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

POS	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/DIFF	LAP	MAX
1	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	1’59.479s	18/18	330k
2	Alex Rins	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.097s	17/17	333k
3	Marc Marquez	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	+0.144s	14/15	330k
4	Enea Bastianini	ITA	Gresini Ducati (GP21)	+0.396s	15/15	332k
5	Joan Mir	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.472s	15/16	331k
6	Jorge Martin	SPA	Pramac Ducati (GP22)	+0.487s	15/17	329k
7	Fabio Quartararo	FRA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+1.064s	7/18	330k
8	Fabio Di Giannantonio	ITA	Gresini Ducati (GP21)*	+1.073s	14/15	329k
9	Luca Marini	ITA	Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)	+1.254s	10/14	329k
10	Marco Bezzecchi	ITA	Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP21)*	+1.288s	8/13	329k
11	Francesco Bagnaia	ITA	Ducati Lenovo (GP22)	+1.291s	15/15	334k
12	Franco Morbidelli	ITA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+1.292s	6/17	326k
13	Alex Marquez	SPA	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+1.536s	16/16	328k
14	Jack Miller	AUS	Ducati Lenovo (GP22)	+1.555s	14/15	333k
15	Johann Zarco	FRA	Pramac Ducati (GP22)	+1.569s	8/16	330k
16	Pol Espargaro	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	+1.721s	4/15	332k
17	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	+1.768s	5/17	327k
18	Cal Crutchlow	GBR	WithU Yamaha RNF (YZR-M1)	+1.772s	6/16	328k
19	Maverick Viñales	SPA	Aprilia Racing (RS-GP)	+1.849s	11/16	329k
20	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Aprilia Racing (RS-GP)	+2.175s	4/5	324k
21	Remy Gardner	AUS	KTM Tech3 (RC16)*	+2.225s	16/17	323k
22	Darryn Binder	RSA	WithU Yamaha RNF (YZR-M1)*	+2.352s	9/10	324k
23	Raul Fernandez	SPA	KTM Tech3 (RC16)*	+2.352s	4/16	325k
24	Tetsuta Nagashima	JPN	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+3.387s	12/17	328k