Lorenzo Tops Practice Friday at Sepang, Exactly Four Years After Simoncelli's Death

Lorenzo trailed closely, 0.210 behind the Repsol riders, and was followed just above a tenth by Pedrosa's teammate Marc Marquez, with Valentino Rossi being the fifth fastest rider of the session. FP1 saw Scott Redding in the sixth position three tenths slower than Rossi and with Cal Crutchlow all over his rear wheel, only 0.017 seconds behind. Iannone, Barbera and Aleix Espargaro completed the Free Practice 1 top ten.

Lorenzo laid the hammer down in FP2

Things changed a bit in FP2, as Lorenzo rode more aggressively and set a 2'00.246 lap that secured him the first position at the end of the day. Pedrosa was only 47 thousandths of a second slower, but still 1.8 tenths faster than Marquez.

Iannone and Crutchlow went up to the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, while Aleix Espargaro ended FP2 with the sixth fastest time, ahead of Ducati's Dovizioso. Unable to improve his lap times over FP1, Rossi was relegated to the 8th position, with Petrucci and Redding behind him.

The Friday combined times see Lorenzo already under half a second from Marquez' best pole

Lorenzo sent out a strong message today as he made it clear that he's willing to do his best to win at Sepang and take the battle for the 2015 MotoGP crown to the final round in Valencia. His best lap time in the two opening sessions of the Malaysian weekend is just 0.455 from Marquez' 1'59.791 pole from last year.

There are three main scenarios that could provide Valentino Rossi with the 2015 MotoGP crown one round to go, but it's obvious that Lorenzo will not just sit and watch how things roll. At the press conference, Rossi said that Marquez seemed to be favoring Lorenzo, but it's hard to understand how stealing five points from the Yamaha rider is of any help.

Find out how Rossi can win the 2015 MotoGP Championship on Sunday, and take your time to remember Marco Super Sic Simoncelli, who lost his life on this very day at Sepang four years ago.