Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Johann Zarco displayed an impressive pace from the word go today at the Phillip Island circuit. Following the eighth fastest time in FP1, he improved by impressive 0.972 seconds in the second session of the weekend in order to finish Friday just 0.555 seconds off the top of the overall classification.
Meanwhile, Hafizh Syahrin quickly discovered a new passion at Australian venue and was up to speed equally fast this morning. The Malaysian rookie lowered his lap time by 0.777 seconds in the second Free Practice to miss out on a provisional direct Q2 entry by just 0.046 seconds in finishing 11th of the highly competitive MotoGP field.
Hafizh Syahrin
Position: 11th – Time: 1’30.179 – Laps: 40
“I felt really good! To be honest, I didn’t expect I could be so fast from the beginning in Phillip Island, because this track didn’t belong to my favourites in the past. With the GP bike it’s different and I felt confident with this machine on this track. I’m very close to Q2 and I have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed about myself because it looks like I have something extra to use the speed a little bit more. But overall, it’s ok. We keep this in the pocket and I hope we have nice weather again tomorrow, so we can try to fight again. The bike works very well for the moment, but tomorrow we definitely have to work on my race pace and I wish all this goes well.”
Johann Zarco
Position: 6th – Time: 1’29.686 – Laps: 41