Jorge Martin described his relentless defence of the lead in the Thai Grand Prix as “one of my best races” as he closed further on the MotoGP points lead.

The Pramac Ducati rider held the lead from pole off the start, though found himself under constant pressure from KTM’s Brad Binder, and later title rival Francesco Bagnaia, across the entirety of the 26-lap contest.

Binder in particular looked to have more rear grip in the latter stages at the Chang International Circuit, though he struggled to find a way past Martin as he continually nailed every braking zone in his defence of a fourth win of the season.

Binder eventually found a way through with just four laps remaining, though Martin remained close and managed to find a way back through with a bold move at Turn 2 on the penultimate lap – the Spaniard ultimately hanging on by just 0.114s to sweep the Thai weekend.  

Reducing his points deficit against Bagnaia to just 13 with three weekends remaining in 2023, Martin felt his Thai run was one of the “best races of my life” bearing in mind how “mentally difficult” it was to keep both Binder and his main title rival behind for so long.

“That was one of the best races of my life, that’s for sure,” explained Martin.

“When they caught me in the last part of the race I think they were a bit faster than me, I managed the tyre a lot but they were a bit stronger.

“Leading for 20 laps and having a tenth (of a second) advantage was really mentally difficult, but I was able to keep concentrated to the end and could win.

“I could hear his engine a lot out of Turn 7 so I knew he was going to try there, and I was a bit on the limit with the tyre there so I thought he had more grip than me.

“But as soon as he overtook me and in front I could see he was also on the limit with rear grip, so I tried to keep the distance for a lap and then take him back because I didn’t want my front tyre to get hot.”

Martin added that he was “relieved” to hang onto his potentially crucial fourth win of the year as he looks to secure a maiden premier class crown, and insisted that the mistakes which cost him wins in Indonesia and Australia have made him “stronger.”

“I was relieved to finish at the top because I’ve had a lot of mistakes recently, I didn’t even enjoy the win yesterday because I was so focussed on today. I haven’t slept for four days, but tonight I’ll sleep well,” continued Martin.

“I’m happy because the target was to recover points and we did it. To break the lap record, get pole position and then win both races is great. I can’t lie I’m starting to feel the pressure, but the main target is to recover points and we are achieving this.

“I think the mistakes from the other races were tough for me, but they made me stronger.”

Jorge Martin secured a potentially crucial Thai MotoGP victory after coming out on top of a breathless battle with Brad Binder and Francesco Bagnaia for supremacy.

The Pramac Ducati rider managed to hold the lead after suffering another poor start as he had in the Saturday sprint encounter, VR46’s Luca Marini again unable to make the Spaniard pay for a sluggish getaway.

From then on Martin instigated a slower pace to try and preserve his hard rear tyre, while Binder focussed on scything back through the pack having dropped as far back as fifth early on. By the time half-race distance had been completed, the KTM man was fixed to the rear of Martin’s machine.

Martin eventually began to try and escape from the rest as the race entered its final third, though Binder and title rival Bagnaia followed him every step of the way as they looked to steal away the leadership.

As the race entered its final laps, Martin seemingly began to struggle for grip and looked to be a sitting duck for the pressuring Binder.

Sure enough, after several laps of moving every which way to find an opening, Binder fired down the inside of Martin at Turn 9 to take the lead. The South African failed to pull clear of Martin though, the Saturday sprint victor remaining close enough for a possible lunge even despite his defending from Bagnaia.

Martin managed to get a run at Binder on the penultimate lap and dived back through to the lead at Turn 2, though Binder – keen to secure his first win in over two years – continued to push him as the final lap began.

He exacted as much pressure as he could on a defensive Martin, though he ultimately came up short as the leader struck back at every blow Binder could throw at him to take the chequered flag just 0.114s clear.

Binder’s day would get worse just moments later though as he was demoted to third after the flag for touching the green on the last lap, gifting Bagnaia second and a crucial four points for the championship. This sees Bagnaia head into the Malaysian GP weekend just 13 points clear of Martin.

Marco Bezzecchi looked after his rubber well to come through to fourth in the end on his VR46 Ducati machine, while Aleix Espargaro completed the top five for Aprilia having tussled for the lead in the early tours.

