The rain stayed away as the premier class riders headed out for their first session of the weekend at the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and it was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Viñales who set the benchmark, a 1:29.952 proving unbeatable. Home hero Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) was the Spaniard’s closest challenger in FP1, the Australian 0.037 back on board his Desmosedici machine, with teammate Danilo Petrucci also less than a tenth back from the leading YZR-M1 in third – 0.075 the gap.
On what has been somewhat of a bogey circuit for Ducati, three riders in the top four will give the Bologna factory confidence of a strong weekend as Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) finished fourth fastest – 0.169 back. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) rounds out the top five after the opening session at Phillip Island, with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) ending sixth quickest.
However, both the 2018 World Champion and teammate Dani Pedrosa suffered crashes in FP1. The latter crashed at Turn 1 midway through the session before Marquez lost the front heading into Turn 10 towards the end of FP1 – both riders ok, but it wasn’t the start that Repsol Honda would have been looking for.
The premier class will be back on track for FP2 at 16:20 local time (GMT +11) in a revised Friday schedule after the Moto3™ session was heavily delayed.
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