After setting the fifth quickest time in today’s FP1 dry session at Sepang, 0.279 tenths of a second down on Title contender Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez made the best of the fully wet track in the afternoon’s FP2 session by trying his RC213V rain settings, finishing second fastest just behind the Italian.

Dani Pedrosa started his Malaysian campaign setting the ninth best lap time in the dry, less than half a second off the top, but in the afternoon he struggled to find a good feeling in the wet and closed the session in 18th place. Nonetheless, his best effort in the combined free-practice times could put him straight into Q2 if rain should disrupt proceedings in tomorrow’s FP3 session.

Marc Marquez

2nd (FP2) - 5th (Comb) 2'12.166 (FP2) - 2'00.950 (Comb)

“All in all I’m happy with today, as it wasn’t perfect but wasn’t bad either. We had two different weather conditions and in both cases we weren’t far from the top, even if we must improve some aspects of the setup as we look to find more rear grip. It’s still a bit difficult to understand where we really are in the dry because this morning some riders put on a new tyre in the end, while some others, myself included, did the entire session on the same tyres. Anyway, even if Dovi was a bit faster than us, we were able to stay there with the top guys. We know this is one of the tracks where we struggle most during the season, but at the moment we’ll try and keep working well for the rest of the weekend in order to be ready for Sunday.”

Dani Pedrosa

18th (FP2) - 9th (Comb) 2'14.574 (FP2) - 2'01.162 (Comb)

“This morning we weren’t able to do many laps because we had an issue on one of our bikes and had to spend some time in the garage to fix it, as the other one was set for the wet. Actually, I was really only able to use the last five minutes of the session. In the afternoon, unfortunately we struggled again to find grip with the rear tyre in the wet. We tried three different tyres with no improvement. It’s a bit difficult for us to understand why that was the case, as this situation has also occurred at other tracks in the past. Sometimes I’m able to put heat into the tyres and ride fast, but other times I’m not, even if the conditions are the same. We’ll see what the weather conditions are like tomorrow and keep working to try and improve.”

MotoGP 2017
Practice Round 17   Malaysia

FP2 Combined Free Practice Times

Mixed
Humidity
95%
Track Temp
27°C
Air Temp
25°C
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 57.491s (169.8km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023)
Race Lap 1m 58.979s (167.7km/h) Alex Marquez (Ducati, 2023)
2023 Race Winner Enea Bastianini (Ducati)
2023 Sprint Winner Alex Marquez (Ducati)