Fabio Quartararo claimed sixth for Yamaha having made progress late on, with Honda’s Marc Marquez securing a battling seventh ahead of Marini, who faded in the latter stages with rear grip woes.

Fabio Di Gianantonio fought back to bag a fourth-successive top ten result in ninth for Gresini, while Johann Zarco struggled in the heat of Thailand to complete the top ten on the sister Pramac entry.

Franco Morbidelli recovered well from 18^th on the grid to secure 11^th ahead of Joan Mir, while Enea Bastianini was 13^th on his factory Ducati ahead of the final two points scorers of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagmai and RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez.

It was a tough day for the three remaining KTM RC16 bikes in the field, as all failed to make the points positions.

Jack Miller led the trio home in 16^th, with GasGas pair Augusto Fernandez and Pol Espargaro rounding off the 18 men that reached the chequered flag.

Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira both had to retire their Aprilia’s with mechanical problems, while Alex Marquez crashed his Gresini Ducati from third at mid-distance after losing the front mid-corner.

Jorge Martin dominated proceedings in the Thailand Grand Prix sprint race to secure his fifth successive short MotoGP race win, while Francesco Bagnaia struggled to seventh.  

The Pramac Ducati rider didn’t get the cleanest getaway from pole and was challenged into the first bend by VR46’s Luca Marini, though the Spaniard was having none of it and boldly swept around the outside to hold the leadership.

From then on Martin put in his usual sprint masterclass by building up a lead in the early stages to enjoy an advantage of over a second just prior to mid-distance, before then managing things across the closing tours.

Having established himself as somewhat of a Saturday expert, Martin eventually took the chequered flag just under a second clear of KTM’s Brad Binder to secure his fifth-straight sprint victory. His success also moves to just 18 points adrift of the series lead, after Bagnaia could manage only seventh.

Binder meanwhile spent most of the race staring at the back of Marini, who was struggling to hang onto Martin’s coattails. Bin tried and tried over the opening half of the encounter before finally finding a way past the Italian with an assured move at the final bend.

From then on he kept a narrow but consistent gap behind to claim the runners-up result, while Marini came home to complete the rostrum.

The battle for fourth between Aleix Espargaro and Marc Marquez came right down to the wire meanwhile. Espargaro looked to have the spot sewn up with a lap to go as he chased down the podium men, though a mistake at the start of the final lap dropped him back behind Marquez.

The Aprilia man dived through on the Honda pilot at Turn 7 in his attempt to regain the spot, though Marquez wouldn’t go down without a fight. He subsequently fired his RC213V to the inside of Espargaro at the final corner, the six-time premier class champion achieving just enough drive on the exit to cross the line fourth.

Marco Bezzecchi was sixth having struggled for energy in the latter stages with his collarbone injury, the VR46 man dropping behind Marquez before coming under pressure from a resurgent Bagnaia. The factory Ducati man was unable to do anything about his countryman though, and followed him home in seventh.

Bagnaia had dropped as low as ninth early on after making a poor start from sixth, and from thereon struggled to make much impact on the men ahead. An opportunistic move to claim seventh after the battling Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco ran wide was the only time he managed to clear another machine all race.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez ended up eighth, while Australian GP victor Johann Zarco claimed the final point for ninth ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller, who did well to move forward from 15^th on the grid.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the Aussie’s final victim in the closing laps as he was forced to make do with 11^th just ahead of Honda’s Joan Mir.

The other Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli struggled to move forward and ended up 15^th ahead of GasGas’ Pol Espargaro and RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira.

Maverick Vinales had a tough afternoon as he failed to recover from 18^th following a shocking start, the Aprilia racer’s woes compounded by a late long-lap penalty for a track limits infringement.

LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami was the final classified finisher in 19^th having remounted from a crash at Turn 12 early on, while Fabio Di Gianantonio and Augusto Fernandez also failed to make the end. Phillip Island podium finisher Di Gianantonio was forced to retire with a technical problem on his Ducati, while Fernandez binned his GasGas KTM RC16 at the final bend.

Jorge Martin put himself in the perfect position to eat into Francesco Bagnaia’s MotoGP points lead in Thailand as he streaked to pole position with his chief rival only sixth.  

The Pramac Ducati rider looked bang on the pace from the outset of the pole shootout as he led the way in the opening runs with a new lap record of the Chang International Circuit of 1:29.491s to put himself just under two-tenths-of-a-second clear of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.

