Espargaro trails championship leader Francesco Bagnaia by 27 points coming into the penultimate round of the year and needs to be at least fourth to keep his hopes alive if the Ducati rider is not on the podium.
But the one-time race winner’s Friday at Sepang got off to a miserable start, as a clutch problem led to a crash in FP1, before an engine issue forced him to park up for the remainder of the session.
