Australian GP Practice Results

The first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix ended with Marc Márquez at the top of the timesheets. The Spanish rider was the fastest in the only MotoGP practice session completed, after rain forced the cancellation of the first session. With the threat of rain present at all times, all the riders tried to set a good time from the first moments of the session. Finally, the rain held off and the premier class field was able to take advantage of the full sixty minutes, in which the eight-time world champion was the fastest man.
Behind him, Álex Márquez was second, followed by Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martín, Pecco Bagnaia, Maverick Viñales, Brad Binder, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli and Álex Rins, completing the Top 10 that gives direct access to Q2.

Mir and Marini, seventeenth and nineteenth on first
day at Phillip Island

Repsol Honda Team riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini started work on the Australian track with the aim of recovering the positive feeling they had at the Misano test. However, having only one session did not help them to accumulate enough kilometres to feel comfortable.

At the end of the 60-minute session, Mir stopped the clock at 1:28.773, 1 second off the best time, which placed him seventeenth on the timesheets.

Marini was just 0.047s off his teammate, in nineteenth position.

Both riders will have a further free practice session on Saturday, extended by 10 minutes to make up for the session cancelled on Friday. This will be followed by qualifying for the Australian GP.

2024 Japan GP Practice Results

Statements

Joan Mir

«Today was a day with a lot of potential because I am feeling quite good here. It is quite normal that the weather can have some impact here, so you always have to be ready and as a team we were able to adjust our plan and handle it well. On the new tyre when it was time to push for a fast time at the end of the session, we were missing a little something, a few tenths that could have helped us a lot. It’s an area we need to keep working on and already we have a few ideas for Qualifying tomorrow, the objective is to get the best possible grid position because our rhythm overall is strong».

Luca Marini

«In the end we were able to enjoy riding, which is important. The new surface has changed the feeling a little bit so it was good to get some dry time. We need to keep working on the bike to improve the performance, but even like this we are very close. A pity the last few laps when we were pushing to improve our time with the yellow flags, it hides our potential. I am aiming to make a step with the setting and my riding because I think there’s a lot of margin there. We keep working and improving.»