Scott Redding will start tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island from 13th position on the grid, after missing out on progressing to QP2 by just a tenth of a second this afternoon.

Redding posted his fastest time on only his second lap of QP1, shortly before rain started to fall around the 4.448 km/ 2.764 mile Phillip Island track. While the rain shower was short lived, it was enough to ensure that no riders improved on their initial times before the session came to a close.

The 21-year-old Briton heads into the Australian Grand Prix with the same aim as always; to finish as the top Open Class Honda rider. However, after a confidence boosting free practice and qualifying today, Redding also has his eye on taking a few factory scalps tomorrow.

Redding said: “I was pretty happy after the final free practice session today, as we used the harder tyre with positive results.

"Qualifying was good, but I didn’t really use the softer tyre to its full potential. I was actually quicker on the hard tyre in free practice than I was on the soft one in qualifying. I was alone on track in qualifying and it’s always easier if you have someone in the distance to chase, so there was some time to be made up there.

"Normally I go faster on my second run, but the rain put paid to that today. But, I’m happy with the set up on the bike now and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race. Once again our aim is to be the first Open Class Honda home, but today we were faster than Alvaro, so it would be good to beat him and maybe some of the other factory guys if we can go with the hard option tyre for the race.”