MotoGP Phillip Island, Warm Up: Marquez at the top, Rossi redeems himself

GP Australia MotoGP Warm Up – The sun was the setting for the warm up of the MotoGP class at Phillip Island, scene of the Australian Grand Prix, sixteenth and third last stage of the 2016 world championship.

The session was "stretched" to 30 minutes instead of the classic 20, this to allow the riders to become familiar with the dry conditions, after the weather had dominated in all the previous sessions.

Ready to go there was an immediate duel between pole man Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi (who will start from the fifth row), who alternated in the lead with the sound of "red helmets".

Jorge Lorenzo and the Suzukis of Aleix Espargarò and Maverick Vinales then "entered" the top positions.

Great work in the pits for all the teams, with the majority of riders choosing the soft front and medium rear, although Marquez also tried the hard front.

The best time at the end of the session was set by world champion Marc Marquez, who stopped the clock at a time of 1:29.897.

The Honda rider, one of the very few to use the hard front tyre, preceded by just 90 thousandths a "reborn" Valentino Rossi, who after the qualifying debacle (which forced him to start from the fifth row) gave a great response in this warm up.

The Pesaro rider put his Yamaha M1 ahead of the Suzuki of Maverick Vinales, his next teammate. Fourth time for Cal Crutchlow, fifth for Jorge Lorenzo and sixth and seventh for the Espargarò brothers, with Aleix (Suzuki) ahead of Pol (Yamaha).

The best Ducati is that of Andrea Dovizioso, who set the eighth fastest time ahead of home idol Jack Miller (Honda) and Team Pramac compatriot Danilo Petrucci.

Nicky Hayden had a good session, replacing the injured Dani Pedrosa here. Kentucki Kid is eleventh, ahead of the second official Ducati, that of the Spaniard Hector Barberà, who replaces the injured Andrea Iannone.