Marcel Schrötter took the lead during FP1, but Brad Binder gets back to him during FP2 registering the best absolute time of the day, leaving the German rider 2nd.
A lot of crashes at Phillip Island today, but also very different conditions of the two FP rounds that led to many important changes in the combined ranking. Marcel Schrötter closed FP1 1st, ahead of Brad Binder and Mattia Pasini. However, FP2 ended with a great result for the South African rider who managed to register the best absolute time of the day, finally on a dry track, and got the 1st place ahead of the German rider of the Dynavolt Intact GP team and of Iker Lecuona (who suffered a violent fall during FP2).
FP1 started with a considerable delay, but the track was still damp due to the previous rain. Weather conditions seemed to be improving before another short-lived rainstorm hit the track. The riders didn’t waste any second and immediately took the track to make the most of their FP time. We immediately witnessed some falls, starting from a violent highside for Gardner (he got checked up at the Medical Center and they didn’t report any injury) and continuing with Manzi’s, Navarro’s, Lowes’ and Fernández’s slips. The round ended with Marcel Schrötter’s best time, followed by Brad Binder and Mattia Pasini, while the current World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia got the 4th place ahead of his main rival Miguel Oliveira.
Compared to FP1, track’s conditions definitely improved for FP2 and all riders immediately went down the track to improve their times. But here you are some more falls, with Staring (on track substituting the injured Bendsneyder) and Pawi hitting each other in order to avoid Cardelús, who was riding really slow at that point. But Odendaal, Lecuona, Fuligni and Nagashima crashed too, while Marini had to end his FP early because of a technical issue on his KALEX, while Quartararo somehow managed to stop his bike before hitting the track’s side barriers and avoided falling. The round ended with Brad Binder registering the best absolute time of the day, followed by Marcel Schrötter and Iker Lecuona. In the meanwhile, the duel between Francesco Bagnaia and Miguel Oliveira is still very much on and the Italian rider managed to close another round ahead of his rival.
