Australian MotoGP 2014, as it happened: Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP blog, photo and video

LIVE BLOG: Valentino Rossi, Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales clinch dramatic wins on a crazy day at the Australian MotoGP.

MotoGP

WHAT a crazy day! We had a home winner, a top gun race his way through the pack, then a bizarre MotoGP race where the crowd favourite emerged the popular winner.

Here’s how the day unfolded:

Race Reports:
Moto3 (23 laps)
Moto2 (25 laps)
MotoGP (27 laps)

Miller muscles Rins out of the way at Honda. Pic: Mark Stewart

MOTO3
JACK Miller’s plan for the Moto3 race sounded simple: lead out of the last corner and beat everyone else to the finish line.

Miller went up and down the leaderboard like a yoyo during 23 cut and thrust laps of Phillip Island but he led when it counted, beating title rival Alex Marquez by just 0.029 of a second to clinch a crucial victory.

“It’s an incredible feeling!” Miller told SPEED after the race. “I tried to keep in front of Alex, it was a tight race through there. I hope all the fans enjoyed it.”

Miller and Marquez were embroiled in a fierce nine-bike battle for the lead, with positions chopping and changing by the corner. Every time Miller led, he would be passed by a flock of rivals using his slipstream to gain speed down the long main straight.

But all he had to do was beat them to the finish line, and key to Miller’s plan was ensuring he had the lead into the tight MG hairpin, just three corners from home, and desperately trying to hold off rivals that he knew would have the edge on straight line speed by using his slipstream.

“I spoke with Maverick (Vinales) yesterday and asked him about strategy. He got second (in Moto3) here last year and tried to use the slipstream on the last lap,” Miller explained to SPEED.

“I said, what would you do again? He said I’d lead the last lap so that’s what I tried to do and it paid off.”

Miller took the lead by forcing his way past both Marquez and teammate Alex Rins on the final lap, with Efren Vazquez just missing out on a podium finish in fourth place.

The top four riders were separated by just 0.044 of a second at the finish.

The two Australian wildcard riders Remy Gardner and Olly Simpson had eventful races near the tail of the field. Gardner was forced to start from the pit lane after his bike failed to fire up on the starting line, losing his hard-fought 24th grid position.

Both Gardner and Simpson were embroiled in a big battle at the tail of the field, finishing their debut world championship races at home in 26th and 28th respectively.

RESULTS - Australian Moto3 Grand Prix (23 laps)
1. (8) Jack Miller (KTM) 37m25.209s
2. (12) Alex Marquez (Honda) +0.029s
3. (42) Alex Rins (Honda) +0.032s
4. (7) Efren Vazquez (Honda) +0.044s
5. (17) John McPhee (Honda) +0.134s
6. (10) Alexis Masbou (Honda) +0.242s
7. (44) Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra) +2.753s
8. (84) Jakub Kornfeil (KTM) +3.455s
9. (31) Niklas Ajo (Husqvarna) +18.118s
10. (23) Niccolo Antonelli (KTM) +18.119s
26. (2) Remy Gardner (KTM) +56.274s
28. (45) Olly Simpson (KTM) +57.340s

Maverick Vinales on his way to Moto2 victory. Pic: Michael Klein

MOTO2
MAVERICK Vinales didn’t need to be asked twice. Mistakes from Marc VDS Racing’s world champion-elect riders opened the door for the Spaniard and he raced through it.

Vinales watched as both Esteve Rabat then Mika Kallio outbraked themselves at the Honda hairpin, before racing away from the field to a clear victory in the Australian Moto2 Grand Prix.

And the Suzuki MotoGP team’s new top gun also set the fastest lap on the final tour to boot.

“The other riders are so fast, but for sure I was thinking that if I make a really good pace and make a gap then I can win,” Vinales said.

Thomas Luthi backed up his last-start win with a second place down under, while points leader Esteve Rabat salvaged third from a mistake-prone ride.

Three times Rabat ran in too deep at Honda, losing several positions on each occasion.

“In turn four, I don’t know what happened from this morning, the wind direction changed or something,” Rabat told SPEED. “The braking point was a lot earlier, especially with a full tank at the beginning of the race.

“I try to follow Maverick, but he is so fast in the conditions. I push until my limit and I make two mistake, then I say ‘okay Tito, try to finish in front of Mika, take as many points as possible, and try to think of the championship.’”

The errors put Kallio into a prime position to cut into Rabat’s championship lead, until he too made the exact same error.

Kallio was only able to salvage fourth place, their results securing the team’s championship for Marc VDS Racing, while Sam Lowes finished fifth after losing touch with the lead battle in the closing stages.

An issue for Anthony West in the early laps saw the Australian slip down to the tail of the field, fighting his way up into 22nd place at the finish.

