MotoGP: Marc and Alex, the Marquez brothers, lead in Australia
Rain, wind and cold became the main characters at the start of the 17th round of the World Championships on Phillip Island. The Spaniards put Gresini’s Ducati in first place. Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are fourth and fifth.
MotoGP riders had to wait a long time to take to the Phillip Island track for the Australian Grand Prix, the 17th round of the world championship. The shocking flood began to hit just at the moment when the main task was to enter the first free run and it was impossible to start activities. After a two-hour wait, with the drivers huddled in their pits and the safety car coming out to check the asphalt every ten minutes, the session was finally cancelled. Be that as it may, the participants had to immediately go to training and look for their ticket to the second segment completely raw, without turning onto the track. Without water, but with wind and cold, they finally went out and Marc Marquez was the fastest to secure his place in the final segment of the classification.
As practice progressed, times improved, but the Catalan was always at his best. Because whenever someone pushed him out, he quickly regained his place. Towards the end of practice, Alex Marquez, Marc’s brother and teammate at Gresini, took second place. Italian Marco Bezzecchi finished third, ahead of everyone else in the trio of 2023 Ducati models.
Mark showed great power at the start in Australia, which is encouraging for his dream of finishing third at the World Championships. His fight will take place with Enea Bastianini, who is ahead of him by two points (313 versus 311). The Beast was only 16th and will have to go through the Q1 filter in Saturday’s classification.
As for the most important fight, the fight for the title, Jorge Martin (tournament leader) was the best representative of the Ducati 24 model, finishing in fourth place. The Spaniard started with a changed pace: he crashed three minutes after entering the track. Angry and with some discomfort in his left arm, the Madrid man got on the second motorcycle and rode off again. “I’m honored to be here. You should be grateful for the opportunity to fight for the title.. Pecco is very strong and he knows it. He was a world champion twice and has already been through it. The newbie is me. It’s hard to fight someone like him,” Martinator said before the Grand Prix.
The two-time champion with the official GP24 title was fourth and had already warned that he was not the favorite in Australia against Martin, who leads him in the standings by ten points. “I think that in these four races our performance at each track will be mixed. I think there’s more to Jorge here in Australia. In Thailand and Malaysia I have something else. And he is in Valencia. It’s very balanced. We can’t make any more mistakes. There are four Grand Prix, eight races ahead, and it will be important to understand this well. The goal this weekend will be to finish second, but we know we have the potential to win,” he said.
Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), Brad Binder (KTM), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati), Franco Morbidelli (Ducati) and Alex Rins were among the ten riders who entered Q2 directly. The action continues this Saturday with qualifying and the sprint. No rain is expected, but wind and cold are expected.