Portugal Colonial - Acosta leaves it late to go fastest in Malaysian MotoGP practice

The hour-long afternoon session was delayed for 35 minutes because of an oil spill from a support category earlier in the day.

After they finally got going the KTM stalwart Acosta made his move with less than three minutes left to clock 1min 57.559sec, just ahead of Zarco in 1:57.578.

Australian Jack Miller finished in the top three thanks to a late flourish which saw him clock 1:57.840 on his Yamaha Prima Pramac machine.

Spain's Alex Marquez, who is hoping to seal second spot in the world championship behind brother Marc, was ninth for Ducati-Gresini.

Spanish rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who topped the morning session, missed out on a top-10 finish after he came in 13th, behind Ducati's two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia.

This means both men will compete in Saturday's first qualifying session.

The 10 fastest riders from the Friday session went into Saturday's second qualifying, joined by the top two fastest riders from the first qualifier.

Dark clouds loomed over the Sepang circuit with threats of thunderstorms that brought the 23-rider field into their respective pits towards the end of the session.

But the skies cleared up soon enough to allow the riders to go out in hopes of capturing their fastest lap.

The Malaysian MotoGP is without newly crowned world champion Marc Marquez, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with injury.

E.Ramalho--PC