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Practice report

Sepang MotoGP: Vinales beats Marquez in third practice

Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales topped third practice for MotoGP’s Malaysian Grand Prix, edging newly-crowned champion Marc Marquez.

Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Vinales and Marquez traded times with 20 minutes to go after the Honda rider successfully managed to usurp Vinales’ previous chart-topping benchmark of 2m.00.640s.

However, Vinales immediately shot back, setting a time of 2m00.284s to reclaim the top spot. That lap would remain unbeaten until the final few minutes of the session, when times began to quickly tumble.

Vinales himself managed to break the two-minute barrier, but was immediately bettered by Jack Miller (Pramac), who took over the top of the timesheets with a 1m59.375s flyer.

Marquez threw in a flyer with his own late attempt, but Vinales managed to beat him with a 1m59.231s to end the session fastest of all. Marquez ended 0.026s behind in second, while Miller’s previous benchmark put him third in the timesheets.

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) earned himself a Q2 berth by ending fourth in both the session and the combined standings, his time of 1m59.599s ending up 0.224s behind Vinales’ best.

Tech3’s Johann Zarco was fifth ahead of Pramac rider Danilo Petrucci and the second factory Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, while Andrea Iannone was classified eighth for Suzuki.

Iannone held on to the final Q2 spot from Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto), who finished ninth in the session and 11th overall.

The top 10 was completed by Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS).

Jorge Lorenzo’s replacement Michele Pirro ended up 16th fastest in the session after suffering a slide at the final corner.

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Time Gap Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 25 Spain Maverick Viñales Yamaha 17 1'59.231     167.362 325
2 93 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 17 1'59.257 0.026 0.026 167.326 325
3 43 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 18 1'59.375 0.144 0.118 167.160 325
4 26 Spain Dani Pedrosa Honda 18 1'59.599 0.368 0.224 166.847 325
5 5 France Johann Zarco Yamaha 18 1'59.655 0.424 0.056 166.769 321
6 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci Ducati 16 1'59.671 0.440 0.016 166.747 328
7 46 Italy Valentino Rossi Yamaha 18 1'59.773 0.542 0.102 166.605 323
8 29 Italy Andrea Iannone Suzuki 18 1'59.799 0.568 0.026 166.569 325
9 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 19 2'00.130 0.899 0.331 166.110 326
10 21 Italy Franco Morbidelli Honda 16 2'00.405 1.174 0.275 165.730 321
11 6 Germany Stefan Bradl Honda 18 2'00.428 1.197 0.023 165.699 325
12 44 Spain Pol Espargaro KTM 17 2'00.513 1.282 0.085 165.582 320
13 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Yamaha 16 2'00.558 1.327 0.045 165.520 319
14 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 18 2'00.638 1.407 0.080 165.410 319
15 42 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 18 2'00.649 1.418 0.011 165.395 324
16 41 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 17 2'00.737 1.506 0.088 165.274 323
17 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 17 2'00.810 1.579 0.073 165.175 325
18 51 Italy Michele Pirro Ducati 15 2'01.090 1.859 0.280 164.793 319
19 38 United Kingdom Bradley Smith KTM 17 2'01.223 1.992 0.133 164.612 318
20 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham Ducati 15 2'01.385 2.154 0.162 164.392 318
21 12 Switzerland Thomas Luthi Honda 17 2'01.470 2.239 0.085 164.277 318
22 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding Aprilia 14 2'02.442 3.211 0.972 162.973 318
23 81 Spain Jordi Torres Ducati 13 2'03.142 3.911 0.700 162.047 323
24 10 Belgium Xavier Simeon Ducati 11 2'03.455 4.224 0.313 161.636 316

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