Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso set the pace in both this morning’s dry and this afternoon’s wet MotoGP free practice sessions at Sepang, and had championship rival Marc Marquez in close attendance in the rain as the pair were a country mile ahead of third-placed man Jorge Lorenzo.
Weather forecasts show Sepang will be wet for the rest of the weekend, so the Dovizioso and Marquez battle will more than likely to take place using Michelin’s rain tyres. On today’s form, only Lorenzo on the second works GP17 can get in the mix – useful for Dovizioso’s title hopes – with Maverick Vinales an outside bet.
However, both Marquez and Dovizoso have been supreme in wet conditions this year and are on a confidence high whereas the rest of the field will take some time to bed in. The Italian set a 2’11.640 to lead in the afternoon - 11s slower than his lap at the top of the dry times - with Marquez half a second behind.
The two were a country mile ahead until Lorenzo cut the gap to his team-mate to 1.055s with his penultimate lap and Vinales made a similar jump, setting a 2’12.878 after getting whacked by Hector Barbera early doors and losing a clutch lever.
It doesn’t look like Yamaha have entirely solved their wet weather problems, given the 1.238s gap from Vinales to Dovizoso and Rossi’s 1.431s deficit as The Doctor finished in sixth place, one behind Danilo Petrucci. Avaro Bautista took seventh with Alex Rins the lead Suzuki in eighth, one ahead of Andrea Iannone, who has yet to score a point in his MotoGP career at the Malysian track in ninth.
Britain’s Sam Lowes took tenth place on the Aprilia which, insisted a rather ratty Romano Albesiano, hasn’t received any upgrades in the absence of Aleix Espargaro who has undergone surgery on a broken finger.
Johann Zarco ended in 11th place after a crash at turn eight and the Frenchman is a full two seconds off the pace. Jack Miller is in 12th with Karel Abraham 13th. Cal Crutchlow is 2.232s off the pace in 14th with Scott Redding and Bradley Smith just behind. Pol Espargaro splits the Brits.
Dani Pedrosa is having another wet weather nightmare and he finished in 18th place. The Spaniard struggles when the track is wet and cold but with a track temperature of 37°C, that shouldn’t be the problem. He switched to the softer Michelin wet and lapped faster with a few minutes left but is still some 2.4s slower than team leader Marquez.
Michael van der Mark ended in 19th place on the Monster Yamaha with Hector Barbera, Tito Rabat and, inexplicable, wet weather star Loriz Baz in last place.
