Still spared from the rain, the MotoGP riders returned to the track for an important hour of testing this Friday afternoon. Pecco Bagnaia, leader this morning, spent a good part of this second session in the middle of the ranking, while Jorge Martín, his rival for the title, moved to the top from the first moments.
With an initial time of 1'58″978, soon improved by a few hundredths, the Spaniard established himself as a solid leader, although slower than the reigning double world champion had been in the morning. Already fast during EL1, the KTMs of Jack Miller and Pedro Acosta were firmly anchored in the first part of the ranking, behind the #89 and in front of the other Ducati Pramac driven by Franco Morbidelli.
With a gain of two seconds compared to this morning, Johann Zarco placed his Honda in the top 5 from the start of the session, enjoying the luxury of ahead of, among others, the official Ducati of Enea Bastianini .
Some drivers, on the other hand, experienced a more eventful start to the session, like Brad Binder, who fell in the first minutes, and Aleix Espargaró who fell twice at turn 9. As for Marco Bezzecchi, it was At the start of the second part of the session he fell, once again trapped under braking by his Ducati GP23, in turn 15.
The hierarchy changed significantly once the softer tires were fitted to the motorcycles, i.e. the medium option at the rear coupled with the soft front. Pecco Bagnaia took the lead with a time of 1'58″280, followed like his shadow by his teammate Enea Bastianini. The Japanese motorcycles showed up in the upper part of the ranking, notably the Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins.
The performances seen so far were nothing, however, against the cannonball Jorge Martín, who ten minutes from the end went below the 1'58 mark to display a 1'57″829 on the screens, improved by a full tenth on the following lap We were only a little more than two tenths away from the absolute track record but, above all, the closest of his pursuers was half a second away…
After a moment of hesitation, the time for the drivers to return to the pits to equip themselves with new tires, the attack on the time resumed with a vengeance and it was Bagnaia who responded with a no less impressive lap completed in 1'57″679, representing a gain of more than a second compared to this morning.
Martín now had five hundredths to make up, but his session was to be cut short by a fall, which occurred in turn 1 just as he was starting to attack again. The situation has therefore no longer changed in the leading trio, made up of Bagnaia, Martín and Bastianini.
Yamaha's very good day is confirmed with Quartararo and Rins both qualified directly for Q2, something never seen before this season! They managed to keep drivers such as Acosta and Marc Márquez at bay. Unusually discreet throughout the day on a circuit that he rarely likes, the #93 only got his ticket for Q2 on his very last lap.
An improvement by Morbidelli under the checkered flag, however, pushed Acosta back to 11th place, which will force the Spaniard to go through Q1 by 76 thousandths. He will find Bezzecchi, Binder but also Zarco, ultimately 13th. Also note the 17th time of Aleix Espargaró and the 21st of Andrea Iannone.
The MotoGP riders will be back on track on Saturday morning, first for the final free practice sessions then to compete in qualifying from 10:50 a.m. local time (3:50 a.m. in France). The start of the sprint is scheduled for 8 a.m. French time… hoping that the rain won't get in the way!
Malaysian GP – Practice
