Australian Grand Prix, Phillip Island, Moto2, Warm Up: Brad Binder ahead of Alex Marquez

Like Moto3 and MotoGP, the poleman for this 2018 edition of the Australian Moto2 Grand Prix is ​​none other than the same as in 2017, in this case Mattia Pasini (Kalex, Italtrans Racing Team) for this intermediate category.

Last year, the swift Marcel Schrötter (Kalex, Dynavolt Intact GP) had dragged the fiery Italian to the ground on the second lap of the race, depriving him of any chance of shining on a track that he loves as much as Mugello. But this year, the dean of the category could well come and play spoilsport in the duel between Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex, SKY Racing Team VR46) Miguel Oliveira (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo) for the world crown.

To be titled, the transalpine must score more than 13 points than the Portuguese rider who, let's not forget, scored his first victory here last season, just like that of KTM in Moto2.

However, the 2 men are keen to reassure themselves during this warm-up, since they will only start from 16th and 20th places respectively on the starting grid.

We will also pay close attention to the performance of fabio quartararo (Speed ​​Up, Beta Tools – Speed ​​Up Racing), dispossessed of his victory in Japan, and necessarily imbued with a desire for revenge, which will start from the 2nd line.

The weather is barely better than that of the previous days, with a sky still cloudy but a slightly less strong wind and above all a dry track at 19° and an air temperature 13°.

Here are the available chronometric references:

Phillip Island Moto2™	2017	2018
FP1	1'33.313 Takaaki Nakagami	1'33.788 Marcel Schrotter
FP2	1'33.310 Takaaki Nakagami	1'33.701 Brad Binder
FP3	1'33.919 Miguel Oliveira	1'34.143 Marcel Schrotter
Qualification	1'33.300 Mattia Pasini	1'33.368 Mattia Pasini
Warm Up	1'46.620 Francesco Bagnaia	1'33.628 Brad Binder
Course	Oliveira, Binder, Morbidelli
All time lap record	1'32.470 Tito Rabat 2014

A sign of great motivation, fabio quartararo is the first to set off at the opening of the track but unfortunately returns to his box from the first lap and will only leave 5 minutes after the start of the session

Miguel Oliveira performs a front wheel change, even before setting off, which also costs him a few minutes.

The fall of Xavi Cardelus (Kalex, Marinelli Snipers Team) while, during this time, Joan Mir (Kalex, EG 0,0 Marc VDS) brings the provisional reference to 1'33.932.

Halfway through the session, many of them light up the first sectors in red but that's Mattia Pasini who took command in 1'33.745.

Marcel Schrötter (Kalex, Dynavolt Intact GP) makes a mistake at turn 10 while Alex Marquez (Kalex, EG 0,0 Marc VDS) achieved a very good time, faster than his qualification, in 1'33.630.

The final rush apparently doesn't bring big improvements until the last second when Brad Binder achieves the best time of the session.

Curiously, the 2 leaders of the world championship did not particularly shine this morning, Francis Bagnaia settling for the 11th time and Miguel Oliveira from the 20th.

We will note the good performances of Jesko Raffin (Kalex, SAG Team) third, Iker Lecuona (Kalex, Swiss Innovative Investors) sixth and local Remy gardner (Mistral M610, Tech 3 Racing) eighth.

Warm up classification Moto2 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com