MotoGP 2023
Round 18 – Malaysian Grand Prix
MotoGP FP1
The opening practice session got underway at Sepang for round 18 of the MotoGP World Championship this afternoon in the traditional sultry conditions that we can expect in Malaysia at this time of year.
It was hot in more ways than one for Aleix Espargaro. The Spaniard had quite a slow and soft front end lose which put him on the deck and his RS-GP machine promptly burst into flames.
Some sections of the 5543 metre circuit have been resurfaced ahead of this year’s race which has led to suggestions that the 1m57.790s all-time MotoGP lap record at the circuit set during qualiying by Jorge Martin last year would be eclipsed. The Pramac Ducati rider also holds the race lap record at 1m59.634. The track today though was described as being very green following plenty of recent heavy rain.
That didn’t stop Jorge Martin topping proceedings once again though, a 1m59.513 to the 25-year-old, besting the rest.
Alex Marquez had been quickest for the majority of the session and nearly undercut Martin once again on his final lap but it went away from the Gresini Ducati man and he had to settle for second.
Johann Zarco made it a Ducati 1-2-3 ahead of the Yamaha pairing of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo.
Jack Miller rounded out the top ten just behind Augusto Fernandez.
Championship leader Pecco Bagnaia did not have a late-time attack on fresh rubber and ranked 14th at the end of FP1.
World Superbike Champion Alvaro Bautista opened his weekend three seconds off the benchmark pace.
MotoGP FP1 Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | TIme/Gap |
| 1 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | 1m59.513 |
| 2 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | +0.049 |
| 3 | Johann ZARCO | DUCATI | +0.401 |
| 4 | Franco MORBIDELLI | YAMAHA | +0.542 |
| 5 | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | +0.621 |
| 6 | Luca MARINI | DUCATI | +0.729 |
| 7 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | +0.731 |
| 8 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | +0.738 |
| 9 | Pol ESPARGARO | KTM | +0.785 |
| 10 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | +0.954 |
| 11 | Jack MILLER | KTM | +1.006 |
| 12 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | +1.081 |
| 13 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | +1.267 |
| 14 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | +1.356 |
| 15 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | +1.375 |
| 16 | Enea BASTIANINI | DUCATI | +1.389 |
| 17 | Marc MARQUEZ | HONDA | +1.597 |
| 18 | Brad BINDER | KTM | +1.665 |
| 19 | Joan MIR | HONDA | +1.835 |
| 20 | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | +1.839 |
| 21 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | +2.024 |
| 22 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | DUCATI | +3.003 |
| 23 | Iker LECUONA | HONDA | +3.780 |
MotoGP Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | BAGNAIA | 389 |
| 2 | MARTIN | 376 |
| 3 | BEZZECCHI | 310 |
| 4 | BINDER | 249 |
