Andrea Dovizioso stays on top in wet MotoGP practice in Malaysia – MotoGP

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso set the pace in a wet second practice session for MotoGP’s Malaysian Grand Prix, half a second clear of title rival Marc Marquez.

With conditions deteriorating since Friday morning’s opening practice session at Sepang, Dovizioso’s benchmark FP1 time of 2m00.671s went untouched through the afternoon, with the provisional top 10 order also not changing.

Marquez led the way for much of the session with an early best time of 2m13.877s, although this was soon beaten by Dovizioso, who undercut the Honda rider by six tenths with a 2m13.246s lap.

Dovizioso was soon beaten again by Marquez, who reclaimed the top spot with a 2m12.471s, before improving to a 2m12.171s to lead the way by over a second.

That was before Dovizioso set what proved to be the quickest time of the afternoon, a 2m11.640s, with neither he nor Marquez finding any more improvements for the rest of the session.

Best of the rest was Dovizioso’s factory Ducati teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who lagged 1.7s behind with 15 minutes remaining but managed to close the deficit to 1.055s by the chequered flag.

Maverick Vinales continued Yamaha’s improved wet-weather form by setting the fourth fastest time, a further two tenths back.

Vinales also got involved in a bizarre early incident with Hector Barbera’s Avintia Ducati that cost him a brake lever on one of his bikes.

Danilo Petrucci was fifth on the Pramac Ducati, followed by the second factory Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, who ended up 1.431s off the pace.

Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati), who was second fastest in FP1, went seventh quickest in the afternoon, ahead of Suzuki pair Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone, and the sole Aprilia of Sam Lowes.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco ended up just outside the top 10 after a late crash at Turn 8, while teammate Michael van der Mark concluded his first day of MotoGP running 19th, 3.2s off the pace.