Fermin Aldeguer began the Malaysian MotoGP weekend the strongest by topping the rain-interrupted FP1 in Sepang.
Aldeguer set the fastest time of the first practice before the conditions changed, with the heavy rain not allowing for any late improvements to be made.
Despite initially sunny conditions on track, Pedro Acosta crashed in the opening minutes of the session, but the yellow flag did not impact any of the riders on a fast lap.
While team-mate Aldeguer topped the timesheets at the midpoint of the session, Alex Marquez found the gravel in Turn 7.
Moments after Jack Miller suffered his first crash of the weekend at the final corner, the rain descended on the Sepang circuit.
Acosta was one of the first riders caught out by the changing conditions, running across the gravel trap before returning to the pit lane for wet tyres.
The conditions quickly worsened, and although some of the riders headed back out on circuit, it was impossible to improve on the initial lap times set in the session.
The rain saw Aldeguer’s time go unchallenged as he topped the first practice of the weekend with his lap time of 2:00.199.
Francesco Bagnaia had a promising opening session, 0.256s behind Aldeguer’s best time, while Joan Mir completed the top three for Honda.
Pol Espargaro continued to shine on his Tech3 KTM stand-in duties in fourth, ahead of Marco Bezzecchi in fifth.
Luca Marini proved Honda’s early pace in sixth, with Marquez seventh despite his early crash.
Fabio Quartararo was eighth at the flag ahead of Miller in ninth, while Acosta rounded out the top 10 even with his off-track excursions.
Franco Morbidelli was the final rider within a second of Aldeguer’s best time in 11th, with Brad Binder taking 12th for KTM and Ai Ogura just behind in 13th.
Johann Zarco narrowly bested Enea Bastianini for 14th, while Miguel Oliveira took the flag in 15th.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was 0.066s behind Oliveira in 17th, as Alex Rins completed Yamaha’s opening running in 18th.
Last weekend’s race winner Raul Fernandez could only manage 19th, ahead of stand-in riders Michele Pirro and Lorenzo Savadori in 20th and 21st respectively.
Augusto Fernandez returned as a wildcard with Yamaha’s V4 engine in 22nd as Somkiat Chantra rounded out the standings in 23rd.
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