Iannone tops opening day at Phillip Island

Andrea Iannone

Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) left it late to leap to the top of the combined timesheets in FP2 at the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, setting a 1:29.131 on his final lap to oust Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing) from P1. The two Italians were separated by 0.160, with FP1’s quickest man Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) completing the top three .

Glorious conditions greeted the premier class for their second session of the weekend as the threat of rain cleared at Phillip Island. The start of the session didn’t go as planned for Ducati Team’s Alvaro Bautista after he crashed at Turn 6, this coming before both Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) ran into the gravel at the same corner.

Both riders were able to regroup and as is typical for FP2, the quickest times of the day were posted towards the end of the session as fresh soft compound Michelin rubber was laid down. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) went top with three minutes to go, but not for long. Vinales soon propelled himself into P1 but clinging onto his tailpipes was the Desmosedici of Petrucci, the Italian going 0.063 faster than his Yamaha counterpart to lead the session. Iannone though would have the last laugh, putting his GSX-RR top of the pile as the checkered flag came out. This meant Dovi ended Friday fourth.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) made a strong start to the Australian GP to finish P5 on the combined times, however, his Friday ended in him having a big crash at Turn 1 late in FP2. The Briton had to be stretchered off after holding his right leg as he headed straight for the medical center for a checkup. Meanwhile, Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) got himself up into P6 towards the end of the session to jump ahead of Marquez – the Champion ends Day 1 in P7.

After finishing P2 in FP1, home hero Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) sits in a provisional automatic Q2 spot in P8 after a positive start to his weekend, with Japan podium finisher Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) completing the top ten on Friday – ‘The Doctor’ keeping 11th place Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) at bay by just 0.046.

Free Practice Classification

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Iannone Andrea	29	ITA	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	1'29.131
2	Petrucci Danilo	9	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1'29.291 / 0.160
3	Vinales Maverick	25	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'29.354 / 0.223
4	Dovizioso Andrea	4	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'29.406 / 0.275
5	Crutchlow Cal	35	GBR	LCR Honda	Honda	1'29.616 / 0.485
6	Zarco Johann	5	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1'29.686 / 0.555
7	Marquez Marc	93	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'29.739 / 0.608
8	Miller Jack	43	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1'29.838 / 0.707
9	Rins Alex	42	SPA	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	1'29.918 / 0.787
10	Rossi Valentino	46	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'30.133 / 1.002
11	Syahrin Hafizh	55	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1'30.179 / 1.048
12	Smith Bradley	38	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1'30.346 / 1.215
13	Pedrosa Dani	26	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'30.472 / 1.341
14	Espargaro Pol	44	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1'30.545 / 1.414
15	Bautista Alvaro	19	SPA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'30.734 / 1.603
16	Espargaro Aleix	41	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1'30.736 / 1.605
17	Abraham Karel	17	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1'30.772 / 1.641
18	Morbidelli Franco	21	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1'30.787 / 1.656
19	Nakagami Takaaki	30	JPN	LCR Honda	Honda	1'30.830 / 1.699
20	Simeon Xavier	10	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1'31.275 / 2.144
21	Luthi Tom	12	SWI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1'31.539 / 2.408
22	Torres Jordi	81	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1'31.570 / 2.439
23	Redding Scott	45	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1'31.941 / 2.810
24	Jones Mike	7	AUS	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1'33.633 / 4.502