World Championship leader Marc Marquez crashes at start of second session and does not improve morning times, placing second. Dani Pedrosa experiences mechanical issue late on and goes fourth fastest.
The first day of free practice for the Australian Grand Prix concluded with Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in second and fourth position, respectively, in the combined timesheet for the day. Marquez had a crash at Turn 9 of the Australian track early on in the second session, and failed to repeat his lap times from the first practice and Pedrosa was forced to stop on track due to a mechanical problem caused by a small mistake by his team. The engine mounting bolt was not properly locked and came loose. Dani realised there was a problem immediately and pulled his bike safely off the track.
In the morning session, Marquez immediately demonstrated a good understanding of the Australian circuit. He finished with the second fastest time of 1:29.255, just 0.088s off that of Jorge Lorenzo. Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa finished in fourth place, 0.841s off the top spot.
In the second session, Pedrosa lowered his times to stop the clock at 1:29.438, after just 13 laps. The Spaniard was third on the timesheet in the run. Improving his times after an early crash, Marquez was unable to match his morning lap times and was sixth. Overall, the current MotoGP leader was second on Friday, with Pedrosa fourth.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 1:30.008, 19 laps, 85 km.
FP2 – 1:29.478, 13 laps, 58 km.
“Today was very positive, the new asphalt felt good and the tyres worked well for us. The only setback was that we were unable to make the most of all the time available, due to a problem with the bike at the end of the afternoon session. That meant that we had to end the day early. In general it was a good day, and we shall try to improve further tomorrow.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:30.008, 19 laps, 85 km.
FP2 – 1:29.478, 13 laps, 58 km.
“Today was very positive, the new asphalt felt good and the tyres worked well for us. The only setback was that we were unable to make the most of all the time available, due to a problem with the bike at the end of the afternoon session. That meant that we had to end the day early. In general it was a good day, and we shall try to improve further tomorrow.”
