MotoGP Sepang: Jorge Martin withdrew from qualifying – Marc Marquez 1st.

The 45-minute free practice session on Friday morning is followed by qualifying in the MotoGP class in the afternoon. The aim here is to go straight through to Qualifying 2, which only the top 10 manage to do. The remaining riders must take part in Q1 on Saturday, from which the top two then progress to Q2.

In free practice, championship leader Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo) was clearly the fastest with a time of 1:58.912 minutes; the Spaniard was almost half a second faster than Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) in second place.

Disaster for Aprilia: two riders injured

After just a quarter of an hour, Friday morning was already over for Raul Fernandez of the Trackhouse Aprilia team. The Spaniard is still suffering from injuries to two fingers on his right hand and was withdrawn from the event by Dr Charte. Fernandez intends to fly back to Spain as soon as possible to undergo intensive physiotherapy in the hope of being fit to compete in the Qatar GP in just over a week’s time.

Jorge Martin is competing in Malaysia despite a broken right arm, but lost almost 2 seconds to Marc Marquez in the first practice session. During qualifying, the former world champion had a scare seven minutes in at Turn 12 whilst travelling at around 200 km/h and was only able to avoid a crash by drawing on all his skills. Martin subsequently consulted Dr Charte and together they decided to sit out the remainder of the session. The Aprilia star intends to try again in FP2 on Saturday morning. Should he be able to continue, Martin will have to go through Q1.

After a quarter of an hour, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) had already clocked a time of 1:57.982, almost a second faster than ‘MM93’ had managed that morning, though still a long way off the lap record of 1:56.337 (Bagnaia, Ducati, 2024).

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Sepang: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

31.10.2026 - 01:35

Marc Marquez: First a crash, then first place!

After 16 minutes, Marc Marquez had a slip-up at the entrance to Turn 15; half an hour later, he catapulted himself to first place on the timing screens with a time of 1:57.000! Spurred on by the 33-year-old’s daring ride, the rest of the field set out in pursuit of faster times, with the order being shuffled with every lap completed on the 5,543-metre-long circuit.

With four minutes to go, Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) crashed, briefly bringing out the yellow flags; 90 seconds later, Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) crashed at Turn 7, followed shortly afterwards by Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) at the first corner. Whilst Bastianini managed to hold on to seventh place in the top 10, Zarco (11th) and Bagnaia (12th) will have to compete in Q1 on Saturday morning – Sepang is seven hours ahead of CET.

Marc Marquez’s fastest time held until the end of the session; joining him in Qualifying 2 are his brother Alex, Ogura, Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi, Bastianini, – surprisingly – Viñales, Morbidelli and the returning Mir. Or, in terms of brands: four Ducatis, two Aprilias, three KTMs and one Honda.

Yamaha suffered yet another setback in Malaysia: Alex Rins, the best of the quartet, finished 14th in a field reduced to 21 riders.