Injured Martin cleared to race in Malaysia after first practice
Jorge Martin can continue with his bid to keep his MotoGP championship chase alive, having been passed fit to race in the Malaysian Grand Prix with a broken wrist.
But while he has cleared that first hurdle, his weekend got off to a mixed start in Friday morning practice at Sepang.
The good news was that he managed to complete the full session, covering 12 laps across multiple runs, and going back out again for the practice starts at the end of the session.
That mileage and his Aprilia team talking confidently about its strategy for Martin through the weekend immediately suggested he was expecting to pass the mandatory medical check after the session - which he duly did half an hour later.
Limiting the title fight damage looks tough, though. While Martin improved from being four seconds off the pace on his tentative first run, he was still 1.835s down and 20th fastest at the end of the session, so will need to find substantially more pace to have a shot at scoring significant points.
And the identity of the pacesetter was bad news for Martin too, with his title rival Marc Marquez's Ducati a comfortable fastest by 0.474s over Martin's Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi.
KTM's Pedro Acosta matched Bezzecchi's time in third, while Acosta's stablemates Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder used fresher tyres to go fourth and fifth at the end, just as sixth-placed Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) did.
While one of Aprilia's injured duo looks set to continue with the weekend, the other was ruled out during practice one.
Raul Fernandez pitted after four laps and was then declared unfit for the rest of the event, with his Trackhouse team boss Davide Brivio explaining that Fernandez's broken finger was at a point in the healing process where discomfort was particularly strong and the chance of further damage was too high if he crashed again.
Fernandez will return home to Spain for further treatment to assist the healing process before attempting to race in Qatar next weekend.
Results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati) 1m58.912s
2 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.474s
3 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.474s
4 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.776s
5 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.825s
6 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.883s
7 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.989s
8 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +1.241s
9 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +1.325s
10 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +1.348s
11 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +1.358s
12 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +1.412s
13 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +1.418s
14 Joan Mir (Honda) +1.419s
15 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +1.508s
16 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +1.545s
17 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +1.669s
18 Luca Marini (Honda) +1.697s
19 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +1.704s
20 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +1.835s
21 Augusto Fernandez (Pramac Yamaha) +2.198s
22 Iker Lecuona (Gresini Ducati) +2.764s
