KTM 1-2 on Friday at Phillip Island as Bagnaia fails to qualify for Q2

MotoGP 2023

Round 16 – Australia Grand Prix

Friday MotoGP Rider Quotes

MotoGP Friday Practice Report

The pace picked up dramatically as soon as riders hit the circuit for the afternoon Friday Practice session at Phillip Island. After 15-minutes seven riders were in the 1m29s.

20-minutes in Marc Marquez went down at turn ten in a carbon copy of his crash at the same point this morning. At that juncture Marquez was 11th on the time-sheets.

Halfway through the 30-minute session Brad Binder led proceedings on 1m29.365, still three-tenths slower than Martin’s morning benchmark. The top ten riders were now all in the 1m29s.

Johann Zarco went top with 20-minutes left after recording a 1m29.266.  Five-minutes later Aleix Espargaro was the first rider to break into the 1m28s, a 1m28.841, only to be usurped seconds later by team-mate Maverick Vinales, a 1m28.649 the new marker. With 15-minutes left things really started hotting up…

Jorge Martin started lighting up red sectors, and he had Marc Marquez behind him to try and get a tow, the Repsol Honda man was languishing down in 16th place. The tactic worked, Jorge Martin went quickest with a 1m28.299 and Marc Marquez went up to seventh place.

Martin was on it again next time around, red through the first sectors, but only fractionally, and he then pulled out of it and returned to the pits for new rubber.

Ten minutes to run…  Jack Miller was down in 17th place and needed things to go right on his last run to secure a spot in Q2.  As did Pecco Bagnaia, the championship leader was now down in 14th.

A new rear bag went in for Pecco with seven-minutes to run, and that was a similar story up and down pit-lane as machines were prepared for their final run. Some more front pre-load was also dialled into the front of the #1 Ducati to try and quell some rear end in the air action under braking for turn four.

Jack Miller had now got up to eighth. The top 11 were now all in the 1m28s. Five-minutes to run… Many riders were now looking for tows, while others were looking to prevent said riders from getting a tow… 

Fabio Di Giannantonio went up to second place with four-minutes left on the shot clock. Maverick Vinales then stopped the clocks at 1m28.212 to go top, but not for long as scant seconds later Brad Binder gazumped them all with the first 1m27 of the day, a 1m27.943.

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Pecco Bagnaia had Jorge Martin right up his clacker for his penultimate run, but neither man improved, Bagnaia was still way down in 16th place. Bagnaia then got his head down for one final crack at it, the defending champ just off top pace through the first split, then lost a couple of tenths in the second split, and was four-tenths down at the third split…. He then crossed the stripe to go 11th, still out of automatic progress to Q2. That was his last effort too as he pulled off at turn one…

Jack Miller then made it a KTM 1-2 at the front..

Fabio Quartararo’s final run was spoiled by Augusto Fernandez cruising into turn ten which made the Yamaha man run wide, the 2020 World Champion way down in 17th place. Franco Morbidelli was dead last to add further insult to the Yamaha squad.

Maverick Vinales ended the day third ahead of Jorge Martin and Pol Espargaro, who made it three KTM RC16 machines in the top five, albeit that his is painted in the red colours of GASGAS.

Marco Bezzecchi got up to sixth place ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Enea Bastianini and Aleix Espargaro while Johann Zarco rounded out the top ten as the final automatic qualifier through to Q2.

Pecco Bagnaia will again have to go through Q1 while Alex Rins was the top Honda in 12th.

Enea Bastianini was the fastest man through the speed trap at 350.6 km/h. The slowest was Aleix Espargaro at 340.7 km/h.

Australian GP Corp claimed an estimated Friday attendance figure of 19,150.

Due to forecast strong winds and rain on Sunday the decision has been made to run the full distance race on Saturday at 1510, and the Sprint Race on Sunday at 1400, weather permitting.

MotoGP Friday Afternoon Practice Results

MotoGP FP1 Results

MotoGP Championship Points

Moto2 Friday Practice

Fermin Aledguer topped both Moto2 sessions comfortably on Friday but the Spaniard’s 1m32.548 was was three-tenths slower than the 1m32.233 he recorded here last year to set the all-time outright Moto2 lap record.

Pedro Acosta crashed late in FP2 which spoiled a few riders runs due to a brief yellow flag period in that second sector of the circuit. Aron Canet also went down at turn four with only seconds left on the clock, but still finished second on combined times ahead of Jake Dixon and Acosta.

Moto2 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto2 Championship Points

Moto3 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto3 Championship Points

(Updated) Australian Grand Prix Schedule
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2023 MotoGP Calendar