2025 Australian MotoGP: Marco Bezzecchi blitzes lap record to lead Practice

Marco Bezzecchi took his factory Aprilia to a new lap record at Phillip Island to top Practice at the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix, as Indonesian winner Fermin Aldeguer fell into Q1.

Forecasted to do well at Phillip Island, Marco Bezzecchi’s hopes of winning the Australian Grand Prix were dealt a severe blow pre-weekend as he was handed a double long lap penalty for a collision with Marc Marquez in Indonesia.

But that hasn’t dented the Italian’s speed, as he stormed to a 1m26.492s to blitz the previous lap record and lead Practice by almost 0.3s from Aprilia stablemate Raul Fernandez.

VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio flew Ducati’s flag in third, as Pecco Bagnaia scraped through to a Q2 place in ninth.

The big shock of the session came in the form of Indonesian Grand Prix winner Fermin Aldeguer missing the Q2 cut in 11th on his Gresini-run Ducati.

After the first 10 minutes of Practice, Aprilia’s Bezzecchi led the way with a 1m27.516s as his speed continues to be doubtless despite his double long lap penalty for the grand prix.

That was bettered around 10 minutes later by Di Giannantonio, who fired in a 1m27.483s on his GP25 to take over top spot.

This stood as the benchmark until the time attack phase of the session began with around 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

FP1 pacesetter Jack Miller went slightly quicker on his Pramac Yamaha with 14 minutes to go, as the Australian produced a 1m27.406s.

But this was immediately bettered by Bezzecchi with a 1m27.099s, which he bettered next time around with a new all-time lap record of 1m26.580s.

The next rider into the 1m26s was Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who moved into second with a 1m26.926s with just under 10 minutes remaining.

As the clock counted down on the hour-long session, Bezzecchi came under no real threat and was even able to improve to a 1m26.492s on his final tour.

This put him 0.291s clear of Raul Fernandez, who was a late mover to second on the Trackhouse Aprilia.

Di Giannantonio completed the top three ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Gresini’s Alex Marquez, while Alex Rins was sixth on the sister factory Yamaha.

Luca Marini was the sole Honda inside the top 10 in seventh ahead of Tech3 KTM stand-in Pol Espargaro, while Bagnaia and KTM’s Pedro Acosta - who crashed earlier in the session - secured the last Q2 places.

Aldeguer was 11th and denied a direct Q2 place by just 0.005s, while home hero Miller fell to 13th at the chequered flag.

Marc Marquez’s Ducati replacement Michele Pirro was 21st after a crash at Turn 4 in the closing moments.

Full 2025 MotoGP Australian Grand Prix Practice results