufacture looks to return to MotoGP full-time in 2015 with the possibility of a few wild card entries late in 2014.
Testing will resume tomorrow and continue through Thursday. After that MotoGP will return to Sepang February 24-26th for more testing before a tire test at Phillip Island, March 3-5th and a final test session at Losail, March 7-9th.
While MotoGP teams are hitting the ground for 2014, IndyCar teams are getting some testing under their belts. On January 17th the Chevrolet teams of Penske Racing, Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, KVSH Racing and Panther Racing. Notable occurrences were Juan Pablo Montoya getting behind the wheel of a car while Mike Conway and Sébastien Bourdais made their debuts at Ed Carpenter Racing and KVSH respectively.
Panther Racing brought in Formula Renault 3.5 driver, Colombian Carlos Huertas for the test. Huertas won one race in 2013, a rain-drenched race at the second round in Aragón, Spain. He would go on to score five points in the remaining thirteen rounds. He will be testing for the team again later this month.
The 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 champion Mikhail Aleshin completed his rookie oval test at Homestead-Miami Speedway on January 28th. Aleshin and his Schmidt-Peterson Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud are testing at Sebring the next two days. Also down at Sebring are Andretti Autosport with drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and rookie Carlos Muñoz.
Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and Team Penske's Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves are schedule to test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next Monday.
There are still a few unannounced seats in the IndyCar Series. Bryan Herta Autosport and Panther Racing have yet to announce a driver while Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and possibly KVSH Racing looking to finalize second cars for 2014.
