Petrucci leads Ducati 1-2-3-4 as Sepang test concludes

Danilo Petrucci smashed the unofficial MotoGP Sepang lap record on the final day of the pre-season test at the Malaysian venue, as he led an all-Ducati top four.

The Italian's 1m58.239s lap was almost six tenths better than the previous record that was held by his Ducati predecessor Jorge Lorenzo since last year's winter testing.

Petrucci logged the new benchmark towards the end of the session's opening hour.

He subsequently had a crash at Turn 5, destroying the new aero fairing Ducati had debuted on the day.

Moto2 champion Pecco Bagnaia was just 0.063s slower than Petrucci on his Pramac-run 2018-spec Ducati.

His Pramac squadmate Jack Miller was another six hundredths slower and crashed his GP19 bike late on, while Andrea Dovizioso made up an all-Ducati top four, three tenths off Petrucci.

Like Ducati, Yamaha also debuted a new fairing on Friday as its ranks were once again headed by Maverick Vinales.

The Thursday pacesetter was first to surpass Lorenzo's previous track record on the final day, but ultimately wound up best of the rest behind the Italian bikes in fifth.

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LCR rider Cal Crutchlow led Honda's efforts in sixth and was the last rider to dip below Lorenzo's previous benchmark.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh for Aprilia, while Andrea Iannone continued to struggle with an infection and skipped the day entirely, replaced by tester Bradley Smith.

After finishing behind rookie squadmate Fabio Quartararo on Thursday, Petronas SRT Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli was back ahead on the final day, taking eighth place to Quartararo's 16th.

Takaaki Nakagami was ninth for LCR, ahead of Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and Honda's reigning champion Marc Marquez, who again ended his programme early but finished two places clear of Lorenzo's stand-in Stefan Bradl.

Suzuki's Alex Rins was only 12th after claiming the runner-up spot on the first two days, while his rookie teammate Joan Mir took 15th, 0.001s behind the Avintia Ducati of Tito Rabat.

Johann Zarco led the KTM contingent in 17th, right ahead of factory teammate Pol Espargaro and the satellite KTM RC16 of Tech 3 rookie Miguel Oliveira.

The MotoGP field will reconvene in Qatar for the final pre-season test later this month, before the 2019 season kicks off at that same venue on March 10.

Session results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1:58.239		32
2	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	1:58.302	0.063	21
3	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	1:58.366	0.127	47
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:58.538	0.299	36
5	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1:58.644	0.405	79
6	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:58.780	0.541	61
7	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1:59.022	0.783	52
8	Franco Morbidelli	SRT Yamaha	1:59.141	0.902	66
9	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	1:59.148	0.909	61
10	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:59.155	0.916	62
11	Marc Marquez	Honda	1:59.170	0.931	39
12	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1:59.180	0.941	75
13	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1:59.368	1.129	57
14	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	1:59.485	1.246	41
15	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1:59.486	1.247	53
16	Fabio Quartararo	SRT Yamaha	1:59.497	1.258	77
17	Johann Zarco	KTM	1:59.640	1.401	44
18	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1:59.751	1.512	57
19	Miguel Oliveira	Tech 3 KTM	1:59.949	1.710	38
20	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	2:00.378	2.139	36
21	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech 3 KTM	2:00.766	2.527	21
22	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	2:00.990	2.751	56
23	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	2:00.995	2.756	56
24	Mika Kallio	KTM	2:01.020	2.781	38
25	Yamaha test bike 2	Yamaha	2:01.243	3.004	43
26	Yamaha test bike 1	Yamaha	2:01.719	3.480	49