Alex Marquez ended MotoGP’s Sepang pre-season test at the top on Thursday, as Yamaha returned to action after resolving its recent engine concerns.
Gresini rider Marquez set a best time of 1m56.402s on his factory-spec Ducati GP26, comfortably eclipsing Joan Mir’sWednesday benchmark of 1m56.874s.
His effort was also just a fraction shy of the all-time Sepang record of 1m56.337s, set by Francesco Bagnaia en route to pole position in the 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix.
With Wednesday’s running heavily disrupted by rain, riders wasted little time heading out in the morning session, making the most of favourable track conditions to bank their soft-tyre time attacks early.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was the first rider of the day to dip into the 1m56s, with the younger Marquez going quicker shortly afterwards.
With attention soon switching to sprint simulations as the temperature soared at Sepang, Marquez’s lap time remained unbeaten at the end of the day, with the 29-year-old also setting the fastest average time of any rider over long runs.
Ducati looked set to lock out the top four positions on the final day, but Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi spoiled the party for the Borgo Panigale marque with just 15 minutes remaining in the session, jumping to second place with a 1m56.526s.
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: Dorna
This pushed VR46’s Di Giannantonio to third place, ahead of the factory Ducatis of Marc Marquez and Bagnaia.
Reigning world champion Marquez suffered an early crash at Turn 1 but rebounded to set a time of 1m56.789s, just four thousandths of a second slower than Di Giannantonio. The Spaniard completed his time attack much later in the morning session, when the track was much hotter and hence less favourable for peak performance.
Bagnaia carried on his improved form into Thursday to finish fifth, with VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli ending up just behind in sixth on last year’s GP25.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez was next up in seventh, while Pedro Acosta led KTM’s charge in eighth place. Mir was ninth aboard the fastest Honda, while Tech3’s Enea Bastianini rounded out the top 10.
Yamaha returned to action after completing an investigation into the engine issue that caused Fabio Quartararo to stop on track on Tuesday. The Iwata-based brand had made a precautionary decision to skip Wednesday’s running as it worked to ensure its new V4 engine was safe for running.
With Quartararo absent due to an injury he picked up in a crash on Tuesday, his team-mate Rins led the Japanese manufacturer’s charge, finishing 12th and more than a second off the pace.
Pramac rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu was 18th on the new M1, one position ahead of the only other newcomer on the grid, LCR’s Diogo Moreira.
Sepang MotoGP test – Day 3 results:
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– The Autosport.com Team
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