| 5 | ESPARGARO | 198 |
| 6 | ZARCO | 194 |
| 7 | VIÑALES | 170 |
| 8 | MARINI | 164 |
| 9 | QUARTARARO | 145 |
| 10 | MILLER | 144 |
| 11 | MARQUEZ | 117 |
| 12 | DI GIANNANTONIO | 93 |
| 13 | MORBIDELLI | 84 |
| 14 | MARQUEZ | 81 |
| 15 | OLIVEIRA | 76 |
| 16 | FERNANDEZ | 67 |
| 17 | RINS | 54 |
| 18 | NAKAGAMI | 52 |
| 19 | BASTIANINI | 45 |
| 20 | FERNANDEZ | 40 |
| 21 | PEDROSA | 32 |
| 22 | MIR | 24 |
| 23 | ESPARGARO | 12 |
| 24 | SAVADORI | 9 |
| 25 | 25 FOLGER | 9 |
| 26 | 26 BRADL | 8 |
| 27 | 27 PIRRO | 5 |
| 28 | 28 PETRUCCI | 5 |
| 29 | 29 CRUTCHLOW | 3 |
| 30 | 30 LECUONA | 0 |
Moto2 FP1
| Pos | Rider | Bike | TIme/Gap |
| 1 | Fermín ALDEGUER | BOSCOSCURO | 2m06.183 |
| 2 | Jake DIXON | KALEX | +0.060 |
| 3 | Pedro ACOSTA | KALEX | +0.455 |
| 4 | Ai OGURA | KALEX | +0.466 |
| 5 | Dennis FOGGIA | KALEX | +0.565 |
| 6 | Joe ROBERTS | KALEX | +0.577 |
| 7 | Marcos RAMIREZ | KALEX | +0.867 |
| 8 | Somkiat CHANTRA | KALEX | +0.964 |
| 9 | Manuel GONZALEZ | KALEX | +1.055 |
| 10 | Aron CANET | KALEX | +1.210 |
| 11 | Celestino VIETTI | KALEX | +1.230 |
| 12 | Sam LOWES | KALEX | +1.249 |
| 13 | Tony ARBOLINO | KALEX | +1.266 |
| 14 | Alonso LOPEZ | BOSCOSCURO | +1.302 |
| 15 | Filip SALAC | KALEX | +1.391 |
| 16 | Jeremy ALCOBA | KALEX | +1.549 |
| 17 | Izan GUEVARA | KALEX | +1.557 |
| 18 | Barry BALTUS | KALEX | +1.635 |
| 19 | Albert ARENAS | KALEX | +1.728 |
| 20 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | KALEX | +1.944 |
| 21 | Sergio GARCIA | KALEX | +1.976 |
| 22 | Zonta VD GOORBERGH | KALEX | +2.267 |
| 23 | Rory SKINNER | KALEX | +2.315 |
| 24 | Sean Dylan KELLY | FORWARD | +2.811 |
| 25 | Lukas TULOVIC | KALEX | +2.812 |
| 26 | Taiga HADA | KALEX | +3.014 |
| 27 | Kohta NOZANE | KALEX | +3.081 |
| 28 | Darryn BINDER | KALEX | +3.113 |
| 29 | Alex ESCRIG | FORWARD | +3.152 |
| 30 | Mattia CASADEI | KALEX | +3.405 |
| 31 | Azroy ANUAR | KALEX | +4.839 |
| 32 | Helmi AZMAN | KALEX | +6.042 |
Moto2 Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | ACOSTA Pedro | 300.5 |
| 2 | ARBOLINO Tony | 237.5 |
| 3 | DIXON Jake | 172 |
| 4 | CANET Aron | 159 |
| 5 | CHANTRA Somkiat | 143.5 |
| 6 | ALDEGUER Fermín | 137 |
| 7 | LOPEZ Alonso | 127 |
| 8 | GONZALEZ Manuel | 122.5 |
| 9 | SALAC Filip | 108 |
| 10 | OGURA Ai | 106.5 |
| 11 | VIETTI Celestino | 106 |
| 12 | GARCIA Sergio | 84 |
| 13 | LOWES Sam | 82 |
| 14 | ROBERTS Joe | 72.5 |
| 15 | ARENAS Albert | 72 |
| 16 | BALTUS Barry | 48 |
| 17 | ALCOBA Jeremy | 42.5 |
| 18 | RAMIREZ Marcos | 33 |
| 19 | BINDER Darryn | 32 |
| 20 | BENDSNEYDER Bo | 30 |
| 21 | FOGGIA Dennis | 27 |
| 22 | GUEVARA Izan | 20 |
| 23 | VD GOORBERGH Zonta | 17 |
| 24 | TULOVIC Lukas | 12 |
| 25 | PASINI Mattia | 11 |
| 26 | HADA Taiga | 4.5 |
| 27 | SKINNER Rory | 2 |
| 28 | KELLY Sean Dylan | 1 |
| 29 | GOMEZ Borja | 0 |
| 30 | NOZANE Kohta | 0 |
| 31 | TORRES Jordi | 0 |
| 32 | SURRA Alberto | 0 |
| 33 | TATAY Carlos | 0 |
| 34 | ESCRIG Alex | 0 |
| 35 | DALLA PORTA Lorenzo | 0 |
| 36 | AGIUS Senna | 0 |
| 37 | RATO Mattia | 0 |
| 38 | MINAMIMOTO Soichiro | 0 |
