Day two: 2013 Australian MotoGP

MotoGP
On the day when Casey Stoner became an official MotoGP Legend, Jorge Lorenzo has finally wrested the outright Phillip Island lap record from the six-time Australian Grand Prix winner.

In the final 15-minute qualifying session, Lorenzo’s Yamaha overcame a first-lap handicap of catching a seagull in his front fairing to destroy the outright record with a 1:27.899 and even Marquez, on pole eight times this year, was powerless to respond.

Lorenzo will start from his third pole of 2013 and the 28th of his MotoGP career with Marquez sandwiched between him and Yamaha’s other star, Valentino Rossi, in tomorrow’s Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Rossi was delighted with his second competitive qualifying session in a week. “The new asphalt is fantastic,” beamed the five-time Australian Grand Prix winner. “Every lap I smiled in my helmet! It’s my second first-row start in a row, which means we are working well.”

While the new track surface is producing the fastest ever lap times around the Phillip Island circuit, tyre degradation is higher than predicted and should make for an interesting race tomorrow.

An estimated 25,500 fans made the pilgrimage to Phillip Island to lap up the sunshine and record breaking action. Amongst the onlookers was the man who had held the circuit record since 2008, Casey Stoner.

The two-time World Champion joined the sport’s most elite club when he was inducted today as a MotoGP Legend, becoming only the 20th rider to be bestowed the prestigious title.

It was a big day for Stoner with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Motorcycling Australia also announcing that they will be commissioning bronze busts for the three Australian World Champions – Gardner, Doohan and Stoner - to be displayed at Phillip Island and unveiled at next year’s event.

With lap records and world titles up for grabs, Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO, Andrew Westacott, is excited about tomorrow’s race day action.
“With blistering qualifying times on the track today and more good weather predicted for tomorrow, we are set for one of the fastest races ever at Phillip Island,” he said.

“Lorenzo is not going to give up his title to Marquez without a fight, so I encourage fans to head down to Phillip Island to witness some intense racing.”

Moto2
It’s been a massive afternoon for the Moto2 fraternity at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, culminating with Spaniard Pol Espargaro setting pole position on his Tuenti HP 40 Kalex machine ahead of team-mate Esteve Rabat.

But while the classic piece of 4.448km Phillip Island asphalt was kind to Espargaro, it turned into a nightmare for Championship leader Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team).

The British rider, trying to become his country’s first World Champion in 36 years, crashed heavily with 10 minutes to go at Turn 11 and now has a suspected broken left wrist.

The rear end of Redding’s bike snapped, and after bucking for a few seconds it threw the 20-year-old over the handlebars with brute force.

The incident could be decisive, with Redding only a 9-point leader (224 to 215) over Espargaro with three races remaining, while Rabat is circling on 196 after his victory in Malaysia last Sunday.

If Redding is declared fit to compete in tomorrow’s shortened 13-lap race, he will have to battle his way through from the fourth row after qualifying in grid position No. 10 with a 1:33.962. And Espargaro? Ominously, he has won all four races in 2013 when he has started from pole position...

“For sure I will fight for the victory tomorrow,” said Espargaro. “Thinking about the championship, all the riders are so strong here, the gap is very close.

“We will have to check overnight and see if we can improve anything because it’s too close!
I would like to say to Scott, ‘I hope we can race together tomorrow’.”

The decision to shorten tomorrow’s race from 25 to 13 laps was made this afternoon by Race Direction, following a formal request made by the official tyre supplier for Moto2, Dunlop, in the interests of rider safety. Full World Championship points will still be awarded.

Excessive tyre degradation has been the big talking-point over the last two days, which has been the unintended consequence of the resurfaced – and extremely grippy – Phillip Island circuit.

Behind Espargaro (1:32.530) and Rabat (1:32.540), grid positions 3-6 for the race will be filled by Jordi Torres (Aspar Team, 1:32.769), Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing (1:32.769), Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock, 1:32.817) and Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team, 1:32.833).

Kallio was another to bite the dust in qualifying, at turn eight, while the session was red-flagged at the halfway mark when 24-year-old Thai rider Thitipong Warokorn (Thai Honda PTT Gresini) crashed at Turn 12 and required medical assistance.

