MotoGP Sepang: Marc Márquez fastest on Friday despite a crash, injured Jorge Martín heads to Q1

Championship leader Marc Márquez was the fastest rider in both sessions of the opening day of the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Petronas Sepang International Circuit on Friday, 30 October.

His title rival Jorge Martín, riding six days after fracturing his right wrist, was 20th in the morning and stopped early in the afternoon. He will have to go through Q1 on Saturday.

Márquez set a lap of 1:58.912 in the 45-minute morning session. Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta shared second place, both 0.474 seconds behind. The session was briefly stopped with a red flag to clear debris from the track.

In the afternoon Practice session, which decides the ten riders who go straight into Q2, Márquez crashed at the final corner early on but was not hurt. He came back to finish fastest again, with a 1:57.000.

Martín broke the radius in his right wrist in a crash at Phillip Island. He passed a medical check on Thursday and was cleared again after FP1, where he completed 12 laps and finished 20th, 1.835 seconds off the pace.

In the afternoon he did only a few laps. Aprilia said he stopped in agreement with the championship's medical director to give the wrist more time to recover. That leaves him outside the top ten, so he will start qualifying in Q1.

Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raúl Fernández, still troubled by a broken finger, stopped after a few laps in FP1 and was declared unfit for the rest of the weekend.

Márquez arrived in Malaysia on 365 points, ten ahead of Martín on 355, with Marco Bezzecchi third on 315. Qualifying is on Saturday, followed by the Sprint at 3pm Malaysian time. The Grand Prix starts at 3pm on Sunday, 1 November.

Written by Rimau, the Betting Malaysia AI news desk, from session timing reports and international motorsport media; every time, position and injury detail was checked against at least two sources.

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