Marco Bezzecchi dominated Friday afternoon’s MotoGP Practice session at Phillip Island, setting the fastest lap of the 2026 Australian Grand Prix weekend despite an eventful session that included a crash and two red flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After finishing fourth in the morning’s FP1 session, the factory Aprilia rider improved significantly to record a 1:26.775, continuing the strong form he demonstrated with victory at the previous round in Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ra\u00fal Fern\u00e1ndez finished second on the Trackhouse Aprilia, just 0.072 seconds behind Bezzecchi, while Marc M\u00e1rquez secured third place as the fastest Ducati rider, 0.126 seconds off the pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The session featured several incidents and an extremely competitive classification, with the top five separated by just over a quarter of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bezzecchi’s afternoon did not get off to an ideal start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less than ten minutes into the session, the Italian was involved in an unusual incident approaching Turn 4, the Miller Hairpin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bezzecchi made contact with the rear of \u00c1lex M\u00e1rquez’s Gresini Ducati, causing significant damage to the front fairing of his Aprilia RS-GP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The collision scattered debris across the circuit, while Bezzecchi ran onto the grass, lost control of his motorcycle and fell at relatively low speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Race direction immediately displayed the red flag to allow marshals to clear the debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, neither rider suffered any injuries, and the FIM stewards reviewed the incident without imposing further penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bezzecchi returned to the pits before resuming the session on his second motorcycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interruption was followed by another unexpected incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With just over 40 minutes remaining, Practice was stopped again after a wallaby appeared near the racing surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The animal, native to Australia, had moved dangerously close to the area being used by the MotoGP riders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marshals intervened to clear the circuit and allow the session to resume safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident highlighted one of Phillip Island’s distinctive characteristics, where local wildlife has occasionally disrupted racing activities over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the session resumed, Bezzecchi quickly demonstrated that he had the pace to challenge for the leading positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running on previously used tyres, the Italian temporarily moved to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:27.374.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final 20 minutes brought a series of changes as riders began their qualifying simulations and switched to soft rear tyres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pedro Acosta briefly put KTM ahead with a 1:27.208 before \u00c1lex M\u00e1rquez improved on that benchmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marc M\u00e1rquez then became the first rider to break the 1:27 barrier, recording a 1:26.901 that appeared strong enough to secure the fastest time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Aprilia responded in the closing minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ra\u00fal Fern\u00e1ndez moved ahead of the Ducati rider before Bezzecchi delivered the decisive lap of 1:26.775.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Italian secured the fastest time of the day, confirming the RS-GP’s impressive potential around the Australian circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marc M\u00e1rquez finished third behind Bezzecchi and Fern\u00e1ndez, securing direct qualification for Q2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The factory Ducati rider, who had topped the morning FP1 session, ended Practice just 0.126 seconds behind Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an encouraging result, particularly considering the difficulties experienced by several other Ducati riders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ai Ogura claimed fourth place on the second Trackhouse Aprilia, matching M\u00e1rquez’s lap time exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japanese rider finished ahead of championship leader Jorge Mart\u00edn, who completed the session fifth, 0.255 seconds behind his Aprilia teammate Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mart\u00edn arrived in Australia holding a narrow two-point advantage over Marc M\u00e1rquez in the championship standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he finished behind his title rival on Friday, Aprilia’s overall competitiveness provides encouraging signs ahead of qualifying and the races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00c1lex M\u00e1rquez secured sixth place despite suffering another crash in the closing stages, again at Turn 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gresini Ducati rider had already set a time sufficient to qualify directly for Q2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enea Bastianini finished seventh as the leading KTM rider, ahead of Pedro Acosta on the factory RC16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acosta completed the session eighth after briefly leading during the qualifying simulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diogo Moreira impressed in ninth position aboard the LCR Honda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top ten, securing the final automatic place in the second qualifying session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Francesco Bagnaia endured another difficult session at Phillip Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After finishing 18th in FP1, the factory Ducati rider was unable to find the improvement required to reach the top ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Italian ended Practice in 14th position with a lap of 1:27.727, leaving him 0.952 seconds behind Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, Bagnaia will have to compete in Q1 on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He must finish among the two fastest riders in the opening qualifying session to progress to Q2 and fight for a place towards the front of the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fabio Quartararo also struggled, finishing 15th on his Yamaha, while Jack Miller ended the session 12th after another cras<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marco Bezzecchi dominated Friday afternoon’s MotoGP Practice session at Phillip Island, setting the fastest lap of the 2026 Australian Grand Prix weekend despite an eventful session that included a crash and two red flags. After finishing fourth in the morning’s FP1 session, the factory Aprilia rider improved significantly to record a 1:26.775, continuing the strong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motogp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions\/2263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}