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 Mot🥂oGP Malay🌺sian 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 th🃏e 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 go🌳ing on to lead the way, while Martin looked comfortable until he crashed at Turn 1 as he star🌟ted his final time attack lap.
The Pr💧amac 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 h🐓is team-mate Marc Marquez sneaked into a Q2 spot in 10th.
Martin kicked off the session fastest of all with a 1m58.978s, while B꧂agnaia 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 se𝕴ssion, 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, impro🍃ving 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 fo♍r Bagnaia saw him produce a 1m57.679s to ed🌸ge 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 o❀ld engine ahead of Pramac’s Franco Morbi🥃delli, 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 pr🦄oved 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 14♐th on his KTM after an early crash.
There were also falls for Marco Bezzec🐎chi and Aprilia’s Aleix Es✅pargaro, who crashed twice at Turn 9.
The returning Andrea Iannone was 21st.