Bagnaia meanwhile ended up sixth and just under eight-tenths adrift of Martin, the series leader struggling once more to match the provisional pole-man over a single lap.

Martin wasn’t home and dry yet though as Bezzecchi managed to squeak ahead of him with his final gambit of the session by just 0.008s, though he immediately posted a session-best indicator on his final tour.

He continued to find lap time across this circulation to eventually cross the line 0.196s faster than the Italian.

His 1:29.287s effort ultimately proved sufficient for Martin to score his fourth premier class pole of the year ahead of Luca Marini, who managed to slide up to second at the death just ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Bezzecchi was therefore shuffled back to the head of the second row in fourth, the VR46 man just clear of KTM’s Brad Binder.

Bagnaia also improved towards the end of Q2, but his best attempt left him sixth and around a quarter-of-a-second down on Martin’s benchmark.

Alex Marquez managed to escape Q1 and qualify seventh for Gresini Ducati ahead of brother Marc Marquez, the Honda man having joined his younger sibling in progressing from the opening qualifying segment.

Maverick Vinales could manage only ninth on the sister factory Aprilia, while Fabio Quartararo was pushed back to tenth in the final reckoning having sat within the top five following the opening set of runs.

Australian GP winner Johann Zarco will start 11^th for Pramac, while Augusto Fernandez completed the Q2 combatants in 12^th.   

Fabio Di Gianantonio meanwhile saw his recent Q2 streak broken by team-mate Alex Marquez by a narrow margin, forcing the Italian to start 13^th just ahead of RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez.

Jack Miller struggled to string together a decent lap and therefore could secure just 15^th on the grid ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami.

Franco Morbidelli struggled to replicate his Friday form on the other Yamaha en route to a lowly 18^th, while Joan Mir ended up 19^th on his factory Honda.

Defending Thai GP victor Miguel Oliveira was left with work to do from 20^th for the sprint and grand prix encounters, the Portuguese pilot lapping faster than only Enea Bastianini’s factory Ducati in 21^st.

Jorge Martin swept the practice sessions on Friday at the Chang International Circuit to lead the way into the pole shootout, while title rival Francesco Bagnaia was seventh.

The Pramac Ducati pilot continued his recent scintillating form as the MotoGP circus arrived in Thailand as he led the way in FP1 by a narrow margin over Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, while Bagnaia lapped nearly a second adrift in tenth.

Martin continued to look the faster of the two Ducati riders on Friday afternoon as he continually found himself within the top five in the 60-minute session, although Alex Marquez led the way early on with a time a couple-tenths-of-a-second adrift of Martin’s FP1 effort.

Brad Binder was the first rider to dip below Martin’s morning benchmark of 1:30.520s, the KTM man banging in a 1:30.247s as the session raced towards its conclusion.

Vinales would then move back to the fore as he lapped underneath the 1:30 bracket for the first time, though Martin would get the last laugh. His 1:29.826s posted just moments later would ultimately be enough to keep him up top as the session ended, his chances improved due to a yellow flag he caused.

Keen to further extend his advantage out front, Martin kept pushing on his follow-up tour. He asked a little too much of his Ducati into the heavy braking zone of Turn 3 though and lost the front, sliding off into the gravel. The resulting yellow flags meant that most behind would end up losing their final attempts.

Vinales would thus finish up second, the Spaniard 0.098s away from Martin and only 0.062s clear of team-mate Aleix Espargaro in third.

Australian GP victor Johann Zarco ended the day fourth overall on the other Pramac entry, while Luca Marini rounded off the top five on his VR46-run Ducati.

The Italian’s team-mate Marco Bezzecchi was up next in sixth just ahead of Bagnaia, who managed to find a decent time improvement in the latter stages to end the day just 0.243s down on his championship rival.

Fabio Quartararo enjoyed an encouraging day to end up just two-and-a-half tenths away from the ultimate pace, while KTM’s Binder and GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez completed a top ten covered by just 0.304s.

Marc Marquez was the first man to miss out on an automatic Q2 berth, the Honda pilot lapping half-a-tenth away from Fernandez to end off the day 11^th just ahead of the other Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli.

Jack Miller was 13^th for KTM ahead of recent form-man Fabio Di Gianantonio. FP2 saw the field spread across a very narrow margin, with 18th-placed Alex Marquez just 0.541s away from Martin’s benchmark.

