Heavy rain ruined yesterday’s opening practice sessions for this weekend’s Australian MotoGP with Cal Crutchlow squeezing in the fastest lap time at Phillip Island.
The morning session was completed but following a 40-minute delay, afternoon practice was red-flagged after just 14 minutes as incessant rain made conditions too dangerous to continue. British Honda rider Crutchlow, seventh behind newly crowned world champion Marc Marquez on the championship standings, posted a best lap of one minute 40.957 seconds in the morning.
He put in only eight laps to record his best time as riders were severely hampered by the slippery conditions around the island circuit. Italian Danilo Petrucci on a Ducati was second fastest ahead of Australian hope Jack Miller, riding a Honda.
Valentino Rossi, vying with Movistar Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to be this season’s championship runner-up, was initially second, 0.041secs behind Crutchlow.
But the nine-time world champion ran into strife for exceeding the 10-lap limit on one of the Michelin wet tyres, and race stewards deleted his lap times set on that rubber compound.
That relegated the Italian legend to the 20th-fastest time, just one slot behind team-mate Lorenzo.“The conditions were very difficult. This morning we were able to ride for 20 minutes in acceptable conditions and I was quite strong,” Rossi said. “In the afternoon the temperature went down and the amount of water was too much, so unfortunately we couldn’t ride.”
Marquez, who at 23 became the youngest rider to win three premier-class world championship titles with victory last week in Japan, was fourth fastest with a best lap of 1:41.511. “Although it rained all day, in the morning we put in a few laps, but at the end of the session we had to stop because there was too much water on the track,” Marquez said. “This afternoon it was also raining, making it dangerous to ride, we decided not to go out because it was an unnecessary risk.”
Lorenzo, who was pipped by Marquez by just 0.249 seconds in last year’s Phillip Island race, had a troubled opening practice and recorded only the 19th best time of 1:45.651 in a disastrous day for the Movistar Yamaha team. “I exited the pit lane quite late this morning and I didn’t make so many laps on the first run,” Lorenzo said.
“I was progressing slowly, but I stopped too early and when I tried the second bike there was already more water on the track, so I did just one more lap.”
Marquez holds an unassailable 77-point lead in the standings with three races to go, starting this weekend at Phillip Island. The Moto3 riders got in the two scheduled practice sessions but the Moto2 teams lost the afternoon session entirely to rain.
Riders will have further practice sessions today ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s third-last MotoGP of the season. The forecast is for continuing showers but at this stage Sunday’s race has only a medium chance of showers.