Zürcher Nachrichten - Bezzecchi shatters lap record to top Australian MotoGP practice

The Italian, who won the Indonesia sprint race a fortnight ago before slamming into world champion Marc Marquez during the grand prix, blazed round the waterfront circuit in 1:26.580 on his Aprilia.

His time shattered the previous best of 1:27.246 set by Jorge Martin in 2023. Not content with that, he then bettered it with a sizzling 1:26.492.

It left Bezzecchi 0.291sec 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 came fifth, 0.453sec adrift, as he looks to seal the world championship runner-up spot behind brother Marc.

Spain's 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 on Friday 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 on Saturday, and will be joined by the fastest two riders from Q1 to determine the first five rows of the grid both for the sprint race and Sunday'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 on Sunday for causing the incident, but is free to race as usual in Saturday's sprint showdown.

He was quick all afternoon, owning the fastest lap of 1:27.516 for almost 15 minutes before Di Giannantonio went a fraction quicker.

Teams tried a variety of tyre strategies in a bid to collect data in case of bad weather, and Bezzecchi on a hard front and soft rear then stunned the field with the new lap record.

A.Wyss--NZN