Vinales dominates Friday to head Dovizioso and Crutchlow

Maverick Vinales on rain tires

Phillip Island’s famously quick-changing weather gave the MotoGP World Championship a sample of the best and worst conditions on offer at the Australian circuit. In the morning the track reached just 16°C as rain fell until midday. But the lunch break brought better weather, the track warming up to 36°C as pit lane opened for Free Practice 2.

As the forecast remains stormy throughout the weekend, riders made the most of the wet morning session.

Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) went fastest in the wet and dry conditions on Friday at the Pramac Generac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix to dominate the opening day proceedings. A 1:28.824 was 0.496 better than second fastest Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) in a dry FP2, with Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) completing the top three.

Fastest in the wet was Vinales and, pretty much straight out the gate in FP2, the Spaniard was straight down to business to sit at the top of the times. It could be the only dry session of the weekend ahead of the race, so the riders were busy trying different tire options to try and get a good idea of what to use on Sunday, if it’s dry of course.

On the hard-hard combination, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) went fastest but with 15 minutes to go Vinales slammed in a time almost half a second quicker on the medium-hard Michelin tires to move the goalposts.

Friday Results