Heavy rain following the opening free practice session of this weekend’s Malaysian Moto Grand Prix saw a very wet circuit for second free practice, meaning that times set in FP1 were not beaten at any time in FP2, leaving World Champion Marc Marquez at the top of the leaderboard with a best time of 2'01.210.
The first session started with damp patches that quickly dried and after setting some fast times, Marquez sat the second session out due to illness.
Suzuki rider Maverick Vinales was second quickest in FP1, two tenths behind Marquez with Scott Redding third on the Pramac Ducati.
Andrea Iannone was back in action after his heavy crash in Misano and impressed the crowd with a fourth fastest time of 2'01.521.
Valentino Rossi rounded out the top five, the Italian rider venturing out on the Sepang International Circuit aboard a YZR-M1 with a special livery. The bike‘s colour scheme sported orange ENEOS branding on the fairing to symbolize the Doctor and Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s gratitude to JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, the brand owner of ENEOS.
“Sepang is one of my favourite tracks,” Rossi said. “I like it a lot, but it‘s also one of the most difficult races of the season due to the weather. It is always very hot and you must always be very careful with what you eat and drink. “
“The weekend in Malaysia is very demanding physically, but I‘m in good shape. I hope that we can be able to work well again from the first practice. I would like to make it a good race and go to the podium another time.”
