Marquez quickest again, Martin done after three laps
MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez completed a clean sweep of Friday practice at Sepang, as Jorge Martin withdrew from the afternoon session after three laps.
Martin, who broke his wrist in a crash last Saturday at Phillip Island but has foregone rest for now in favour of trying to keep his title chances alive, did 12 laps in the morning but had to end his day early.
"Together with the doctors, we decided all together to not continue and wait tonight and see tomorrow morning, because, at the moment, if he [Martin] wants to make the laptime, to make the time attack, it's for him difficult to manage the force," Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora explained to MotoGP.com.
"So it's better to take no risk, absolutely, and we decided all together, together in particular with the doctors, Dr. [Angel] Charte, that we don't go forward during the session."
Q2 by virtue of a top-10 spot would have been a monumental longshot for Martin anyway, whereas for Marquez it looked a foregone conclusion - despite him crashing at the final corner in the early phase of the session.
He bounced back from this to head his Sepang-specialist brother Alex by 0.109s at the conclusion of the session, despite sacrificing the opportunity of one final run on a fresh soft rear.
Trackhouse Aprilia rider Ai Ogura had looked off for much of the day but uncharacteristically came alive when it came to single-lap attempts, moving up to third, ahead of the lead KTM of Pedro Acosta and VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM), Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM), Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) and the returning Joan Mir (Honda) picked up the remaining Q2 spots.
It will thus be Vinales's first Q2 appearance since Assen last year, pre-injury. He was 0.002s back from team-mate Bastianini, who crashed starting his final run late on.
While Bastianini got away with the crash in Q2 terms, the same wasn't true for Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati), both likewise tumbling during their final runs.
Zarco's rookie team-mate Diogo Moreira just stayed on the bike in a big moment at the last corner, but ran out of chances to enter the top 10.
Alex Rins was the lead Yamaha in 14th, narrowly ahead of Gresini Ducati stand-in Iker Lecuona and Pramac Yamaha's Jack Miller, who had a crash seven minutes into the session.
Session results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati) 1m57.000s
2 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.109s
3 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.167s
4 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.380s
5 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.442s
6 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.475s
7 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.545s
8 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +0.547s
9 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.582s
10 Joan Mir (Honda) +0.618s
11 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +0.805s
12 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.807s
13 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.913s
14 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +1.161s
15 Iker Lecuona (Gresini Ducati) +1.192s
16 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +1.208s
17 Luca Marini (Honda) +1.462s
18 Brad Binder (KTM) +1.499s
19 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +1.604s
20 Augusto Fernandez (Pramac Yamaha) +2.376s
21 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +2.670s
