The Maniac is back! An ovation from the Sepang stands greeted Andrea Iannone, lined up this weekend with the VR46 team aboard Fabio Di Giannantonio's VR46 for a return as temporary as it is popular.
But from the start of the weekend, eyes are obviously on the major sporting issue: the nine-time GP winner in 2024, Pecco Bagnaia, has 17 points to make up at the start of this weekend on his rival for the Jorge Martín title, while doubts are thicker than ever about the way in which this world championship will end, with the terrible news coming from Valencia, where the final round is supposed to be held in two weeks, and where championship organizers and local politicians have yet to decide what to do.
For the moment, MotoGP can only show solidarity with the situation experienced by the residents, and there are many messages sent by the stars of the paddock, such as Marc Márquez, who placed a sticker on his fairing, addressed to the Spanish population.
The fact remains that Jorge Martín can mathematically win the title this weekend at Sepang and will do everything he can to further increase his lead as much as possible and present himself in the best possible conditions whatever the situation.
Taking marks
The 45 minutes of dry session saw the drivers immediately hit the track and Joan Mir recorded the very first time. First of all, it was the KTMs of Jack Miller and Pedro Acosta that propelled themselves to the top of the monitors, before Fabio Quartararo signed a lap in 2'01''655, still extremely far from the times established in this same session. last year (in 1'59''513 by Jorge Martín) and especially the very impressive 1'56''682 signed by Pecco Bagnaia during the winter tests in February, on this same circuit, with the brand new GP24.
A GP24 that Martín and Bagnaia successively take the lead after a little over ten minutes of driving, but still above the two-minute lap mark, with the medium-hard tires. Extending his stint beyond that of his rivals for the title, Quartararo found an improvement in 2'00''584 (a time he would match twice in a row to the nearest thousandth!) placing him in command while many pass by the stands give their first feelings to their engineers. Iannone, for his part, takes his #29 to 21st place, a few thousandths ahead of Aprilia tester Luca Savadori, who brings up the rear, and 3''788 behind.
Calm before finally some lap times
The drivers resume their program with a second outing on the track. This time, Marc Márquez is a little more incisive and drops his own mark by several tenths, while Martín experiences difficult braking at the end of the straight leading to turn 15, which opens onto the start/finish line. When it came time to return to the pits once again, the session was very calm in terms of timing, and Quartararo retained the lead.
It's time for time attack in the last minutes of the session, with the soft-medium alliance for certain drivers, like Pecco Bagnaia. Unsurprisingly, the Italian immediately found a time under two minutes (1'59''337).
It's time for time attack in the last minutes of the session, with the soft-medium alliance for certain drivers, like Pecco Bagnaia. Unsurprisingly, the Italian immediately found a time under two minutes (1'59''337), before improving on his penultimate lap (1'58''795). Quartararo finished the session P8, while Johann Zarco classified his LCR Honda P17. Iannone enthuses with a final lap placing him P9.
Note that the only fall to deplore in the entire session was to the credit of Pedro Acosta, in the last minute, at turn 9. MotoGP now returns at 8:00 a.m. French time for the Test session .
