Quartararo destroys lap record at Sepang to dominate Friday

Full Malaysian MotoGP FP2 results at Sepang

Fabio Quartararo has smashed the Sepang lap record to dominate the times on Friday practice ahead of the Malaysian MotoGP and continue the dream start for Petronas Yamaha.

The MotoGP rookie of the year, still nursing an ankle injury sustained at Phillip Island last weekend, lit up the timesheet during the late time attacks using a fresh soft rear tyre by setting a 1m 58.576s to beat the lap record set during a race weekend at Sepang.

The French rider has been going even quicker immediately after that lap only to be unintentionally held up by Hafizh Syahrin in the second sector, meaning Quartararo backed out of the lap as the chequered flag came out.

The lap record completes a perfect day for Petronas Yamaha, on its home race debut in the premier class, having seen Quartararo led a team 1-2 in front of Franco Morbidelli in FP1. Earlier today the team announced both Quartararo and Morbidelli would race ‘Spec A’ Yamahas in 2020.

The nearest challenge to Quartararo in FP2 came from Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, albeit 0.630s off the pace, while Valentino Rossi slotted into third place on his late qualifying-style run for Monster Yamaha.

That saw Morbidelli shuffled back to fourth place for Petronas Yamaha but he kept ahead of Phillip Island rostrum-finisher Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro impressed to charge into sixth place in FP2 ahead of Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda and Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

Maverick Vinales resisted using a fresh soft tyre late on which meant the Monster Yamaha rider was pushed back to ninth place in the FP2 times but kept ahead of Alex Rins on the Suzuki.

With Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and Suzuki’s Joan Mir continuing to just miss out on the top 10, Marc Marquez was forced back to 13^th place on the FP2 times but keeps a top 10 spot on the combined practice times thanks to his FP1 effort for Repsol Honda.

Johann Zarco was denied the opportunity to improve late on after crashing at Turn 1, but the LCR Honda stand-in is continuing to impress having challenged inside the top 10 in the afternoon session on just his second outing on the RC213V.

With Karel Abraham on the lone Avintia Ducati in 15^th and Pol Espargaro on the leading Red Bull KTM in 16^th, Jorge Lorenzo’s woes continued for Repsol Honda in 17^th and over two seconds off the pace of the front-runners.

Andrea Iannone (Aprilia), Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM) and Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) completed the runners with both Miguel Oliveira and Tito Rabat withdrawing from this weekend due to respective injuries.