Fabio Di Gianantonio rued the fact that Gresini wasn’t “patient” enough with him following his debut rostrum at Phillip Island, remarking that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Italian was left without a berth in the premier class for 2024 after the Gresini squad elected to drop him amidst a tough sophomore campaign in the series, Di Gianantonio running as consistently the slowest of the Ducati-equipped pilots for the bulk of the year.

As Honda refugee Marc Marquez was confirmed to be taking over his ride within the Gresini team next season, Di Gianantonio made a key breakthrough with the setup on his machine. He secured points in both the sprint and grand prix races in the Japanese Grand Prix before scoring a best-ever result of fourth in Indonesia.  

Di Gianantonio managed one better to secure a debut podium finish in this weekend’s Australian GP having fought for victory throughout the contest. He admitted post-race that “sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time”, and wished that Gresini had a “little more patience with me” before opting to drop him.  

“Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time, and everything happened so fast with Marc (Marquez) and things so if that hadn’t happened and the team had a little more patience with me things could have been easier,” explained Di Gianantonio.

“It’s only my second year in MotoGP, and other riders have done an incredible job from the start of their careers here but for me, it just took a little more time.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, so you have to work and understand against the best riders in the world and sometimes you just have to trust.

“It isn’t easy, but keeping up the hard work paid off in the end.”

Di Gianantonio added that he “took a little step back” in terms of aggression while fighting for victory in the closing laps with the likes of Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia as “they are fighting for the championship”.  Admitting the race felt “long”, he relished to fight the opportunity to fight up front and described the encounter as a “pure, fun race.”

“It was a long race for sure, as Pecco (Bagnaia) said we weren’t ready to do this long distance on Saturday, but it was a pure, fun race,” continued Di Gianantonio.

“I started well and was fast from the beginning, I tried to manage the rear tyre but I was also trying to push a little bit to not lose too much ground in the first laps.

“Then I caught Brad (Binder) and passed him, so I tried to make a little gap but it was not possible. Also, there was a little bit of wind, and when you were in front it was more difficult to push.

“The two in front were quite strong, and I wanted to overtake Pecco at Turn 4, but he did really well and I saw a little gap but I didn’t want to get into anything as they were fighting for the championship so I took a little step back.

“I knew I could have another opportunity to overtake Jorge later, so I tried to copy Pecco’s moves on me and it worked so it was a good race.”

MotoGP points leader Francesco Bagnaia affirmed that he “knew” opting for the medium compound rear tyre was the “correct” choice to fight for victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati pilot started the weekend on the back foot compared to title rival Jorge Martin having failed to reach Q2 directly after managing only 11^th in Friday’s FP2 session. He did well to limit the damage to the Spaniard, who scored pole at Phillip Island, in qualifying though by salvaging third on the grid.  

The Pramac Ducati rider elected to gamble and run the soft compound rear tyre for the race however, Martin enjoying a gap of 4.5 seconds at its peak ahead of Bagnaia as the reigning world champion saved his rubber. This proved to be a clever play as Bagnaia chased him down as Martin began to struggle for rear grip late on.

With Bagnaia securing the runners-up result behind new winner Johann Zarco, he extended his points lead over Martin to 27 ahead of Sunday’s sprint encounter after his rival slipped to fifth on the last tour – the Italian after the race explaining that he knew Martin’s early advantage was “not enough” for him to hang on once his tyres began to degrade.

“It was a very long and very tough race, and I think I missed Q2 yesterday because I focussed on using the medium more and trying to do more laps with it,” began Bagnaia following the Australian GP.

“I think he (Martin) was the only one with the possibility to race with the soft because yesterday and today he did many laps and was quite fast, but I think the maximum amount of laps he did was 19, and even this was stopping and starting again.

“Doing the full race is always a different story, and when I saw the gap he made in the early part of the race I knew it was not enough to stay there with margin in the last laps.

“During the race I was just trying to be careful with the rear tyre as I knew it was the correct choice, and I knew when Brad and Fabio (Di Gianantonio) started to fight we were catching him without pushing.

“I knew then it was the correct strategy, but I couldn’t quite do enough to beat Johann (Zarco), he deserved the victory today.”

