Vinales leads Rossi on Day 2 of Sepang test

Vinales, who had finished only 13th on the first day as he focused on race runs, logged a 1m59.355s in the dying minutes of Monday's running, surpassing Rossi by 0.035s.

As it had been on Sunday, wet weather was once again a factor, with the timing screens left empty for over an hour initially as the field waited for the track to dry out following overnight rain.

Once the action kicked off in earnest, Jack Miller, Pol Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso were among those taking turns in the lead, before Rossi logged the day's sub-two minute laptime, a 1m59.766s.

Honda's reigning champion Marquez soon joined the Italian below the two-minute mark, before Dovizioso overhauled his compatriot with a 1m59.732s as the session was approaching halfway.

The Ducati rider's benchmark stood for several hours, before it was narrowly surpassed – first by Marquez and then by Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco – as track action picked up towards the end of the day.

With just over half an hour left to run, LCR Honda rider Crutchlow found a quarter of a second to go top, logging a 1m59.443s.

Rossi soon improved that to a 1m59.390s, finally bettering Dani Pedrosa's benchmark from the opening day, before Vinales edged ahead with 11 minutes left on the clock to end the session on top.

Crutchlow ended up third, with Ducati works rider Jorge Lorenzo and Pramac Ducati privateer Miller completing a top five split by just 0.154s.

Marquez slotted in seventh - behind Zarco and 0.002s ahead of Dovizioso – and ended his session with a late crash.

Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci and Suzuki's Andrea Iannone made up the top 10, the latter's GSX-RR having caught fire early in the session.

Sunday pacesetter Pedrosa was only 12th, on a day Honda's all-new winged fairing made its official test session debut.

Aleix Espargaro led the way for Aprilia in 11th, while his brother Pol was the top KTM in 14th, despite ending his day after just 23 laps with a crash at Turn 4 that necessitated a 10-minute red flag.

Marc VDS Honda's Franco Morbidelli fell twice, but still ended the day as the top rookie in 17th.

Session results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1:59.355		68
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:59.390	0.035	39
3	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:59.443	0.088	65
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1:59.498	0.143	44
5	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	1:59.509	0.154	44
6	Johann Zarco	Tech 3 Yamaha	1:59.702	0.347	48
7	Marc Marquez	Honda	1:59.730	0.375	68
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:59.732	0.377	32
9	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	1:59.747	0.392	46
10	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1:59.917	0.562	57
11	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1:59.925	0.57	47
12	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1:59.999	0.644	56
13	Alex Rins	Suzuki	2:00.042	0.687	56
14	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2:00.262	0.907	22
15	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	2:00.506	1.151	48
16	Bradley Smith	KTM	2:00.520	1.165	42
17	Franco Morbidelli	Marc VDS Honda	2:00.662	1.307	36
18	Mika Kallio	KTM	2:00.701	1.346	51
19	Alvaro Bautista	Nieto Ducati	2:00.728	1.373	58
20	Karel Abraham	Nieto Ducati	2:00.914	1.559	53
21	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	2:00.952	1.597	50
22	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	2:01.392	2.037	46
23	Scott Redding	Aprilia	2:01.456	2.101	51
24	Test bike	Yamaha	2:01.480	2.125	37
25	Yonny Hernandez	Tech 3 Yamaha	2:01.554	2.199	49
26	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	2:01.689	2.334	41
27	Tom Luthi	Honda	2:01.810	2.455	47
28	Test bike	Yamaha	2:02.573	3.218	33