Just four days after Marc Marquez clinched his second MotoGP World Championship –his fourth in all classes– the Repsol Honda team riders returned to work. Today was the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix, in which the newly-crowned champion finished third in the combined timesheet and his teammate, Dani Pedrosa, was tenth. Amidst sunshine and warm temperatures, Marquez and Pedrosa were able to begin setting up their bikes for the Phillip Island circuit which is very demanding on tyres. In the first session Marquez was fifth, three tenths off top man Aleix Espargaro, but he was able to cut nearly three tenths off his morning time in the second session to complete the day third with a 1:29.752. He was 0.150s down on Jorge Lorenzo, the fastest rider on Friday. On the other side of the garage, Pedrosa was ninth in the first session and tenth in the second, despite improving almost 4 tenths in the afternoon. He ended the day with a time of 1:30.289, 6 tenths slower than Lorenzo. Saturday sees the second day of practice and Sunday the sixteenth race of the MotoGP World Championship season.