Australia’s sole representative, Anthony West (QMMF Racing Team, 1:34.092), will start from grid position No. 20.

Moto3
KTM’s Luis Salom has struck the first blow in his World Championship battle with Spanish compatriots Alex Rins and Maverick Vinales by qualifying on pole position for tomorrow’s 23-lap Moto3 race at the Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Salom was the only rider to dip into the 1min36sec bracket in this afternoon’s qualifier at Phillip Island, with his final flying lap producing a scorching 1:36.890, well ahead of the riders who will join him on the front row of the grid: Jonas Folger (KTM, 1:37.268) and
Efren Vazquez (Mahindra, 1:37.292). Vazquez made up a massive amount of ground in qualifying, after only setting the 14th-fastest time in practice.

But Salom was the real star as he hustled his way to a fourth pole position in 2013 – and ominously, the three other top grid spots have parlayed into race victories.

The second row in the 23-lap Moto3 race will be filled by practice pacesetter Vinales (KTM, 1:37.361), Rins (KTM, 1:37.382) – who survived an off-track excursion down Gardner Straight – and Isaac Vinales (Honda, 1:37.543).

Sixteen-year-old Spanish woman Ana Carrasco (KTM, 1:37.544) will lead away row three in her first visit to Phillip Island, while Jack Miller (Honda, 1:37.747)) will be the first Australian on row four.

Miller was an early leader on the qualifying board, but was unable to pull the trigger at the business end of proceedings.

South Australian Arthur Sissis (KTM, 1:38.111) will start from row six, while only one Australian wildcard qualified – Lachlan Kavney (Bullet, 1:43.421) in 34th position.

Callum Barker (Honda) will be watching proceedings from the sidelines after falling this morning and failing to set a time within 107 per cent of the polesitter’s benchmark.

Miguel Oliveira, who scored the first podium finish for the Mahindra team in Sepang last Sunday, was unable to carry his strong practice form into qualifying, and finished up in eighth position – which included a crash in the last five minutes.

Maxwell, who became Aussie superbike champion for the first time at Phillip Island two weeks ago, led from start to finish on his GSX-R1000 – his first win with the No. 1 plate – but the stoush for second between Glenn Allerton and Honda team-mates Jamie Stauffer and Josh Hook was the show-stopper.

Hook, the Superbike rookie, turned it on late in the piece, incredibly passing Stauffer around the outside at turn four on the final lap before sling-shotting down the inside of Allerton six corners later. But he was running too hot, and the experienced Allerton was able to move back into second, which he held to the chequered flag.

Hook was third, in his best performance in Superbike colours for Team Honda.

“I was struggling to hang with Allerton and Stauffer at the start but then I started to slowly catch up to them,” said Hook. “Towards the end I thought I might have a chance, and I got close enough to have a dip – and it went from there.

“As a racer I want to win, but we’ll keep moving forward and I hope to grab a win before too long.”

Stauffer, the four-time Australian road racing champion, was fourth ahead of Robbie Bugden (Suzuki), Linden Magee (BMW), Ben Nicolson (BMW) and Dustin Goldsmith (Kawasaki), with 24 of the 28 riders completing the eight-lap journey.

Supersport
Queenslander Aiden Wagner has continued his imperious form in the Supersport category at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, easily winning race two on Saturday morning.

The second battle was a carbon copy of the opener, with Wagner locked in a tight skirmish with fellow Yamaha rider Callum Spriggs during the first half of the race before he drew away to win by 2.209 seconds.

Once Wagner said his goodbyes, Spriggs then had to contend with the advances of Mike Jones and Ryan Taylor, but he held his nerve to finish in second place. He also set the fastest lap of the race (1:37.077).

The supersport lap record at Phillip Island is held by Australia’s MotoGP rider Bryan Staring with a 1:35.200.

Meanwhile, Jones was third, followed by Taylor, Michal Blair (all Yamaha) and fast-starter Mitch Levy (Suzuki). Twenty of the 21 riders made it to the finish, with the unlucky DNF rider crashing on the final lap.