Marquez and Lorenzo battle through the Sepang heat on Friday
Scorching hot conditions in Sepang were no issue for Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo as they took sixth and 17th respectively as the weekend’s action began.
A productive first day at the Sepang International Circuit allowed the Repsol Honda Team to collectively complete 60 laps between Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, the pair taking advantage of the dry track time to experiment with the settings of their Honda RC213V machines.
Friday morning in Sepang proved to be an eventful day for Marc Marquez who started with another trademark save at Turn 2. Ending Free Practice 1 in fourth with a 1’59.517, Marquez booked himself a provisional spot in Q2. Working on his race pace in FP2, the eight-time World Champion and his Repsol Honda Team were pleased with what they achieved on Friday. Alongside this, Marquez was also able to begin to experiment with options for the 2020 season.
Jorge Lorenzo returned to closing the gap to leaders, ending the day in 17th overall after improving his lap time by eight tenths in the afternoon. Free Practice 2 saw Lorenzo post more competitive times, one of several riders to improve despite the oppressively hot track in the afternoon. Lorenzo still believes there is more to come this weekend, confident he has time left to find.
Practice resumes at 10:50 Local Time ahead of Qualifying for the Malaysian GP at 15:05 Local Time.
Marc Marquez
“Today was a busy day, just in the first or second lap of the day I had a very big save. It was probably one of the best of the season, but we also had a warning from the bike's dashboard later. I decided it was better to be safe and switch off the bike and come back to the box. The team resolved it and, in the end, it wasn’t a big issue and afterwards we were able to work normally. This afternoon we worked on our race pace and it wasn’t too bad. I think we’re second or third right now in terms of pace. The team is focused on the end of the season, but we also have an eye on 2020 and tried some ideas today.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“From Phillip Island to here, it’s a big change – they’re almost the opposite. Here, there is a lot of grip and it’s quite flat with good weather, all of this has given me a better feeling. In terms of our pace we were 1.1 to 1.5 seconds behind. We tried something different with the setting to improve our rear grip, but we weren’t able to take full profit of it when pushing for a single fast lap so I think I could have done a 2’00.3 or a 2’00.2 and been closer to the front. For tomorrow the objective is to keep improving and do a 1’59.”
Malaysian GP Combined Free Practice Classification
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|
Location Information
Specifically built for speed and exciting racing, the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is one of the world’s best. The 2,300 acre complex cost around £50m to construct and was built in just 14 months, holding its first Grand Prix in April 1999 and setting the standard for race circuits… read more.
| Length | 5.543 kilometres / 3.444 miles |
| Width | 25 metres |
| Left corners | 5 |
| Right corners | 10 |
| Longest straight | 0.920 kilometres / 0.572 miles |
| Constructed | 1998 |
Sepang International Circuit Klia Pahang Malaysia - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m 56.337s (171.5km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2024) |
| Race Lap | 1m 58.979s (167.7km/h) Alex Marquez (Ducati, 2023) |
| 2024 Race Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
| 2024 Sprint Winner | Jorge Martin (Ducati) |
