Vinales fastest in wet, Quartararo crashes

Vinales was the only rider to break the 1m39s barrier during the 45-minute session on Friday morning, ending up 0.147 seconds clear of nearest rival Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati.

Quartararo had to be taken to the medical center after being stretched away from the scene of his crash, the Siberia left-hander – the Petronas SRT Yamaha rookie having suffered a high-side in the tricky conditions.

Miller, Vinales and Marc Marquez all took turns at the head of the timing sheets in the opening half of the session, with Honda man Marquez moving to the fore with a 1m39.719s and then later a 1m39.398s.

But Vinales soon surpassed that with a 1m39.338s, and after a series of improvements he ended up on a 1m38.957s just as the rain began to intensify.

That meant he would remain on top for the remainder of the session, although Miller was able to improve to a 1m39.104s to jump ahead of Marquez for second.

Behind the lead trio, Valentino Rossi, who is set to make his 400th grand prix start at Phillip Island, was fourth-fastest on the second works Yamaha, 0.928s off the pace.

Danilo Petrucci was best of the factory Ducatis in fifth ahead of lead Petronas rider Franco Morbidelli, with Quartararo ending up seventh after his tumble.

KTM pair Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira were next up, followed by Andrea Dovizioso – who rounded out the top 10 on his Ducati.

In his first session aboard a Honda, Johann Zarco was 13th-quickest and a little over two seconds off the pace, putting him one place ahead of LCR team-mate Cal Crutchlow and just behind the lead Suzuki of Alex Rins.

Jorge Lorenzo was again the slowest of the Honda runners in 18th, three seconds off the pace.

Aprilia had a strangely low-key session as both of its riders completed only 13 laps – the least of anybody – and filled out the last two positions, Andrea Iannone in 21st leading Aleix Espargaro in 22nd.

Practice once

position	riders	bike	time	gap	laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1m38.957s	–	20
2	Jack Miller	Ducati	1m39.104s	0.147s	15
3	Marc Marquez	Honda	1m39.342s	0.385s	17
4	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1m39.885s	0.928s	19
5	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1m39.910s	0.953s	16
6	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1m40.320s	1.363s	23
7	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1m40.575s	1.618s	19
8th	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1m40.587s	1,630s	20
9	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1m40.675s	1.718s	21
10	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1m40.690s	1.733s	18
11	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1m40.799s	1.842s	17
12	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1m40.860s	1,903s	21
13	Johann Zarco	Honda	1m41.052s	2,095s	21
14	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1m41.073s	2.116s	16
15	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1m41.118s	2.161s	20
16	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1m41.180s	2.223s	21
17	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	1m41.371s	2,414s	21
18	George Lorenzo	Honda	1m41.958s	3.001s	16
19	Mika Kallio	KTM	1m42.306s	3,349s	20
20	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1m43.547s	4,590s	21
21	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1m43.779s	4,822s	13
22	Alex Espargaro	Aprilia	1m44.148s	5.191s	13