Marco Bezzecchi was the fastest rider in the practice session that determined the ten riders who would advance directly to Q2 for the Australian Grand Prix, the 18th round of the 2026 MotoGP season. The session held in the early hours of this Friday (23) at the Phillip Island circuit saw the Aprilia rider seize the final moments to clock 1:26.775 and lead the session.
The second place went to Raúl Fernández, riding a Trackhouse Aprilia that finished 0.072 seconds behind Bezzecchi. Marc Márquez, on a Ducati, was the third fastest, followed by Ai Ogura in fourth on the other Trackhouse Aprilia. The top five was completed by Jorge Martín, an Aprilia rider and the championship leader.
Álex Márquez colocou a Ducati da Gresini na sexta posição, sendo seguido por Enea Bastianini, sétimo com uma KTM da Tech3. Pedro Acosta, piloto da equipe oficial da KTM, terminou o treino com o oitavo melhor tempo, ficando à frente do brasileiro Diogo Moreira, nono com a Honda da LCR. O top-10 ainda contou com Fabio Di Giannantonio, com uma Ducati da VR46
The session included crashes. With six minutes into the session, Jack Miller crashed with Pramac’s Yamaha at Turn 6, returning to the track on the bike. The second crash came shortly after with Marco Bezzecchi, who tumbled on the Aprilia in the turns 4 and 5 section after a contact with Álex Márquez and seeing part of his fairing come loose. The red flag was shown for just three minutes.
With 42 minutes to go, the session was interrupted a second time, but this time for an unusual reason: a kangaroo wandered onto the circuit, and race control chose to pause the session to avoid an incident with the animal native to the area. After four minutes, the session resumed at Phillip Island.
With 29 minutes into the session, Augusto Fernández fell on a Pramac Yamaha at Turn 11. When just over two minutes remained, Álex Márquez also stopped on the Australian circuit.
From 20:10, the final free practice of the weekend will take place, while the qualifying starts at 20:50. The Sprint begins at 1:00 on Saturday, while the main race is scheduled for midnight on Sunday.
