NAGASHIMA ON THE EIGHTH ROW AT SEPANG

Tetsuta Nagashima put in another competitive showing as he again deputised for Takaaki Nakagami at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday. Sporting the LCR Honda IDEMITSU colours, the Japanese rider battled hard throughout to qualify on the middle of the eighth row for Sunday’s race at Sepang.

Tetsuta shaved almost a second and a half off his overnight time in FP3 as he continued his adaptation to the south-east Asian circuit on MotoGP machinery. After finishing less than two tenths behind team-mate Álex Márquez in FP4, he then took 13^th in a tough Q1 renewal, finishing the session ahead of Yamaha’s Darryn Binder.