Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark got an encouraging start to the Malaysian WorldSBK round by finishing in second and seventh places, respectively, in the combined classification of today’s two free practice sessions contested at the Sepang International Circuit. Therefore, the Honda WorldSBK duo will begin their battle for pole position directly from Superpole 2, which is scheduled for tomorrow at 13:55 local time (GMT +8).

The morning session saw Hayden and van der Mark in third and fourth places after sitting pretty in first and second until the very final minute of track action. The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machine proved to be competitive straight away on the track which only three weeks ago was fully resurfaced with changes made to the camber of some corners.

With dark clouds getting closer to the circuit, free practice 2 started in dry conditions but halfway into the session, drops of rain started to fall on sector two, which forced the majority of riders back into the pits. The rain stopped quite quickly, meaning riders could make the most of the remaining thirty minutes of track time before the chequered flag. In the very last part of the session, Nicky logged a 2’04.167 which helped him move all the way up to the front, before the American was displaced by Savadori in the final seconds. Van der Mark also improved his position and, with a 2’04.385 lap-time, he was 0.434secs off the lead, although only two tenths of a second away from his teammate.

Nicky Hayden 69 - 2nd/2'04.167

We started off very well this morning, the bike felt great immediately and it was moving less off line in a lot of places. The team did a great job today, as every little tweak we made was in the right direction, even though the bike set-up didn’t really need any major change. It would have been nice to be the fastest, but at the end it’s only Friday. Regardless, we did some good laps and the long run we did in the second session went well. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, because we have a relatively short morning practice and another short qualifying session tomorrow before race one.

Michael van der Mark 60 - 7th/2'04.385

This morning we went out on track not knowing what to expect, as the whole circuit has been recently resurfaced. We had to find out how it was and in some areas it was quite tricky, because water was seeping through the asphalt. I immediately got a good feeling with the bike and step by step we were able to get quicker. This afternoon we made some small changes, nothing major really, and I felt I could have been faster in my last outing before the chequered flag. Nevertheless, I’m happy with the bike and how it well it handles; the only thing we need to work on is our race pace, to make sure the tyre can last until the end.

Pieter Breddels - Technical Manager

It was a really positive day. Despite having to get used to the new surface, both riders were able to stay in the top 5 in the morning session and the settings chosen were clearly working very well. We went back to the kind of set-up we had used in Thailand and from there we started with some little adjustments. They went separate ways concerning the front tyre, the duration of which is going to be crucial for the races. In the afternoon, Nicky was again very fast and until the very end it looked like he could have stayed at the top, but nevertheless he showed great form and he is happy with his position. Michael got into a little bit of a battle with Jonathan (Rea) on his last flying lap and that didn’t allow him to improve his time and be further up the timesheets. He is just a couple of tenths away from his teammate and that’s not bad at all.