Bradley Smith topped the first 125cc practice at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix as extreme weather conditions at Phillip Island delayed the start of the day’s programme. Championship leader Marc Márquez and British youngster Danny Kent completed the top three.

Heavy overnight rain combined with high winds meant that poor conditions at Phillip Island on Friday led to a two-hour delay to the start of the first practice – the 125cc class – at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix. When the action finally got underway it was British rider Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) who set the best time of the session with a lap of 1’54.547.

Conditions appeared to get worse before they got better, but just after the halfway point of the hour-long session they began to improve noticeably and subsequently so did the lap times. Following Smith on the timesheet at the conclusion of the session was Championship leader Marc Márquez (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) at +0.925s on the lead time, with 16 year-old Brit Danny Kent (Lambretta Reparto Corse) putting in an impressive display to place third at +1.108s on Smith.


Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo), Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar), Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team), Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) and Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) completed the top eight.

With the conditions providing a tricky asphalt surface for the riders to contend with crashers during the session were Luis Salom (Stipa-Molenaar Racing), Marcel Schrötter (Interwetten Honda 125), Adrián Martín (Team Aeroport de Castelló), Simone Grotzkyj (Fontana Racing), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) and wild cards Jordan Zamora (Eurotwins Brisbane) and Nicholas Diles (Aprilia RSW Racing), with Espargaró, Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and Khairuddin Zulfahmi (AirAsia - Sepang International Circuit Team) all experiencing run offs.