Marco Bezzecchi leads the way in Friday practice at Phillip Island

Marco Bezzecchi concluded the opening day of the Australian MotoGP weekend on top of the timesheets after leading the official Practice session at Phillip Island.

The factory Aprilia rider posted a benchmark time of 1:26.775, edging out Trackhouse Aprilia's Raul Fernandez by 0.072 seconds. World champion Marc Marquez was the sole rider to break Aprilia's dominance at the front, finishing third with a 0.126-second deficit—matching Ai Ogura's identical lap time—while championship leader Jorge Martin rounded out the top five, 0.255 seconds adrift of his teammate Bezzecchi.

Alex Marquez secured sixth position, with Enea Bastianini, Pedro Acosta, Diogo Moreira, and Fabio Di Giannantonio also booking direct berths into Qualifying 2. Johann Zarco was the first rider to miss out on the top ten, trailing Di Giannantonio by just 0.026 seconds, and will have to fight through Q1 tomorrow. The Frenchman will be joined in the opening qualifying phase by Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Iker Lecuona, Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins, Maverick Viñales, and Augusto Fernandez.

Factory Honda's sole representative this weekend, Luca Marini, was forced to sit out the official practice session due to a viral illness. He will be evaluated again on Saturday morning to determine whether he is fit to return to the track.

The Phillip Island practice session was red-flagged twice within the opening 20 minutes for different reasons. The first stoppage came after an incident between Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez under braking into Turn 4, where contact between the pair left debris on track and brought Bezzecchi down. The stewards reviewed the collision but deemed it a racing incident, taking no disciplinary action against either rider.

Shortly after, local wildlife found its way onto the circuit—a familiar occurrence at Phillip Island. A small kangaroo triggered the second red flag, though the animal hopped clear before all the bikes had returned to pit lane, allowing the session to resume swiftly.

Bezzecchi was not the only rider to hit the asphalt during the 60-minute afternoon session. Home hero Miller suffered his second crash of the day at Turn 6 just moments before the incident between Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez.

Just before the midway point, Augusto Fernandez, substituting for Toprak Razgatlioglu at Pramac Yamaha, also went down at Turn 11. During the intense closing stages as riders pushed for a top-10 spot, there was only one further incident when Alex Marquez suffered a crash at Turn 4.

Forecasted adverse weather on Saturday and Sunday could render Friday's data largely obsolete and cause significant disruption to both the competitive order and the weekend schedule. The possibility remains that the Grand Prix race could be moved forward to Saturday, with the Sprint pushed to Sunday when the worst track conditions are expected.

As scheduled, the Australian Grand Prix—round 18 of the 2026 MotoGP season—will continue overnight with the 30-minute Free Practice 2 session, followed immediately by Qualifying to determine the starting grids for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix at Phillip Island.