The Repsol Honda Team riders completed the first two sessions for the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, placing sixteenth and eighteenth, respectively.
This Friday, under completely clear skies, the Philip Island Circuit hosted two free practice sessions for the Australian GP.
Marc Márquez had a difficult first day, suffering a crash in both sessions. The Repsol Honda team rider finished Practice 1 in twelfth. In the second session he was not able to place among the ten fastest riders of the day and earn direct access to Q2.
With a best time of 1:28.790, he was sixteenth and will have to compete in Q1 on Saturday.
Joan Mir experienced a similar situation, as he also failed to finish in the Top 10 in practice as, due to several problems with his Honda RC213V, the Repsol Honda team rider was eighteenth.
His top lap of 1:29.007 means he will also have to go through Q1 on Saturday.
As the weather forecast for Sunday is very bad, the 27-lap premier class race will be held on Saturday at 6.10h (CEST). The sprint race will now take place on Sunday, weather permitting.
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 16th 1’28.790
“I had two moments today in Turn 10, especially the second one I was almost able to save it like 2019 and 2022! The weekend is going about as we expected, I need to rebuild my confidence and the moments in Turn 10 didn’t help. Tomorrow we will try and improve my riding to get the most out of the bike. Having the main race tomorrow will not change much for us with our situation, but all the riders and the championship were in agreement it was the best decision.”
JOAN MIR – 18th 1’29.007
“Today was a very hard day, when a weekend starts in a tricky way like this you have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, our bike is not as strong here as it was in India, Motegi or Mandalika so there is more work to do for sure. You have to change the bike a lot for a track like this and we spent a lot of time doing this today. But I am not as comfortable as I want to be so we are a bit restricted here. Traction is the biggest area we need to work on. I think it’s a good decision to have the race tomorrow, already the weather has started to change.”