Bagnaia added that is not getting too far ahead of himself despite having outscored Martin by 34 points in the last two race outings, the Italian remarking “anything can happen” across the final nine races of the year.

“We have to be careful because I had 62 points of a gap before Barcelona, and we lost the lead very quickly so anything can happen,” said Bagnaia.

“It’s easy to start having problems, so it’s important to have weekends like this in trying to be faster when you’re struggling and doing your best to be at the front.”

Johann Zarco admitted that he “felt so calm” when crossing the line to take his first MotoGP victory in the Australian Grand Prix, his first in any class since 2016.

The Pramac Ducati rider stitched together a clever 27-lap outing at Phillip Island, the Frenchman’s decision to heavily save his medium-compound rear tyre allowing him to attack the riders in front in the closing stages.

Having run fifth behind series leader Francesco Bagnaia for the bulk of the encounter as he looked after his rubber, Zarco began to move forward as the race entered its final quarter as he saw team-mate Jorge Martin begin to struggle on his soft-compound rear tyre.
Having first dispatched Bagnaia he then moved clear of the battling Brad Binder and Fabio Di Gianantonio to start the final lap in second, less than half a second behind the ailing Martin.

Zarco then dived down the inside of the Spaniard at Turn 4 to secure the leadership, the two-time Moto2 world champion holding off a chasing Bagnaia in the concluding corners to finally secure his first premier class win in his 120^th series start.
He admitted that he “felt so calm” when taking the chequered flag, adding that he had joined the “big guys” by winning at the renowned Phillip Island venue.

“This feels quite good because you always try and push to get it (win), but you have to say other riders have got the pace and the feeling to do it,” said Zarco.

“Until you find the feeling also, it’s impossible to catch the win. Pecco got it and has won so many races, and it’s Jorge’s (Martin) time now, and in qualifying he’s doing amazing things.

“We’ll see what we can do in the future, but I’ll sleep well tonight as to win at Phillip Island in the dry is great as it’s a track we all like because you feel you are part of the big guys when you win here.

“I felt so calm in the moment (crossing the line), I was like ‘this is it, it’s done’ and it felt so good. The emotion then came, and it was great to get the congratulations from the other riders.”

Zarco described the decision to stick with the medium rear tyre as “important” in his quest for success, describing that he knew the win was potentially on as he saw his team-mate falling back towards the chasing group with around five laps remaining.

“This was a special one, and the choice of the medium tyre was important. I was thinking when I saw Jorge pull away that I could at least fight for the podium, second wouldn’t be easy but I felt it was possible,” continued Zarco.

“But the last five laps when Jorge began to drop away, I felt something even more was possible.

“I was thinking I had to be behind Jorge by the last couple of laps or the final one because I tried to really look after my rear tyre, and then maybe on the last lap use my acceleration (to get past.)

“I understood five laps from the end that Jorge was possible to catch, so I overtook the others. I could maybe have passed Jorge at Turn 6 they way I passed Marc (Marquez) earlier in the race, but if I waited one of the others might have attacked me.”

Johann Zarco snatched away victory from team-mate Jorge Martin on the very final lap of a thrilling MotoGP Australian Grand Prix, while Francesco Bagnaia extended his points lead.

The Frenchman rode a canny race from the outset as he looked to preserve his medium compound rear tyre in the early laps, his strategy to sit behind series leader Francesco Bagnaia’s factory Ducati and wait for an attack in the latter stages.

Having staved off a determined Marc Marquez, who opted for the softer rear tyre, Zarco began to make his move towards the front as the race entered its final quarter.

Pramac Ducati team-mate Jorge Martin, who had also elected for the softer rear tyre, had built up a commanding lead through the encounter of around 3.5 seconds at its peak, though his gamble began to catch up with him as he fell steadily back into the four-man tussle for second as the laps wound down.

As the final lap began Zarco had managed to navigate his way past Gresini’s Fabio Di Gianantonio and KTM’s Brad Binder into second, the gap to Martin now down to less than half a second.

Now with significantly more rear grip than his team-mate, Zarco enjoyed good drive through Turn 3 and managed to dive past the Spaniard into Turn 4 – Bagnaia also slipping past his championship rival in the process.

Zarco was able to hold off Bagnaia across the remainder of the tour to finally take the chequered flag for his maiden premier class win in his 120^th series start.

