Morbidelli ends Friday on top
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS enjoyed a strong end to their day at the Sepang International Circuit. Jack Miller topped the second MotoGP free practice session earlier today, whilst Franco Morbidelli heads into Saturday as the man to beat in Moto2.
The Moto2 riders have only really had one session of meaningful running today after FP1 this morning was severely hampered by a red flag delay and heavy rain. Swiss rider Tom Luthi ended the morning on top with a 2m10.121s lap set right at the beginning of the session, whilst his main championship rival endured a tough 45 minutes.
Johann Zarco comes into this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix 22 points clear in the standings and could clinch his second Moto2 world title on Sunday. However, his Friday didn’t get off to the best of starts, a crash with Gresini’s Sam Lowes at Turn 14 curtailing his session. Thankfully, both were unhurt, though the same could not be said for Julian Simon. The Spanish rider was involved in a tangle with Edgar Pons at Turn 14, the result of which have ruled him out of the race with fractures to his T6 and T7 vertebra.
FP2 started off still a little damp from the preceding MotoGP session, though the track quickly dried and some quick lap times were soon being set. Morbidelli shot to the top of the pile with a 2m08.816s, just edging Takaaki Nakagami and the Italian’s Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez.
Jonas Folger was a decent fourth fastest on his Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex ahead of championship leader Zarco. Sandro Cortese was four tenths adrift of his German teammate in sixth, whilst Luthi erred on the side of caution in FP2 and was seventh fastest. Home hero Hafizh Syahrin led the session briefly but was bumped back to eighth after a late fall at the final corner. Lowes and Xavi Vierge rounded out the top 10.
Bafflingly, Alex Rins was only 17th fastest at the end of FP2. The Spaniard has endured a tough few races, injury and bad luck seriously derailing his championship challenge. With a 25-point gap in the standings, this weekend marks Rins’ last chance to keep his title aspirations alive with just 50 points up for grabs now in 2016.