The Spanish Giorgio Martino (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) has signed his third “pole position” of the season, after those of Qatar and Austin, as well as setting a new absolute record for the circuit Phillip Island in the official classification of the Australian MotoGP Grand Prix.
Martín stopped the best time trial in the category in 1: 27.767 on lap six, with which he improved the overall MotoGP record, which the Spaniard had held since 2013 Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha YZR M 1), en 1: 27.899.
also Spanish Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) was able to exploit the steering wheel of some of its rivals to climb up to second position, just 13 thousandths of a second from Martín, and ahead of the Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), who finished 186 thousandths behind the leader.
The three contenders for the title, the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), the Italian “Pecco” Bagnaia and the Spanish Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia RS-GP), I’m in a “handkerchief” between third and fifth place.
The Spanish Maverick Vinales (Aprilia RS-GP) surprised by his pace and his fastest lap in the fourth free practice round, in which the main dominator was once again the French Giovanni Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), but only up to the thirteenth lap did he manage to score a 1: 28.976 that none of his rivals could come close to, marking one of the most relevant differences of the weekend, with more than two tenths of a second on his immediate pursuer.
Other drivers, with Marc Márquez, who was the fastest ever in free practice for the second rankinghe finished in a more discreet fifteenth position, perhaps more thinking about preparation for the race than a good time in a session which, in reality, is only for this, to prepare the bike for race day.
The first classification was presented as one of the most interesting of the last Grand Prix, with a series of “illustrious names” who were looking for the passage to the second and the first to apply to reach the goal was the 2020 MotoGP world champion, the Spanish Giovanna Mir (Suzuki GSX RR), who at the time had recovered from an injury that had kept him in “dry dock” since the race in Austria.
Mir set a first reference time of 1: 28.661 at which the Spaniard also “closed” Pol Espargarò (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), just 62 thousandths of a second, even if the Italian overtook both moments later Enea “The Beast” Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), winner of four Grands Prix during the 2022 season.
Once again Johann Zarco has imposed himself as the protagonist by climbing to first place with a time of 1: 28.498, 149 thousandths faster than that of the Italian and who also excluded the two Spaniards. while not giving up in their efforts to reach the goal pursued and on the sixth lap they regain the top two positions, with Repsol Honda first and Suzuki according to.
At that moment Zarco was in his workshop and when he saw the stopwatches he was back on track with Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR) stuck in his wake and both ended up getting the move to the second classification after ousting Espargaró and Mir, who were already entered their workshops and could not do anything to avoid being excluded from the second ranking.
In this the first leader was the Spaniard Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) who in his second lap was already four thousandths of a second behind Marc Márquez’s fastest lap record in 2013, 1: 28.112 for 1: 28.108 of the eight – world champion in time, who had some “problems” at turn ten and to avoid falling he had to take one knee out and make one of his “saves”, going off the track without falling.
But Martín was overtaken shortly after by “Pecco” Bagnaia, who had already broken the race record with a time of 1: 28.054, with Fabio Quartararo in third position and Marc Márquez fifth.
Return to the labs to make the latest changes and the second e the final off the track, in which both Marc Márquez and Alex Rins took “the wheel” of Bagnaia, without a positive result, managed by Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco, who climbed to the first positions and the second was overtaken by Aleix Espargaró, who he was helped by his own teammate, Maverick Vinales, to finish second.
The pilot does not despair Repsol Hondawho in a second fastest lap attempt after Bagnaia reached his goal and moved up to second position, ahead of the Italian and behind Martín, with Aleix Espargaró, Fabio Quartararo and Johan Zarco in the second line of the starting form.
In the third, the Italians concluded Luca Marini y Marco Bezzecchi and, among them, the Australian Jack Miller, with the Spaniards Alex Rins, Alex Márquez and Maverick Viñales in the fourth row.
