MotoGP official: Sunday’s race program at Phillip Island changes due to predicted winds

If there’s one Grand Prix where weather factors usually have a strong influence, it’s the Australian Grand Prix. Its iconic Phillip Island circuit faces the elements of Bass Strait in the early spring in the south, where MotoGP is raced. That means it’s windy and usually cold.

Friday and Saturday were fine in this regard, but as the days went on, Sunday’s forecast became more certain. The local speed around 7am is 59km/h, at 10am it is 46km/h, and at 1pm it is 46km/h. 42km/h, 4pm. It has a speed of 37km/h, which is quite fast. Local time, the race will be delayed by one hour, with Moto3 at 12:00 noon and Moto2 at 1:15pm. and MotoGP at 3 p.m. He was trying to avoid what Alex Marquez jokingly said was “a tsunami coming”.

If Saturday Dorna ultimately chooses to keep the Sunday race program intact and not replace the Sprint and MotoGP GP races, they have decided All races delayed by 1 hour Try to avoid times when you are most exposed to particularly worrisome gusts or crosswinds. From the end of the straight to turn 3.

New schedule for Sunday races

peninsula time

Moto3 3 hours
Moto2 4:15 p.m.
MotoGP 6 hours
​
Broadcast on DAZN

The advantage is that the ambient temperature will rise to 25°C and there is no rain forecast until 10pm local time. This has little to do with what happened in 2023 when Dorna was forced to change its program due to the threat of strong winds on Sunday. The main race was moved up to Saturday and completed without any further issues, and the sprint race was moved to Sunday an hour earlier than scheduled, but was then forced to be canceled due to worsening conditions during Moto3, particularly during Moto2, where 10 riders crashed in the nine laps leading up to the red flag.

Acosta remembered the Moto2 race. “I ran that race in Moto2. It was raining, the wind was blowing at 80 km/h and there were 50,000 objects. There were moments during the race when it was so dark that you couldn’t see, so it looked like we were racing at night. Wind is also important if you expect it to be sunny and have good temperatures.”

But with corners as fast as Phillip Island and the aerodynamics of modern motorcycles, it’s better not to risk any more injury. Three of the MotoGP championship’s greatest stars are currently sidelined.