Cal Crutchlow ended Day 1 of the Phillip Island test in the top five in P5, as the Brit returns to the venue of his stunning second victory of 2016. Putting in 61 laps and going quickest on his final push, the LCR Honda rider posted a best of 1:30.065.

Working on with the new specification engine from Honda and going in a different direction to the Repsol Honda Team to get a good comparison, Crutchlow sees positives and negatives – but still feels confident in his pace around Phillip Island.

Dani Pedrosa had a positive start to the second official test of the year at Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit, as the Spaniard ended Day 1 in P7 after spending much of the session in P4.

Concentrating on the front of the bike to improve feeling, with other areas reserved for the rest of the test, the “Baby Samurai” put in a quickest effort of 1:30.281 after 55 laps.

"We started this test positively. It’s a long time since I last rode on this circuit," Said the 3 times World Champion "because last year I missed the race."

"I had to put in a few laps to adapt, but the feeling was good. Today we didn’t work much on the electronics, we concentrated more on the front forks to get a good feeling on the bike."

"Tomorrow we’ll work more on the electronics, because we need to find a good base setup. We hope to make a step forward, because that will help us on all tracks."

After a tough morning that also saw action for many delayed due to the wind, Andrea Iannone and his new team worked through some difficulties to find big improvements towards the end of the day and end the session in third.

The “Maniac” put in a best of 1:29.926 to push himself up into the top three, completing 70 laps on the first day of action.

“This morning was very difficult for us. The team couldn’t find the proper setting to feel confident." Said Iannone who "struggled a lot."

"But then in the afternoon, we changed some settings and improved step by step."

"At the final stage I was happy because the machine improved, as well as the feeling of the bike and the pace." He added.

"This is a very positive outcome, because it means we have the capability to overcome very hard situations and turn them into a positive. As of tomorrow, we have the chance to work on pace as well as single lap performance, and also introduce some more improvements."

"We are on a good path. My crew chief is as new as I am with the GSX-RR and it’s very important for us to learn and get to know it at its best."

Marc Marquez went quickest on the first day of action down under at Philip Island Grand Prix circuit, kicking off the second official test of 2017 in style.

However, the reigning MotoGP World Champion still feels there’s work to do, despite a busy day – or afternoon – under the blue skies of Victoria.

The rider from Cervera posted a 1:29.497 as his quickest lap, completing 68 in the session.

“Today we had quite a busy day, because we worked a lot with the engine – which is different to the one we used here last year." Said the Spaniard.

"That’s to say that we’ve had to readjust everything and during the morning we spent a lot of time in the box."

In the afternoon we found a base setting with the electronics, but we still have work to do on that." He added. "I’m fast but like in Malaysia, we want to investigate well how it works."

"We also worked on the setup and in general it’s been a positive day. The weather has also been good – always important – and we hope it stays the same for the next two days."