Jorge Martin made it two from two for Ducati as he lead proceedings on a rain-affected day two of the opening pre-season MotoGP test of 2023 at Sepang.
The Pramac rider’s 1:58.736s was a few tenths-of-a-second adrift of Marco Bezzecchi’s Friday benchmark, though with rain causing problems throughout Saturday the field completed significantly less mileage than the opening day.
Martin’s outing wasn’t completely straightforward though after the one-time premier class race winner crashed in the afternoon, though he walked away unhurt.
Miguel Oliveria – who ended the day second quickest on his RNF Aprilia just 0.103s down on Martin – completed the most laps of the outing with 50, a full 17 circuits less than Martin and Maverick Vinales managed on Friday’s fully-dry running.
The bulk of the days mileage came in the afternoon with the track remaining largely damp following overnight showers, the tricky conditions catching out Friday pacesetter Bezzzecchi as the VR46 Ducati man crashed at Turn 5 just before the lunch break.
Pol Espargaro ended the day third overall on his Tech 3-run GasGas machine, with 2022 title contenders Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia completing the top five.
Raul Fernandez ensured a solid Saturday for the RNF outfit by posting a time enough for sixth , though he completed only just over half the laps of team-mate Oliveira.
Luca Marini was seventh for VR46 just 0.006s adrift of the Spaniard, with Alex Rins eighth on his LCR Honda having completed 28 laps across the day.
Enea Bastianini was ninth on his factory-run Ducati Desmosedici, while KTM climbed the leaderboard following a quiet opening day courtesy of Brad Binder who completed the top ten just 0.494s adrift of Martin.
Marc Marquez was once again Honda’s highest representative in 13th as he continued to evaluate several different bikes the Japanese marque brought to Sepang as it looks to nail down a future development path, the six-time premier class champion’s team-mate Joan Mir ending the day 16th.
Aleix Espargaro completed the fewest laps of the day with just 26 tours of the Malaysian venue, his best effort of 2:00.017s leaving him 20th on the timesheets just behind team-mate Vinales and KTM’s Jack Miller.
