Friday at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix saw riders go out in both the wet and dry, with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo in the top three in both conditions.

A tight FP1 saw Lorenzo in third, just 0.037s off the best time of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who led the way in the dry. Lorenzo was able to set multiple laps in the mid to low 2’01s as he explored setup options.

As can often occur at Sepang, rain affected FP2 resulting in many riders circulating with care in the opening stages as they assessed conditions. Lorenzo was one of only two riders in the 2’14s with a 2’14.530s. Marquez was 0.242s behind, with the rest of the field over a second down.

These results saw Lorenzo finish third on combined times. Regardless of conditions Lorenzo believes he can mount a strong challenge come Sunday.

Looking ahead to the race he said, “We hope to either have a completely wet race or a completely dry race, but not something in between because that would be difficult for everyone. In the wet I was really satisfied and happy. Midway through the practice I was pushing really hard and was feeling very good. My lap time was two seconds quicker than anyone else! Finally Marc and Dani improved at the end of the practice, but at that moment I was really fast.”

“Valentino was having some problems, so this means our setting was working very well and I was feeling great on the bike. On the dry in the morning I also felt good from the beginning. I finished in third, which is like a second place because Aleix put on the extra soft tyre. Dani seems to be strong here on the dry, like always, but I think we can fight for the win,” added Lorenzo.