Marc Marquez leads Sepang Practice despite final-corner crash
Marc Marquez set the fastest time in Friday Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix despite crashing at the final corner. Alex Marquez finished second and Ai Ogura third. The leading 10 riders secured direct entry to the second qualifying session, while Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia were left outside that group. Marquez recorded 1 minute 57.000 seconds.
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Marquez recovers to lead Practice
Marc Marquez, the Ducati Lenovo rider in motorcycle racing’s MotoGP world championship, set the fastest time in Friday Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix. He completed a lap of Sepang in 1 minute 57.000 seconds. Alex Marquez finished second and Ai Ogura third, with the leading 10 riders earning direct entry to the second qualifying session.[1], [2]
Marquez had fallen at Turn 15, the final corner, during the session. He was able to continue on the same motorcycle, return to his garage and later produce the fastest lap. AS reported his advantage over Alex Marquez as 0.109 seconds. The crash did not prevent him from securing the session’s leading position.[1], [2]
Ogura moves into the leading three
Ogura improved late in the session to take third. Pedro Acosta finished fourth, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio in fifth and Marco Bezzecchi in sixth. Enea Bastianini was seventh, Maverick Vinales eighth, Franco Morbidelli ninth and Joan Mir tenth. Those places completed the group moving directly into the second part of qualifying.[1], [2]
KTM had 3 riders progress directly from the same Practice session, the first time it had achieved that since the previous year’s Hungarian round. Vinales and Mir were among the riders to avoid the opening qualifying segment. The first ten classification was established in Friday Practice, before the weekend’s qualifying sessions.[1]
Zarco and Bagnaia miss direct passage
Johann Zarco finished eleventh after a late crash around Turns 7 and 8. He missed the direct-entry cutoff by 0.187 seconds. Francesco Bagnaia was twelfth, another 0.002 seconds behind Zarco, after also falling at Turn 1. Both were left to take part in the first qualifying session rather than progressing directly.[1]
Diogo Moreira was thirteenth after saving a front-end slide at Turn 15. Yamaha’s Alex Rins finished fourteenth. The late incidents left Zarco and Bagnaia outside the top 10 while Marquez retained first place following his own earlier fall. Ogura’s late improvement held him in the leading three behind the two Marquez brothers.[1]
