Miller Sets Pace in First Practice Session

Jack Miller has thrown down the gauntlet by setting the fastest time in the opening Practice session on Friday at the Liqui Moly Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2025 at Phillip Island.

The local hero streaked around the circuit late in the session, on a Soft front and Medium rear Michelin tyre, in a time of 1m28.281s on the Pramac Yamaha. True to his word, he predicted on Thursday that the corner speed of the Yamaha M1 would be an asset around the track on his home race.

Second fastest was Alex Marquez, the Gresini Ducati rider reeling off a number of laps in the high 28s, marking him as a clear favourite for the rest of the weekend.

Fellow Spaniard Pedro Acosta was third fastest on his KTM, less than 0.1s behind Marquez. Fermin Aldeguer rode the wave of confidence from his Indonesia win to fourth fastest on the second Gresini Ducati, ahead of the next Yamaha, the factory entry of Fabio Quartararo.

Marco Bezzecchi was next on the factory Aprilia, which looks to be the second fastest bike in race trim, ahead of best mate Francesco Bagnaia. After a troubled start of the session, pitting and changing bikes after a single lap, the two-time MotoGP™ World Champion looked much happier, particularly as he is carrying all the hopes of the factory Ducati team with the absence of newly-recrowned Marquez, still recovering from his recent surgery at home in Spain.

Johann Zarco was the fastest of the Honda riders in eighth, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati).

There were some incidents during the session, with Franco Morbidelli crashing out on the VR46 Ducati, Joan Mir suffering a blown motor in his Honda and Alex Marquez having a near-miss after Pramac rider Miguel Oliveira unexpectedly backed off after the chequered flag, because an oil warning flag was being shown after Mir’s incident.

The MotoGP™ bikes will be back on the track at 3:00pm for a second Practice session – at the end of which will feature “Qualifying Zero”, when the top 10 fastest riders will be seeded straight into the second Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.