{"id":241294,"date":"2025-10-26T04:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241294\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T04:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:49:07","slug":"alex-marquez-fastest-in-malaysian-motogp-warm-up-most-difficult-tyre-choice-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241294\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Marquez fastest in Malaysian MotoGP warm-up, \u201cmost difficult tyre choice of season\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gresini Ducati riders Alex Marquez<\/a> and Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> celebrated their new title runner-up and rookie of the year achievement with a one-two in warm-up for the Malaysian MotoGP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Riding in a special dark blue livery, Marquez finished the ten-minute session 0.097s ahead of Aldeguer, with Sprint winner Francesco Bagnaia third for Ducati Lenovo.<\/p>\n

The main priority for warm-up was to decide if it\u2019s worth moving to the medium rear tyre in the grand prix, or better to try and make the soft do the 20-lap distance, after soft-soft rubber in the Sprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soft front has a drop, but the medium front also works,\u201d Michelin\u2019s Piero Taramasso told Dorna pit lane reporter Jack Appleyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the rear, the medium is raceable. It\u2019s a few tenths [a lap] lower than the soft, but more consistent. We\u2019ll see after warm-up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s maybe the most difficult choice of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Marquez used soft tyres front and rear for warm-up. Aldeguer and Bagnaia also had the soft rear, but medium front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning was quite good, we just tried another front tyre to get a better idea of the choice,\u201d said Bagnaia<\/a>. \u201cLet\u2019s see this afternoon because today is already hotter than yesterday. And it will be important to make a good choice with the rear tyre.\u201d<\/p>\n

VR46\u2019s Franco Morbidelli in fourth was the fastest on medium tyres front and rear, with the KTMs of Enea Bastianini and Pol Espargaro just behind him on softs.<\/p>\n

However, Pedro Acosta, promoted to third in the Sprint by Aldeguer\u2019s penalty, was only 14th on softs. Given the recent tyre wear woes for the RC16, it\u2019d be a major challenge to make the soft go the distance.<\/p>\n

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Luca Marini<\/a>, who suffered his first crash of the season, was second best to Morbidelli for those on the medium\/medium rubber.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried different tyres for the long race. The feeling is ok,\u201d said the HRC rider. \u201cLet\u2019s see the choice for everybody. I think the medium can be a little better for the front. But on the rear everybody is struggling with both tyres.\u201c<\/p>\n

Team-mate Joan Mir<\/a>, who crashed out of the podium battle on Saturday, was 16th on a soft front and medium rear combination: \u201cI feel good, we have the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision for Yamaha looks clear; even in the hotter conditions they couldn\u2019t make the medium rear work in warm-up.<\/p>\n

Fabio Quartararo was the fastest M1 in just 13th, followed by Miguel Oliveira 15th, Jack Miller<\/a> 18th and Alex Rins<\/a> 19th.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI tried the medium this morning – it ain\u2019t the way to go [so us],\u201d said Miller. \u201cSo back to the drawing board for the race. The soft\u2019s going to be the one, we\u2019re just going to have to manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried the medium in warm-up and it was impossible, so we will need to manage,\u201d confirmed Rins.<\/p>\n

LCR Honda\u2019s Johann Zarco<\/a>, in tenth place, was among those to put the most laps on soft rubber, setting his best time on a front that had done 16 laps and a rear with 13 laps. Race distance is 20 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarm-up was interesting with used [soft] tyres,\u201d said Zarco. \u201cWe know the race will be long and tough, we have a massive drop on the rear tyre. I hope to have a great race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura<\/a>, in eleventh this morning, could be another to watch after putting 15 laps on a soft rear.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gresini Ducati riders Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer celebrated their new title runner-up and rookie of the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,40457,64,63,12370,7607,3555,15612,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-241294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-alex-marquez","9":"tag-alex-rins","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-fermin-aldeguer","13":"tag-francesco-bagnaia","14":"tag-jack-miller","15":"tag-johann-zarco","16":"tag-motor","17":"tag-motor-sports","18":"tag-motosport","19":"tag-motosports","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}