Pol Espargaro began a pivotal weekend for his Moto2 championship chances in perfect fashion by topping the Friday Practice times in Malaysia. In all probability, the Pons rider needs a win to keep his hopes alive and a 2:08.015s lap this morning saw him lead the opening day, although he was pushed hard by Britain’s Bradley Smith while Marc Marquez finished a strong third.
Marquez had actually led the session for the most part only to be overtaken in the final two minutes by Espargaro. The younger of the two Spaniards pulled out a three tenth advantage while Smith squeezed in between the pair, taking his Tech 3 Mistral 610 round in 2:08.231.
Fresh for a superb podium finish at Motegi, Esteve Rabat took fourth on the second Pons Tuenti Kalex, just six hundredths behind Marquez, with Dominique Aegerter and Andrea Iannone completing the top six. Reigning 125cc champion Nicolas Terol was seventh ahead of Thomas Luthi with Takaaki Nakagami and Simone Corsi rounding out the leading ten. Scott Redding, confirmed as a Moto2 rider with Marc VDS for 2013, was twelfth with Gino Rea, whose status is much less secure, was 23rd.
Heavy rain caused a virtual washout of the afternoon session but it did provide a moment to remember for Malaysian wildcard Hafizh Syahrin who clocked the fastest time in front of his home crowd. The session didn’t pan out quite so well for the likes of Bradley Smith and Alex De Angelis who both suffered heavy crashes. Both avoided serious injury but Smith will take part in the rest of the weekend with two broken toes.
 Moto2 Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix: Combined Friday Practice Times |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Constructor | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 |  Pol Espargaro |
Kalex | Tuenti Movil HP 40 | 2:08.015 |
| 2 |  Bradley Smith |
Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | +0.216 |
| 3 | Marc Marquez |
Suter | Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol | +0.333 |
| 4 | Esteve Rabat |
Kalex | Tuenti Movil HP 40 | +0.392 |
| 5 |  Dominique Aegerter |
Suter | Technomag-CIP | +0.408 |
| 6 |  Andrea Iannone |
Speed Up | Speed Master | +0.443 |
| 7 | Nicolas Terol |
Suter | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | +0.452 |
| 8 | Thomas Luthi |
Suter | Interwetten-Paddock | +0.488 |
| 9 |  Takaaki Nakagami |
Kalex | Italtrans Racing Team | +0.508 |
| 10 | Simone Corsi |
FTR | Came IodaRacing Project | +0.519 |
| 11 | Toni Elias |
Kalex | Italtrans Racing Team | +0.525 |
| 12 | Scott Redding |
Kalex | Marc VDS Racing Team | +0.620 |
| 13 | Julian Simon |
Suter | Blusens Avintia | +0.635 |
| 14 |  Alex De Angelis |
FTR | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | +0.871 |
| 15 |  Anthony West |
Speed Up | QMMF Racing Team | +0.965 |
| 16 |  Mike Di Meglio |
Kalex | Kiefer Racing | +1.109 |
| 17 |  Mika Kallio |
Kalex | Marc VDS Racing Team | +1.141 |
| 18 | Johann Zarco |
Motobi | JIR Moto2 | +1.146 |
| 19 | Jordi Torres |
Suter | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | +1.405 |
| 20 |  Xavier Simeon |
Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | +1.481 |
| 21 | Ricard Cardus |
AJR | Arguiñano Racing Team | +1.575 |
| 22 | Axel Pons |
Kalex | Tuenti Movil HP 40 | +1.613 |
|
23 |
Gino Rea |
Suter | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | +1.712 |
| 24 | Hafizh Syahrin (W) |
FTR | Petronas Raceline Malaysia | +1.745 |
| 25 |  Marcel Schrotter |
Bimota | Desguaces La Torre SAG | +1.830 |
| 26 | Tomoyoshi Koyama |
Suter | Technomag-CIP | +2.137 |
| 27 |  Ratthapark Wilairot |
Suter | Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2 | +2.334 |
| 28 | Yuki Takahashi |
FTR | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | +2.365 |
| 29 | A. Andreozzi |
Speed Up | S/Master Speed Up | +3.797 |
| 30 | Marco Colandrea |
FTR | SAG Team | +4.004 |
| 31 | Jesko Raffin |
Suter | GP Team Switzerland | +5.409 |
| 32 | Elena Rosell |
Speed Up | QMMF Racing Team | +6.058 |
| 33 |  Eric Granado |
Motobi | JIR Moto2 | +6.592 |
