The Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team pairing of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli ended the opening day of the Sepang Test first and second respectively. The first outing with the new livery was a positive one as the duo racked up the kilometres at the Sepang International Circuit, despite rain holding up proceedings in the afternoon.
Taking to the track immediately at 10:00, Quartararo was quick to make his mark on the timing screens and soon placed his Yamaha YZR-M1 at the top of the standings. The afternoon downpour helped him spend the rest of the day there, finishing the session aboard his 2019 machine with a lap time that was 0.051 seconds faster than his competition. Fabio completed 52 laps of the Malaysian track, with a best time of 1min 58.945secs.
Team-mate Morbidelli focused on testing the latest evolution of the A-spec machine, which he last rode in November at the Jerez test. After spending the first hour getting up to speed with the new improvements, he soon joined Quartararo at the top of the timing screens, just 0.051 seconds behind. Despite the rain restricting track time, Morbidelli completed more laps during the afternoon and finished the day in second, 0.199 seconds faster than Alex Rins, having racked up 62 laps with a best time of 1min 58.996secs.
Testing will resume tomorrow at Sepang International Circuit at 10:00 (local time), when Fabio will be able to ride the Factory-Spec YZR-M1 for the first time. The second day of action will draw to a close at 18:00 (local time), ahead of the final day on Sunday.
