Friday saw all kind of typical Malaysian weather at the Sepang International Circuit. After a hot and humid morning session, heavy rain hit the area and delivered a delay of FP2, which eventually started on wet tarmac, but ended in drying conditions.
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team‘s Cal Crutchlow had an interesting Friday. He used Free Practice one this morning to try several changes on his bike and thereby finished in 18th position. In FP2, he was one of the first riders going out on slicks in the final seven minutes. He showed a fantastic pace in tricky conditions and eventually topped the session with an advantage of 0.9 seconds to World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia, pleasing the entire WithU Yamaha RNF crew.
On the other side of the garage, MotoGP rookie Darryn Binder made some decent progress throughout FP1 this morning, although he punctured his tyre and suffered a crash towards the end of the session. He still finished FP1 just 0.58 seconds behind his experienced teammate. In Free Practice two, he used the time to gather experience on wet track as well as on drying asphalt without focusing on a fast lap time.
Tomorrow’s action-packed Saturday starts with Free Practice three at 10:50 local time (04:50 CET), followed by FP4 at 14:25 local time (08:25 CET) and Qualifying at 15:05 local time (09:06 CET).
