Italian Marco Bezzecchi set a scorching pace top the timesheets in Friday practice for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the Aprilia rider shattering the all-time circuit record as Australia’s Jack Miller missed out on a top-10 result by a tick over a tenth of a second.
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Bezzecchi, who faces a double long-lap penalty for Sunday’s 27-lap race after taking out Ducati’s world champion Marc Marquez last time out in Indonesia – a crash that left Marquez sidelined for the Phillip Island weekend after right shoulder surgery – demolished the lap record set by Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin two years ago, the Italian’s time of 1min 26.492secs lowering the all-time circuit record by seven-tenths of a second.
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Yamaha’s Miller, who used a late soft-tyre run to top the opening Friday practice session, briefly snared top spot in the 60-minute afternoon session with 14 minutes remaining before Bezzecchi took the Phillip Island circuit record into new territory.
The top 11 riders in the session lapped faster than Martin’s two year-old high-water mark, while Miller’s best lap (1:27.309) was 0.164secs outside of the top 10, leaving him in 13th place.
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Bezzecchi led fellow Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez by 0.291secs in second place, while Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) was third, the 2023 Australian Grand Prix podium finisher four-tenths of a second behind his record-breaking compatriot.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was fourth, 0.434secs behind Bezzecchi, while Ducati’s Alex Marquez – who can cement the runner-up spot in this year’s world championship behind his older sibling – was fifth.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia – who won two rounds ago in Japan but crashed from last place in the race that immediately followed in Indonesia – scraped into the top 10 and secured an automatic Q2 berth for Saturday qualifying in ninth place, while fellow Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer, who took his maiden MotoGP win at Mandalika, missed a top-10 place by five-thousandths of a second to finish 11th.
Qualifying to set the grid for Saturday’s 13-lap sprint race and Sunday’s 27-lap Grand Prix will take place from 10.50am Saturday (AEDT).
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