Bastianini tops Sepang Saturday practice
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 31, 2026
Saturday practice order
Enea Bastianini took the top spot in Saturday practice at Sepang with a 1:58.516 lap, and the session tightened the fight at the front again. Alex Marquez was second, 0.288 seconds back, while Marco Bezzecchi took third and Ai Ogura followed in fourth. The result came after a Friday session that already showed how close the leading group can be around Sepang. Marc Marquez, who had led Friday practice, had to settle for eighth on Saturday. Francesco Bagnaia was 10th, leaving the two factory Ducati riders on opposite sides of the front of the timesheets as the weekend moved forward.
The Saturday order also underscored how quickly the pecking order can change from one session to the next at a track that rewards precision and rhythm. Bastianini put together the lap that mattered most, and the gap back to Alex Marquez showed how little room there was at the top. Bezzecchi stayed in the mix near the front after also running among the best on Friday, while Ogura backed up his earlier pace with another strong showing. Marquez’s eighth-place run was still good enough to keep him in the conversation, but it came after a day in which he had already shown he could set the standard despite the pressure of the circuit and the demands of the session.
Marquez leads Friday
Marc Marquez opened Friday practice at Sepang with the fastest lap, a 1:57.000, even after a crash in the session. Alex Marquez finished second, Ai Ogura was third and Pedro Acosta took fourth. Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the top five, and the top 10 also included Marco Bezzecchi, Bastianini, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli and Joan Mir. That group earned direct Q2 spots, which made Friday one of the key sorting sessions of the weekend and put several riders straight through without needing extra work in qualifying.
The lower edge of that cutoff proved costly for two of the bigger names in the field. Bagnaia and Johann Zarco missed out on direct Q2 after late crashes and were set for Q1. Jorge Martin also ended Friday practice early and would have had to go through Q1 if he had continued. The session gave a clear picture of who had the speed to move on immediately and who still had work to do. Marquez set the pace, but the margin between the top spots stayed narrow enough to keep the rest of the field within striking distance.
Martin returns, Fernandez out
Jorge Martin returned to action in Friday practice six days after a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius, and he completed 12 laps in the session. That return added another layer to a weekend already shaped by close competition and shifting availability. Martin’s presence on track mattered because he was coming back quickly enough to test his condition in a live session, even if the pace of the day still pushed him toward the Q1 path he would have needed had he stayed in the hunt for direct advancement.
Raul Fernandez also figured into the story at Sepang, but for a different reason. He was declared unfit during Friday practice and was set to return to Spain for treatment. The news removed him from the competitive picture for the rest of the session and left another opening in a field that was already dealing with crashes, changing order and a tight race for Q2 places. Between Martin’s return and Fernandez’s exit, the human side of the weekend stayed as prominent as the timesheet itself.
