Pedrosa and Marquez take to the track in Valencia

On the second day of the 2013 pre-season test in Valencia, Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez were finally able to complete some laps of the Ricardo Tormo track. The main use of this test was for Dani to have his first taste of the 2013 bike and for Marc to begin his learning curve on the bigger 1000cc prototype machine.

It has been a frustrating few days in Valencia, especially for Moto2 champion Marc Marquez, who has been waiting patiently for his first experience on the Honda MotoGP bike. Bad weather prevented any track action yesterday but today at around 15h00, Dani went out on track on slick tyres to see if it was drying up at all. After recording a 1'34.911 on his first run, Dani proved the track had a reasonable grip level and Marc followed him out on track at 15h30. Dani tested the new 2013 machine and completed 30 laps recording the fastest time of the day, 1'32.322, two tenths quicker than the circuit lap record (1'32.582).

Marc tested the 2012 bike and did an initial run of 5 laps with his first flying lap timed at 1'44.934. By the final lap of his first run he had brought this down to 1'35.846 and he continued to shave time off this for the rest of the session. In the end, his fastest lap was 1'33.403 placing him 7th fastest of the day after a total of 28 laps and just 1.081 off his teammate. 

The next opportunity for Marc to test will be in Sepang on the 26, 27 and 28 of November, where he will get a chance to test the new 2013 prototype and Dani will be back on track on the 5, 6, 7 February 2013.