Vinales goes 0.5s clear on second day of Sepang test

Vinales overhauled Rins - who had dethroned long-time leader Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) a few minutes earlier - moments before the chequered flag fell.

But while Vinales had left it late to snatch the top spot, having trailed Rins through the first two sectors, his margin over the Suzuki man in the end was a hefty 0.527s.

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Dovizioso had initially usurped the top spot in the third hour, eclipsing Marc Marquez's Wednesday benchmark with a 1m59.562s laptime that for a while looked set to secure him the day's honours.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, making his comeback on a MotoGP bike after a major ankle injury cut his 2018 campaign short, had come within 0.004s of Dovizioso's lap a few minutes later, but it took another five hours before the Italian was finally deposed.

Rins, who sat ninth heading into the final minutes, first improved to sixth place and then recorded a 1m59.424s to snatch the top spot.

But Vinales went quicker still, recording the first sub-1m59s effort of the test.

Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller was another rider to improve in the final seconds of the session, snatching third place from works rider Dovizioso, as Crutchlow, who had a crash at Turn 5, settled for fifth.

Valentino Rossi sat just a few hundredths behind Yamaha teammate Vinales for most of the test but wound up sixth, seven tenths down, after the Spaniard's late charge.

Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati) passed Marquez (Honda) late on for what would ultimately end up being seventh place, with the still-injured Marquez once again ending his programme for the day several hours early.

Dovizioso's works Ducati teammate Danilo Petrucci was the last rider within a second of Vinales in ninth place, while Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) beat KTM's Johann Zarco to 10th.

Pramac rookie Francesco Bagnaia crashed during the day, but went on to finish as the best of the Moto2 graduates in 12th.

Aleix Espargaro led Aprilia's efforts in 13th, while rookie Fabio Quartararo, recently upgraded to a current-spec Yamaha, edged Petronas SRT teammate Franco Morbidelli in 14th.

Stefan Bradl, substituting for Jorge Lorenzo at Repsol Honda, took 16th, heading KTM's Pol Espargaro – who was thrown off his RC16 at Turn 1 for his second crash in two days – and Aprilia's Andrea Iannone.

Rins' Suzuki teammate Joan Mir had another quiet day, the Moto2 graduate finishing 21st, almost two seconds off the pace.

Session results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1:58.897		63
2	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1:59.424	0.527	61
3	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	1:59.517	0.620	49
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:59.562	0.665	60
5	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:59.566	0.669	53
6	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:59.625	0.728	51
7	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	1:59.664	0.767	75
8	Marc Marquez	Honda	1:59.790	0.893	37
9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1:59.845	0.948	65
10	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	1:59.966	1.069	60
11	Johann Zarco	KTM	1:59.973	1.076	58
12	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	1:59.995	1.098	52
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	2:00.101	1.204	54
14	Fabio Quartararo	SRT Yamaha	2:00.108	1.211	58
15	Franco Morbidelli	SRT Yamaha	2:00.151	1.254	58
16	Stefan Bradl	Honda	2:00.230	1.333	59
17	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2:00.305	1.408	67
18	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	2:00.510	1.613	39
19	Mika Kallio	KTM	2:00.523	1.626	41
20	Miguel Oliveira	Tech 3 KTM	2:00.672	1.775	61
21	Joan Mir	Suzuki	2:00.876	1.979	64
22	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	2:01.245	2.348	56
23	Yamaha test bike 1	Yamaha	2:01.406	2.509	42
24	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	2:01.654	2.757	45
25	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech 3 KTM	2:01.859	2.962	53
26	Yamaha test bike 2	Yamaha	2:02.989	4.092	16
27	Takuya Tsuda	Suzuki	2:03.276	4.379	22