Source: Supplied.

Day one on return to MotoGP was a challenge as expected for Broc Parkes at Phillip Island today, but he’s relishing the opportunity with Monster Yamaha Tech3.

In place of German rookie Jonas Folger, 35-year-old Parkes made his first laps on the current generation YZR-M1 this morning and eventually rounded out the field in 23rd position.

In completing 38 laps and despite a crash in the second practice this afternoon, Parkes set a best lap of 1m32.152s and now has a platform to build from for Saturday – most importantly, benefiting from dry running while acclimatising to MotoGP again.

“The call-up for this opportunity came at the last minute as I was in Andorra and I asked for it on Friday,” Parkes commented. “Then I heard from Herve Poncharal the next day and so I jumped on the plane and got here mid-week. In all honesty, it was a bit of a struggle today as I thought I would get on with the bike quicker.

“It has been not easy and I had a small crash in the afternoon, which caused us to lose some time at the end. Yet, up until then, we started to advance and I made progress. The best guys in the world are in this class and they have been on their bikes for a long time so to jump on the Yamaha and try and be competitive straight away is definitely not an easy task. However, it’s going well and I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

The return of Endurance World Championship regular Parkes to the MotoGP grid this weekend has added interest to the Australian round, his lap-time from today 2.927s in arrears of pace-setter Aleix Espargaro.