The Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider was fastest in both practice sessions with teammate Joan Mir in 21st position overall.

It was a day of mixed weather conditions for Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Alex Marquez and Joan Mir on the opening day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Mainly hot and humid weather prevailed in the morning and after some brief rain the FP2 session was run in dry conditions.

Alex Marquez set the pace in the opening FP1 session with the fastest lap that signalled his intent for FP2. In the afternoon session the Spanish star was in record breaking form to go 0.03s quicker than Miguel Oliveira’s current Sepang circuit lap record with a time of 2’06.928.

Joan Mir was 17th in FP1 as he worked towards preparing for the race on Sunday. As he became more comfortable on the 5.5 km circuit in FP2 Mir went one second faster than FP1 before a harmless tumble at the final corner (turn 15) ended his session with two minutes remaining. Mir was 21st overall with a time of 2’08.732.

Tomorrow’s FP3 session is scheduled for 9:55am –local time– with qualifying at 1:30pm for round 18 of the Moto2 World Championship.

Alex Marquez: 1st, 2’06.928, 28 laps, 155 km

“The times are fast but we still need to check some things”

“The conditions in the morning were a little bit tricky but in the afternoon completely dry and it was good to ride in these conditions after the cold of Australia. We did some good work today so Im’ happy about that, it is good to feel like this on Friday. The times are fast but we still need to check some things and do a race simulation and see what the brings tomorrow.”

Joan Mir: 21st, 2’08.732, +1.804, 27 laps, 149 km

“We know the direction we want to follow tomorrow”

“I am quite disappointed about today. I feel good with the bike but when we changed to the zero front tyre which is the one on which I had to improve the tyre was a used one and I crashed on the out lap on that tyre. I’m a little frustrated but for tomorrow I think the bike is quite good and we know the directions we want to follow.”