Both of the Australian wildcard riders made it to the end at the tail of the field, Aiden Wagner finishing 26th while Max Croker was a lap behind in 27th.

RESULTS - Australian Moto2 Grand Prix (25 laps)
1. (40) Maverick Vinales (Kalex) 39m10.419s
2. (12) Thomas Luthi (Suter) +1.329s
3. (53) Esteve Rabat (Kalex) +1.504s
4. (36) Mika Kallio (Kalex) +1.843s
5. (22) Sam Lowes (Speed Up) +3.292s
6. (11) Sandro Cortese (Kalex) +11.697s
7. (23) Marcel Schrotter (Tech 3) +11.777s
8. (77) Dominique Aegerter (Suter) +18.276s
9. (19) Xavier Simeon (Suter) +18.282s
10. (81) Jordi Torres (Suter) +18.478s
22. (95) Anthony West (Speed Up) +51.281s
26. (41) Aiden Wagner (Kalex) +1m02.283s
27. (42) Max Croker (Suter) 1 lap

Valentino Rossi. Pict: Jake Nowakowski

MOTOGP
VALENTINO Rossi survived a race of attrition to win the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, his 82nd MotoGP win, the 108th of his decorated career, and his first win at Phillip Island in ten years.

‘The Doctor’ headed home the most unlikely of Yamaha one-two-three finishes, with Jorge Lorenzo and Bradley Smith rounding out the podium after a drama-filled race.

Marc Marquez looked unstoppable on his way to a record-equalling 12th win of the season.

Then, inexplicably, he crashed.

By this point, Rossi had fought his way past his Yamaha factory teammate and raced into the lead, while Lorenzo coped with a tyre problem that saw him fall into the clutches of Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow.

The Brit, fighting back after a poor first lap, raced past the hamstrung Yamaha and looked on-course for a second place finish before he too crashed, cruelly, half way around the final lap.

That elevated his countryman Smith onto his first podium, with Andrea Dovizioso in fourth the only other survivor of a frenetic scrap for what had originally been fifth place.

The battle first claimed the scalps of Andrea Iannone and Dani Pedrosa. The Ducati rider outbraked himself into the Honda hairpin and slammed into Pedrosa’s tail, the damage forcing the Spaniard to retire from the race and hurting his chances of finishing second in the world championship.

Later in the race, Stefan Bradl made the same mistake, running into the back of Aleix Espargaro. The impact also damaged Espargaro’s Yamaha badly enough to force him out of the race, the frustrated Spaniard smashing his bike’s fairing in his fury.

All that left Pol Espargaro in fourth place, zeroing in on the struggling Lorenzo and chasing an unexpected podium finish. Then he too crashed at the Honda hairpin, losing the front end under brakes.

All the crashes allowed Hector Barbera to claim his best result of the season with a fifth place on the Avintia team’s Ducati, edging out Gresini Honda duo Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding, while Hiroshi Aoyama, Alex de Angelis and Nicky Hayden rounding out the top ten.

Broc Parkes retired from the race at the half way point, the pain too great from a shoulder injury, caused by a 240km/h crash at Doohan Corner on Friday afternoon.

While Marquez has already locked up the world championship, the topsy-turvy race leaves Rossi eight points ahead of Lorenzo in the battle for second, with Pedrosa now 17 points further back.

RESULTS - Australian MotoGP (27 laps)
1. (46) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 40m46.405s
2. (99) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +10.836s
3. (38) Bradley Smith (Yamaha) +12.294s
4. (4) Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) +14.893s
5. (8) Hector Barbera (Avintia) +30.089s
6. (19) Alvaro Bautista (Honda) +30.154s
7. (45) Scott Redding (Honda) +30.158s
8. (7) Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) +33.166s
9. (15) Alex de Angelis (Forward Yamaha) +33.577s
10. (69) Nicky Hayden (Honda) +34.144s
11. (68) Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) +39.468s
12. (9) Danilo Petrucci (ART) +56.884s
13. (70) Michael Laverty (PBM) +1m12.813s
14. (63) Mike Di Meglio (Avintia) +1m28.050s
DNF (35) Cal Crutchlow (Ducati) crashed
DNF (44) Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) crashed
DNF (41) Aleix Espargaro (Forward Yamaha) mechanical
DNF (6) Stefan Bradl (Honda) crashed
DNF (93) Marc Marquez (Honda) crashed
DNF (23) Broc Parkes (PBM) withdrew
DNF (26) Dani Pedrosa (Honda) mechanical
DNF (29) Andrea Iannone (Ducati) crashed
DNF (17) Karel Abraham (Honda) crashed

Originally published as Australian MotoGP 2014, as it happened: Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP blog, photo and video