Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), British Jake Dixon (Kalex) and Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) topped their respective categories on the first day of free practice for the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix at the Phillip Island.
Zarco maintained his hegemony throughout the first day, with the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) and the Spaniard Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) following in his wake, although it was his teammate Marc Márquez who was soon too much to recover the first position by rolling in 1:30.126 without using the aerodynamic improvements that he already tried in the morning and quickly seconded both by his compatriot Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) and by the also French, the world leader, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M1).
Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), the third of the contenders for the title, was another of those who improved his personal time by a few thousandths of a second, but to occupy ninth place behind fellow Spaniard Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22). .
The work in the workshops was very intense and many riders could be seen constantly there consulting and modifying parameters of their bikes to try to improve times and also assess tire consumption with a view to a race that always tends to “punish” these components. .
In the final minutes, the situation began to change notably because while the Repsol Honda rider was unable to lower his personal best time, both Fabio Quartararo (1:29.614), Maverick Viñales, Johann Zarco, and Marco Bezzecchi did manage to beat him. , but Marc Márquez was biding his time and it came with less than two minutes remaining in the session, when he climbed to third place just 30 thousandths of a second behind the Aprilia.
The possibility that the rain would make an appearance on the second day made many riders choose to go out in the final minutes to “dispute” the session to get a good classification, “just in case” and that is how Johann Zarco ended, ahead of another Ducati rider, the Italian Marco Bezzecchi, with a Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) who surprised by his good performance to be third, ahead of the championship leader, Fabio Quartararo and up to five Ducati among the ten first classified.
The British Jake Dixon (Kalex) was in charge of setting the tone at the end of the first day of free practice in Moto2, while the world leader, the Spanish Augusto Fernández (Kalex) defended himself quite well and his most direct rival in the title fight, Japan’s Ai Ogura (Kalex) struggled to find a good rhythm.
Dixon set a best time of 1:33.767, ahead of the Spaniards Fermín Aldeguer and Alonso López, on Boscoscuro paths, with Augusto Fernández in seventh place and Ai Ogura in a much further back seventeenth position, more than 1.3 seconds behind. Briton and 1.1 seconds behind the championship leader.
The Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) finished leader of Moto3, after ultimately beating his compatriot Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda) and the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (KTM), with the world leader, the Spanish Izan Guevara (GasGas) fourth fastest time , ahead of his most direct rivals in the fight for the world title, which he could achieve mathematically in Sunday’s race.
