Sepang MotoGP test: Marc Marquez fastest again on day two

The Honda rider, who was comfortably fastest on day one, flew to a new benchmark of 1m59.926s, leaving him the only rider to crack the 2m00s barrier.

Last year's pole time at the Malaysian track was a 2m00.011s, set by Marquez's works team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

The Spaniard was Marquez's closest challenger, but was still more than four tenths of a second off.

Stefan Bradl meanwhile ensured a top three lockout for Honda, going third fastest - just three thousandths of a second down on Pedrosa - for the LCR satellite squad.

Yamaha's works duo Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo wound up fourth and sixth respectively, both men finishing within 0.7s of Marquez.

They were split by Aleix Espargaro, who continued Forward Racing's excellent start to its new programme with Yamaha-based Open class machinery.

Bradley Smith backed up his works counterparts by putting his satellite Tech 3 Yamaha seventh, three hundredths of a second down on two-time champion Lorenzo.

As was the case on the first day, none of the factory Ducati riders made it into the top 10, although the Italian marque was represented as Andrea Iannone put his satellite Pramac machine eighth overall.

Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista and the second Tech 3 Yamaha of 2013 Moto2 champion Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 10, ahead of Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow.

Nicky Hayden finished best of the rest for his new Aspar team, one of three outfits using Honda's production racer this season.

Pos Rider               Bike                 Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Marc Marquez        Honda                1m59.926s           65
 2. Dani Pedrosa        Honda                2m00.336s  +0.410s  62
 3. Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda            2m00.339s  +0.413s  52
 4. Valentino Rossi     Yamaha               2m00.464s  +0.538s  61
 5. Aleix Espargaro     Forward FTR-Yamaha   2m00.547s  +0.621s  42
 6. Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha               2m00.573s  +0.647s  49
 7. Bradley Smith       Tech 3 Yamaha        2m00.603s  +0.677s  66
 8. Andrea Iannone      Pramac Ducati        2m00.855s  +0.929s  49
 9. Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda        2m00.897s  +0.971s  55
10. Pol Espargaro       Tech 3 Yamaha        2m01.061s  +1.135s  49
11. Andrea Dovizioso    Ducati               2m01.146s  +1.220s  45
12. Cal Crutchlow       Ducati               2m01.396s  +1.470s  48
13. Michele Pirro       Ducati               2m02.177s  +2.251s  56
14. Nicky Hayden        Aspar Honda          2m02.287s  +2.361s  58
15. Colin Edwards       Forward FTR-Yamaha   2m02.545s  +2.619s  35
16. Yonny Hernandez     Pramac Ducati        2m02.675s  +2.749s  45
17. Kosuke Akiyoshi     Honda                2m02.692s  +2.766s  68
18. Hiroshi Aoyama      Aspar Honda          2m02.825s  +2.899s  66
19. Katsuyuki Nakasuga  Yamaha               2m02.970s  +3.044s  56
20. Randy de Puniet     Suzuki               2m03.064s  +3.138s  96
21. Scott Redding       Gresini Honda        2m03.117s  +3.191s  53
22. Michael Laverty     PBM Aprilia          2m03.528s  +3.602s  41
23. Hector Barbera      Avintia-FTR Kawasaki 2m04.551s  +4.625s  37
24. Broc Parkes         PBM Aprilia          2m04.619s  +4.693s  43
25. Karel Abraham       Cardion Honda        2m05.261s  +5.335s  32
26. Mike di Meglio      Avintia-FTR Kawasaki 2m05.355s  +5.429s  34