Jack Miller claimed the second fastest time on MotoGP’s ignominious day and is not far from winning the pole position of Francesco Bagnan at the 2025 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Several members of the MotoGP grid gathered in Sepang for the opening of the 2026 premier class campaign.
While most riders will opt to join the rest of the pack for next week’s first official season test, Yamaha They showed up at full power, hoping to get as much information as they could from the new V4-powered M1 prototype.
Torak Razgatlioglu was the biggest talking point on the first day. The shakedown. The Turkish Knight was left with only a few ten hands. Fabio Quartararo’s A fast run from last year’s Grand Prix, which is the latest high-profile entrant to the premier class.
However, it was Razgatlioglu’s teammate, Jack Millerwho completed the schedule on the second day and the Australian was not far behind Francesco Bagnaia 2025 benchmark never.
- Read more: Jack Miller In the 2026 MotoGP season, Fabio has revealed his plans to beat Quatararo on Yamaha.
Three Yamaha bikes in the top five! 😳 Has your opinion of the V4-powered M1 changed after two days at Sepang?
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Jack Miller was less than a second off Francesco Bagnaia’s pole position at the 2025 Malaysian GP.
Miller closed out the day with a 1:57.908, which certainly shows that Yamaha has made some improvements to the V4-powered M1 over the winter break.
of Pramak Star was half a tenth quicker than his best qualifying lap last year, which was 11th fastest on the grid.
Miller’s benchmark could only squeeze him as high as 10th on the grid today, but regardless, there’s plenty to be excited about for Yamaha fans.
To put things into perspective, Yamaha tested the rider Augusto Fernandez In the year Entering the 2025 Malaysian GP, the V4-powered M1 made its second appearance at the race weekend and qualified from the back of the grid with a time of 1:59.382.
Compared to Bagnaya’s pole position time of 1:57.001, Miller’s 2026 lap was under a second, a very respectable effort, indeed.
There is less pressure on the track surface at Sepang now than there was once qualifying around last year, and it can be seen as a very encouraging sign of things to come from the Japanese constructor.
What is Fabio Quatararo’s body language telling us here?
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Fabio Quatararo jumps the gun by ditching Yamaha in favor of Honda for 2027?
Amidst Yamaha’s busy test schedule at Sepang, after a bombshell appeared to have been dropped on the Iwata-based developer. Quatararo was finalizing a contract to become a Honda rider. For the 2027 MotoGP season.
The news came as a shock given the Frenchman’s earlier desire to see what performance would be like before making a decision on the future of Yamaha’s new challenger.
Quattararo was a big advocate for the Yamaha V4 project.And it is widely understood that the 2021 world champion has been taken to pursue a change in engine layout to keep him in the team for at least another 12 months.
However, Quatararo seems to have made up his mind, and whether or not his decision to jump ship is premature remains to be seen.
