Sepang Test: Petrucci: No points for new record, Vinales strongest
Danilo Petrucci became the fastest ever rider at the 𝓀Sepang circuit﷽ with an all-time unofficial MotoGP record of 1m 58.239s on the final day of this week's test.
But the Ital💞ian, who led four Ducatis at the top of the timesheets, was just as quick to play down the achievement.
"Fo🧔r sure I'm happy, but it counts for nothing. I didn't score any points or even get the watch for p꧟ole position!" he said.

Danilo Petrucci became the fastest ever rider at the Sepang circuit with an all-time unofficial MotoGP record of 1m 58.239s on the final day of thisཧ week's test.
But the Italian, who led four Ducatis at ൩the top of the timesheets, was just as quick to play down the achievement༒.
"For sure I'm happy🐈, but it counts for nothing. I didn't score any points or even get the watch for pole position!" he said.
"I was not focussed on the lap time this morning even if I did a very, very good time. I used medium tyre☂s in the previous run to understand where the limit was, then when I used the soft I found a ❀big difference."
But it was far from a perfect day for Petrucci, who was forced to pack-up at lunchtime after a fast fall on his out-lap168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: with the new Ducati fairing: "Unfortunately I broke the new fa༺iring and especially I took some skin off my hand."
Speaking with half-an-hour of testing still to go, the Italian fully💦 expected the likes of Maverick Vinales to beat his lap time. But the Yamaha star, quickest on day two💃, didn't improve despite the aid of the new Michelin rear tyre.
"Maybe someone now, Vinales I think, will be faster," Petrucci said. "The temperature is going down. Vinales is riding very fast in the hot weather and now he has the new soft rear tyre and I haven’t tried that one. Other riders and Michelin say the new tyre is 𓆏three tenths ༒quicker."
Although Vinales did push at the end of the day he remained in fifth place, behind the Ducati𝔉s of Petrucci, Francesco Bagnaia, Jack Miller and Andrea Dovizioso.
Yet if the race was 🍬tomorrow, Petrucci wasn't sure if he would have theꦍ pace for the podium.
A local curry with , and to finish the Sepang test. Lots of discu💟ssion about lap times beyond one fast lap. Pace shown by Marquez on daꦅy three was a surprise. Race lap record is a 2m 0.6s.
— Peter McLaren (@McLarenMotoGP)
"I think Vi✨nales - Marquez is injured - is the strongest rider over these three days, especially in the heat. He is very, very fast in the heat, whe🌜n the race is," he said.
"I think🐈 w🌄e are okay to be in the top five. I don't know if it's enough for the podium. Because now you see Valentino in tenth, but if you remember in last year's race he was absolutely impressive.
"Rins is also very fast when the conditions are very hot - Marquez, Dovizioso, Morbidelli… there are ten. So fighting for the top five is still hard and lap ti🐼me doesn’t count too much.
"Fortunatel🎶y the race here will be in November, so we have still some time to work, but at the moment I think the hottest conditions are the weakest point for us."
Vinales set an average lap ti🐬me of around 2m 0.1s (removing two very slow laps) during his Friday simulation. Petrucci 🍒and Dovizioso had set an average of 2m 0.7s during their two-part Thursday race simulation.
But looking back over the test as a whole, Petrucci was most proud of his performance while riding with team-mate and double MotoGP title runner-up Doviz𝄹ioso during the race simulation.
"Yesterday following Andrea I got to see many things. For sure, it was a big help to have him in front of me and it🍷🉐's quite difficult.
"I mean, talking is easy because he simply🔯 said, 'you have to wait before opening the throttle'. But when you fight for every tenth it's difficult to say when you have to open. I have to wait, but how much?
"So if you try to always go quicker, you al🐲ways try to brake one metre later or open the throttle a metre earlier. It's not easy but yesterday I understood many things. Hopefully, also Andrea understood some things, ten laps behind me."
Less cl🦩ear to Petꦓrucci is the potential advantage of the rear brake torque arm, which reappeared on the final day after first being seen at Jerez in November.
"Some positivesᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ and some negatives… for example at Jerez i🔯t was better, now not so much, we have to try again."
Petrucci's 1pm fall restricted his Friday track time to 32 laps, less than half the number of✃ Vinales for example.
Might the change in feeling from the radical new fairing have caused the ac🔯cident?
"We are trying to understand why. Because🌼 it was at the fifth corner on the out-la and everything was like the other out laps," he replied. "I don’t think a fairi♏ng can be so important for a crash.
"I mean, if you go to turn five and see how fast we go down turn five, it's impressive. It’s impressive for me riding, f💎rom the outside iܫt's unbelievable. Sincerely I don’t know why I crashed."
Dovizioso was 0.299s slower than new team-mate Petrucc🌠i on🗹 the final day. The final pre-season test will be held at Qatar later this month.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentജino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.