MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix: What we learned in Friday practice

For the second time in two years, the MotoGP title battle hangs in a precarious balance due to calendar uncertainty. In the 2024 title battle, MotoGP’s arrival at the Malaysian Grand Prix was preceded by deadly flooding in Valencia, which had caused damage to the Ricardo Tormo circuit set to host the season finale just a few weeks later.

There was no guarantee that Sepang wouldn’t end up as the de facto finale. The weekend ended with the championship still up for grabs, with a final round in Barcelona hastily put together to accommodate the fight.

Two years later, MotoGP faces a similar, potentially more devastating, calendar conundrum as next week’s Qatar Grand Prix hangs uncertain in the air.

It looks like, at this stage after Friday practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix, that MotoGP is going to travel to Qatar despite warnings of renewed hostilities between the US and Iran in the coming days.

While Doha is probably unlikely to get immediately swept up in the conflict, the airspace in the Gulf region is vulnerable to a shutdown. Should that happen, the paddock could end up trapped in Qatar, and its Portugal/Valencia double-header unable to be held.

This could have significant ramifications on the world championship’s outcome. The most likely scenario is that Marc Marquez is crowned champion via a press release; a grim way for him to herald his Valentino Rossi-beating eighth MotoGP crown.

But all of that is out of Marquez’s hands. All he can do is focus on the job at hand, which has changed in complexion in the wake of Jorge Martin’s wrist injury last weekend at Phillip Island.

The Aprilia rider is at Sepang and rode on Friday, though he withdrew after only a few laps in Practice. The rest of his weekend is uncertain, but it seems an almost impossible task for him to do much to stop his championship deficit from growing.

Marquez is now aware that the ball is in his court. While there are four rounds to go provisionally, and Marco Bezzecchi is just 50 points behind him, his remarks after practice suggest he is all too aware of how significant the 2026 Malaysian Grand Prix is to him now.

“I’m in a position in the championship that’s in my own hands, so I’m trying to get as close as possible to 37 points,” he said.

Marquez made his intentions clear, topping both sessions on a Friday where Ducati looks to have the edge over Aprilia. Just like at Phillip Island, the weather forecast looks uneasy going into Saturday and Sunday. But Marquez also proved then that, in all conditions, he is going to be hard to beat.

Martin’s heroic efforts may only cause him more trouble

The standard recovery time for a wrist fracture like the one Martin picked up in Australia is months. Any NHS doctor would be well within their rights to give you a clap around the ears if you suggested six days would be a reasonable rest period before jumping on a MotoGP bike.

MotoGP riders are built different. It makes them extraordinary, but it also papers over a fact that has to be reminded a little bit more often: they are still human beings.

Martin said on Thursday that he couldn’t even brush his teeth with his right hand. But MotoGP’s medical crew declared him fit enough to ride a 300 horsepower Aprilia RS-GP this weekend. A wider conversation needs to be had about the robustness of these medical checks.

Martin, naturally, was always going to try and ride. If there is any way to cling onto his championship hopes, then the only way of doing so is by being on track. But it’s been tricky for him.

He completed 12 laps in FP1 and was about 1.8s off the best pace. He managed to find about a second in lap time in Practice, but only completed three laps. On his fourth, he suffered a front-end scare going into Turn 12 and boxed immediately afterwards. He then walked out of his Aprilia garage and that was it for his day.

Aprilia says it was an “objective” decision made with his doctors, rather than a reaction to the Turn 12 moment. Martin didn’t speak to the media on Friday, but it’s hard not to imagine that the risk of crashing and hurting his wrist even more wasn’t a factor in that decision.

Nor should he be looked upon negatively if that was the case. After all, this is a rider who endured injury setback after injury setback last season. These riders are incredible, but the human spirit can only endure so much.

Wet weather would be a big boost for Martin for the rest of the weekend. While the risk would increase, the effort on the bike would come down a bit. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens on Saturday morning ahead of FP2.

However, as Marc Marquez has said before: you only have one body.

Marquez can all but win the 2026 title at Sepang

Marquez’s 10-point advantage is slender for now. But a 37-point weekend for the Ducati rider, assuming Martin scores nothing and Marco Bezzecchi doesn’t do much to reduce his deficit, could well give Marquez his first match point next week in Qatar.

As already mentioned, though, there is a long, winding road that has nothing to do with racing before we get to that point.

Sepang hasn’t been Marquez’s best hunting ground. He has two wins in his MotoGP career at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the most recent coming in 2018 when he was still a five-time world champion. He missed last year’s event due to injury, while a crash in 2024 took him out of podium contention on the Gresini Ducati.

Marquez hit the ground running at Sepang, leading the way in FP1 before brushing aside a crash early in Practice to set the best time of the day at 1m57.000s. He was only 0.109s clear of the field at the chequered flag.

But he did not fit a fresh soft rear tyre to his Ducati for his final run, while others did. That’s already an ominous sign.

The crash scuppered his long-run plans somewhat. On soft rubber he only managed a representative two-lap stint, averaging 1m58.701s. That was still quicker than those around him, but others had more longevity in their data.

Marquez branded it “a perfect Friday” - another ominous statement - because “from the first run the feeling was good”. He noted that, typically, there is a big difference at Sepang between the soft and the medium tyres. But he felt good on both.

Alex Marquez was right up at the sharp end, as expected, though he is struggling with the shoulder he injured in that horrific crash at the Catalan Grand Prix. It sounds like the Gresini rider will push through the pain until Sunday, when he’ll take painkillers for the main race.

Coming into the weekend, all questions were about team orders. Marc Marquez said brothers don’t need to talk when it comes to the situation they’ve both found themselves in. But the situation may resolve itself if Alex Marquez is fast, but not fast enough because of his physical condition to challenge his older brother.

In turn, that also gives Marquez, for the first time, a proper tail gunner to rely on. Aprilia pulled out some quick times with Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi, but its race pace is not looking quite as good as Ducati’s right now.

Aprilia is also a depleted force. Raul Fernandez has withdrawn due to his finger injury, while Martin’s troubles are well documented. Bezzecchi, who has been tipped by Ducati as capable of winning all of the last four races, admitted he is struggling with his pre-existing knee injury at Sepang.

More weather disruption - and track issues?

If there just wasn’t enough tension in the air over the 2026 title battle, then Sepang looks to have thrown a little more spice into the pot for good measure.

Not only is the weather forecast looking unfavourable, the asphalt has been breaking up across Friday’s running. Fabio Di Giannantonio likened it to a motocross track, while Jack Miller was quite blunt in his assessment: “It’s fucked,” he said.

The asphalt was meant to be resurfaced for this season, but that never happened. To make matters worse, some track scraping had taken place for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at the start of the month. However, not much of that was done, and the F1 cars then did more damage to the surface.

Sepang will almost certainly have to be resurfaced if it wants to host MotoGP again next year. But not a lot can be done to solve the issue this weekend.

A poor track surface will increase the number of crashes. But the worry will also be a repeat of what happened in Brazil, when the asphalt at certain corners broke away significantly and rapidly during Sunday’s Moto2 and Moto3 races.

MotoGP shortened its race distance with just moments to spare before lights out.