Watch as Marquez Practice Start Doesn’t go to Plan

Marc Marquez might have finished fastest on the opening day of MotoGP practice at the Australian Grand Prix, in fact, he led a Gresini Ducati 1-2 ahead of his brother Alex Marquez, however, his race starts proved hard to get right.

On two occasions Marquez lined up for a race start only for the rear of his Ducati GP23 to viciously snap around, resulting in the eight-time world champion having to abandon his attempt.

The second of those attempts produced a huge amount of smoke from the rear tyre as Alex Marquez had to take avoiding action.

Marquez was a tenth clear by the end of second practice as Ducati rounded out the top five positions. Included in the top five were title contenders Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Speaking after his performance, Marquez said: “Yeah, I mean straight away I was taking risks on those first laps especially because it was super cloudy out there,” he said. Then I made sure that I was always on the top positions because we cannot forget that Practice gives the chance to be straight away in Q2.

“So, from that point we started in a good way. I feel good on the race track. Still, there’s a few things to improve. But as every Friday, now we need to work a bit more deeply because I know the others step-by-step will arrive.”

Friday’s afternoon practice was a hectic one for riders and teams following the cancellation of FP1 due to heavy rain. Martin suffered a crash at turn five when he nearly ran into the rear of Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo.

Martin’s wild day continued after that as he nearly collided with wildlife as a hare ran across the track in front of him. Other wildlife such as a family of geese also ventured across the track with bikes coming through the Lukey Heights corner, but no animals were injured, thankfully.