Championship leader Joan Mir ended the first day of running at Phillip Island in the Moto3 class fastest of all ahead of Aron Canet.
Sky VR46’s Nicolo Bulega led the morning session with a 1m38.582s at Phillip Island despite a fall at the Honda hairpin, while Motegi winner Romano Fenati suffered a big highside at Turn 11.
Fenati – who is 55 points down on Mir in the standings – was taken to the medical centre after taking a knock to his head, but was declared fit to continue and wasted no time at the start of the second session.
The Italian was the early pacesetter with a 1m40.252s, though Jorge Martin soon took over at the top of the standings with a 1m38.190s. Fenati dropped outside of the top 20 as he spent a considerable amount of time in his garage.
With 22 minutes to go, Leopard’s Mir – who made his grand prix debut at Phillip Island in 2015 – went fastest with a 1m38.149s before bettering that with a 1m37.965s, these laps set on the hard rear tyre.
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Bo Bendsneyder deposed the championship leader middway through the session with a 1m37.622s, which stood until the closing stages when a flurry of fast laps shook up the order.
With seven minutes remaining, Mir took over at the top of the pile with a 1m37.398s and cemented his position with a 1m37.111s – these laps all set without benefit of a tow.
The Spaniard was unable to improve on that time, though this still put him over two tenths clear of the field, with Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda’s Aron Canet his closest challenger after a late 1m37.341s.
Bendsneyder completed the top three ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo and Martin, while Fenati made big improvements in the final few minutes to end the day sixth fastest – albeit almost nine tenths off the pace.
Juanfran Guevara headed Tatsuk Suzuki and this morning’s pacesetter Bulega, with Marcos Ramirez rounding out the top 10 from Motegi podium finisher Marco Bezzecchi.
Aspar stand-in Maria Herrera – who makes her first grand prix appearance since Aragon as the injured Albert Arenas’ replacement – was 27th on her first day on the Mahindra, while team-mate Lorenzo Dalla Port spent much of the session in his garage after suffering an engine failure.
Adam Norrodin and Australian wildcard Tom Toparis were the only fallers in the afternoon session – both riders suffering slow speed front-end folds at the Honda hairpin and Lukey Heights.
