Fabio Quartararo remained untouchable in FP2 for the Malaysian grand prix at Sepang, the Frenchman lapping over six-tenths faster than anyone else as he shattered his own lap record.
Quartararo, much like in FP1, decided to wait it out and hold back until the end of the session to unleash his monstrous pace, which he duly did in the closing minutes as he relegated team-mate Franco Morbidelli to second with a new lap record.
His 1:58.576 destroyed the lap record he snatched in FP1 to the tune of 0.451, putting him over six-tenths clear of second placed Andrea Dovizioso as a result.
Valentino Rossi was a strong third fastest ahead of Morbidelli, while Jack Miller backed up Dovizioso with fifth on his Pramac-run Ducati GP19.
Aleix Espargaro again impressed for Aprilia with the sixth quickest effort ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda, as Francesco Bagniaia managed an impressive eighth quickest time on the GP18-spec Pramac Ducati machine.
Maverick Vianles could only muster up a lowly ninth fastest lap in this session ahead of early leader Alex Rins’ Suzuki GSX-RR, who closed out the top ten runners.
Marc Marquez was also surprisingly far down the timesheets in 13th, although his FP1 time was strong enough to cling onto an automatic pole position shootout spot for tomorrows qualifying, which could prove crucial if the predicted rain arrives for FP3.
Johann Zarco followed just behind in 14th despite a late crash that meant he was unable to post an improvement on his new soft rear tyre, his earlier time ultimately enough to put him just 0.158 in arrears of Marquez and 1.6 seconds down on Quartararo’s benchmark.
Jorge Lorenzo was 17th meanwhile, around half-a-second further back, as the Honda man’s tribulations with the RC213-V fail to get any better in Malaysia.
Andrea Iannone crashed out while on a strong lap at around the mid-point of the session, and failed to record an improvement in the closing stages so remained only 18th fastest.
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