MotoGP riders recap the opening day of practice at Phillip Island

MotoGP 2022 – Round 18 – Phillip Island

Phillip Island Friday MotoGP Rider Quotes

Johann Zarco – P1

“A good first day, I had to adapt to the track and the wind that especially in the afternoon was very strong. Very good work with my team, the race pace is good and I also did some very good fast laps.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P2

:”A beautiful day and a great track. We made an excellent step forward between the sessions: Matteo, Sergio (Flamigni and Martinez) and all the Ducati technicians did a great job and I was able to really ride as I wanted in FP2. I am smooth and I can handle movements and vibrations of the bike well. We are still missing something, we can better manage the tire consumption, which is crucial on the long run, and also the wind. The braking of the first corner is really difficult, as well as the straight and the sector 3, but we can work on it.”

Pol Espargaro – P3

“I felt really good today and the bike was also working really, really well today. From the morning I felt like I was fast over one lap and with our overall pace and then it was just about finding the last step with the new tyre. When we put a new tyre in this afternoon, it all worked, and I was able to enjoy riding. I love this place, the track, the weather, the cold and with the wind making everything a bit more complicated, my experience helped a lot. I think this circuit suits our bike and the objective is to of course stay inside the top positions all weekend.”

Fabio Quartararo – P4

“It was pretty good. This morning was tricky. I was able to set quite a good pace considering the track conditions. This afternoon the conditions were better, but I made a mistake on my fast lap, so I’m pretty happy to still be inside the top 5. We have a few things to try tomorrow to improve our feeling, and I felt that we still have a little margin to improve our pace, especially in Sector 1. This track is different from the others. Usually, we keep our bike setting more or less the same, but here we made a few changes, and also for tomorrow we will make a few changes. But our pace is already quite okay, and there are a few places where I think I can overtake, so it should be a good track for us. Our potential is good.”

Maverick Vinales – P5

“Really very good. I felt like I was in good form straight away, despite the less than perfect conditions. Anyway, what I’m most pleased with is the fact that I never really felt a true limit. This means that we have margin for improvement, so we need to keep working because we can take a step forward in every area. The wind was definitely a factor with the bike moving around a lot but I think everyone is having the same issue so I’m not worried about it.”

Marc Marquez – P6

“It’s not easy to try things during a weekend, but I felt some positives with the new parts in the morning. Then in the afternoon we tried it again to confirm our findings, we used all our time to try these things and this is what you must do if you want to improve for the future. We can see that Honda is working, even with only three races left. I’ll keep using it tomorrow. Then we will see what is possible on Saturday and Sunday, the feeling on the bike is quite good and we can see that the potential is there. It’s great to be back at Phillip Island.”

Aleix Espargaro – P7

“I’m happy. After two weekends where we struggled, it’s good to be back to having the right sensations. Today – especially in the morning – the conditions were rather demanding and I think that’s why everyone left some margin for improvement. In any case, being fast straight away is important. I felt good both with pace and during the time attack, although with higher temperatures tomorrow, we’ll improve performance significantly. I’m thinking that this will be a race where just being fast won’t be what counts as much as looking after the rear tyre in anticipation of the last 10 laps. That’s where whoever has done the best work will be able to make the difference.”

Pecco Bagnaia – P8

“The balance of today is positive, and so I am happy. In FP1 and FP2, I had some difficulties in the first run, but later we managed to straighten things out and get good results at the end of both sessions. We still have some work to do, but we are at a good point, and I know where we can still improve. The areas where I’m losing something are the first and third, so tomorrow, I will focus mainly on doing well in those two parts of the track. It will be crucial to be able to qualify up front, and I know I have the potential to be fast.”

Enea Bastianini – P9

“Things went better in the afternoon, when the wind was blowing even stronger. We can be happy with today even though I still lack consistency speed-wise: I haven’t been able to do the same lines each lap, so we’ll have to work on the rear-end of the bike. We normally never make too many changes to that area, but the problem is that even if I lose very little on corner exit, I take it all the way down to the next turn… Turns one, three and the final sector are where the time is really set: there is work to do, especially for turn 12.”

Jorge Martín – P10

“An incredible track, it gives you a lot of emotions, I am really satisfied. It’s a very fast track and I didn’t expect it to be so difficult with MotoGP, body position and bike position is very important. We are all very close, it will be important to make a step tomorrow.”

Joan Mir – P12

“Today has been positive overall and I can’t complain, I’m enjoying being back on my bike. I’m getting better session by session and my feeling with the bike is improving too. It’s a shame that I missed out on the Top 10 by such a tiny margin, but I feel that I can be faster so I’m not too disappointed. Tomorrow let’s see how much I can improve with my settings and everything; my ideal result would be to fight for the front two rows!”

Jack Miller – P13

“Today definitely didn’t end the way we hoped. I’m struggling to turn the bike, and because of some small issues we had during the second session, combined with the strong wind, we couldn’t improve in the time attack. In any case, I am happy to be here again at Phillip Island. It’s great to see how many people came this weekend, and that motivates me a lot. I’m sure that tomorrow morning if the weather allows us, we can make progress and qualify well.”

