Austrian manufacturer KTM secured two official riders from overseas, South Africa’s Brad Binder and Australian Jack Miller. Miller sits in the top two practice positions in the official MotoGP Australian Grand Prix standings, scheduled for Phillip Island circuit this Saturday.
Binder led with a lap time of 1:27.943 in the early classification, finishing 0.148 seconds ahead of his teammate Miller in the closing moments of the session. The session was intense as Binder edged forward while the world leader Francesco Bagnaia from Ducati, and his Desmosedici GP23, observed the scene from a close distance.
On the positive side, Fabio di Giannantonio showed notable progress aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP22, placing seventh among peers Marc Bezzecchi on a Desmosedici GP22 and Enea Bastianini on a Desmosedici GP23. Like Giannantonio, Spaniard Pol Espargaró riding a Gas Gas RC 16 delivered a strong performance, ranking fourth fastest in the morning session behind Jorge Martín on a Ducati Desmosedici GP23, who led the morning times.
Binder quickly seized the opportunity to lead early, though Martín dominated the morning with authority. The top ten were tightly packed, separated by seven tenths of a second. After Binder’s first quick lap at 1:29.385, several riders who had yet to break into the top ten remained. The world championship leader Bagnaia and Spaniard Marc Márquez aboard a Honda RC 213 V were among those who did not make the initial mark.
Marc Márquez soon became part of a dramatic moment as he fell in the morning. He attempted a daring save but ended up on the ground. The bike was self-starting, so the incident did not damage the machine, yet Márquez had to tow the bike back to the garage for repairs.
Binder maintained a slender lead over Spaniard Maverick Viñales on the Aprilia RS-GP and Italian Marco Bezzecchi on the Ducati Desmosedici GP22. Bezzecchi appeared to be in better form after a collarbone surgery performed just before the Indonesian Grand Prix weekend in Lombok, and his pace reflected that improvement.
As the minutes ticked by, Binder asserted himself in the first phase, overtaking Fabio di Giannantonio, one of MotoGP’s uncertain futures who had been speculated to replace Márquez at Honda in 2024. The French rider Johann Zarco on a Ducati Desmosedici GP23 briefly held a strong position, trailing Binder by 93 thousandths of a second. Bagnaia earned a place in the second direct division, consolidating his standing amid the improving times.
Zarco did not retain the corner of advantage for long. He was overtaken by Espargaró and Augusto Fernández on the Gas Gas RC 16, who posted lap times more than half a second faster than the French rider. The session’s momentum shifted as Maverick Viñales moved ahead of his teammate and then Martin reclaimed the lead briefly, followed by Zarco and Binder. After recovering from his earlier crash, Márquez joined Jorge Martín to move into the second provisional classification, posting a best fifth on the first lap before gradually dropping positions.
With five minutes left in the session, Fabio di Giannantonio surged again, riding with confidence behind Martín. Viñales then surged forward, eclipsing both of them and reshaping the leaderboard in rapid succession. In the final moments, the Márquez brothers, Alex and Marc, stood fourteenth and fifteenth, while Bagnaia slipped to eighteenth before climbing to eleventh on his first fast lap. The pace quickened as riders pushed to improve in the closing seconds, but the results held steady toward the end of the session.
Bagnaia failed to convert the opportunity to claim pole on Australian soil. Márquez finished sixteenth, behind his brother Alex, and Alex Rins on a Honda RC 213 V was twelfth, with Frenchman Fabio Quartararo on a Yamaha YZR M1 in seventeenth as the final minutes ticked away.