Italian sets scorching Phillip Island practice pace as Aussie misses top 10 by tiny margin

Marco Bezzecchi topped the timesheets in the first practice session for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, setting a late lap of 1min 26.775s. The Italian, who is 46 points behind the world championship lead after winning in Indonesia, continued Aprilia’s recent momentum with all four Aprilia machines finishing inside the top five. Raul Fernandez was second, 0.072s adrift, ahead of reigning champion Marc Marquez, 0.126s down in third. Jorge Martin was fifth, 0.255s behind, while Aprilia’s Ai Ogura split the championship protagonists. Jack Miller missed the top 10 by just 0.067s—meaning no automatic Q2—after crashes earlier in the day, including a 250 km/h incident at Doohan Corner. The session also saw a wallaby cross the circuit, briefly red-flagging proceedings.