REPORT - 2024 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
Words Mike Ryan
Photos Russell Colvin (unless indicated)
Two championships were alive coming into the 2024 Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, so there was still a lot to play for in Moto2 and MotoGP. And while there were some solid favourites in each class coming into the round, the local crowd had Aussie representation to cheer for across the board. They also had much better weather conditions than last year – at least after Friday!
This year’s GP weekend was almost the reverse of 2023, when rain and strong winds led to the grand prix being moved to the Saturday and the Sprint race abandoned after it had been rescheduled to Sunday. This year, torrential rain and miserable conditions on Friday cleared for the weekend, with near-perfect conditions for race day Sunday.
State of Play – Moto3
Ahead of the Australian GP, the Moto3 World Championship had already been wrapped up, with David Alonso (CFMoto Gaviota Aspar Team) taking an unbeatable lead at the previous round in Japan. Making history as the first Colombian to secure a grand prix world championship, Alonso had won ten of this season’s sixteen races coming into the Australian round.
The runner-up spot in Moto3 was still up for grabs, though, with Daniel Holgado (Red Bull GasGas Tech3), Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) and Ivan Ortola (MT Helmets - MSI) in the mix, along with David Munoz (BOE Motorsports KTM) and the Leopard Racing team mates of Adrian Fernandez and Angel Piqueras.
Ninth in the championship coming into Phillip Island, Australia’s Joel Kelso (BOE Motorsports KTM) was keen to replicate the podium he achieved in last year’s wet and windy race. Fellow Aussie, Jacob Roulstone (Red Bull GasGas Tech3) was 15th and also looking for a good result at home in his rookie Moto3 year.
State of Play – Moto2
After a string of impressive and consistent results, Ai Ogura (MT Helmets - MSI Boscoscuro) was moving closer to breaking the long drought since a Japanese rider won a championship at grand prix level. For the record, that drought stretches back to 2009, when Hiroshi Aoyama won the 250cc World Championship.
Standing in Ogura’s path to this year’s Moto2 title were more than half a dozen riders, led by team mate, Sergio Garcia, who was 60 points behind. A further 5 points in arrears was Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed Up Boscoscuro), while the rider with the best form coming to Phillip Island was Aron Canet (Fantic Racing Kalex), with a win and two runner-up finishes from his last four starts.
After the Japanese GP, Canet was 72 points behind Ogura, with Joe Roberts (OnlyFans American Racing Team Kalex) and Manuel Gonzalez (QJMotor Gresini Moto2 Kalex) 75 points behind.
Seventy-eight points behind Ogura, and with a MotoGP ride already secured for 2025, Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools Speed Up Boscoscuro) didn’t appear to have much to race for, but last year’s third-place finisher at Phillip Island would be looking to exit Moto2 with better results than what he was currently producing.
Ahead of his home round, Australia’s Senna Agius (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP Kalex) was sitting 17th in the championship, with a best race result of fifth at Catalunya in his rookie year.
State of Play – MotoGP
In the premier class, the battle between Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) that had been raging all year was expected to go up a gear at Phillip Island.
Following a perfect result in the previous round at Motegi – sprint and grand prix win – Bagnaia had cut Martin’s championship lead to just 10 points. Two rounds earlier, the margin had been 24 points in Martin’s favour.
While the battle for the 2024 MotoGP crown was realistically between Martin and Bagnaia only, Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) were still mathematical chances, being 79 and 81 points behind Martin.
Fifth-placed Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), was out of championship contention, as was this year’s premier class rookie, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3).
For Australia’s Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), 2024 has produced few highlights, so one suspects that a fresh start with Prima Pramac Racing in 2025 can’t come quick enough. Fifteenth in the championship prior to the Australian round, Miller’s best race result this season had been fifth at the Portuguese GP back in March.
Practise and Qualifying – Moto3
Friday, 18 October, the opening day of track action at the Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix started wet. Newly-crowned Moto3 World Champion Alonso showed his skills in the rain, setting the fastest time ahead of Piqueras, but Alonso’s best was nine seconds slower than the lap record, showing how treacherous the conditions were.
Matteo Bertelle (Kopron Rivacold Snipers Team) and Stefano Nepa (LevelUp – MTA KTM) were quick, too, but most others tiptoed around in the conditions, including Kelso (16th) and Roulstone (21st).
It was still wet for the first timed Practise session on Friday afternoon, which saw Piqueras and Alonso change places on the timesheets and Fernandez improve to third. Kelso moved up to tenth and Roulstone held station in 22nd.
Almost identical wet and cold conditions for Saturday morning’s Practise 2 session saw no major changes to the timesheets, and it wasn’t until the afternoon’s dry Qualifying 1 session that there was some movement.
In Q1, Roulstone showed the benefit of local knowledge to top the group with a 1m36.688s lap and earn entry into Q2, along with Munoz, Fernandez and Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia).
In Q2, Ortola took pole with a 1m35.872s lap. Veijer and Fernandez completed the front row, but they were more than a tenth of a second behind the swift Spaniard.
Munoz, Scott Ogden (FleetSafe Honda – MLav Racing) and Nepa would start from Row 2, with Kelso leading Row 3 alongside Piqueras and Furusato. Roulstone qualified 13th to start from the fifth row of the grid.
Practise and Qualifying - Moto2
Grim weather for the opening Moto3 session hadn’t improved by the time the Moto2 riders hit the track later on Friday morning. Lap times reflected that, with Canet’s best of 1m41.520s more than 10 seconds off the all-time lap record set by Aldeguer in 2023. Agius was 11th in the opening session.
