Sepang MotoGP: Pedrosa sets the early pace ahead of Lorenzo
Honda's Dani Pedrosa led the opening practice session at Sepang International circuit for the Malaysian GP, ahead of title contender Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez.
Photo by: Repsol Media
Pedrosa was the early pacesetter with a time of 2m00.412s, set on his third lap, and that was enough to keep him top as none of his rivals were able to beat him over the remainder of the 45-minute session.
Initially, it was a Honda 1-2 at the top of the table with Pedrosa's teammate Marquez slotting into second with a 2m00.736s ahead of the Yamahas of title rivals Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.
The track was quite dirty, but there were no mishaps until the final 15 minutes, when Aprillia's Alvaro Bautista went off at turn 15 hairpin and at the same time Cal Crutchlow went down at turn 5 on his Castrol-liveried LCR Honda.
Then positions changed in the second run as Lorenzo split the Hondas to claim second, albeit still 0.210s off Pedrosa's P1 mark. Rossi dipped into the 2m00s for the first time on his final run, but remained fourth.
Ducati's Andrea Iannone, one of the principal heroes of last week's race at Phillip Island, initially continued his role as best of the rest behind the works Yamaha/Honda quartet, but a late improvement from Scott Redding put the British rider fifth on the timing screens.
Iannone was demoted even further when Crutchlow recovered from his fall to go back out and grab sixth. That made him the last rider to be within a second of Pedrosa's time.
Hector Barbera showed good pace on his Avintia Ducati to take eighth, while the top 10 was completed by Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati).
Practice results:
Pos. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Dani Pedrosa | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 2'00.412 |
2 | Jorge Lorenzo | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 0.210 |
3 | Marc Marquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 0.324 |
4 | Valentino Rossi | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 0.503 |
5 | Scott Redding | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 0.806 |
6 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 0.823 |
7 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1.009 |
8 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 1.204 |
9 | Aleix Espargaro | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 1.329 |
10 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1.505 |
11 | Danilo Petrucci | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1.545 |
12 | Maverick Vinales | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 1.846 |
13 | Pol Espargaro | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1.847 |
14 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 1.902 |
15 | Bradley Smith | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1.911 |
16 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | 2.178 |
17 | Yonny Hernandez | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 2.660 |
18 | Jack Miller | LCR Honda | Honda | 2.724 |
19 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 2.816 |
20 | Mike di Meglio | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 2.982 |
21 | Loris Baz | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 3.017 |
22 | Eugene Laverty | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | 3.526 |
23 | Toni Elias | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 4.084 |
24 | Anthony West | AB Motoracing | Honda | 5.381 |
25 | Damian Cudlin | E-Motion IodaRacing Team | ART | 7.140 |
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