MotoGP called off amid ‘dangerous’ conditions at Phillip Island

Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez and reigning title-holder Francesco Bagnaia both backed the decision of Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix event organisers to cancel on-track action at Phillip Island in conditions both riders described as dangerous on Sunday.

Wind gusts of over 50km/h resulted in on-track action being called off half an hour before the scheduled 1pm start of the 13-lap sprint race, which was shifted to Sunday to avoid the chance of the 27-lap grand prix not going ahead after wild weather was forecast for the coastal circuit on Friday.

Alonso Lopez crashes out of the Moto2 race, which was eventually red-flagged before it finished.Credit: Getty Images

The Moto3 race was run earlier on Sunday, but the Moto2 Grand Prix was red-flagged for gusting winds after nine of the scheduled 23 laps and not restarted, nine riders crashing out before the race was halted.

“They did a good decision yesterday to advance the main race to Saturday because we were able to race in a normal way,” three-time Phillip Island winner Marquez (Honda) said.

“The wind was super-strong and with these bikes and all the aerodynamics we have, it becomes a bit dangerous. If it was possible [to race], we don’t know. But race direction has a lot of experience, and I think they chose in a correct way.”

Ducati rider Bagnaia, who finished second to Zarco on Saturday to extend his series lead to 27 points with races in Thailand, Malaysia, Qatar and Valencia remaining this season, said the gusty winds – and the trackside grandstands that shield the riders from the wind until they tip their bikes into Phillip Island’s high-speed first corner – created a safety issue that had to be addressed.

“If the wind was constant, for me it’s not a big problem,” Bagnaia said.

“But the gusts are very intense. In the straight … when it finishes you start to brake, and with a MotoGP bike arriving at 330km/h it becomes very dangerous.”

While the majority of Marquez and Bagnaia’s peers agreed with the decision to cancel, Australian rider Jack Miller, who was set to start Sunday’s race from eighth on the grid for KTM, felt Sunday’s race should have been attempted after the Moto2 and Moto3 feeder classes had their grands prix earlier in the day.

“We should have tried, at least done some laps to see. It’s windy, but if it’s windy on the motorway you ride to the conditions,” Miller reasoned.

“I feel sad for the Aussie fans, but that’s the risk we run down here,” added Miller, who spent half an hour signing autographs and taking selfies in the rain with fans after the cancellation.

“We had the most beautiful stunning location for a motorcycle track for three days, but the irony of that is that it can also turn to shit.”

Before Sunday’s MotoGP cancellation, Miller’s compatriot Joel Kelso, the only other Australian on the world championship grid, took his maiden podium finish in the Moto3 feeder class by finishing third, the race won by Turkish rider Deniz Oncu (KTM) after a last-gasp pass of Japan’s Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna).

In his second Moto3 season, the diminutive 20-year-old from Darwin started from an equal career-best second on the grid, and comfortably surpassed his previous best result of eighth at last year’s Australian Grand Prix, the CFMOTO rider finishing four seconds behind Oncu after 21 treacherous laps.

“It’s bloody brilliant,” Kelso beamed after becoming the first Australian to finish on the Phillip Island Moto3 podium since Miller in 2014.

“It was tricky conditions and I thought ‘we just have to go for it at the home GP’. I thought we were on for a win but I made a little mistake, so I thought ‘let’s just get it home safely’. I’m over the moon.”

With less than two-thirds of the Moto2 race distance completed, half-world championship points were awarded, the race won by Italian rider Tony Arbolino.

“A shame that half-points … in these conditions we should have double points,” Arbolino said.

The grim weather meant there were just 19,787 fans trackside on Sunday, the three-day event crowd of 71,387 significantly down on the 91,158 spectators at Phillip Island last year.

The event’s record attendance of 122,465 fans was set in 2012, the final year of two-time world champion Casey Stoner’s career and the Australian’s sixth consecutive victory at his home grand prix.

After 120 starts, flying Frenchman steals Australian MotoGP on the last lap for maiden win

For most of its 20-year tenure in MotoGP, Phillip Island has been Ducati’s kryptonite, save for the four years that Casey Stoner won the premier-class Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from 2007-10.

For 30 races this season, Ducati has been the MotoGP equivalent of Superman, with Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez sharing 24 wins across sprints and grands prix proper before the series swept into Australia this week.

