Pedrosa, Cortese and Aegerter dominate the FP1 in Malaysia

Rider Sandro Cortese has been the fastest of the 125cc World Championship at the Sepang circuit. The German controlled the category’s FP1 with a best lap time of 2:14.936, just 76 thousandths ahead of Nico Terol.

The humidity and the sun were the protagonists in this 125cc FP1, where Nico Terol has his second match ball to clinch the world championship if he finishes ahead of Johann Zarco.

Behind Cortese and Terol, Héctor Faubel was third, Efrén Vázquez fourth, Maverick Viñales fifth, and closing the top 6, Johann Zarco was just over 1.435s back. We had a major scare with Luis Salom, who crashed spectacularly at the end of the session, but fortunately without physical consequences for the RW Racing GP rider.

In MotoGP the fastest was Dani Pedrosa. The 26 set the best time in the free practice session of the premier class at Sepang, with a 2:01.916, leaving his teammate Casey Stoner in second place and Andrea Dovizioso in third.

Pedrosa rode below the track record and not far from Rossi’s fastest lap from 2009, so the Catalan came out at full speed in this FP1, while the newly crowned champion, Stoner, finished more than half a second behind Pedrosa.

Closing the top 5 were Simoncelli in fourth and Bautista in fifth, being the first NON-Honda rider in this session, followed by Spies, De Puniet and Edwards.

The American John Hopkins, who is making his third appearance of the year as a wild card rider for the Rizla Suzuki team, finished 14th. Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory Racing), the replacement for the injured Jorge Lorenzo, finished 17th after a crash in the second part of the session.

The great comeback belonged to Héctor Barberá. The Valencian returned to the world championship after several races out due to his crash in Japan. The collarbone area bothered him quite a bit, so he will in principle undergo an injection for FP2.

In Moto2 the best was Dominique Aegerter. The Technomag-CIP rider leads the first free practice in Malaysia, ahead of Luthi and De Angelis, while Bradl, the current leader, was 7th. For his part, our Márquez continues to have no luck with scares and was unable to take part in the free session due to a crash on the first lap of FP1.

At turn 10 there was water on the track. The marshals did not flag it, and several riders went down, including Márquez, who had a rather spectacular crash, remaining on the ground, getting up with difficulty and being rushed to the clinic. Fortunately, FRACTURES WERE RULED OUT, but he has an injured foot, a chin wound, and afterwards a tendon in the shoulder area was affected, leaving it quite swollen. After that crash, the red flag was shown.

Aegerter set a 2:08.635, beating his compatriot Luthi by just one thousandth. For his part, De Angelis comes in fired up after his victory in Australia, although he finished more than 0.7s behind the leader.

Closing the top 6 were Andrea Iannone in fourth, Mika Kallio in fifth and Pol Espargaró in sixth.

Via | MotoGP Official website