Marc Marquez moved to the top of the timesheets for the first time this weekend during a sweltering morning warm-up for the Malaysian MotoGP.
The Gresini rider was just 0.003s quicker than Sprint winner Jorge Martin, who has his first chance to win the 2024 crown in this afternoon’s grand prix.
Martin will be the first satellite champion of the MotoGP era if he can raise his current points lead over Francesco Bagnaia from 29 to 38 today.
But Bagnaia, who crashed while holding second between Martin and Marquez early in the Sprint, was also fast this morning, in third place and a mere 0.012s from the top.
Most riders were again using the soft front/medium rear tyre combination from the Sprint, which they will need to manage much more carefully over the full 20-lap grand prix... if it's dry.
While Marquez and Bagnaia started warm-up with tyres that had already done 7 (soft front) and 4 (medium rear) laps, Martin bucked the trend by fitting a new medium tyre combined with a 10-lap old medium rear.
Bagnaia has hinted that he may ride tactically this afternoon, since winning the three remaining races is no longer enough to defend his crown.
But the weather could also upset the order, with rain a major threat from midway onwards.
Behind the top three, Alex Marquez (Gresini) and Pedro Acosta (GASGAS), both set the same lap time to finish 0.063s from Marc Marquez.
Franco Morbidelli (Pramac), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Jack Miller (KTM) completed the top ten during the ten-minute session.
Marquez had to swerve around Quartararo after they both looked across to see the results on a big screen at Turn 1 after the session had ended.
Meanwhile, Bastianini was not amused to find his flag-to-flag practice blocked by Martin.
