With the difficult weather conditions on Phillip Island, Australia gave harsh taste to every rider in MotoGP.
The temperature on the track was 16°C as it was constantly pouring until midday. However, post-lunch the weather went on to become worst to better and the track warmed till 36°C.
However, the stormy weather is predicated all through this coming weekend at Phillip Island is going to make the task more difficult for the riders.
We saw riders making most of it in the rainy morning conditions in today’s FP2. Marquez on his Honda RC213V quickly regained the composure in these conditions and finished on the sixth spot with a time of 1’29.421 on his 19th lap.
Jorge Lorenzo too managed to improvise his time after changes were made. He made 1’41.958 in FP1 for 18th and improved to a 1’30.706 for 16th in FP2. He later switched to the softer tire to show better improvisation.
Marc Marquez was later saved the day from 70.8° of the lean angle at Turn 10 on his RC213V that made the audience happy.
While Marquez stood 6th, Lorezo stood 16th in the table.
Quotes
Marc Marquez
“Our feeling today was not bad, I’m happy. In our fast lap we couldn’t find the best way to have a good lap time but our rhythm is there. Honestly, I’m riding better than I expected because I knew Viñales and Yamaha would be strong here but we are not far from them. We’ll now keep working, it wasn’t a bad first day.
Of course the weather is still looking very complicated for the rest of the weekend so we will have to see what happens. Today we broke another record with the save. My brother did a great save in Motegi so I had to try and equal it but I think his is still best! At the end of FP2 I came up to Jorge on my flying lap while he was going slowly, we made a bit of contact but Jorge and I already spoke about what happened.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“Today we started in the wet and my feeling at the start was OK. In the afternoon I was struggling a bit with corner entry when using the medium tyre, but with the soft tyre I was able to go a second and a half faster straight away.
It helped our position at the end quite a lot. Unfortunately, right at the end I didn’t look back to see I had three or four riders behind me, I tried to be as far on the inside as possible but Marc and I were a little too close.”
FP2 Results at Phillip Island
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VINALES Maverick | 12 | SPA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’28.824 |
| 2 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | 4 | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 0.496 |
| 3 | CRUTCHLOW Cal | 35 | GBR | LCR Honda | Honda | 0.501 |
| 4 | PETRUCCI Danilo | 9 | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 0.503 |
| 5 | MILLER Jack | 43 | AUS | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 0.520 |
| 6 | MARQUEZ Marc | 93 | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 0.597 |
| 7 | ROSSI Valentino | 46 | ITA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 0.612 |
| 8 | RINS Alex | 42 | SPA | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 0.648 |
| 9 | MORBIDELLI Franco | 21 | ITA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | 0.894 |
| 10 | ESPARGARO Aleix | 41 | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 0.967 |
| 11 | MIR Joan | 36 | SPA | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 1.051 |
| 12 | ABRAHAM Karel | 17 | CZE | Reale Avintia Racing | Ducati | 1.173 |
| 13 | IANNONE Andrea | 29 | ITA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 1.346 |
| 14 | BAGNAIA Francesco | 63 | ITA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1.602 |
| 15 | ZARCO Johann | 5 | FRA | LCR Honda | Honda | 1.617 |
| 16 | LORENZO Jorge | 99 | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1.882 |
| 17 | ESPARGARO Pol | 44 | SPA | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 2.035 |
| 18 | KALLIO Mika | 82 | FIN | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 2.041 |
| 19 | SYAHRIN Hafizh | 55 | MAL | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | KTM | 2.116 |
| 20 | OLIVEIRA Miguel | 88 | POR | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | KTM | 2.580 |
| 21 | RABAT Tito | 53 | SPA | Reale Avintia Racing | Ducati | 2.635 |
| 22 | QUARTARARO Fabio | 20 | FRA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha |
