Brad Binder tops the opening practice of Malaysian Grand Prix

KTM’s Brad Binder was the first rider off the line in the first practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix, beating Suzuki’s Alex Rins by 0.097s.

Fabio Quartararo led the field for the majority of the 45-minute session on his Yamaha, although the Sepang International Circuit appeared to be lacking grip throughout the test as the riders battled to break the 2:00 barrier as time ran out.

A long run by the Frenchman in the early to midpoint of the session resulted in a time of 2:00.579 seconds. Later in the run, he recorded a time of 2:00.543 seconds to extend his lead.

Later, Jorge Martin moved to the top of the times with a 1:59.966s, followed by a 1:59.623s from Marc Marquez as the field started to find its footing. At the finish, Binder was able to find good track space just behind the Honda rider and the new series leader Francesco Bagnaia and put together a 1:59.479s.

Marquez’s performance placed him third, ahead of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini on the fastest Ducati, while Joan Mir on the sister Suzuki GSX-RR rounded off the top five.

Martin finished sixth on his Pramac-entered Ducati ahead of Quartararo and Fabio Di Gianantonio’s sister Gresini machine. The top 10 was completed by the VR46 Ducati combo of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, the recently crowned rookies champion who overcame an early crash at Turn 1.

Bagnaia finished in 11th place overall, slightly ahead of Franco Morbidelli’s second Yamaha, and Jack Miller’s other factory Ducati claimed 14th.

This would end up giving the South African rider the opening session victory, narrowly ahead of Australian GP winner Rins, who managed to close the gap to just a tenth of a second with his own final flyer.

The second Pramac Desmosedici, ridden by Johann Zarco, was farther down the timesheets to begin the weekend, as were the Aprilia RS-GPs driven by Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, who were only able to finish 19th and 20th on the timesheets, respectively.

The former’s test was hampered by an early crash on entry to Turn 8 where he lost the front of his bike, and a mechanical issue with his backup bike forced him to spend a considerable amount of FP1 in the garage.

2022 MALAYSIAN MOTOGP, SEPANG FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS