Photo: motogp.com
This weekend Australia is getting plenty of action as the 16 round of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship gets underway at the Phillip Island circuit south of Melbourne. The Friday practice is over and Jorge Lorenzo is the man of the day. In Free Practice 1 session he was 0.160s slower than the Aleix Espargaro who topped the first half of the day. However, the elder of the Espargaro brothers was only 6th in FP2, but the initial performance still keeps him second in the combined practice times.
FP1 also saw a very fast Andrea Iannone, followed by Valentino Roassi and Marc Marquez for the top 5. In the second outing of the day, Marquez climbed to the second position, behind Lorenzo, and Iannone, Dovizioso and Rossi rounded up the FP2 top 5 on the time sheets. At the end of the day, the Combined FP table sees Lorenzo in the lead, followed by Aleix Espargaro down 0.147, Marc Marquez 3 thousandths of a second behind him, with Iannone, Dovizioso, Rossi, Crutchlow, Pol Espargaro, Hernandez and Pedrosa for top 10. Nice to see Ducati slowly crawling towards the top of the charts once more…
FP2 was nowhere as calm, as Jorge Lorenzo met the Oz asphalt late in the session, too. Iannone fell, and so did Dovizioso, Aoyama, Pol Espargaro. None of them was injured. As well, no seagulls crashed into the bikes this year… yet.
Casey Stoner was asked about his future as a Honda test rider but his world sort of killed the rumors of once more becoming the developer of the bike. “It was nice to test with Honda. I felt bad almost leaving when I did. Two of our tests last year got rained out so that was not good. We’re going to do another test to make up for that and hopefully I can give some good information, I haven’t been on a bike for exactly a year when we do go to test so it’ll be a little strange,” he told motogp.com.
While Marquez has already bagged the 2014 World Title, the battle for the podium is going to be spectacular, as Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa both have 230 points, while Jorge Lorenzo has 227, three races to the end of the season. Andrea Dovizioso is no longer part of the battle as he has 153 points and only with math can see him on the 2014 podium. This makes the three remaining rounds a show well worth watching.
Aussie crashfest
The first two Free Practice sessions Phillip Island saw a lot of riders crashing, most of them because the front end would let go. FP1 saw local Broc Parkes crashing at high speed in Turn 1 and Alvaro Bautista “celebrating” his 200th GP appearance with a spill at Turn 10.FP2 was nowhere as calm, as Jorge Lorenzo met the Oz asphalt late in the session, too. Iannone fell, and so did Dovizioso, Aoyama, Pol Espargaro. None of them was injured. As well, no seagulls crashed into the bikes this year… yet.
Three MotoGP legends immortalized in bronze sculptures
Three Australian former premier class world champions, Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner are going to be forever linked to the scenic circuit on Phillip Island. Melbourne artist Barbara McLean has presented three bronze sculptures which were unveiled on Friday at the track, with all three MotoGP Hall of Fame Legends present at the event.Casey Stoner was asked about his future as a Honda test rider but his world sort of killed the rumors of once more becoming the developer of the bike. “It was nice to test with Honda. I felt bad almost leaving when I did. Two of our tests last year got rained out so that was not good. We’re going to do another test to make up for that and hopefully I can give some good information, I haven’t been on a bike for exactly a year when we do go to test so it’ll be a little strange,” he told motogp.com.
While Marquez has already bagged the 2014 World Title, the battle for the podium is going to be spectacular, as Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa both have 230 points, while Jorge Lorenzo has 227, three races to the end of the season. Andrea Dovizioso is no longer part of the battle as he has 153 points and only with math can see him on the 2014 podium. This makes the three remaining rounds a show well worth watching.
Google News