Sepang MotoGP testing: Maverick Vinales fastest for Yamaha

After Monday and Tuesday's running was affected by rain, teams made the most of dry conditions on Wednesday morning.

Alvaro Bautista continued his strong test with Aspar Ducati by leading the field into the sub-2m00s bracket with a time of 1m59.628s.

Vinales and Marquez then lowered that benchmark to 1m59.514s and 1m59.506s.

For Marquez, that effort was more than a second faster than he managed on the first two days, when he was battling electrical gremlins and developing Honda's new engine.

Just after 12:30pm local time, Vinales moved to the top again after setting a 1m59.368s, a time that stood for the rest of the day.

Running was then again interrupted by rain, with a downpour around two hours later costing teams one hour of meaningful track time, as the back part of the circuit dried slowly.

There was not a repeat of Tuesday's flurry of late times, and Vinales finished the test 0.138 seconds ahead of Marquez.

Andrea Dovizioso was the lead Ducati in third, with test rider Casey Stoner seventh and new recruit Jorge Lorenzo getting within 0.398s of the pace in ninth.

Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi were the biggest movers after the rain delay, both moving up from 10th place to fourth - Rossi with about 90 minutes left, then being displaced by Pedrosa inside the final 10 minutes.

Bautista wound up sixth in the final order, while LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow in eighth and Tech3 Yamaha rookie Johann Zarco in 10th. Both improved in the final hour, Zarco finishing as the top rookie.

Tuesday pacesetter Andrea Iannone had a pair of falls on his way to 11th, one spot ahead of rookie team-mate Alex Rins, who like Zarco found time late.

Iannone's Tuesday time of 1m59.452s put him second on the combined order for the three days.

Aleix Espargaro was 13th for Aprilia despite a late fall at Turn 15, as the top 15 riders finishing with a second of Vinales' benchmark.

KTM finished the test with Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro in 21st and 23rd, 1.970s and 2.138s off the pace respectively for the incoming Austrian manufacturer.

WEDNESDAY TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m59.368s	-	72
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m59.506s	0.138s	85
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m59.553s	0.185s	56
4	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m59.578s	0.210s	67
5	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m59.589s	0.221s	62
6	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m59.628s	0.260s	64
7	Casey Stoner	Ducati	Ducati	1m59.639s	0.271s	46
8	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m59.728s	0.360s	71
9	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m59.767s	0.399s	66
10	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m59.772s	0.404s	45
11	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	2m00.045s	0.677s	49
12	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	2m00.057s	0.689s	60
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	2m00.108s	0.740s	53
14	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	2m00.310s	0.942s	53
15	Jonas Folger	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	2m00.312s	0.944s	54
16	Jack Miller	MVDS Honda	Honda	2m00.439s	1.071s	70
17	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	2m00.445s	1.077s	38
18	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	2m00.537s	1.169s	50
19	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	2m00.645s	1.277s	74
20	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	2m00.873s	1.505s	58
21	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	2m01.338s	1.970s	62
22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	Aprilia	2m01.341s	1.973s	43
23	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	2m01.506s	2.138s	67
24	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha	Yamaha	2m01.658s	2.290s	30
25	Takuya Tsuda	Suzuki	Suzuki	2m02.769s	3.401s	68