MotoGP heads back down under this weekend to the iconic Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. The Mot03 Championship has been won by David Alonso and Ai Ogura can seal the deal in Moto2 this weekend. However, MotoGP is far from being decided.
MotoGP
After winning at Motegi, reigning World Champion Francesco Bagnaia has now closed the gap to title rival Jorge Martin to a narrow 10 points. With only four races remaining, every point picked up is absolutely vital and could prove to be the difference when it comes to Valencia.
Jack Miller lines for his last home Grand Prix in KTM colours and will be aiming for his second premier class podium at his home Grand Prix. It will be a difficult ask to fight the Ducati's and also beat Brad Binder and rookie sensation Pedro Acosta on the same machinery.
Japanese manufacturers Honda and Yamaha will be looking to continue their recent progression. Honda will be hoping to have another weekend where they can fight with other bikes for the points. Whereas Yamaha will be hoping that Fabio Quartararo can continue to push further into the top 10.
Trackhouse Racing are still without Miguel Oliveira who is still out injured and will once again be replaced by Lorenzo Savadori. The Portugese rider is aiming to be back by Valencia to bid farewell t0 the Trackhouse Racing team and also so he can get straight to work with Pramac at the Valencia test.
Moto2
Ai Ogura can seal the deal this weekend, going into the race with a 60 point lead, he needs to leave with a 75 point lead. This means the Japanese rider needs to beat an out of form Sergio Garcia by 16 points and needs to beat Alonso Lopez by over 10 points. Ogura also needs to beat Aron Canet by three points, and Joe Roberts and Manuel Gonzalez by over one points. It seems require a lot of circumstances but it is definitely possible.
Manuel Gonzalez who won last time out has certainly had an eventful couple of weeks in the build up to Phillip Island. After winning his first ever Grand Prix race, the teams sponsor demanded for Gonzalez to get sacked as he wore a Hachimaki headband on the grid.
The issue has now been resolved as Gresini Racing have decided to stick with their rider and have parted ways with their sponsor QJ Motor and will now be racing unbranded for the remainder of the season.
Senna Agius lines up for his first ever home race in Grand Prix racing. He has had an impressive rookie season in the intermediate class and will be hopeful of picking up his first ever podium in front of his home crowd.
Moto3
The championship may have been wrapped up in spectacular style by David Alonso at Motegi, winning the title with four races to go. However, the work is not done for the Colombian as there are other lightweight class records that he has his eye on.
Alonso is only one win away from equalling Valentino Rossi's record of picking up 11 wins in a lightweight class season, so he will have his eyes on breaking a record that one of the greatest riders of all time holds.
It all looks fairly set which riders are going up to Moto2 with David Alonso, Dani Holgado, Collin Veijer and Ivan Ortola confirmed to be moving up to the intermediate class for next season.
Australian Joel Kelso has fond memories of his home race, picking up a third place last year (his best result of the season) and an eighth place the season before (also his best result of the season). Kelso is yet to finish on the podium this season but will be looking for his first of the season this weekend.
Rookie Jacob Roulstone will also have his first taste of a packed Phillip Island. The Australian has had a respectable rookie season, finishing a fair few races inside the top 10 and currently sitting 15th in the championship. Roulstone will be looking to push on and have a strong result in front of a home crowd.
Wet weather drama?
As it stands, we are expecting to see rain all day throughout the Friday, meaning that there will be no dry practice time in any classes, and Q1 and Q2 will be determined by wet weather running.
There is meant to be light rain on the Saturday morning, but the track should be dry by the time it comes to qualifying. This means that qualifying could be the first fully dry session across the three classes.
There is a low chance of rain on the Sunday morning, with a 30% chance of rain during the Moto3 race at 11am. However, this is only meant to be a shower and as it stands won't effect the two later races.
A repeat of 2013?
Phillip Island has been resurfaced for the first time since 2013, which led to one of the most bizarre but memorable races of the decade. Bridgestone could not guarantee that the tyres would be safe after 10 laps on track.
This meant that the race was shortened from 27 laps to 19 laps and the riders had to make a mandatory pit stop and weren't allowed to do more than 10 laps in one stint. This race saw Marc Marquez and Bryan Staring being disqualified for riding an 11 lap stint.
When WorldSBK came to The Island earlier on in this year, they also had to make a mandatory pit stop due to tyre issues. Michelin have brought a larger allocation with tyres having a different construction so they can hopefully deal with the track.
It looks like we are set up for a cracker this weekend in Australia. Can David Alonso equal Valentino Rossi? Can Ai Ogura become world champion? And most importantly, who will lead the MotoGP standings at the end of this weekend?
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