Sepang MotoGP test: Marc Marquez pips Valentino Rossi to top spot

The factory Honda rider jumped to the top of the timesheets in the closing 10 minutes of the six-hour session, his best time of 2m00.262s enough to beat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi by 0.118 seconds.

Rossi had headed the times for much of the day, his best effort of 2m00.380s coming relatively early on, and it remained good enough for second despite Marquez's late improvement.

The second Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo came third, 0.259s adrift of the pacesetter.

Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati was fourth fastest, the Italian using an updated version of last year's GP14 with the 2015 bike not due to arrive until the next test at Sepang later in the month.

He was followed by Dani Pedrosa, who led the way after the first hour but suffered a crash aboard his factory Honda at Turn 9 in the dying moments of the session.

Sixth fastest was top satellite rider Pol Espargaro, the only other man to get within a second of Marquez's benchmark, ahead of the works Ducati of Andrea Iannone and the best of the Open class riders, Stefan Bradl.

Britons Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow rounded out the top 10, the latter narrowly beating compatriot Scott Redding to the honour of best satellite Honda rider.

MotoGP's returning factory teams both had relatively subdued sessions - Aleix Espargaro was the best Suzuki rider in 14th, almost two seconds off the pace, with Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista coming one place behind.

Their respective team-mates Maverick Vinales and Marco Melandri were both outside the top 20.

LCR Honda rider Jack Miller ended the day as the best rookie in 19th place, over 2.5s down on the best time of the day and 1.3s slower than Open class leader Bradl.