SEPANG: Malaysian rising star Hakim Danish Ramli sent an early warning to his rivals by clocking the fifth-fastest time in the first free practice (FP1) session for the Moto3 class at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (GP) at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) today.
The 19-year-old, representing the AEON Credit-MT Helmets-MSI team, recorded a time of 2 minutes 11.834 seconds (s), finishing fifth, just 0.249s behind session leader Alvaro Carpe of Spain, who clocked 2:11.585s for the Red Bull KTM Ajo team.
Spanish rider Maximo Quiles of the CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team took second place with a time of 2:11.714s, followed by his team-mate, Argentine rider Marco Morelli, who clocked 2:11.720s.
Indonesian rider Veda Pratama of Honda Team Asia rounded out the top four with a time of 2:11.819s, just 0.015s ahead of Hakim Danish.
Another AEON Credit-MT Helmets-MSI rider, Japan’s Ryusei Yamanaka, finished the session in 13th place with a time of 2:12.397s.
Reflecting on his performance, Hakim Danish said he aimed to give his best without feeling pressured, as he turned his attention to tomorrow’s qualifying session in the hope of securing a strong starting position for Sunday’s race.
“As I said, there is no pressure. Hakim Danish just needs to do his best. We can see that today it’s still dry this morning, with no rain yet, and we’ll observe his performance.
“The most important thing is the qualifying session; he needs to give his best tomorrow to secure a front-row starting position, and then continue to deliver his best performance this coming Sunday,” said SIC chief executive officer Azhan Shafriman Hanif when met after the session here today.
In the MotoGP class, Spanish rider Marc Marquez of the Ducati Lenovo Team emerged as the fastest, clocking 1:58.737s, ahead of Italian rider Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia Racing, who recorded 1:59.386s.
Spanish rider Pedro Acosta of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing also clocked 1:59.386s to finish third, while Italy’s Enea Bastianini of Red Bull KTM Tech3 recorded the same time to take fourth place.
Meanwhile, in the Moto2 class, Spanish rider Izan Guevara of the BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2 team set the fastest time of 2:04.005s. Colombian rider David Alonso of the CFMOTO RCB Aspar Team took second place with a time of 2:04.568s, while his Spanish team-mate Daniel Holgado recorded the same time.
The first free practice session took place on a dry track, with an air temperature of 28 degrees Celsius and 82 per cent humidity.
