Francesco Bagnaia topped the timesheets for a second time on Friday ahead of the MotoGP race weekend in Malaysia.
Despite finishing the session a distant first place from the first practice earlier in the day by over 0.7s, Bagnaia struggled to find his feet until the latter part of the session.
A potential Q1 start loomed over the double-reigning champion until the final quarter segment of the session – before he smashed the session’s fastest lap up to that point and posted a competitive time of 1.57.679s.
His championship rival Jorge Martin secured second place – despite leading for the vast majority of the session – with the championship rivals separated by only 0.050s.
Martin had a crash in the closing minutes at Turn 1, but no significant concerns arose for the championship leader.
Enea Bastianini sealed third place to show the GP24’s superiority over the rest of the field, as Maverick Vinales once again showed his raw pace for Aprilia to snatch fourth spot.
Alex Marquez produced a quick lap to finish fifth for Gresini, ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli.
The session saw both Yamaha riders finish in both the top ten as Spaniard Alex Rins ended the session in eighth place.
KTM’s sole rider straight into Q2 was Australian Jack Miller, and Gresini’s Marc Marquez narrowly avoided a Q1 entry as his last lap squeezed him inside the top ten.
Pedro Acosta missed out in the dying embers, ahead of GP23 VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi and LCR’s Johann Zarco.
KTM rider Brad Binder once again had a disappointing outing for KTM, finishing 14th. The South African finished in an LCR Honda sandwich as the Japanese rider of Takaaki Nakagami finished in 15th place.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez finished 16th, ahead of factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro, who crashed twice at Turn 9 throughout the session.
Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini finished in 18th to close out his Friday. The Italian rider finished ahead of GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez, stand-in VR46 rider Andrea Iannone and his team-mate Joan Mir.
The second Trackhouse rider, Lorenzo Savadori, occupied the last spot in the final classification.
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