Like everyone else, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team had to wait two hours before starting the Phillip Island Grand Prix, as Friday's program was delayed due to an oil spill in the FP1 Moto3.
However, Maverick Viñales' early attempts were worth it as he showed competitive pace from the start of the first rescheduled session.
The track conditions were tricky, which caused several riders to fall, but the Spaniard did not let himself be intimidated. He set the fastest lap on his YZR-M1 several times and retained the top spot for the rest of the session after posting a time of 1'29.952s on lap 11, with an advantage of 0.037s over his fastest lap. close rival.
The Spaniard continued to progress during FP2 while perfecting the balance of his bike. With the weather conditions uncertain for tomorrow's FP3, he decided to play it safe, like most MotoGP riders, and switched to a soft tire combination for his final two runs.
He finished the day in third place with a personal best time of 1'29.354s, 0.223s off the fastest time of the day.
Maverick Vinales : " it went well. I've always liked being at Phillip Island because it's a nice track and I can take on myself even more to attack. I'm happy because we worked in a good way today. Maybe this afternoon we tried a little too much and we have to continue with the same bike. I have a very good feeling on the bike so I can really be very focused and precise. We can be in the top 3. We're going to focus a lot on electronics because I think we're not where we should be in that area yet, so we need to work on that a lot. The track is really smooth and suits my riding style and it seems to be working for us, but we still have Saturday and Sunday to go. Today was a very positive day, so let’s see what the future holds for us tomorrow.”
Massimo Meregalli : “You never know what to expect at Phillip Island with its changeable weather conditions, so we are taking this Grand Prix session by session. We started the weekend with a more conventional base setup than the one we used at Motegi. Our riders were very comfortable on their bikes and they were fast in both sessions, especially Maverick. We tried a few different tire specifications and we will finish what we couldn't do today in tomorrow's sessions, which is mainly the hardest specification. Generally speaking, both drivers complained about the movements in certain corners. We will try to find a solution to improve this for tomorrow, and we will also work on some electronic adjustments to improve the life of the tires. Tomorrow's weather conditions are uncertain, it could rain, but we are sure we can take one more step.”
MotoGP Australian Grand Prix J.1 classification:
| 1 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 1'29.131 | ||
| 2 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'29.291 | 0.160 | 0.160 |
| 3 | 25 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha | 1'29.354 | 0.223 | 0.063 |
| 4 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'29.406 | 0.275 | 0.052 |
| 5 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'29.616 | 0.485 | 0.210 |
| 6 | 5 | Johann zarco | Yamaha | 1'29.686 | 0.555 | 0.070 |
| 7 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'29.739 | 0.608 | 0.053 |
| 8 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 1'29.838 | 0.707 | 0.099 |
| 9 | 42 | alex rins | Suzuki | 1'29.918 | 0.787 | 0.080 |
| 10 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'30.133 | 1.002 | 0.215 |
| 11 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | 1'30.179 | 1.048 | 0.046 |
| 12 | 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM | 1'30.346 | 1.215 | 0.167 |
| 13 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1'30.472 | 1.341 | 0.126 |
| 14 | 44 | Espargaro Pol | KTM | 1'30.545 | 1.414 | 0.073 |
| 15 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 1'30.734 | 1.603 | 0.189 |
| 16 | 41 | Alex Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'30.736 | 1.605 | 0.002 |
| 17 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Honda | 1'30.787 | 1.656 | 0.051 |
| 18 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda | 1'30.830 | 1.699 | 0.043 |
| 19 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati | 1'31.166 | 2.035 | 0.336 |
| 20 | 10 | Xavier Simeon | Ducati | 1'31.275 | 2.144 | 0.109 |
| 21 | 12 | Thomas luthi | Honda | 1'31.539 | 2.408 | 0.264 |
| 22 | 81 | Jordi Torres | Ducati | 1'31.570 | 2.439 | 0.031 |
| 23 | 45 | Scott Redding | Aprilia | 1'32.045 | 2.914 | 0.475 |
| 24 | 7 | Mike Jones | Ducati | 1'33.633 | 4.502 | 1.588 |
