After the longer than usual opening 75 minute free practice session it was Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) who emerged fastest as the WSBK riders got up to speed at the fast and flowing but incredibly humid Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

The session was initially red flagged after 7 minutes because of a technical problem with the machine of Sheridan Morais, but after a short delay things were soon back underway with Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) heading the times courtesy of their two laps recorded prior to the stoppage.

Melandri suffered a problem immediately as the session restarted, pushing his machine back to the garage before continuing his session to claim the fastest time of the morning – 2.05.167.

Less than a tenth behind the Italian were Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia) and Sylvain Guintoli. The trio exchanging places at the top of the timing sheets for the final ten minutes.

Reigning champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) finished 4th with Ducati Superbike Team pairing of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies completing the top six.

Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) was 7th overall in the session despite a small crash in the final minute.

In the EVO category, Alessandro Andreozzi (Pedercini Kawasaki) was the best classified rider, taking a superb 12th position overall.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled to run over the usual 45 minutes, starting at 1530 local time.

With the circuit new to many of the riders, it was no surprise that top three positions were taken by riders with previous Sepang experience, but with the top eight covered by less than a second, this afternoon’s second on track encounter could see a surprise or two.