Bagnaia claimed much-needed points for the runners-up spot to extend his points advantage from 18 to 27 heading into Sunday’s sprint race at Phillip Island.

Di Gianantonio meanwhile had also managed to get the better of Martin on the final circulation to secure third and his first-ever premier class rostrum finish, the Italian showing the paddock his mettle as he enters his final few races with the Gresini Ducati outfit.

Martin lost further ground as he was passed by Binder on the run to the line, the KTM man securing fourth as the pole-man fell from first to fifth on the final tour.

Marco Bezzecchi came out on top of a frenetic battle for sixth for the VR46 Ducati squad ahead of home hero Jack Miller’s KTM, while Aleix Espargaro ended up as the best-placed Aprilia in eighth.

Alex Marquez secured welcome points for ninth on his racing comeback on the sister Gresini entry, while Enea Bastianini recovered from a poor start to round off the top ten on his factory Ducati.

Maverick Vinales struggled for speed throughout en route to 11^th, while Fabio Quartararo at least managed to salvage points as he stole 14^th from a badly fading Marc Marquez on the very final lap.

Raul Fernandez and GasGas’ Pol Espargaro, the only other two riders who chose the soft rear tyre, also struggled in the closing laps and fell out of the points to 16^th and 17^th respectively.

Franco Morbidelli could only manage 18^th on the other Yamaha, while Takaaki Nakagami was the last classified finisher in 19^th.

Augusto Fernandez and Joan Mir both crashed out as the race approached half-distance, Honda’s Mir going down at Turn 4 while battling with VR46’s Luca Marini. Fernandez came unstuck at the very same bend just a lap later, though he lost the front of his GasGas KTM on entry to the corner.

Jorge Martin decimated the MotoGP field at Phillip Island to secure his third pole of the season by 0.416s, while title rival Francesco Bagnaia escaped Q1 en route to third.

Martin came out all guns blazing from the outset of the pole shootout, the Pramac Ducati pilot immediately lapping under the 1:28s bracket on a 1:27.846s effort to head the rest of the pack by over four-tenths-of-a-second.

Looking completely at one with his Ducati, the Spaniard then quickly got down to business in extending his leading advantage as the final runs got underway.

With a clean track in front, Martin stitched together a monstrous 1:27.246s tour that put him six-tenths clear of anyone else at that point.

Brad Binder got closest to usurping Martin, though the South African could only get to within 0.416s of him to claim second for the factory KTM outfit.

Bagnaia meanwhile completed a solid salvage effort to complete the front row in third, the factory Ducati rider having escaped Q1 by a couple of tenths along with Honda’s Marc Marquez.

He still lapped nearly half a second adrift of his chief championship rival though, leaving him with a tough task to prevent his 18-marker lead from being reduced in the Australian Grand Prix.

Aleix Espargaro managed to get a hold of a slipstream from the blazing Martin to slingshot his Aprilia into fourth, while Johann Zarco rounded off the top five on the sister Pramac Ducati entry.

Fabio Di Gianantonio again impressed in sixth for Gresini ahead of Marquez, while Jack Miller ended up eighth on the other factory KTM machine.

Maverick Vinales failed to match the speed of his team-mate and could only get ninth ahead of VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi, while GasGas’ Pol Espargaro and the other factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini completed the Q2 runners.

Augusto Fernandez looked good to make it out of Q1 throughout the test having led the way in the opening runs ahead of Bagnaia, though he ultimately came unstuck after Bagnaia went quicker and Marquez utilised his slipstream to snatch away the final spot.

He would subsequently be pushed back to 14^th by Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati, though he will start 17^th due to receiving a penalty for blocking Fabio Quartararo during FP2 on Friday.

Yamaha rider Quartararo’s tough weekend failed to improve on Saturday as he could manage a lowly 17^th in qualifying, meaning he will start just ahead of Fernandez in 16^th. Team-mate Franco Morbidelli meanwhile was a disastrous 20^th ahead of only LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami.

The Japanese rider is the last LCR man left standing after Alex Rins was forced to pull out from the rest of the Australian event due to suffering pain from his still-recovering leg.

Joan Mir was 16^th on his factory Honda, while Luca Marini struggled with his wrist injury at the fast Phillip Island venue en route to 18^th just ahead of RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira.