Marc Marquez eats asphalt again during practice ahead of Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Marc Marquez came off his Repsol Honda bike again during practice for Sunday's Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Marc Marquez came off his Repsol Honda bike again during practice for Sunday's Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.

The 20-year-old Spanish rookie, who is on the verge of winning the world championship, slid off his bike and onto the grass just 10 minutes into Saturday's morning session.

It was his second miscalculation around the sweeping bends of Phillip Island following a high-speed tumble on Friday.

He recovered on both occasions and on Saturday went on to post his best lap of the weekend with a time of one minute 29.122 seconds.

While his nearest title rival Jorge Lorenzo could not match that pace, the defending MotoGP world champion's near record-breaking hot lap of 1:28.961 on Friday kept him on top of the combined practice timesheets.

Marquez's Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa was overall second fastest, ahead of Marquez, Valentino Rossi and Alvaro Bautista.

The top 10 move directly into the second of two qualifying sessions on Saturday to determine the first half of the grid for Sunday's race.