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The curtain rises as the theater welcomes the members of the MotoGP World Championship 2017. Today he kicked off the new season with the first pre-season training sessions at the Sepang circuit. Who does not want the thing, Casey stoner it has been imposed on each and every one of the pilots who gathered today in the Malaysian circuit.
The Australian, with more days of training and who knows if with the same bike, continues to give us illusions about a hypothetical return to competition. It is proven that if he did, he would not be, far from it, out of the fight for victories. Today, without deviating from what concerns here, he set a 1: 59.681, a time better than the lap of Jorge Lorenzo on the first test day of 2016.
This has only started
The rain made an appearance in the last bars of a session that began at 2 in the morning, Spanish time, and lasted until 11 in the morning. Casey Stoner, who got in first before a small hiatus in which the first drops fell, had the weather as an ally to close the day in first place. Of course, as you can see in the photo that heads these words, its main function continues to be to develop the motorcycle and help Jorge Lorenzo as much as possible and Andrea Dovizioso.
A Dovizioso which is only one tenth behind Stoner. The Italian has a clear objective for this 2017: to show that he can be faster than Jorge Lorenzo. The Mallorcan, for his part, finished the day in 17th position after completing a total of 46 laps of the Sepang track. Ironic the number.
Just ahead lies Pol Espargaro, still adapting to his new mount. The KTM is closing in on its rivals' records by leaps and bounds. Without going to another world, the little one of the Espargaró has finished the day at 1,657 of Casey Stoner. Instead, Bradley smith he finished in last position (27th, since Michele Pirro has left no records) after more than three seconds. He has a job, and a lot, the British.
Álvaro Bautista and Maverick Viñales come wanting to eat the world
We already saw in training in Valencia what it is capable of doing with the Yamaha YZF-M1 Maverick Viñales, so his third position today should not surprise us. Of course, he has not been able to break the gap of two minutes as they did Stoner and Dovizioso.
Who surprises (or not?) Is Alvaro Bautista, who completed 54 laps at Sepang setting the fourth best time of the day, 453 thousandths slower than Casey Stoner. The Talavera driver will drive a Ducati in 2017 for the first time in his sporting career, specifically the GP16 with which Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone achieved such good results in 2016.
It is the turn for the two best of last season: Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi They finished the day in eighth and ninth place, respectively. The Italian, with only 28 laps completed, has been the driver who has worked the least in this Spanish morning; Marquez, on the other hand, has passed Sepang's backstretch 57 times, leaving a time one second slower than Stoner's.
As for newbies, a Jonas folger With no more pressure than to learn everything possible, he finished in seventh position, nine tenths behind the fastest time. You would have to go down to 14th position to find your teammate, Johann zarco. Secondly, Alex Rins ends the first day in Malaysia in 20th position, while Sam lowes it has not been able to happen of the 26º and penultimate position.
