Jorge Martin finished the third free practice session of the MotoGP in Sepang as fastest. The Pramac-Ducati driver secured the late best time of 1:58.583 minutes, ahead of brand colleague Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia). World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) crashed.
The weather in Sepang initially held up in the morning, so that all drivers were able to use the dry track to work on their race pace and to make it straight into Q2. Bagnaia started the session with a fresh soft rear tire for this purpose.
The Ducati rider finished Friday’s practice session in eleventh place, also because he had decided against a late attack with fresh tyres. This time he attacked right at the start and set the early pace together with teammate Jack Miller.
Francesco Bagnaia attacks early
Already on his second flying lap, Bagnaia set a new best time and took the lead. Miller and Fabio Quartararo were also able to improve straight away.
On one of his fast laps, the latter had to get angry at Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli, of all people, who strolled along the ideal line and obstructed Quartararo – not the first offense of this kind for the Italian this season.
And it shouldn’t have been the last. Because in the final phase of training, Morbidelli was again in the way of the competition. This time Bagnaia and Marc Marquez (Honda) had to abort their fast lap. At the same time, the sky over the route darkened. The first rain flags were waved.
Late fall throws World Cup leader back
Bagnaia’s pursuit of the top times ended with a late crash in turn 7. He was no longer able to attack and was dropped down to eleventh place in the classification, while Martin and Bezzecchi at the front ensured a Ducati double lead.
In the end, Vinales fought his way up to third place. Luca Marini (VR46-Ducati) and Joan Mir (Suzuki) completed the top five. Enea Bastianini (Gresini-Ducati) was sixth followed by Quartararo, just under half a second back.
Phillip Island winners Alex Rins (Suzuki), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Morbidelli secured the final spots for a direct Q2 entry. Morbidelli marked exactly the same lap time as Bagnaia. With the second best time, however, tenth place went to the Yamaha rider and not Bagnaia.
Later in Q1 he will have to fight against his Ducati colleagues Miller and Johann Zarco, both KTM factory riders and Marc Marquez, to progress. They didn’t make the direct leap into Q2 either. Marquez’ teammate Pol Espargaro fell twice and finished 21st.
In addition to him and Bagnaia, five other riders crashed during practice, including rookies Raul Fernandez, Remy Gardner (both Tech-3-KTM) and Fabio DiGiannantonio (Gresini-Ducati). Cal Crutchlow (RNF-Yamaha) and Alex Marquez (LCR-Honda) both went down in the closing stages.Directly qualified for Q2 are:Jorge Martin (Pramac-Ducati) Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) Luca Marini (VR46-Ducati) Joan Mir (Suzuki) Enea Bastianini (Gresini-Ducati) Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) Alex Rins (Suzuki) Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha)