Fabio Quartararo led team-mate Franco Morbidelli to head a Petronas SRT Yamaha 1-2 at the conclusion of the first day as the first official pre-season MotoGP Sepang test got underway.
Quartararo-who is competing with a factory ’20-spec M1 this year- closed out the day with a best time of 1:58.945, just 0.051 clear of his Italian stable-mate.
Most of the fast times were set early in the session, with virtually no improvements coming in the afternoon session after the circuit was coated with rain during the lunch break.
While the Sepang tarmac did dry up during the afternoon most focussed on long runs to close out the opening test day of ’20.
Third fastest today was Alex Rins’ Suzuki- 0.250 further back- while Cal Crutchlow was fastest Honda on his LCR-run machine in fourth.
Jack Miller rounded out the top five for Pramac Ducati, 0.383 from Quartararo’s benchmark.
Maverick Vinales managed the sixth quickest time on the first of the factory Yamaha entries, while Aleix Espargaro impressed with the seventh quickest time-and the last man within half-a-second of the leader-on the brand-new Aprilia RS-GP.
Brother and lead KTM man Pol Espargaro was next up in eighth, while the second works GSX-RR Suzuki and Yamaha’s of Joan Mir and Valentino Rossi rounded out the top ten on day one.
The factory Honda and Ducati outfits had a rather quiet day of things as far as pure laptimes, with Dovizioso 11th fastest-0.721 from Quartararo- with the Marquez brothers following close behind in 12th and 13th-Marc leading rookie team-mate Alex by just 0.242.
Dani Pedrosa was the fastest of the test riders in action today as he posted the 15th quickest time overall, just 1.072 down from the top spot on his KTM.
Johann Zarco started his first season as a Ducati-contracted pilot-competing with an Avintia-run GP19 this season- carefully with a lowly 19th position on the leaderboard-0.519 down on Quartararo.
| # | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | QUARTARARO, Fabio | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1:58.945 | |
| 2 | MORBIDELLI, Franco | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1:58.996 | 0.051 |
| 3 | RINS, Alex | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:59.195 | 0.250 |
| 4 | CRUTCHLOW, Cal | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1:59.234 | 0.289 |
| 5 | MILLER, Jack | Pramac Racing | 1:59.236 | 0.291 |
| 6 | VIÑALES, Maverick | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1:59.367 | 0.422 |
| 7 | ESPARGARO, Aleix | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:59.427 | 0.482 |
| 8 | ESPARGARO, Pol | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:59.536 | 0.591 |
| 9 | MIR, Joan | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:59.568 | 0.623 |
| 10 | ROSSI, Valentino | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1:59.569 | 0.624 |
| 11 | DOVIZIOSO, Andrea | Ducati Team | 1:59.666 | 0.721 |
| 12 | MARQUEZ, Marc | Repsol Honda Team | 1:59.676 | 0.731 |
| 13 | MARQUEZ, Alex | Repsol Honda Team | 1:59.918 | 0.973 |
| 14 | PETRUCCI, Danilo | Ducati Team | 1:59.939 | 0.994 |
| 15 | PEDROSA, Dani | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 2:00.017 | 1.072 |
| 16 | OLIVEIRA, Miguel | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 2:00.131 | 1.186 |
| 17 | BAGNAIA, Francesco | Pramac Racing | 2:00.136 | 1.191 |
| 18 | GUINTOLI, Sylvain | SUZUKI Test Team | 2:00.371 | 1.426 |
| 19 | ZARCO, Johann | Reale Avintia Racing | 2:00.464 | 1.519 |
| 20 | LECUONA, Iker | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 2:00.511 | 1.566 |
| 21 | BINDER, Brad | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 2:00.519 | 1.574 |
| 22 | RABAT, Tito | Reale Avintia Racing | 2:00.750 | 1.805 |
| 23 | NAKAGAMI, Takaaki | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 2:00.815 | 1.870 |
| 24 | TEST 1, Yamaha | Yamaha Test Team | 2:01.080 | 2.135 |
| 25 | TEST 2, Yamaha | Yamaha Test Team | 2:01.744 | 2.799 |
| 26 | SAVADORI, Lorenzo | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 2:03.150 | 4.205 |
| NC | SMITH, Bradley | Aprilia Factory Racing | ||
| NC | PIRRO, Michele | Ducati Team | ||
| NC | KALLIO, Mika | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | ||
| NC | TSUDA, Takuya | SUZUKI Test Team | ||
| NC | TEST 3, Yamaha | Yamaha Test Team |
