Luca Marini will take no further part in Friday’s afternoon Practice at Phillip Island after falling ill with a virus. The Italian is HRC’s only rider at the Australian Grand Prix and managed just two flying laps in the morning FP1 before cutting his track time short.

Honda said Marini had been advised by the MotoGP medical team to stop for the remainder of Friday. His condition is due to be assessed again on Saturday morning. Team manager Alberto Puig described the rider’s condition with the word “destroyed”.

The limited running also put Marini far from the session’s benchmark: his quickest lap was 6.048 seconds slower than Marc Marquez’s leading time. Honda is additionally without Joan Mir, who remains sidelined by continuing health problems dating back to Misano and has not been replaced for the Australian Grand Prix. Aleix Espargaro is unavailable because he requires arm-pump surgery after a private test at Sepang. Puig said Mir should return for next week’s Sepang round, leaving Honda’s factory team without a rider on track for Friday afternoon’s Practice.