Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi brushed aside a crash with Alex Marquez to lead Practice at the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez finished third.
The 60-minute afternoon session at Phillip Island on Friday was red-flagged twice due to separate incidents.
The first came with just over 50 minutes remaining when Marco Bezzecchi ran into the rear of Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati on the run into the Turn 4 hairpin.
Bezzecchi’s Aprilia suffered fairing damage and sent him onto the grass, where he dropped his bike on the floor, while debris was left on the track.
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The FIM stewards took a look at the incident, but deemed no further action was warranted.
Bezzecchi wasn’t harmed in the fall and would ultimately end the session fastest of all with a late 1m26.775s.
He led Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, while Marc Marquez was the leading Ducati in third, as championship leader Jorge Martin finished fifth.
Martin hit top spot with a 1m27.902s when the session restarted following Bezzecchi’s crash, before a second red flag was called with just over 40 minutes to go.
A wallaby had made its way onto the circuit, forcing race control to halt the session briefly while it cleared the danger area.
Marco Bezzecchi, 2026 Australian MotoGP.
© Gold and Goose
Upon the second restart, Bezzecchi would find his way to the top of the standings with a 1m27.374s on used rubber.
The first fresh tyre time attack came from KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who went top with just under 20 minutes remaining on a 1m27.208s.
This was then beaten by Alex Marquez on a 1m27.150s, before Marc Marquez found the first sub-1m27s lap of the day on a 1m26.901s.
But Bezzecchi would see out Friday fastest with a late 1m26.775s, which put him 0.072s clear of Fernandez.
Marquez wouldn’t improve on his best lap, ending the session 0.126s off the top spot as he debuted an Aprilia-style rear aero update on his Ducati’s swingarm.
Ai Ogura matched Marquez’s lap time on the sister Trackhouse Aprilia in fourth, while Martin was 0.255s off the pace in fifth.
Alex Marquez was sixth after a late crash, while Enea Bastianini led the KTM charge in seventh ahead of Acosta.
Diogo Moreira upheld Honda honour in ninth for LCR, as the factory team wasn’t present at all due to Luca Marini withdrawing as a result of a virus.
Fabio Di Giannantonio secured the final direct Q2 spot for VR46 Ducati, as Pecco Bagnaia struggled to 14th.
Lewis joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having been a journalist for five years covering MotoGP for the Motorsport Network. In February of 2026, he became Head of Editorial.