MotoGP Australian Grand Prix: What we learned in Friday practice

There really is only one place on Earth where a session can be red-flagged due to a wallaby taking a hop across the race track. As it gets set for its farewell ride, Phillip Island’s last hurrah for MotoGP’s Australian Grand Prix is already shaping up to be the full island experience.

Friday’s running took place in gorgeous conditions. The rest of the weekend is set for a violent change in the weather, however, with discussions already taking place on Thursday about the potential for a schedule change.

As of the time of publishing, the weekend will continue as planned, with qualifying and the sprint on Saturday, and the main race on Sunday. As stormy weather gathers over Phillip Island, wet tyres are almost certainly going to be needed at some point.

And that’s the kind of drama Phillip Island has regularly offered up over the years. With the championship battle between Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez finely poised, as the pair sit just two points apart, the doors could be blown off the thing by the end of Sunday.

It’s one of the reasons Phillip Island will be missed from the calendar. The other is the utter joy of watching the best riders in the world on the best bikes ever built blasting around a ribbon of asphalt so perfectly threaded together it’s almost too good to be true.

For the time being, Aprilia riders look to be enjoying Phillip Island the most. All four RS-GPs were inside the top five at the end of the twice red-flagged Practice on Friday afternoon.

Marco Bezzecchi, still in contention but in need of a massive weekend at 46 points adrift, led the way with a 1m26.775s. Raul Fernandez, still sore from a finger injury sustained at Mandalika, was second as he goes for a second Phillip Island victory. Ai Ogura was fourth, while championship leader Jorge Martin was fifth.

The 2026 RS-GP may just be the best bike ever made for Phillip Island. Beating the Aprilia contingent will be hard. But Marc Marquez is right up there on his factory Ducati, ending the day third overall.

In dry conditions, it looks like Marquez will be a thorn in Aprilia’s side. In wet conditions, it’s anyone’s game.

For Marc Marquez, Australia is a weekend to attack

The Indonesian Grand Prix was very much a round of survival for Marc Marquez. And he came through it with an unlikely sprint victory and a palatable sixth in the grand prix to only allow Martin, who was fourth and third, a two-point advantage coming to Australia. That is what the gap was coming into Indonesia.

Ducati was under no illusion that Aprilia wouldn’t be strong at Phillip Island. But the Australian Grand Prix venue is famed for being a track where a rider can make the difference. And that’s something Marquez has been doing for a while now on the Ducati.

Fastest in FP1, he was third at the end of Practice, though spent much of the hour-long afternoon session working on long-running given the uncertain conditions going forward.

“[I’m] very happy because the feeling was the one that I was looking for here in Phillip Island,” he ominously noted. Typically, he has approached Friday’s more cautiously due to his physical condition. But he admitted he increased the intensity to get all of the work Ducati needed done.

Marquez, of course, won at Phillip Island for Ducati in 2024. But he doesn’t necessarily need to win this weekend to take command in the championship.

Aprilia and Marquez had very different run plans in Practice. The latter put 19 laps on a soft rear tyre, which is about the lap times race winner Raul Fernandez was doing on the medium rear at the same stage of the tyre’s life in 2025. Michelin suggests both the medium and soft could be race options if it’s dry.

What’s important to note from that table is Jorge Martin was slower than Marquez on average pace, albeit on the medium tyre. Fundamentally, Marquez just has to beat Martin and not play much attention to what the other Aprilias are doing.

Also catching the eye on Friday was Ducati’s swingarm wings, aping a concept Aprilia deployed at the British Grand Prix. The devices reduce drag and likely help with cornering by increasing the ground effect these fairings now produce. These new bits have clearly been rushed over to Phillip Island in the break since Indonesia because they are lacking in the carbon fibre sheen of Aprilia’s.

For so long, Ducati has been the pioneer of aerodynamics. Now Gigi Dall’Igna is having to take an example from his rival to level the playing field. However, Marquez noted: “For me, an engineer, a rider, a person - you cannot be arrogant and only [use] your ideas. Sometimes you can learn from the others, sometimes the others can learn from you.

“The most important thing is growing and trying to improve yourself and your team, and it's what we try to do. I don't feel that they copy and paste. In the end, this is competition; everybody is looking, even me as a rider, at what the others are doing to try to perform better.”

Aprilia’s team order stance could prove costly

The phrase on everyone’s lips this week is ‘team orders’. With the championship now in its critical phase, every advantage must be exploited. All eyes are on Aprilia to see how it manages the situation, given it has four riders regularly fighting for the top positions.

Too often in 2026, Aprilia has been at the centre of friendly-fire incidents. That was the case again in Indonesia, when Bezzecchi and Fernandez collided at the start of the sprint.

In the grand prix, Martin finished third behind an injured Fernandez, who is 119 points outside of the title fight. Ultimately, it was four extra points that were more valuable to Aprilia in Martin’s hands than they were on Fernandez’s scorecard.

But Aprilia still isn’t committing to team orders. Team manager Paolo Bonora said on Friday that the riders have been told to be careful around each other, but they are free to race still.

That benefits Bezzecchi. With 46 points to close in on Martin, he could take a big swipe out of that this weekend if he continues his strong Friday pace. And it’s music to Fernandez’s ears, as he knows Phillip Island can yield a big result for him.

Martin, at this stage of the weekend, has three Aprilias to try and be faster than, as well as ensuring he beats Marquez. He’s had a good ability so far this season to make big strides from Friday to Saturday at tracks where he has no Aprilia knowledge.

Commenting after Practice, Martin says he’s charging too hard into the corners as if he is still riding a Ducati. This is compromising his turning, as well as wrecking his front tyre. It’s not dissimilar to the issues he struggled with at Aragon.

If that isn’t an issue he can get on top of, Aprilia could be throwing him to the wolves by not deploying team orders if Marquez finds himself ahead of him. On top of that, Marquez doesn’t have the team orders card to play with.

Alex Marquez has shown good speed at Phillip Island, but Marc Marquez, for a while now, has been getting more out of the Ducati than anyone else. To allow him to take points when you hold a distinct perk in your arsenal would be foolish race management on Aprilia’s part.

Are the riders finally starting to rise up?

Off-track, conversations about the ongoing uncertainty around the Qatar Grand Prix may actually lead to one of the most positive changes in recent MotoGP memory.

The Race reported on Friday that a secret meeting took place between the riders at Phillip Island, where two-thirds in attendance voted against the idea of travelling to the war-hit Gulf region. Whether that will actually change MotoGP’s plans is another matter.

At this juncture, it’s full steam ahead with the Qatar Grand Prix. The championship is “monitoring” the situation, while the word from Lusail is that preparations are nearly complete. Wars have a funny way being very unpredictable, however.

Whatever happens with Qatar, the seeds have been sewn for the potential foundation of a genuine riders’ union. The discussions in the meeting were apparently very civil, with it providing a good platform for riders to voice their opinions without getting at each other’s throats.

That hasn’t always been the case with the now poorly attended safety commission.

Enea Bastianini noted that the riders currently have not very much power, but acknowledged that without the riders, the teams and the championship have nothing. Now, that seems like an obvious statement to make. But for riders to begin publicly saying these things is significant.

If enough of them are standing shoulder to shoulder and putting their interests front and centre, the championship will eventually have to start listening…