Álex Márquez – P14

“First day here in Australia, not bad, we did a good job throughout the day. We just missed being in the top 10 by two tenths in FP2, but the work that we did today was really good. We worked with confidence and were quite fast, so we need to keep going like that. Tomorrow the weather forecast looks more grey than today, so we’ll try to do our best and improve some things. It will be my second day on this track, so I have clearer references and we’ll work on tyres to be ready for the race on Sunday.”

Alex Rins – P16

“A cold and windy day, but it feels amazing to come back to the Island. FP1 was a bit scary due to the wet patches and kerbs with standing water, so it wasn’t easy to relax into it. Then FP2 was more straight forward and I’m quite happy with the work I did; I tried the hard rear tyre and I found it to be surprisingly competitive. Tomorrow I’ll continue with my set-up and compare the other tyres and settings.”

Fabio DiGiannantonio – P17

“We started off very well this morning, and the feeling with the bike was excellent. In the afternoon, we lacked the time attack performance, because until halfway we were doing well. When it came to set the quick one, I found myself alone on the track and struggled with the wind. We need to work on the electronics, because the bike moves a lot on corner exit. Our pace is good, but one thing is riding within a group – with the wind not being a factor – the other is to do it on your own. There is margin for improvement.”

Cal Crutchlow – P18

“I was disappointed with the result today. I have probably my worst feeling ever around Phillip Island with the motorcycle. The instability of the bike is not in our favor at the moment. We are really struggling to find a good setting with the bike. We tried a few different things, we tried the hard rear tyre for Yamaha, which we used some laps doing. We got some vital information for them. After that, we tried to work on the setting of the bike to improve the stability, but the bike doesn’t feel like my own around here at the moment. We will think about the setting tonight for tomorrow’s Free Practice. It was good to get two dry sessions. Obviously the first one had some patches. We know where we have to work on. I have good ambitions for the race here. The team is working hard and I look forward to try to improve tomorrow.”

Franco Morbidelli – P19

“Today it was tricky to be quick. I didn’t feel the right confidence with the bike, plus the conditions were very tough, so I wasn’t fast. We have some plans for tomorrow to make it better. We will see what happens tomorrow.”

Luca Marini – P20

“Not an easy first approach, I would say an uphill Friday without being able to find the sensations I was looking for. We worked hard then and, in the last run of FP2, I made some progress that I will try to fully exploit tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying. Let’s start again from here: the goal for the last free practice sessions is to stay on track as much as possible and make some steps forward also on the pace for the race.”

Raul Fernandez – P21

“I have to admit that riding the MotoGP bike for the first time is quite scary because Phillip Island is a very fast track, especially between turns 1 and 2, and then turns 8 and 9. It took me a bit of adaptation time in FP1 to get my head around it, but in the afternoon I already felt more comfortable. I improved my lap time, and my fastest lap was not bad at all, so we enjoyed today, despite the windy conditions. I look forward to being back on track tomorrow.”

Remy Gardner – P22

“The Phillip Island circuit is a fun track to ride and I enjoyed it a lot today. FP1 was quite good considering the track conditions, so I was confident for the afternoon session. However, FP2 was windy and I struggled putting a fast lap together, even with the soft tyre. We are not in an ideal position, but there are a few changes we can work on tonight to be able to make a step tomorrow.”

Darryn Binder – P23

“It’s been a really cool day here in Phillip Island. I was so glad to finally spin some laps at this track on the MotoGP bike. It’s definitely still my favorite track on the calendar. We’ve been lucky today with the weather, that has been a little bit up and down. This morning there was some little rivers crossing the track, but luckily this afternoon we got a complete dry session. I slowly but surely find my way around Phillip Island. I feel good with the bike and look forward to tomorrow to make some more steps forward.”

Tetsuta Nagashima – P24

“First day was ok, this morning was a little bit difficult because it was windy and my first time here with a MotoGP bike at this track. But the team worked really hard, we tried new material and had a good feeling and especially in FP2 we made a big step. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow, I still have to learn, but we’ll keep working and will try to make another step.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director

“It was cold and windy at Phillip Island today and that made riding here quite tricky. We started the GP weekend with our riders getting familiar again with the Phillip Island track after three years of not riding here. We took a calculated risk and completed the entire FP1 session on the same set of tyres. Fortunately, we had a dry FP2, so we could work on the settings, and at the end of the session we did a decent time attack. While Fabio is feeling quite confident on the bike, Franco is not there yet. We still have two free practice sessions to tweak the settings and finalise our race tyre choice, if it stays dry.”

Livio Suppo – Suzuki Team Manager

“It’s been a positive day, despite the fact that the riders haven’t got direct passage to Q2 yet. However, they both worked towards race settings. We’re really happy to see Joan back on the bike, and he was so close to the Top 10 today. We’re looking forward to seeing how he progresses. Alex wasn’t really going for true time attack today, he preferred to hold some tyres back for tomorrow, and he also caught some riders cruising on his last lap. However, he’s already shown he has great potential here.”

2022 Phillip Island MotoGP Combined Friday Practice Results

MotoGP Championship Points Standings

Phillip Island MotoGP Schedule

2022 MotoGP Calendar