The first day of testing for the Malaysian Grand Prix ended with a name you don’t expect in front of everyone. In fact, Alex Marquez stood out in great form and missed the Sepang track record by just 33 thousandths.
When Jorge Martin was the first to reach the 1’58” barrier, it seemed like another day destined to end with the mark of the Prima Pramac Racing rider. However, the Madrid native had not yet come to terms with his compatriot from Gresini Racing, which had already seen an interesting lap canceled due to a yellow flag.
And when the youngest of the Marquez brothers arrived at the finish line with time up, he stopped the clock with a time of 1’57″823, trailing Martin by 174 thousandths, who in any case was the only one other than him to manage to get down precisely under 1’58”.
World champion Pecco Bagnaia wasn’t as brilliant, but he managed to get through to Q2 without too many worries. The reigning world champion finished eighth fastest, just under six tenths off, but like Alex Marquez he was probably held back by the yellow flag on his best lap.
The performance offered by the KTMs was interesting, with Jack Miller and Brad Binder who managed to bring the RC16s into third and fourth position, even if in their case the gap opens up quite a bit compared to the first two, given that both find themselves over four tenths.
Completing the top 5 is Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia. Despite being 489 thousandths of a second behind, the driver from Roses was the only representative of the Noale company to manage to shine today, with his boxmate Aleix Espargaro who truly did all he could. In the afternoon session alone he fell down three times and his crashes during the day amounted to four if you add the one in FP1.
It is therefore normal that he was unable to do better than the 20th time, also behind the other two RS-GPs with the colors of RNF Racing, who precede him in 18th and 19th position. Among other things, Raul Fernandez also ended up on the ground and it was he who generated the white flag that created problems for several colleagues at the end.
Once again, the vast majority of the bikes that will take part in Q2 are Ducatis. In addition to the three we have already mentioned, in fact, there are also the two of the Mooney VR46, with Luca Marini sixth and Marco Bezzecchi ninth, and that of Johann Zarco who completes the top 10 for Prima Pramac Racing.
The list of riders who guaranteed direct access to Q2 is completed with Fabio Quartararo, seventh at just over half a second with his Yamaha. “El Diablo” seems quite at ease on a track that on paper shouldn’t have been too friendly to the M1. Indeed, if he hadn’t found the traffic of Franco Morbidelli’s twin bike at the end, perhaps he could have improved further.
The Italian rider, however, is the first of those excluded, given that he finds himself 11th by just 84 thousandths after being the protagonist of a great save at turn 9. In his wake is Enea Bastianini, who with the second official Ducati will have to time to move on from Q1. As well as Fabio Di Giannantonio, 14th with the Gresini Racing Ducati, also behind Augusto Fernandez’s GasGas Tech3.
It was therefore another difficult session for the Hondas. Marc Marquez tried several times to catch his brother Alex’s hook, but in the end he closed down a gap of almost a second, finishing 15th, just ahead of his boxmate Joan Mir.
Small steps forward for the reigning Superbike world champion, the Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, who here in Malaysia competes in a wild card with the Aruba-designed Ducati. Compared to FP1, he reduced the gap from the top by about half a second, which however remains over 2.5 seconds. If nothing else, he once again managed to keep Iker Lecuona’s Honda LCR behind, which in recent years has certainly “chewed up” more MotoGP of him.
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