Marc Marquez set the fastest time in a chaotic opening day of practice for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, with wild weather and wildlife causing multiple interruptions on day one of the Phillip Island event.
The six-time MotoGP world champion and three-time Australian GP winner made the best of difficult track conditions under darkening skies to set a session-best lap of 1min 27.770secs to lead Gresini Ducati teammate and younger sibling Alex Marquez by 0.102secs, with a third Ducati rider, Italian Marco Bezzecchi, eight-hundredths of a second further adrift.
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World championship leader Jorge Martin (fourth) and reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia (fifth) rounded out an all-Ducati top five, the Spaniard 0.046secs ahead of the Italian as he looks to protect his 10-point championship lead.
Australia’s Jack Miller paid the price for a late fall on his KTM, the Australian booted out of the top 10 and missing out on direct entry in Saturday’s Q2 session after a crash at turn six on his final lap left the KTM rider in 12th place, 0.041secs outside of the top 10 after leading the session at the halfway stage.
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Under threatening skies and following Friday morning’s cancelled first free practice session as rain lashed the seaside circuit, Marquez showed his Phillip Island prowess and mastery of mixed conditions to lead for much of the hour, which was interrupted for a three-minute period when a goose crossed the track at turn 10, causing a red flag.
The local wildlife, which had earlier seen the Moto2 practice session red-flagged, made another late appearance when a rabbit scurried across the track in front of Martin’s Ducati, the Spaniard forced to roll out of the throttle in avoidance.
Martin, seeking his maiden Phillip Island win in any world championship category, crashed om his first flying lap of the session at turn four but was able to continue, while Miller suffered a slow-speed tumble at the same corner that was named after him two years ago, running onto the grass soaked by the morning’s deluge and slipping off as he ran wide to avoid Alex Rins’ Yamaha.
Miller sat in third place inside the final 10 minutes of the session, but plummeted back towards the edge of the top 10 as Marquez fired in his session-topping lap with seven minutes remaining.
Bagnaia rescued a circumspect session with his best lap with three minutes left, while late crashes for Japanese Grand Prix pole-sitter Pedro Acosta (GasGas) and Miller left both riders outside of the top 10, Alex Marquez completing the family quinella with his best lap coming after the chequered flag had been waved.
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