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While in Malaysia, Honda seemed to be in (slight) difficulty, at Phillip Island it's smooth sailing now for the RC213V. The first day of testing in Australia all went to plan for Marc Marquez, who set the fastest time of 1’29”497, faster than last year's pole and only 3 thousandths of a second from the fastest lap.
The fast lap was the cherry on the cake, because the Spaniard has also shown a pace that no-one can match, lapping consistently in the low 1'30"s.
Valentino replied by going on the attack in the final minutes. Mission completed because the Doctor, who is using the double fairing with "integrated" wings, took second place 0”186 from the Spaniard.
The same strategy also for Andrea Iannone who, suffering from a few electronics problems, was mid-way down the timesheets. His best time came at the end and the Suzuki rider is 3rd, 0”429 from Marquez and 63 thousandths ahead of Vinales.
If Marquez and Rossi have made the difference, the classification from 3rd to 9th is short, with 7 riders in half a second. Crutchlow, proving the competitiveness of the Honda, is 5th while Pedrosa is 7th.
Between the two of them is Danilo Petrucci (on Pramac's Ducati GP17), who also put together his fast lap at the end. And the factory Reds= Dovizioso is 8th at 0”913, while Lorenzo is even further back, 11th at 1”134.
Miller does well, finishing 9th while rookie Folger, at a complicated track for a debuting GP riders is 10th, his team-mate 15th.
Further down the standings is Aleix Espagarò with the Aprilia (who should see a new fairing tomorrow), 14th behind the Ducatis of Bautista (crashed) and Barbera.
KTM with Pol Espargarò (who also crashed) is 17th at 1”703, while team-mate Smith closes well back, behind Lowes (crashed twice), Redding (who also crashed) and Rins, who is taking some time to build confidence with the Suzuki and MotoGP.
I TEMPI FINALI
