Andrea Dovizioso held onto top spot at Sepang in a wet second MotoGP practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of championship leader Marc Marquez.
Unlike this morning’s running, the afternoon session was affected by rain fall which materialised just before the second Moto3 session got underway.
Marquez – who leads Dovizioso by 33 points ahead of Sunday’s race – set the early pace in the wet conditions with a 2m15.555s, before improving to a 2m13.999s followed by a 2m13.877s.
The Honda rider’s title rival Dovizioso briefly deposed him with a 2m13.246s, but Marquez retaliated with a 2m12.171s with 15 minutes of the session already complete. However, the Italian soon returned to the top of the pile with a 2m11.640s.
Dovizioso began to light up the timing screens on his final flying lap, but was unable to better his 2m11.640s, and remained unchallenged as the rest completed their efforts.
Marquez ended the afternoon 0.526 seconds adrift of the Italian in second, while Dovizioso‘s Ducati team–mate Jorge Lorenzo rounded out the top three – albeit just over a second off of the pace.
Yamaha made a breakthrough with its YZR–M1 in the wet warm–up at Phillip Island last Sunday, and Maverick Vinales was able to go fourth fastest in this afternoon’s outing. However, the Spaniard still has work to do having finished 1.2s down on Dovizioso‘s pace. Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top five.
Vinales was lucky to escape unscathed when Avintia’s Hector Barbera clattered into him at the final corner at the start of the session.
Barbera – who ended the afternoon 20th – lost the rear of his GP15 as he enetered the final corner too fast, colliding with the Yamaha rider. Vinales was able to continue, though had to return to his garage to have his clutch lever fixed.
Valentino Rossi took the sister Movistar Yamaha to sixth on the second practice timesheets, but could well face Q1 on Saturday should third practice also be affected by rain conditions after ending this morning’s running 12th.
Alvaro Bautista headed the Suzuki duo of Alex and Andrea Iannone, while the sole Aprilia representative this weekend Sam Lowes used his wet weather prowess to complete the top 10.
Johann Zarco was unable to improve on 11th after crashing in the final minutes of the session. The Frenchman headed Jack Miller, Karel Abraham, Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding.
Dani Pedrosa struggled to 18th in the conditions, 2.9s off the pace, while Michael van der Mark ended his first wet MotoGP session 19th and just 0.364s back from the Honda rider.
