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MotoGP Malaysia: Suzuki's Rins beats Marquez in second practice

Suzuki MotoGP rider Alex Rins was fastest in second practice for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, beating world champion Marc Marquez by a little under a tenth of a second

Marquez spent the opening half of the afternoon session on top, and until the final five minutes he was the only rider from the top 10 in FP1 to have improved his best time.

That changed when Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller again became the first rider to dip beneath the two-minute mark with a best lap of 1m59.771s, which was then eclipsed by a 1m59.701s from Marquez.

But Rins, having just slotted into second behind Miller, was able to find even more time on his final flying lap, turning in a 1m59.608s to best Honda rider Marquez by 0.093 seconds.

Miller's time was enough for third place, 0.163s off the pace, ahead of Phillip Island winner Maverick Vinales on the best of the Yamahas and the second Pramac Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.

Valentino Rossi enjoyed a spell at the top of the times in the second half of the session prior to Miller's improvement and in the end was sixth-fastest, failing to improve on his best effort from Friday morning.

That time still left him fourth in the combined order, behind Rins, FP1 pacesetter Andrea Dovizioso - who was only seventh in FP2 - and Marquez.

Johann Zarco (Tech3 Yamaha) and the second Suzuki of Andrea Iannone retained their places in the top 10 overall by ending up eighth and ninth, but Dani Pedrosa (Honda) was left outside the cut-off despite being 10th fastest in FP2.

Instead, Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro remains 10th overall by virtue of his FP1 time after a session in which he finished 19th.

His team-mate Scott Redding was the only rider to crash in FP2, doing so early on at Turn 2, although Marquez saved a lurid slide at Turn 15, the final corner, not long after.

Jorge Lorenzo continued to struggle on the second of the factory Ducatis, as he elected to continue running despite ending up slowest of all in first practice.

The Spanish rider failed to improve on his FP1 time, completing only nine laps, and was once again last, five seconds off the pace.

FP2 times

Pos Rider Team Time Gap Laps
1 Alex Rins Suzuki 1m59.608s - 19
2 Marc Marquez Honda 1m59.701s 0.093s 18
3 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati 1m59.771s 0.163s 16
4 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1m59.802s 0.194s 17
5 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati 1m59.811s 0.203s 16
6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m00.017s 0.409s 18
7 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m00.091s 0.483s 15
8 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha 2m00.159s 0.551s 17
9 Andrea Iannone Suzuki 2m00.502s 0.894s 18
10 Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m00.579s 0.971s 19
11 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda 2m00.829s 1.221s 18
12 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati 2m00.980s 1.372s 18
13 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda 2m00.981s 1.373s 17
14 Pol Espargaro KTM 2m01.020s 1.412s 17
15 Bradley Smith KTM 2m01.302s 1.694s 18
16 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m01.561s 1.953s 17
17 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati 2m01.684s 2.076s 15
18 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda 2m01.743s 2.135s 15
19 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 2m01.766s 2.158s 18
20 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha 2m01.894s 2.286s 15
21 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati 2m01.900s 2.292s 14
22 Jordi Torres Avintia Ducati 2m01.940s 2.332s 19
23 Scott Redding Aprilia 2m02.338s 2.730s 13
24 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 2m04.636s 5.028s 9


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