In the morning session Martin, who headed the opening day of action at Sepang, was the first rider under the existing lap record with a 1m57.273s, fending off a challenge from KTM’s Brad Binder.
But in the final hour of the day’s track running, Bastianini lit up the timing screen with a 1m57.134s to edge ahead of Martin on the Pramac and get within touching distance of a potential 1m56s lap.
