The first day of the Australian test has concluded with Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez leading the field, his fastest lap of 1’29.497” just three-thousands of a second off the 2016 best race lap (1’29.494”). Teammate Dani Pedrosa kept a fast pace throughout the session and finished the day in seventh place.

The day was windy but with blue skies and temperatures that rose from quite chilly in the morning to 30° C (41.8° on track). Marc and Dani began riding around 11 a.m. and continued working on their RC213V machines, both of which were fitted with the engine they had hosen in Malaysia two weeks ago.

Testing will continue for two more days

Marc Marquez - 1ST 1:29.497

“We had a quite a busy day because we worked a lot on the engine, which of course is different from the one we used here at Phillip Island last year. That meant we had to readjust everything during the morning and spend a lot of time in the box. In the afternoon we found a base for the electronics, but we still need to work harder in this area. I’m fast, but like in Malaysia we want to double-check how it’s working in some areas. We also worked on the setup, and overall it has been a positive day. The weather was good, which is always important, so hopefully it will stay the same for the next two days.”


Dani Pedrosa - 7th 1:30.281

“I think we started this test in a positive way. Of course it has been a while since I’ve ridden at this track, as I missed the GP year and needed to do some laps to get reacquainted with it. Anyway, the first feeling was good enough. We didn’t work on the electronics too much today because we focused more on the fork’s setting as I looked to find a good feeling with the bike. Tomorrow we’ll focus on the electronics, as we need to find a good base setup. We hope to take another step forward because that will help us at every track.”