Sepang shuts down in the rain: Yamaha halted as focus shifts to aerodynamics

Rain prematurely halted the second day of testing in Sepang. Report and final times.

Everything we could tell you about this second day of MotoGP testing is, in the end, what happened in the morning. In the afternoon, on-track activity was a long time coming, but the final blow came from the rain—no surprise at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Everyone stayed in the garage, not just the Yamaha riders and testers, with engineers still frantically searching for a fix to the serious technical issue revealed yesterday with their brand-new V4. Or rather, almost everyone in the garage: rookie Diogo Moreira and Maverick Viñales still chose to put in a few laps on a wet track. Here’s how it went.

"We think we’ve understood the cause, but until we’re certain, for the safety of our riders and the others, we’ve decided not to run anymore today. We’ll verify and decide tomorrow." Massimo Bartolini told Sky Sport MotoGP, explaining Yamaha’s current problematic situation. The Iwata manufacturer was therefore absent today, with hopes to see them back tomorrow. “Growing pains” do happen; hopefully they won’t be severe enough to force Yamaha to leave Sepang early, given that a brand-new project like the V4 needs to rack up plenty of miles...

Aerodynamics are front and center in these tests, between Aprilia’s “hedgehog” and more. We’ve seen new fairings for everyone, new aerodynamic appendages—like those on KTM Tech3 above—but there’s no shortage of testing on electronics, frames, swingarms... Every area of the various MotoGP bikes is being evaluated. No manufacturer wants to show up unprepared for the start of 2026, which marks the grand finale of the 1000cc era, before the revolution of the 850s kicks off next year. And the rider market is already heating up...

Back to the track: unfortunately today’s running was cut short due to the weather, but it’s worth noting that in the morning some riders completed brief race simulations. Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio logged sequences of laps between low 1:57s and mid-1:57s—times that Ai Ogura also managed to string together for a couple of consecutive laps. For the others who carried out mini-simulations, the typical runs were consecutive references just under or just over the 1:58 mark.