Bagnaia Maintains Fine Momentum To Dominate Afternoon Practice

SEPANG, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- Reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia maintained his fine momentum to dominate the afternoon practice session of the 2024 Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP) at the Sepang International Circuit here today.

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider clocked the fastest lap time of one minute and 57.679 seconds (s) on lap 16, with Jorge Martin of Prima Pramac Racing (1:57.729s) coming out second fastest and Ducati Lenovo Team's Enea Bastianini (1:57.877s) third fastest.

Commenting on the practice times, Bagnaia said he was glad that he managed to recover from having such a challenging time due to a rear tyre issue during Free Practice 1 earlier today to top the chart and continue his domination in the afternoon session.

“But the pace (in Free Practice) was good and my feeling was good. To start the practice with the very worst situation... because I know that the consumption of the rear tyre in this track is huge. It was important to start in the worst situation, to have already a drop and try to be competitive the same, it worked very well,” he said. 

In Moto2 Practice 1 action, Spaniard Manuel Gonzalez of Gresini Moto2 came out tops in 2:05.576s.

Meanwhile, Filip Salac of ELF Marc VDS Racing Team (2:05.909s) was second quickest, followed by Red Bull KTM Ajo's Deniz Oncu (02:05.944s).

The two local wildcard riders representing Petronas MIE Racing RW, Muhammad Helmi Azman and Khairul Idham Pawi failed to pick up from where they had left off earlier today, with Helmi (2:08.727s) remaining in the 29th spot and Khairul Idham (2:10.045s) in the last position.

Despite finishing 13th in the morning session, CFMOTO Aspar Team's David Alonso stole the show in the afternoon session of Moto3 as the Spaniard ended the day with the fastest time of 2:11.241s in Practice 1. 

Adrian Fernandez of Leopard Racing was second quickest in 2:11.457, followed by Honda Team Asia's Taiyo Furusato (2:11.707s). 

The Malaysian MotoGP will continue tomorrow with the qualifying session, followed by race day on Sunday (Nov 3).

-- BERNAMA