Quartararo fastest on first day of Sepang MotoGP test, Martin crashes

Fabio Quartararo set the quickest time on the opening day of the Sepang MotoGP test, while Jorge Martin suffered a huge crash on the Aprilia and was taken to hospital.

Yamaha’s Quartararo had already laid the benchmark in last week’s shakedown at the same venue, and his recent knowledge of the track helped him remain at the front as the entire field assembled on Wednesday for the first official test of the year.

The 2021 MotoGP champion posted a best time of 1m57.555s in the final hour of the running, beating his own chart-topping lap from the shakedown by over two tenths of a second.

It allowed him to jump back ahead of Alex Marquez in the day’s order, as the Spaniard briefly took top spot with a 1m57.738s in the penultimate hour.

The Gresini rider had looked set to finish second, only for his elder brother Marc Marquez to set a 1m57.606s on the factory Ducati with five minutes remaining. 

This put the six-time champion just 0.051s off Quartararo on what was only his second day aboard the Ducati GP25.

Quartararo and the Marquez brothers were the only riders to beat the fastest time from the shakedown, and also the only ones to break into the 1m57s bracket.

New Gresini recruit Fermin Aldeguer ended up fractionally slower on a 1m58.035s, but his late effort was good enough to secure fourth – and the first of the rookies.

VR46’s Franco Morbidelli was next up in fifth, while Joan Mir enjoyed a solid outing with Honda to end up 0.560s off the pace in sixth.

Although Honda was allowed to run its race riders at Sepang last week, both Mir and Luca Marini missed the shakedown as they travelled to Jakarta for the team launch.

VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantono was seventh on his first appearance with Ducati’s GP25, having skipped the Barcelona test in November to recover from an operation.

Both Pramac Yamaha riders were classified inside the top 10, with Jack Miller finishing eighth and Miguel Oliveira being two spots behind.

They were separated by the LCR rider Johann Zarco, who was Honda’s top points-scorer in 2024.

KTM made a relatively low-key start to official pre-season testing, as Pedro Acosta led team-mate Brad Binder in 11th and 12th.

Double MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia completed just 23 laps through the day on the factory Ducati, with his best effort being good enough for 17th.

A red flag was shown at the end of the second hour when reigning champion Martin suffered a major highside at Turn 2 and landed head-first on the ground. The Spaniard reported severe pain in his left foot and right hand and was transported to Aurelius hospital in Nilai for further check-ups.

Martin’s crash compounded a difficult day for Aprilia, with Raul Fernandez from the satellite Trackhouse team having to withdraw from the entire test after suffering a fracture on his left hand in a nasty accident. He will fly to Barcelona on Friday to undergo an operation.

Fernandez’s team-mate and 2024 Moto2 champion Ai Ogura also crashed during the day, but was able to continue to register the 16th fastest time of the day, two spots ahead of Marco Bezzecchi on the factory Aprilia.