Ducati’s star rider Marc Marquez topped the opening day of MotoGP’s official pre-season test in Malaysia, while a crash sidelined Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo for much of the running.
Riding a MotoGP bike for the first time since his incident with Marco Bezzecchi in Indonesia in October, Marquez leapt to the top spot on the leaderboard with just 20 minutes left to run, posting an impressive time of 1m57.018s on his factory Ducati.
His late effort put him a quarter of a second clear of VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio, who had only just taken over at the top on identical GP26 machinery.
Third place went to Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales, who eventually ended up just 0.277s off the pace after a last-gasp effort on the factory-spec RC16.
Last year’s runner-up Alex Marquez led much of the day’s proceedings for Gresini after setting an early benchmark of 1m57.487s. It appeared that the Spaniard would end the day quickest of all, but late improvements from elder brother Marc, di Giannantonio and Vinales left him fourth in the final order.
Aprilia emerged as the third-quickest manufacturer on the first day of testing, with Bezzecchi finishing fifth on the factory RS-GP, half a second down on reigning MotoGP champion Marquez.
Bezzecchi completed a direct comparison of Aprilia’s 2025 and ‘26 bikes, as the Noale-based brand evaluated aero and other new components at Sepang.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Luca Marini led the way for Honda in sixth, while his factory team-mate Joan Mir wasn’t too far behind in seventh in what was a solid day for the Japanese marque.
They were closely followed by two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia, who improved his time in the afternoon to finish eighth. Ducati debuted a new aerodynamic package at Sepang, with Bagnaia evaluating an all-carbon-fibre bike during the day.
Quartararo suffered a massive crash at Turn 5 in the opening hour of the test and had to visit the medical centre for precautionary check-ups.
The Frenchman was able to walk away with just ‘soreness’ and returned to the track later in the afternoon, setting a best time of 1m57.769s in the final hour to end up ninth on the leaderboard.
Quartararo was followed by his former team-mate Franco Morbidelli (VR46), as all five manufacturers finished with at least one bike inside the top 10.
Apart from Vinales’ late heroic effort, KTM had a low-key day at Sepang, with Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta finishing 12th, 13th and 15th respectively.
The battle between the two MotoGP rookies was led by LCR Honda’s Diogo Moreira, who edged out Yamaha rival Toprak Razgatlioglu by just two tenths of a second.
Moreira, however, was among several riders to crash in the morning, going down at Turn 5 – the same spot that claimed Quartararo.
Meanwhile, Yamaha’s test rider Andrea Dovizioso stopped on track early in the day with a mechanical issue.
Results to follow
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– The Autosport.com Team
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