Morbidelli leads Quartararo on Day 2 of Sepang MotoGP test

VR46’s new recruit Franco Morbidelli set the pace on the second day of the Sepang MotoGP test, leading Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

Riding last year’s Ducati GP24, Morbidelli posted a best time of 1m57.210s just an hour into the day’s running to climb to the top spot in the rankings.

His lap was three tenths quicker than what Quartararo managed on Wednesday, and would have been good enough to secure a front-row spot for last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

With the majority of the field switching to longer runs as the temperature rose in Malaysia, Morbidelli’s early effort wasn’t beaten by the time the clock ran out at 6pm.

Morbidelli’s former team Yamaha continued to appear strong at the Sepang International Circuit, with 2021 champion Quartararo finishing just a tenth behind in second, having also set his best time early in the morning.

Quartararo was followed by the Gresini duo of Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer, with the latter again finishing as the fastest of the three rookies.

While improvements were few and far during the afternoon session, partly due to some drizzle with two hours remaining, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia was able to climb up to fifth with a 1m57.652s flier in the final 30 minutes.

Bagnaia was one of the few riders to suffer a crash on Thursday, having low-sided at Turn 15 in the second hour.

Honda’s Joan Mir was another rider to make a late improvement, jumping to sixth when with a time of 1m57.791s.

That pushed KTM’s top runner Pedro Acosta down to seventh, with Pramac Yamaha’s Miguel Olivera classified in eighth.

New factory Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi was ninth and the last of the riders to break the 1m58s barrier, the Italian improving to 1m57.995s late in the day. Jack Miller rounded out a strong day for Pramac and Yamaha in 10th.

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez had a low-key day at Sepang as he finished 14th with a time that was 1.2s off the pace set by Morbidelli.

Reigning champion Jorge Martin, Raul Fernandez and Fabio di Giannantonio all missed the second day of the Sepang test, as they returned to Europe to undergo surgeries after being involved in separate accidents on Wednesday.

To avoid losing valuable track time, Aprilia and Ducati called on their test riders Lorenzo Savadori and Michele Pirro, both helping their respective manufacturers gather necessary data on their new bikes.

Full Day 2 results:

Photos from Sepang Test – Day 2