Marc Marquez fastest as 2015 MotoGP testing kicks off

Marc Marquez left it until the final five minutes of the opening day of the 2015 MotoGP pre-season to deny Valentino Rossi top spot in Malaysia today.

In cloudy and windy conditions at the long and technical Sepang circuit, a best lap of 2.00.262 put the reigning world champion 0.118s clear of factory Yamaha rival Rossi, who had led for much of the opening afternoon with a 2.00.380.

Third place went to Rossi’s factory Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who was 0.259s behind Marquez on the all-new YZR-M1.

Andrea Dovizioso was only 0.237s off compatriot Rossi’s best pace, as he improved his pace in the final hour when track temperatures cooled off.

Dovizioso and new Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone are riding an updated version of last year’s GP14.2, which has been designated the 14.3.

The brand new Desmosedici GP15 will be ready for testing at the second Sepang test that gets underway on February 23.

Dani Pedrosa led the leaderboard for much of the opening morning and he ended in fifth spot. The Repsol Honda rider escaped injury in a slow speed front-end crash at Turn 9 right at the end of the day.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Pol Espargaro bounced back from an early setback to post the sixth best on an impressive opening day from the 2013 Moto2 world champion.

Espargaro was the first crash victim of 2015 when he toppled off his factory-backed YZR-M1 on his first flying lap of the eight-hour session.

He ran off track at Turn 11 and while trying to keep control of his YZR-M1 he suffered a small fall.

A limping Bradley Smith, who injured ankle ligaments in a recent moto cross training accident, brushed off the discomfort to set the ninth fastest time that put him one place ahead of fellow Briton Cal Crutchlow.

Scott Redding had a satisfactory start to his second appearance on the factory-backed Honda RC213V he will race for the Marc VDS Racing squad in 2015.

The former Moto2 world championship runner-up improved from 18^th to 11^th in the final stages with a best time of 2.01.917 in his 63-lap stint.

It was a troubled start to 2015 for Aprilia’s new premier class project, with Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri both stopping out on track with mechanical issues.

Bautista eventually finished 15^th fastest and his best lap of 2.02.285 put him way clear of Melandri, who was left languishing down in 26^th and almost 4.3s off Marquez’s best.

In the final hour of the test, Melandri suffered another technical issue and was seen pushing his bike back into the pit lane.

Nicky Hayden was the quickest of the upgraded Open class Honda RC213V-RS quartet in action.

The 2006 world champion was 17^th and 2.437s off the best lap time. Aussie rookie Jack Miller was the next best RC213V-RS bike in 19^th, while Eugene Laverty was 22nd.

The all-new Suzuki GSX-RR just managed to within two seconds off the best lap time today, with Aleix Espargaro down in 14^th with a best lap of 2.02.225.

Rookie Maverick Vinales ended the day in 21^st spot and was just over 0.7s adrift of his teammate when the track closed at 6pm local time this evening.