The Malaysian Grand Prix is truly on for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 MotoGP™ squad, with an eventful first day having taken place at the Sepang International Circuit. The rain played a part in Friday’s festivities making the afternoon’s Practice a tricky one to go through, but Pol Espargaro stood out once again as he claimed the 8th place of Practice in Malaysia, to qualify directly to Q2, just one week after he did it in Australia. Enea Bastianini finished in 19th, and he will have to go through a busy Q1, alongside the three last race winners who failed to make the top 10-cut.
Grand Prix of Malaysia
While Maverick Viñales continued to focus on his recovery spending a few key days at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Austria, Pol Espargaro continued to do his things on track, with an excellent Friday in Sepang. On a layout that he obviously knows like his pocket, the Spaniard had the feeling straight away on his RC16 on Friday morning, as he wrapped up FP1 with the 4th fastest time in 2'00.581, just 0.382 secs off rookie Fermin Aldeguer, fastest this morning. In a rather unpredictable Practice session disrupted by the rain, Pol Espargaro managed to brilliantly stand out, and he placed his RC16 within the top 10 alongside Pedro Acosta who took the honours. The number 44 managed to clock in an excellent late 1’58.055 that had him in provisional 3rd within minutes to the end. However, red sectors were all over the place in a hectic final Practice showdown, but Pol’s lap was enough to make the Q2 cut in the end!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the same feeling on Enea Bastianini’s side of the box, who struggled all day through to get comfortable on his KTM, despite already having 3 full track days in the bag during the pre-season. The Italian’s best in FP1 was a 2'01.338, 1.139 seconds from the top of the timesheets. Bastianini headed to Practice eager to try making some improvements, but the struggles continued. An improved lap in 1’58.953 as the sun was out again was his best, one that placed him in P19. Bastianini will face Q1 on Saturday morning at 10:50 local time (UTC+8), shortly after Free Practice 2 kicking off the day at 10:10. Then the Tissot Sprint will take place at 15:00 LT, for 10 laps!
POL ESPARGARO: "I am very pleased with the work done today! In the continuity of Australia, everything comes together when I push, so it is a great feeling. After the first lap time, it started to rain, and I was begging for more rain, because my lap time was already fast, and I did not know if I could go faster! Then, we all went for it again, and I could improve by half a second, which is so fast, but still 0.5 seconds slower than Pedro (Acosta), but it is amazing for us anyway. The weekend is starting well, with two KTMs inside the top 10, so let’s try to keep the work going, and hopefully we can qualify well for both sprint and race."
ENEA BASTIANINI: "We are once again in a similar scenario to all the other weekends. Friday feels like we are riding this bike for the first time, then we get better on Saturday, but it is too late for Sunday. The confidence on the bike here is too low, we did not get any positive feeling today. It feels very strange to be two seconds slower than a few years ago, on a track that I have always been fast on, and I don’t know what we can do to fix that, without the confidence. We are far from our potential right now, so we have a lot of work to do to get back a good feeling."
PRACTICE SESSION RESULTS
1. Pedro Acosta (SPA), Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, 1'57.559
2. Johann Zarco (FRA), Honda LCR, +0.019
3. Jack Miller (AUS), Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP, +0.281
8. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.496
19. Enea Bastianini (ITA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.394
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2024 - F. Bagnaia (ITA) - 1'56.337 - 171.5 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2023 - A. Marquez (SPA) - 1'58.979 - 167.7 km/h
Best Pole: : 2024 - F. Bagnaia (ITA) - 1'56.337 - 171.5 km/h
Top Speed: 2015 - A. Iannone (ITA) - 339.6 km/h
