Vinales leads Rossi on Day 2 of Sepang test
Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales beat teammate Valentino Rossi to lead the second day of 2018 pre-season testing at Sepang.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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 |
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