Practice report

Sepang MotoGP: Quartararo smashes new record in FP2

Fabio Quartararo blew his own Sepang lap record away as he gapped the field by an incredible six-tenths in FP2 for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Having lowered the official MotoGP benchmark to a 1m59.027s this morning, the Frenchman was in record-breaking form again in second practice.

Not only did he become the first rider under the 1m59s on a race weekend, he did it comfortably with a stunning 1m58.576s.

With Andrea Dovizioso six-tenths back with a 1m59.206s, Quartararo now has the two fastest laps at the Sepang circuit to his name.

Valentino Rossi and Franco Morbidelli capped off a promising day for Yamaha, finishing up third and fourth after running fresh soft rears late in the session.

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Jack Miller was fifth, despite being over a second off the pace, followed by Aleix Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow.

Francesco Bagnaia was eighth quickest, however his 1m59.774s wasn't good enough to leave him sitting on an automatic passage to Q2.

Maverick Vinales ended up back in ninth, the Yamaha rider having been fastest with just 12 minutes to go. He was first into the 1m59s too, only to be swamped by the late pack of late improvers.

Another rider that failed to make an impact late in the session was early pacesetter Marc Marquez. The world champion set to his best lap, a 2m00.215s, just 12 minutes in, before sinking to 13th by the finish.

He's still sitting in a Q2 spot, though, thanks to his FP1 time.

Miguel Oliveira, meanwhile, was a no-show in that session, the Tech 3 rider out for the remainder of the weekend after struggling with his Phillip Island injuries in this morning's first practice.

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FP2 results:

Cla	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	01'58.576
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	01'59.206	00.630
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	01'59.284	00.708
4	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	01'59.502	00.926
5	Jack Miller	Ducati	01'59.593	01.017
6	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	01'59.707	01.131
7	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	01'59.711	01.135
8	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	01'59.774	01.198
9	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	01'59.845	01.269
10	Alex Rins	Suzuki	01'59.849	01.273
11	Joan Mir	Suzuki	01'59.984	01.408
12	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	02'00.057	01.481
13	Marc Marquez	Honda	02'00.215	01.639
14	Johann Zarco	Honda	02'00.268	01.692
15	Karel Abraham	Ducati	02'00.477	01.901
16	Pol Espargaro	KTM	02'00.658	02.082
17	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	02'00.705	02.129
18	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	02'01.190	02.614
19	Mika Kallio	KTM	02'02.017	03.441
20	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	02'02.429	03.853
	Miguel Oliveira	KTM
View full results