Bagnaia ahead in Friday MotoGP practice as Martin crashes

Pecco Bagnaia led MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin by half a tenth at the end of Friday practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Key moments:

• Martin crashes late on
• Three Ducati GP24s a cut above
• Two Yamahas in Q2
• Vinales, Miller sparing Aprilia's and KTM's blushes

Bagnaia's 1m57.679s - two tenths off the pole record - was enough to top the hour-long session, thanks also to Martin crashing at Turn 1 as soon as he started the first flying lap of his final run.

It is the exact kind of mistake the championship leader cannot afford or even risk in the upcoming sessions, because the 2024-spec Ducatis look out of reach for the rest of the competition.

So only Bagnaia's team-mate Enea Bastianini - two tenths off in the session - looks in with a chance of getting involved in the Bagnaia/Martin scrap in normal conditions, which means Martin is in a great position to preserve most of his 17-point lead through the weekend.

Through to Q2: Bagnaia, Martin, Bastianini, Vinales, A Marquez, Quartararo, Morbidelli, Rins, Miller, M Marquez

Q1 roster: Acosta, Bezzecchi, Zarco, Binder, Nakagami, R Fernandez, Espargaro, Marini, A Fernandez, Mir, Iannone, Savadori

On what looked to be a difficult day for Aprilia, the RS-GP again came alive over one lap in Maverick Vinales' hands, the Spaniard managing to lap 0.462s off the pace to place a comfortable fourth.

His team-mate Aleix Espargaro - who had crashed four times in Friday practice at this round last year - fell twice during the session, both times at Turn 9, before settling for 17th.

The 2023-spec Ducatis looked further back than usual from their newer Desmosedici counterparts, as evidenced by Alex Marquez - who was a bona fide grand prix victory contender and probably the quickest all-around rider in the Malaysian GP last year - ending up only sixth, 0.617s.

His brother Marc was less than a tenth off and ended up just sneaking into Q2 in 10th.

Slotting in between them were the two Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins, as well as the fourth GP24 of Franco Morbidelli and the KTM of Jack Miller.

Yamaha has made a new, more powerful engine available this weekend, but Quartararo's new-spec engine had expired in the morning - so he actually booked his Q2 spot using an older-spec engine.

Miller's fellow KTM RC16 riders Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder - who had an early crash at Turn 4 - will both have to fight through Q1.

Honda's contingent was headed by Johann Zarco in 13th, the LCR Honda rider having hoped for a top-10 spot but realistic that his RC213V would likely be less competitive through Sepang's longer, wider layout.

Series returnee Andrea Iannone was two seconds off the pace in 21st, nine places and just over a second behind VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, who had a very slow tip-off at the final corner.