Vinales leads Marquez on final Sepang test day

After Monday and Tuesday’s running was affected by rain, teams made the most of dry conditions on Wednesday morning.

Alvaro Bautista continued his strong test with Aspar Ducati by leading the field into the sub-2m00s bracket with a time of 1m59.628s.

Vinales and Marquez then lowered that benchmark to 1m59.514s and 1m59.506s.

For Marquez, that effort was more than a second faster than he managed on the first two days, when he was battling electrical gremlins and developing Honda’s new engine.

Just after 12:30pm local time, Vinales moved to the top again after setting a 1m59.368s, a time that stood for the rest of the day.

Running was again interrupted by rain, with a downpour around two hours later costing teams one hour of meaningful track time, as the back part of the circuit dried slowly.

There was not a repeat of Tuesday’s flurry of late improvements, and Vinales finished the test 0.138 seconds ahead of Marquez.

Andrea Dovizioso was the lead Ducati in third, with test rider Casey Stoner seventh and new recruit Jorge Lorenzo getting within 0.398s of the pace in ninth.

Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi were the biggest movers after the rain delay, both riders moving up from 10th place to fourth - Rossi with about 90 minutes left, then displaced by Pedrosa inside the final 10 minutes.

Bautista wound up sixth in the final order, while LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow in eighth and Tech3 Yamaha rookie Johann Zarco in 10th both improved in the final hour, Zarco finishing as the top rookie.

Tuesday pacesetter Andrea Iannone had a pair of falls on his way to 11th in the order, one spot ahead of Suzuki teammate Alex Rins, who like Zarco found time late on.

Iannone’s Tuesday time of 1m59.452s still puts him second on the combined order for the three days.

Aleix Espargaro was 13th for Aprilia despite a late fall at Turn 15, as the top 15 riders finished with a second of Vinales’ benchmark.

KTM finished the test with Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro in 21st and 23rd, 1.970s and 2.138s off the pace respectively for the incoming Austrian manufacturer.

Day 3 testing times:

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1'59.368
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'59.506	0.138
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'59.553	0.185
4	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'59.578	0.210
5	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'59.589	0.221
6	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'59.628	0.260
7	Casey Stoner	Ducati	1'59.639	0.271
8	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'59.728	0.360
9	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'59.766	0.398
10	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'59.772	0.404
11	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	2'00.045	0.677
12	Alex Rins	Suzuki	2'00.057	0.689
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	2'00.108	0.740
14	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	2'00.310	0.942
15	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	2'00.312	0.944
16	Jack Miller	Honda	2'00.439	1.071
17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	2'00.445	1.077
18	Hector Barbera	Ducati	2'00.537	1.169
19	Scott Redding	Ducati	2'00.644	1.277
20	Loris Baz	Ducati	2'00.873	1.505
21	Bradley Smith	KTM	2'01.338	1.970
22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	2'01.341	1.973
23	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2'01.506	2.138
24	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha	2'01.658	2.290
25	Takuya Tsuda	Suzuki	2'02.769	3.401