Prima Pramac rider Johann Zarco won the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images

Something had to give – either history, or momentum. On Saturday at Phillip Island – when an Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was held before a Sunday for the first time to beat the dire weather and high winds forecast for 24 hours later – it was the present that won the day, not the past – but not in the manner anyone saw coming.

French veteran Johann Zarco won his first MotoGP race in his 120th start on Sunday, the Ducati rider leading a podium lock-out for the Bologna brand where all three riders on the rostrum had reasons to feel like victors.

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia finished second, 0.2 of a second behind Zarco, to extend his series lead to 27 points, while fellow Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio was 0.4s back in third, his maiden MotoGP podium result in his second season.

On sheer speed, all signs pointed to Zarco’s teammate Jorge Martin standing atop the podium, but a pre-race gamble to use Michelin’s soft rear tyre in an attempt to bolt from the rest of the field from a circuit-record pole position backfired spectacularly in the closing laps.

The Spaniard, who came to Australia after crashing from a three-second lead last Sunday in Indonesia, cleared off at the front and led by 3.5s with seven of the 27 laps remaining as a fight for second between Zarco, Bagnaia, Di Giannantonio and KTM rider Brad Binder raged a long way behind him. But as Martin’s rear tyre started to spin in Phillip Island’s high-speed corners, his pace plummeting, the closing pack pounced.

Zarco ambushed Martin at turn four on the final lap, and Martin was eventually elbowed back to fifth at the chequered flag, not even having a podium to show for a race where he’d led for 316 of 324 corners.

Zarco, who is departing Ducati for Honda at the end of the season, was shaking after the race, and with good reason. It was his first victory since Moto2 in Valencia in 2016, 2533 days previously, and came after he’d finished second on 11 previous occasions, finally shedding his tag of MotoGP’s nearly man.

“It’s hard to believe,” the 33-year-old said when returning to the pits after stopping his bike and performing a backflip for the estimated crowd of 32,450 fans trackside, reprising a signature celebration from his Moto2 championship seasons in 2015-16.

Zarco overhauls Martin to take the lead in the MotoGP.Credit: Getty Images

“Martin totally went away, so I was trying to save the rear tyre as much as possible because normally on the last few laps I can handle this. It was almost a surprise to see Martin totally dropping down. From the last five laps I begin to see something is possible to catch something fantastic.

“Crossing the line in first position after so many races of trying to do it, it was high emotion. I don’t want to cry at the moment, but I think it will come soon. Phillip Island is a special track everyone loves, so it’s a stronger feeling to cross the line in first position here.”

Bagnaia, who counts Stoner as a mentor, didn’t panic when he got shoved down to fifth in the early stages of the race, and was rewarded as Martin, his chief title rival, began to stumble as the laps counted down.

“I was seeing that the guys at the front were pushing, maybe too much,” Bagnaia said. “I just tried to be calm all the race, and finally I could see I was catching Martin. Johann, in the last part of the race, was very strong and I just tried to follow him.”

For the second race in succession, Di Giannantonio achieved a career-best result at a time where his short-term future looks tenuous. The 25-year-old’s seat at Gresini Ducati has been under threat all season, and found himself looking for another job for next season when the team confirmed six-time champion Marc Marquez as one of its riders for 2024 last weekend in Indonesia.

”The start was incredible, maybe the best start of my life,” he said. “And wow, what a last lap. Battling with the best in the game is something incredible.”

Australia’s Jack Miller briefly featured at the front of the field, the KTM rider making a brilliant start to scythe through to third from eighth on the grid after lap one.

The 28-year-old was quickly shuffled backwards, but dug deep to overtake Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Ducati’s Alex Marquez in the final three laps to finish seventh, 9.283s behind Zarco.

Weather prompts further schedule shuffle

On Friday evening, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and world championship promoter Dorna moved the 27-lap MotoGP showcase MotoGP event forward by 24 hours to Saturday afternoon, with the half-distance 13-lap sprint race – new at all Grands Prix for 2023 – rescheduled to Sunday.

An hour before Saturday afternoon’s Grand Prix won by Johann Zarco, the schedule was amended further to allow the Moto3 and Moto2 races in the sport’s two world championship feeder categories to take place on Sunday, the MotoGP sprint race the final on-track activity from 1pm.

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