Francesco Bagnaia maintained his strong showing from Friday’s practice to finish at the top of the charts once again in the final MotoGP Malaysia practice session.
The double reigning MotoGP champion continued to dominate proceedings at the Malaysian Grand Prix as the Italian posted the fastest lap time of 1.58.658s.
The closing stages of the session saw Bagnaia and the incumbent championship leader Jorge Martin playing consistent mind games with each other.
Though the Pramac rider rounded off the session in second place and finished as Bagnaia’s closest challenger, a multiple-lap stint saw both riders bin off their best lap times to ensure neither rider gained an advantage heading into the qualifying session.
Martin’s last three runs, in particular, saw the Spaniard lapping faster than Bagnaia’s best lap but chose to abort in case Bagnaia discovered ways to gain any advantage with the data presented to him.
The two 2024 title contenders dominated the session’s screen time, but Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo rounded off a place in the top three to continue the Japanese marque’s strong showings this weekend.
Rookie Pedro Acosta produced a late lap to snatch fourth spot, ahead of Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller.
Marc Marquez placed his year-old Gresini bike in seventh, with the second Yamaha rider of Alex Rins not far off the pace the Ducati rider.
The GP24 Ducati duo of Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli closed out the top ten positions before, with neither rider no match to their respective team-mates.
Marco Bezzecchi established 11th spot ahead of the younger brother Alex Marquez in 12th, while Augusto Fernandez recorded 13th place for GasGas amid a late crash at Turn 9.
Aleix Espargaro finished in 14th as the second leading Aprilia rider, ten places below his team-mate Vinales.
Takaaki Nakagami and Raul Fernandez followed close to the Aprilia rider to claim 15th and 16th spots.
Johann Zarco finished in 17th for LCR Honda, ahead of factory KTM rider Brad Binder and Repsol Honda rider Joan Mir.
Luca Marini closed out 20th spot and finished as the final full-time rider on the final classification as the Italian outpaced fellow countryman Andrea Iannone and Lorenzo Savadori.
