Marco Bezzecchi yesterday demolished the Australian MotoGP lap record in setting the standard during second practice, becoming the first rider ever to dip below 1 minute, 27 seconds at Phillip Island.
The Italian, who won the Indonesia sprint race two weeks ago before slamming into world champion Marc Marquez during the grand prix, blazed around the waterfront circuit in 1 minute, 26.580 seconds on his Aprilia.
His time shattered the previous best of 1 minute, 27.246 seconds set by Jorge Martin in 2023. Not content with that, he then bettered it with a sizzling 1 minute, 26.492 seconds.
Photo: EPA
That left Bezzecchi 0.291 seconds clear of Raul Fernandez, also on an Aprilia, with Ducati-VR4 rider Fabio di Giannantonio third and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo fourth.
“An unbelievable lap, he hit the record two times, which means he has confidence with the bike,” Aprilia team boss Paolo Bonora said of Bezzecchi. “To be honest, our bike was good for the past year, but we didn’t achieve many results.”
Ducati-Gresini’s Alex Marquez was fifth, 0.453 seconds adrift, as he looks to seal the world championship runner-up spot behind brother Marc.
Spain’s Alex Marquez has an 88-point lead over two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia in the battle to clinch second in the standings with four rounds left of the 22-stop season.
He can do so by finishing the weekend 111 points clear of his Italian Ducati rival, who failed to score a point in Indonesia just a week after winning the Japan MotoGP and sprint races.
Bagnaia complained about his bike shaking in the opening session yesterday and again struggled early for pace, but he switched to the spare and steered it to ninth place.
The top 10 times from second practice automatically qualified for Q2 today and are to be joined by the fastest two riders from Q1 to determine the first five rows of the grid for the sprint race and tomorrow’s main event.
Among those relegated to Q1 were Fermin Aldeguer, who won in Indonesia, and home hero Jack Miller, who topped the opening practice session.
Marc Marquez, last year’s Phillip Island winner, is not in Australia following shoulder surgery after being rammed by Bezzecchi in Indonesia.
Bezzecchi must serve a double long-lap penalty tomorrow for causing the incident, but is free to race as usual in today’s sprint showdown.
He was quick all afternoon, owning the fastest lap of 1 minute, 27.516 seconds for almost 15 minutes before Di Giannantonio went a fraction quicker.
Teams tried a variety of tire strategies in a bid to collect data in case of bad weather. Bezzecchi on a hard front and soft rear stunned the field with the new lap record.
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