Moto2: Wild-card Syahrin beats the rain, Espargaro overall

Local wild-card Hafizh Syahrin moved to the top of the Moto2 timesheets early in Friday afternoon practice, which saw Pol Espargaro's morning time remain unbeaten due to rain.

The afternoon began with damp sections of track still present from an earlier storm, with rain then returning just ten minutes into the session.

That kept 18-year-old Syahrin - riding a Petronas-backed FTR and 24th out of 33 riders in the morning - 1.4s clear of next best Axel Pons.

Soaking conditions meant that the rest of the session was spent working on a wet set-up, although the dry early lap times made wet pace hard to gauge.

But it was Espargaro who was fastest on combined practice times, having led the dry morning session by 0.216s from Tech 3's Bradley Smith, with Championship leader Marc Marquez in third.

Marquez was 21st, Espargaro 25nd and Smith 30th in this afternoon's mixed session, which saw Smith limp away from a fall in the final five minutes. Alex de Angelis suffered a fast highside soon after.

Marquez has the first of three chances to wrap-up the 2012 title this weekend. The Suter star is 53 points clear of Espargaro and will be champion if he is at least 50-points ahead by the end of Sunday's race.

Marquez saw his 2011 title chances end on the Friday at Sepang last year, when he fell heavily on an unmarked section of wet track and missed most of winter testing due to double vision issues.

Friday practice (combined):

1.Pol EspargaroSPA (Kalex)2m 8.015s
2.Bradley SmithGBR (Tech 3)2m 8.231s
3.Marc MarquezSPA (Suter)2m 8.348s
4.Esteve RabatSPA (Kalex)2m 8.407s
5.Dominique AegerterSWI (Suter)2m 8.423s
6.Andrea IannoneITA (Speed Up)2m 8.458s
7.Nicolas TerolSPA (Suter)2m 8.467s
8.Thomas LuthiSWI (Suter)2m 8.503s
9.Takaaki NakagamiJPN (Kalex)2m 8.523s
10.Simone CorsiITA (FTR)2m 8.534s
11.Toni EliasSPA (Kalex)2m 8.540s
12.Scott ReddingGBR (Kalex)2m 8.635s
13.Julian SimonSPA (Suter)2m 8.650s
14.Alex De AngelisRSM (FTR)2m 8.886s
15.Anthony WestAUS (Speed Up)2m 8.980s
16.Mike Di MeglioFRA (Kalex)2m 9.124s
17.Mika KallioFIN (Kalex)2m 9.156s
18.Johann ZarcoFRA (MotoBI)2m 9.161s
19.Jordi TorresSPA (Suter)2m 9.420s
20.Xavier SimeonBEL (Tech 3)2m 9.496s
21.Ricard CardusSPA (AJR)2m 9.590s
22.Axel PonsSPA (Kalex)2m 9.628s
23.Gino ReaGBR (Suter)2m 9.727s
24.Hafizh SyahrinMAL (FTR)2m 9.760s
25.Marcel SchrotterGER (Bimota)2m 9.845s
26.Tomoyoshi KoyamaJPN (Suter)2m 10.152s
27.Ratthapark WilairotTHA (Suter)2m 10.349s
28.Yuki TakahashiJPN (FTR)2m 10.380s
29.Alessandro AndreozziITA (Speed Up)2m 11.812s
30.Marco ColandreaSWI (FTR)2m 12.019s
31.Jesko RaffinSWI (Kalex)2m 13.424s
32.Elena RosellSPA (Speed Up)2m 14.073s
33.Eric GranadoBRA (MotoBI)2m 14.607s