The organization of Australian Grand Prixwhich was held this weekend in an altered, climatologically speaking, circuito de Phillip Island has decided to suspend today race to ‘sprint’ which had to be held at four in the morning, Spanish time, due to the disastrous weather that the beautiful seaside route of the island near Melbourne is suffering. In addition to the cold and rain, at the time of suspension there were wind gusts of up to 55 kilometers per hour and it was predicted that they could reach 88 km/h. with the passing of the hours.
As was sensed, last Friday, when the same organization, in agreement with all the components of the ‘paddock’ of MotoGP, decided to exchange the races from the GP and the short one to the ‘sprint’, bringing forward the long test to yesterday Saturday and leaving the short one for today, the horrible conditions that were predicted on Friday have been fully fulfilled this Sunday. Although the race could be run Moto3 with a lot of rain, cold and wind gusts of more than 50 km/h. They have forced to shorten the Moto2 testsuspended when they had completed 10 of the 24 laps of the race and have finally prevented the drivers of MotoGP took to the track to complete the postponed sprint test.
The Italian Tony Arbolino wins in Australia after a red flag that forces half of the points to be distributed
Trip to Thailand
The Spanish Carlos Ezpeleta, MotoGP sports director, explained why the short race of the premier class had to be finally suspended. “It clearly shows that the decision to change the schedule of the main race to Saturday was the correct one. We knew that the wind was going to complicate things, the response of the pilots this morning was quite positive to race, but the situation has been getting worse, due to the gusts of wind, which is one of the possibilities on a circuit like this, open to the ocean . We have spoken with drivers and teams and this decision has been made, we all want to see the drivers race, but there was not enough security for them. We must give a prize to all the fans who are out here, it is a miracle to hold on, we wanted to run, but we had no other option. Luckily, I insist, yesterday, Saturday, they were able to see a great race.” In this sense, some MotoGP champions approached the Phillip Island stands to sign autographs and take photographs with some of the 19,787 fans who attended the Australian track.
The drivers will therefore travel tomorrow to Thailand, where, next weekend, a new grand prix will be held. He Catalan Jaume Masiàwho finished eighth today in the rain, in a race won by the turco Deniz Öncü ahead of Japanese Ayumu Sasaki, will still travel as the leader of Moto3, with only 4 points ahead of Sasaki. He Pedro Acosta from Murciawho finished fifth today after a historic comeback, going from 31st place at the start to 5th place in the final (he fell on the formation lap of the grid and had to start last), travels with 56 points more than the Italian Toni Arbolinowhich has won today and, therefore, the ‘Mazarrón shark’ On Sunday he will have his first match point to be champion of the intermediate category.
And, in the case of MotoGP, after the from Madrid Jorge Martin made the mistake of choosing the soft tire yesterday, losing in the last lap, yes, yes, in the last lap all the advantage he had and being overtaken, in those last 4,441 meters, by Johann Zarco, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Brad Bnderthe Italian Ducati champion will start the Thai GP with 27 points ahead of ‘Martinator’ and 73 over his compatriot Marco Bezzecchi.
Deniz Öncü se impone in extremis a Ayumu Sasaki en la última vuelta
Miller, angry
Finally, say that both the drivers and those responsible for the teams agreed with Race Management and the Dorna Sports organization that it could not be raced due to lack of safety. “I would have gone around twice to see what was happening but, well, it is true that things were very bad”said local Jack Miller, who resigned. “It’s a shame, yes, because we were interested in racing,” said Fonsi Nieto, Sports Director of the Italian Prima Pramac team in which Martín races. “It is perfectly understandable, the conditions did not allow running.”
“Safety for all of us comes first,” commented the Italian Davide Tardozzi, one of the bosses of the leader and champion ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia in the official Ducati Corse team. “We must understand that these things happen, not very often, but they can happen, So I thank Dorna for quickly making the right decision. “It is a matter of security, nothing more.”
2023-10-22 03:50:49
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