| 39 | CASADEI Mattia | 0 |
| 40 | DANIEL Kasma | 0 |
| 41 | RUIZ Yeray | 0 |
| 42 | SANCHIS David | 0 |
| 43 | BALDASSARRI Lorenzo | 0 |
Moto3 FP1
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Jaume MASIA | HONDA | 2m12.065 |
| 2 | Deniz ÖNCÜ | KTM | +0.435 |
| 3 | Romano FENATI | HONDA | +0.515 |
| 4 | Diogo MOREIRA | KTM | +0.890 |
| 5 | David MUÑOZ | KTM | +0.893 |
| 6 | José Antonio RUEDA | KTM | +0.977 |
| 7 | Joel KELSO | CFMOTO | +0.979 |
| 8 | Ayumu SASAKI | HUSQVARNA | +1.309 |
| 9 | David ALONSO | GASGAS | +1.319 |
| 10 | Xavier ARTIGAS | CFMOTO | +1.355 |
| 11 | Daniel HOLGADO | KTM | +1.415 |
| 12 | Ivan ORTOLÁ | KTM | +1.503 |
| 13 | Stefano NEPA | KTM | +1.524 |
| 14 | Matteo BERTELLE | HONDA | +1.532 |
| 15 | Adrian FERNANDEZ | HONDA | +1.663 |
| 16 | Filippo FARIOLI | KTM | +1.684 |
| 17 | Taiyo FURUSATO | HONDA | +1.786 |
| 18 | Riccardo ROSSI | HONDA | +1.817 |
| 19 | Joshua WHATLEY | HONDA | +1.896 |
| 20 | Ryusei YAMANAKA | GASGAS | +2.044 |
| 21 | Scott OGDEN | HONDA | +2.070 |
| 22 | Kaito TOBA | HONDA | +2.084 |
| 23 | Syarifuddin AZMAN | KTM | +2.193 |
| 24 | Vicente PEREZ | KTM | +2.252 |
| 25 | Collin VEIJER | HUSQVARNA | +2.262 |
| 26 | David SALVADOR | KTM | +2.269 |
| 27 | Mario AJI | HONDA | +2.584 |
| 28 | Lorenzo FELLON | KTM | +2.917 |
Moto3 Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | MASIA Jaume | 230 |
| 2 | SASAKI Ayumu | 213 |
| 3 | ALONSO David | 205 |
| 4 | HOLGADO Daniel | 205 |
| 5 | ÖNCÜ Deniz | 191 |
| 6 | ORTOLÁ Ivan | 157 |
| 7 | MOREIRA Diogo | 131 |
| 8 | RUEDA José Antonio | 111 |
| 9 | VEIJER Collin | 105 |
| 10 | MUÑOZ David | 102 |
| 11 | NEPA Stefano | 100 |
| 12 | TOBA Kaito | 97 |
| 13 | YAMANAKA Ryusei | 71 |
| 14 | ARTIGAS Xavier | 67 |
| 15 | ROSSI Riccardo | 66 |
| 16 | FURUSATO Taiyo | 56 |
| 17 | SUZUKI Tatsuki | 50 |
| 18 | BERTELLE Matteo | 42 |
| 19 | KELSO Joel | 40 |
| 20 | SALVADOR David | 31 |
| 21 | FENATI Romano | 30 |
| 22 | OGDEN Scott | 21 |
| 23 | MIGNO Andrea | 17 |
| 24 | FERNANDEZ Adrian | 12 |
| 25 | FARIOLI Filippo | 7 |
| 26 | FELLON Lorenzo | 6 |
| 27 | AZMAN Syarifuddin | 5 |
| 28 | CARRARO Nicola Fabio | 5 |
| 29 | AJI Mario | 4 |
| 30 | WHATLEY Joshua | 3 |
| 31 | ALMANSA David | 0 |
| 32 | ADITAMA Arbi | 0 |
| 33 | BUASRI Tatchakorn | 0 |
| 34 | PEREZ Vicente | 0 |
| 35 | CARRASCO Ana | 0 |
| 36 | LUNETTA Luca | 0 |
| 37 | SHAHRIL Danial | 0 |
| 38 | DETTWILER Noah | 0 |
| 39 | KEANKUM Krittapat | 0 |
Malaysian Grand Prix Schedule
Brought to you in AEDT by Kayo Sports
| Saturday | ||
| Time | Class | Event |
| 1140 | Moto3 | FP3 |
| 1225 | Moto2 | FP3 |
| 1310 | MotoGP | FP2 |
| 1350 | MotoGP | Q1 |
| 1415 | MotoGP | Q2 |
| 1550 | Moto3 | Q1 |
| 1615 | Moto3 | Q2 |
| 1645 | Moto2 | Q1 |
| 1710 | Moto2 | Q2 |
| 1800 | MotoGP | Sprint |
| Sunday | ||
| Time | Class | Event |
| 1340 | MotoGP | WUP |
| 1500 | Moto3 | Race |
| 1615 | Moto2 | Race |
| 1800 | MotoGP | Race |
2023 MotoGP Calendar
| Rnd | Date | Location |
| 19 | Nov-12 | Malaysia, Sepang |
| 20 | Nov-19 | Qatar, Lusail |
| 21 | Nov-26 | Valenciana, Valencia |
