Believe it or not, but the sun showed up all day on Friday as the action of the MotoGP™ Guru by Gryfyn Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix got underway in decent track conditions, something that Phillip Island has not really accustomed the paddock to over the last years. But we took it all in, although conditions are expected to worsen in due course. Both Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez got themselves a promising start to their Australian campaign with Espargaro registering his best Friday result of 2023 in P5, while Augusto Fernandez finished in P13 at the end of a first day which was highlighted by his FP1 performance after he claimed second this morning.

Sea, surf and race as we were saying in our preview of the Australian GP earlier in the week. Well, it looks like GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 rider Pol Espargaro took us by the word. After spending a fun Thursday morning surfing the beautiful waves of Phillip Island on his GASGAS surfboard, the Spaniard set himself into race mode today as MotoGP™ action kicked off at 10:45 local time (GMT+11). On one of his favorite circuits, the number 44 took things back where he left them in Mandalika after he found a good bike’s setting on Sunday, so this morning was about continuing to develop it. His best lap in 1’30.675 got him the thirteenth place. After some changes made at lunch time, he returned back on track in the afternoon’s practice, with the main goal to make it to the top 10 after having taken the eleventh place way too many times, the latest one to date behind last week in Indonesia! The track conditions being decent (24° in the air, 43° on the ground), it took him just three laps to improve his lap times from the morning, in 1’29.785. His session was split into five different runs as he continued to try different settings and options, while he remained provisionally in the top 10. Eventually, with a few minutes left on the clock, it was time for the fast laps, and Espargaro was at the rendez-vous today. He rode his fastest in 1'28.363, and he claimed P5 of Practice, just 0.420 seconds away from today’s fastest man and Pierer Mobility teammate Brad Binder. That’s Pol Espargaro’s best Friday result of 2023 so far, and he will for sure feed from it as he now eyes tomorrow’s final qualifying session. Can the Spaniard reach his best grid position of the year? Answer on Saturday, at 11:15 LT.

He had admitted having a special thing for the Phillip Island circuit, but that was confirmed on track today as Augusto Fernandez showed great potential on day 1 of the Australian Grand Prix. At the end of play, the rookie claimed P13 with a lap in 1’28.656, but it is fair to say that the position does not do justice to the Spaniard after he shined in this morning's Free Practice 1, claiming P2 just behind in-form Jorge Martin, with a fastest lap of 1’29.759, 0.720 seconds from the Prima Pramac rider. Together with Martin and Vinales, Augusto Fernandez was amongst the only three riders to have gone below the bar of the 1’30 this morning, a very encouraging sign for the rookie who usually takes a bit more time to settle on a new layout. In the afternoon’s Practice, the GASGAS Tech3 rider continued to show good form, as he made a few appearances within the provisional top 10. Times started to go down from his third run with a lap in 1’29.480, later improving with one in 1’28.656. With all riders being fast and close to each other, Augusto Fernandez took thirteenth today, while being only 0.713 seconds from today’s fastest man. He will have to try fighting his way to Q2 on Saturday morning, in the pre-qualifying session starting at 10:50 local time. The Spaniard will have an additional challenge, as his incident with Fabio Quartararo in Practice means that he will automatically be demoted to three positions on the grid of the main race, which is exceptionally set to take place on Saturday the 21st of October at 15:10 (GMT+11), due to inclement weather forecast on Sunday the 22nd of October.