Àlex Márquez is leaving his rib discomfort behind. Those suffered during the Buddh Grand Prix qualifying and that left him without racing on the weekends in Japan and Indonesia. He got back on the bike at Phillip Island and now returns to Sepang in style, leading Friday's practice. The Catalan driver set the best time of the session (1:57.823) and was one tenth off the track record.
The Márquez's little brother finished first in a session that was threatened by rain. The yellow flag caused by the fall of Raúl Fernández has conditioned the time-attacks of the rest of the drivers and, consequently, that in the end no one could surpass Gresini's: neither 'Pecco' Bagnaia nor Jorge Martín, the two main contenders for the title. MotoGP.
The Pramac Racing driver, who was the fastest in the first session in the morning, was 0.174 tenths behind the leader. The Spaniard, with 376 points, aims this weekend to reduce the thirteen points that separate him from Bagnaia, first, in the general classification. There are only two races left to be held, not including the Sepang Grand Prix: Qatar and Valencia.
The last world champion managed to place third on the track, but finally finished with the eighth best time (1:58:399), just behind Fabio Quartararo and ahead of Marco Bezzechi. Bagnaia has six victories so far this season: Portugal, Jerez, Mugello, Assen, Austria and Indonesia. Two more than his main pursuer, Martín, with four.
Aleix Espargaró, who was one of the first to take to the track, fell four times this Friday, during the first day of training in Malaysia. One in the morning and three others in the afternoon: "Once or twice you can fall, but three times you can't," says the man from Granollers who finished twentieth.
"It has never happened to me before. There is a longer Öhlins fork that we mount on some circuits, where it abuts the other. I have already ridden it twice this year, on Friday in America and another circuit. Tomorrow we will remove it and start again," explains the eldest Espargaró who has not felt comfortable with a specification of his motorcycle.
For his part, Marc Márquez did not go beyond fifteenth place (01:58.902), placing himself almost a second behind his little brother's time. The Repsol Honda rider, who will be from Gresini in 2024, is outside the top-10 in the world championship standings (14) with 81 points and a podium that he achieved in Motegi, in Japan.
The drivers who have managed to qualify for Q2 are Alex Marquez, Jorge Martin, Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Maverick Viñales, Luca Marini, Fabio Quartararo, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi and Johann Zarco; while for the Q1: Franco Morbidelli, Enea Bastianini, Augusto Fernandez, Di Giannantonio, Marc Marquez, Joan Mir, Paul Espargaró, Raul Fernandez, Miguel Oliveira, Aleix Espargaró, Takaaki Nakagami, Alvaro Bautista and Iker Lecuona.
