Marco Bezzecchi fastest in Phillip Island practice after two red flags
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 23, 2026
Bezzecchi leads session
Marco Bezzecchi set the pace in Friday practice at Phillip Island for the Australian Grand Prix, and he did it in a session that kept getting interrupted and never settled into a clean rhythm. Bezzecchi’s best lap of 1:26.775 put him first on the timesheet and gave him the early edge on a day when track time came under pressure from two red flags and a string of incidents. Raul Fernandez chased him closest, finishing second just 0.072 seconds back, while Marc Marquez took third, 0.126 seconds off the pace. Ai Ogura followed in fourth and Jorge Martin was fifth, giving the session a tight front group behind Bezzecchi. The headline time still belonged to the Italian, and it came after he had already been part of the day’s first major disruption. Bezzecchi hit the back of Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati early in the session, an incident that brought out the first red flag and briefly halted the action before the riders could reset and push again. Even with the interruption, Bezzecchi came back with the speed to hold the top spot through the end of the hour, showing the sharpest single lap in a practice session that kept changing shape as it went along.
Red flags interrupt
The day’s first stoppage came after the contact between Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez, and the second followed after a wallaby got onto the circuit, turning a routine practice session into a stop-start run of red flags. The interruptions kept riders from building long, uninterrupted runs, and that mattered at a track where confidence and rhythm carried real weight. Alex Marquez still found a way to recover from the early contact and ended up sixth, even after another late crash. That finish summed up the day for several riders, because the timesheet rewarded those who adapted best to the changing conditions and the repeated pauses. Jack Miller also had a rough session in terms of crashes, going down twice, yet he still managed to finish 12th, a sign that the pace remained there even when the bike was not always staying upright. The two red flags did more than slow the session. They shaped it, forcing riders to handle a track that was already demanding before the extra delays added another layer of difficulty.
Q2 spots and absences
Alongside the top six, Enea Bastianini, Pedro Acosta and Diogo Moreira all reached Q2, giving them direct passage into the next stage of qualifying after a session that tested both speed and consistency. Their progress mattered because Friday practice often set the tone for the weekend, and getting into Q2 removed one obstacle before the race pace battle began in earnest. The session also featured several absences and changes in the field. Luca Marini missed practice because of a viral illness, leaving one less rider in the mix on Friday. Honda’s factory team also went without Joan Mir, Taka Nakagami and Aleix Espargaro. Augusto Fernandez had his own difficult opening day, falling in his first appearance replacing injured Toprak Razgatlioglu. The mix of absences, crashes and interruptions gave the session a fractured look, but the order at the sharp end still came into focus. Bezzecchi had the best lap, Fernandez stayed within a whisper of the lead, Marc Marquez kept himself in the hunt and the rest of the top group followed close behind. That combination of speed and attrition made Friday practice at Phillip Island one of those sessions where the final classification mattered, but the path to it mattered just as much.
