2024 Malaysian MotoGP: Bagnaia fastest on Friday as Martin crashes
Title rivals split by 0.050s in afternoon session at Sepang
Francesco Bagnaia narrowly led second practice for the 2024 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of Jorge Martin, who crashed late on.
Just 17 points split the top two in the championship ahead of this weekend’s racing action, with the uncertainty over the Valencia GP adding to the importance of the Sepang round.
At the end of the hour-long Practice, just 0.050 seconds separated Bagnaia from Martin at the top of the standings.
Bagnaia looked out or sorts in the first part of the session before going on to lead the way, while Martin looked comfortable until he crashed at Turn 1 as he started his final time attack lap.
The Pramac rider’s tip-off was light and he walked away unscathed.
Last year’s Malaysian GP winner Enea Bastianini completed the top three ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and Gresini’s Alex Marquez, while his team-mate Marc Marquez sneaked into a Q2 spot in 10th.
Martin kicked off the session fastest of all with a 1m58.978s, while Bagnaia was 18th at the end of his first run.
Martin improved his lap time at the top of the pile to a 1m58.939s with just over 15 minutes gone in the session, which would stand as the benchmark until the closing 12 minutes.
Bagnaia was the rider who managed to dethrone Martin, with the reigning world champion posting a 1m58.280s on his factory team Ducati GP24.
Moments later Martin blew the field open with a 1m57.829s, improving to a 1m57.729s on his next lap to go half a second clear.
But a brilliant final lap at the end of the session for Bagnaia saw him produce a 1m57.679s to edge ahead of Martin, who had no chance to respond when he crashed at Turn 1 in the closing minutes.
Behind the top five, Fabio Quartararo made a late jump to sixth on his Yamaha fitted with the old engine ahead of Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli, while Alex Rins on the new M1 engine was eighth.
KTM’s Jack Miller and Marc Marquez (Gresini) completed the top 10, while Morbidelli’s final lap proved costly for Pedro Acosta as it knocked the Tech3 GASGAS rookie down to 11th.
Johann Zarco led the Honda charge in 13th, while Brad Binder was 14th on his KTM after an early crash.
There were also falls for Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who crashed twice at Turn 9.
The returning Andrea Iannone was 21st.
