VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli led the second day of MotoGP pre-season testing at Sepang, as Ducati's works riders Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez both had crashes.
Morbidelli's 1m57.210s, set early in the day on the same Ducati GP24 spec that he campaigned last year at Pramac, was slower than the best time of the corresponding session from last year.
A small bit of rain arrived in the last couple of hours, threatening effectively an early end to the day's meaningful running, and though the track stayed dry the impact on track conditions may have prevented riders from surpassing Morbidelli.
But it was also another day of the carryover GP24s looking strong, with Morbidelli, Alex Marquez and his rookie Gresini team-mate Fermin Aldeguer all in the top four.
Only Fabio Quartararo slotted in among them, the 2021 world champion continuing to raise eyebrows with his pace on the new Yamaha M1 - though a late challenge for the top spot ultimately came up short.
"So far the only thing we can say is we are faster than last year. But I would like to wait until tomorrow night to have a clear idea of, basically, where we are," Yamaha team principal Massimo Meregalli told MotoGP.com.
Bagnaia was fifth in the end, but would have likely been higher up had he not crashed at the last corner during a fast lap.
Marquez likewise crashed on a fast lap, later in the day, so ended up well short of what he'd managed on Wednesday.
Off the back of what he'd described as his best test day in two years on Wednesday, Joan Mir had another good one with Honda, placing sixth right ahead of the fastest of the KTMs - Pedro Acosta.
Acosta had to shrug off a crash very early on in his testing programme.
With reigning champion Jorge Martin absent through injury, Aprilia ran test rider Lorenzo Savadori - while Martin's regular team-mate Marco Bezzecchi said his own workload was increased "a little bit but not really" in Martin's absence.
"It's a shame to not have him in the box, because two [sets of] comments for our guys were of course better than one," said Bezzecchi, although he added that "Sava is always doing a great job for us".
Bezzecchi said during his midday break that he was feeling strong on used tyres but still limited on newer rubber, though he did move up to an eventual ninth place, suggesting at least some progress had been made.
Another injury stand-in was Michele Pirro, riding Fabio Di Giannantonio's Ducati GP25 after the latter injured himself in a wheelie crash on Wednesday.
