Friday’s experience at the Sepang International Circuit was a stark contrast to last Sunday’s cancelled Australian Grand Prix. Both sessions were dry with temperatures hitting a sweltering 34 degrees during Practice.

The 5.54km layout offered up some unique challenges. Along with the heat and humidity, the track surface was low on grip in both sessions with riders avoiding stones thrown up by other bikes.

It was a strong start to the Grand Prix for Bastianini. Riding around one of his favourite tracks, ‘La Bestia’ was inside the top ten in both sessions. Finishing FP1 in a highly competitive fourth, the Italian went on to place seventh in the afternoon, just half a second off Marc Marquez’s fastest time.

Bastianini had a small crash at Turn 2 with four minutes of Practice to go. But other than a little pain in his left hand, the 28-year-old is otherwise fit and ready for Saturday’s action.

Viñales delivered an excellent day for Red Bull KTM Tech3. 16th in the first session, the Spaniard was as high as second in the closing stages of Practice before a second time attack secured eighth place. This is the first time ‘Top Gun’ has qualified for Q2 since last year’s German Grand Prix.

With the forecast uncertain, Bastianini and Viñales will be keen to assess the conditions on Saturday morning before going out for FP2 at 10:10 MYT (UTC+8). Qualifying will follow at 10:50 (UTC+8), which determines the starting grid for the 10-lap Sprint at 15:00 (UTC+8).

Enea Bastianini: “I’m very happy for the team and for Maverick. Today we all did a good job. I had a small fall in Turn 2 but I’m OK. I tried to keep it running and held on to the handlebar, so I have a bit of pain in my hand - but it’s nothing crazy. We were consistent today, always in the top ten. We need to work more on my pace because some riders have something more. Our drop of the tyre was quite a lot. Also, my front feeling was a bit worse in the afternoon than the morning. In FP1 I had the hard front fitted. Let’s see if we can try to use that for the race. There is less grip on the edge, but it’s better for straight braking. In this track I’m usually fast, like we saw at the test earlier in the year. We can fight this weekend, I’m sure of that. Qualifying will be even more important than other races due to the heat, which means the tyre pressure increases behind other bikes. This is one of my favourite circuits on the calendar and I’m looking forward to going back out again tomorrow.”

Maverick Viñales: “Not so bad today! I knew from Phillip Island I needed to do something to reduce the pain. There the circuit was full left, and I couldn’t push with the shoulder, but I worked a lot with the doctors to reduce the pain. My shoulder is swollen and has been for a long time, so I need to work on that - after receiving an injection in Australia, that’s gone down. Today, the pain was less, and I could be more precise. Also, I had more power to stop the bike. It’s such a long time that I didn’t ride the bike at a good level that it is hard to suddenly go very quick! But the lap time wasn’t too difficult, to be honest, and I think I could have gone even faster. We’re going to keep working. Today was good and I was riding the bike well. Now we’re going to think about managing my strength and energy and we’re looking more on Sunday than the Sprint."