Now, here's a wild way to start a weekend. Championship leader Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) shrugged off an early tumble at Turn 15 to dominate Friday afternoon in Sepang, setting the pace with a blistering 1’57.000. The #93 managed to pip none other than his own brother, Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), securing a stunning Marquez 1-2 at the top of the timesheets by nearly four tenths of a second. Not bad for a machine that had just taken a trip through the gravel.
Unfortunately, things looked rather different on the other side of the garage. Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) called it a day after completing a mere three laps. The 2024 World Champion opted to sit out the remainder of Practice, though the plan is for the #89 to head back out tomorrow morning in FP2 to test the waters for Sprint Saturday. Should he continue for the rest of the weekend, Martin will find himself having to fight through Q1.
As the session rolled on past the halfway mark, the leaderboard went completely mad with changes. Ai Ogura (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP) carved out a brilliant late lap to vault the Dutch GP winner into third place by the end of play. Behind Ogura sat Acosta and Di Giannantonio, while Bezzecchi locked down a steady sixth. Enea Bastianini and Maverick Viñales put in a strong showing for Red Bull KTM Tech3 to round out the top ten, marking the first time three KTMs have gone straight into Q2 since Hungary last year, accompanied by Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) and a returning Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) in tenth.
Not everyone had a clean run to the flag, however. Double World Champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) both hit the deck late in the session, with Zarco falling at Turns 7 and 8 before Bagnaia tucked the front at Turn 1. Those late crashes sealed their fate, condemning both riders to Q1 tomorrow. Zarco missed the cut by just 0.187s, sitting a mere 0.002s ahead of Pecco in 12th. Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) also missed out after a massive front-end save at Turn 15 ruined his final charges, leaving Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) as the top Yamaha down in 14th.
Sprint Saturday kicks off from 09:00 local time (UTC +8).
