Vinales starts fastest as Marquez, Pedrosa crash in FP1

Full MotoGP FP1 results from Phillip Island

Maverick Vinales has given Movistar Yamaha a promising start to the Australian MotoGP race weekend while newly-crowned five-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez suffered a heavy fall in the closing stages of the delayed FP1.

The opening practice session was pushed back by two hours following an oil spill in Moto3’s opening practice, which required a lengthy red flag to clean the track, but once FP1 got underway Vinales almost instantly hit the top of the times during his opening run.

Vinales, who suffered a nightmare race at Motegi last time out, sharpened his pace during a second run to set the time to beat with a 1m 29.952s.

The Spaniard’s pace was backed up by his fellow Yamaha riders who all challenged inside the top 10 throughout the first session, but as a handful of riders opted for fast outright laps a trio of Ducatis took charge behind Vinales.

Local favourite Jack Miller moved up to second place late on for Pramac Ducati just ahead of team-mate Danilo Petrucci with factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso slotting into fourth place late on.

That saw Cal Crutchlow miss out in fifth place for LCR Honda, having not gone for a late time attack, but he kept ahead of Marquez as the reigning world champion crashed out of the session. Braking into Turn 10 the Repsol Honda rider instantly folded the front wheel to hit the tarmac hard but looked okay as he returned to his garage.

Marquez’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa also suffered a similar high-profile off earlier in the session by sliding off at high speed at Turn 1. While Marquez held on to sixth place on the FP1 times, Pedrosa’s off saw him miss out on the top ten and a provisional Q2 spot.

Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone produced a strong late charge to take seventh place ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco as Karel Abraham, using the Ducati GP17 for the first time this weekend, darted into the top 10 just ahead of Valentino Rossi who was pushed on to the bubble on the factory Yamaha.

Abraham’s regular team-mate Alvaro Bautista, filling in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo at Ducati, ended his maiden session on the GP18 in 14^th place, as Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro narrowly missed out the top ten with Hafizh Syahrin in 12^th for Tech 3 just in front of Pedrosa and Bautista.