Practice report

Australia MotoGP: Vinales tops FP1, Quartararo crashes

Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales set the pace in a wet opening practice session for MotoGP's Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, as Fabio Quartararo suffered a major crash.

Vinales was the only rider to break the 1m39s barrier during the 45-minute session on Friday morning, ending up 0.147s clear of nearest rival Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati.

Quartararo meanwhile had to be taken to the medical centre after being stretchered away from the scene of his crash, the Siberia left-hander, the Petronas Yamaha rookie having suffered a highside in the tricky conditions.

Miller, Vinales and Marc Marquez all took turns at the head of the timing sheets in the opening half of the session, with Honda man Marquez moving to the fore with a 1m39.719s and then a 1m39.398s some laps later.

But Vinales soon surpassed that with a 1m39.338s, and after a series of improvements he ended up on a 1m38.957s just as the rain began to intensify.

That meant the Spaniard would stay on top for the remainder of the session, although Miller was able to improve to a 1m39.104s to jump ahead of Marquez for second.

Behind the lead trio, Valentino Rossi, who is set to make his 400th grand prix start at Phillip Island, was fourth-fastest on the second works Yamaha, 0.928s off the pace.

Danilo Petrucci was best of the factory Ducatis in fifth ahead of lead Petronas rider Franco Morbidelli, with Quartararo ending up seventh after his tumble.

KTM pair Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira were next up, followed by Andrea Dovizioso, who rounded out the top 10 on his Ducati.

In his first session aboard a Honda, Johannn Zarco was 13th-quickest and a little over two seconds slower than Vinales, putting him one place ahead of LCR teammate Cal Crutchlow and just behind the lead Suzuki of Alex Rins.

Jorge Lorenzo was again the slowest of the Honda runners in 18th, three seconds off the pace.

Aprilia had a strangely low-key session as both of its riders completed only 13 laps - the least of anybody - and filled out the last two positions, Andrea Iannone in 21st leading Aleix Espargaro in 22nd.

Session results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	01'38.957
2	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	01'39.104	00.147
3	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	01'39.342	00.385
4	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	01'39.885	00.928
5	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	01'39.910	00.953
6	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	01'40.320	01.363
7	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	01'40.575	01.618
8	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	01'40.587	01.630
9	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	01'40.675	01.718
10	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	01'40.690	01.733
11	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	01'40.799	01.842
12	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	01'40.860	01.903
13	5	Johann Zarco	Honda	01'41.052	02.095
14	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	01'41.073	02.116
15	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	01'41.118	02.161
16	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	01'41.180	02.223
17	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	01'41.371	02.414
18	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	01'41.958	03.001
19	82	Mika Kallio	KTM	01'42.306	03.349
20	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	01'43.547	04.590
21	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	01'43.779	04.822
22	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	01'44.148	05.191
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