Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa has blitzed the MotoGP field on the first day of practice at Sepang, finishing half a second faster than team-mate Marc Marquez while reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo is more than a second down on his compatriot.
Pedrosa led the way in the first session and then went faster again, getting to two-tenths outside Lorenzo's outright lap record at the Malaysian track with a 2'00.554 compared to Lorenzo's pole time from last year of 2'00.334.
Lorenzo, though, had problem with his engine braking strategy and was in and out of the pits, spending periods looking at his data to try and find a solution to the problem but none was forthcoming and he ended on a 2'01.710, 1.156s off Pedrosa and only the third fastest Yamaha in the second session, but he stays in fourth overall with his time from the earlier session
Marquez, meanwhile, was 0.553s down on Pedrosa with Cal Crutchlow the leading Yamaha, setting his 2'01.423 on lap 13 of 17 and ended 0.869 behind Pedrosa and a tenth faster than Valentino Rossi in fourth place.
Alvaro Bautista is in sixth overall with his 2'01.659, set on lap four of the second period. The Spaniard was the only faller, going down into turn four after asking too much of his front Bridgestone.
Stefan Bradl follows him while Nicky Hayden is the leading Ducati, leapfrogging team-mate Andrea Dovizioso late in the session to take ninth place with Bradley Smith rounding out the top ten - crucial as there is a big chance of rain tomorrow morning which would mean the entrants to qualifying two would be taken from these two sessions.
Aleix Espargaro is one place behind the Briton and, of course, leading the CRT battle and he has Hector Barbera and Colin Edwards for company but they are almost a second slower. Michael Laverty is in 20th and set his best time of 2'05.319 in the opening period.
Top speeds:
26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 326.9
93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 325.7
6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 325.1
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA 322.4
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA 322.4
19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini HONDA 322.2
69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team DUCATI 321.6
29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing DUCATI 320.4
35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 319.7
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 319.4
68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Ignite Pramac Racing DUCATI 318.4
38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 317.7