By the afternoon’s Practise 1, conditions were dry, so times improved markedly. Aldeguer topped the timesheets, finishing less than a second off his best from last year, with Canet and Lopez also quick. Ogura could only muster 13th fastest, while Agius went backwards in this session, dropping to 15th.
Saturday’s Practice 2 session was wet, but the local crowd had reason to cheer when Agius topped the session with a 1m42.645s lap. This was more than half a second better than Arbolino and Binder, while Ogura was one of several riders not to record a time in the session.
Track temperatures had increased only marginally for Qualifying 1 in the afternoon, where Agius, Dennis Foggia (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex), Ayumu Sasaki (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team Kalex) and Barry Baltus (RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP Kalex) graduated to Qualifying 2.
In Q2, Aldeguer showed his early pace wasn’t a fluke, punching out a 1m30.876s to secure pole and re-set the all-time Moto2 lap record at Phillip Island. No one could match this, with second-placed Canet almost two tenths adrift. Lopez completed the front row of the grid, with Row 2 made up of Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing Team Kalex), Baltus and Gonzalez. Ogura qualified in ninth place and Agius in 13th.
As a last-minute call up to replace the injured Daniel Munoz of the Preicanos Racing Team, Harrison Voight doubled the Aussie representation in Moto2 and qualified in 24th.
Practise and Qualifying – MotoGP
Several attempts were made to start the opening Free Practise session for the premier class on Friday morning before it was abandoned due to too much standing water on the track.
When MotoGP riders finally got out that afternoon (thankfully in dry conditions), the Marquez brothers went 1-2 – Marc ahead of Alex – with Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46) and Martin the only other riders to log a sub-1m28s lap. Bagnaia was next best, with Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) the fastest non-Ducati. Miller was 12th in this session that was briefly red flagged when the local Cape Barren geese made their way onto the track.
On a wet, but drying track, Saturday’s Free Practise 2 saw Marc Marquez on top again and looking ominous for the races. Vinales improved in this session, as did last year’s winner, Zarco, while Martin held station in fourth. Alex Marquez dropped to fifth and Miller to 16th.
Miller’s weekend worsened in Qualifying 1 when he hit a hare that ran across the track, ruining any chance of him moving through to Qualifying 2. Bastianini and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing) did progress to Q2, but it would be Martin who took pole from Marc Marquez by 0.594 seconds with a 1m27.296s lap. Vinales was third fastest. Bezzecchi, Bagnaia and Raul Fernandez made up Row 2, with Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing), Alex Marquez and Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) on Row 3. Bastianini qualified in tenth and Acosta 15th, while Miller’s mishap meant he would start from 16th on the grid.
Sprint – MotoGP
In the Saturday afternoon Tissot Sprint, Martin capitalised on his pole start to own the 13-lap race. In what had been the best conditions of the weekend to that point, Martin put a gap on the fast-starting Bezzecchi almost immediately. Marc Marquez ran wide into Turn 1 on the opening lap and dropped to eighth as Bagnaia advanced to third behind Bezzecchi. Three corners later, Binder and Bastianini muscled their way past Vinales.
Zarco was the first retirement on lap 4, followed by Alex Marquez a lap later. Marc Marquez, meanwhile, was making his way back into a podium spot, passing Bezzecchi for third on lap 5. By this stage, Martin was 1.4 seconds ahead of Bagnaia, increasing the margin to more than 2 seconds two laps later.
On lap 8, after Marquez passed Bagnaia for second (followed by Bastianini) and Miller had crashed out after hitting a seagull earlier, the attention of fans turned to the battle for fifth place between Bezzecchi and Vinales. This to-and-fro came to a head with dramatic effect on the penultimate lap when Vinales slipstreamed past Bezzecchi down Gardner Straight. Unable to pull up going into Turn 1, Bezzecchi clipped the back of Vinales’s Aprilia, sending both riders into the gravel at more than 200km/h. Fortunately, neither was injured. Bezzecchi was given a long lap penalty for causing the incident, to be served in Sunday’s grand prix.
With Mark Webber waving the chequered flag, Martin crossed the line for his sixth Sprint win of 2024. Marquez was second and Bastianini third. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46) was fifth across the line behind Bagnaia, but later demoted to seventh for a tyre pressure infringement.
Mick Doohan, back at Phillip Island to mark the 30th anniversary of his first 500cc world championship, presented the medals to the podium finishers.
RACE – Moto3
As every track session for Moto3 prior to the race had been in wet conditions, no-one had data on tyre choice for the dry. Alonso was one of only two riders to choose the hard tyre and it paid off as he made his move to the lead late in the race.
Ortola got the holeshot from pole, with Munoz and Kelso trading for the front slot early on, benefitting from two long lap penalties that had to be served by Nepa. Unfortunately, any chance of the Aussie repeating his podium finish from last year was torpedoed when Piqueras hit him on Lap 10 and he dropped back to 17th.
A typical Moto3 scramble saw as many as 17 riders in the lead group, including Fernandez and Ortola, but the latter was out of the race on lap 12 after being collected by Veijer in another incident triggered by Piqueras.
Alonso was in front by this stage, but had a fight with Fernandez and Holgado for the next few laps before opening a gap that grew as the race neared its conclusion.
Heading into the final lap, Alonso was 1.7s clear of a fierce fight for second. It was Fernandez from Munoz and Holgado heading onto the main straight, with Nepa and a few others close behind.
Alonso’s winning margin was a dominant 2.9 seconds, while Holgado claimed second by 0.003s from Fernandez, who in turn held onto third by 0.018s from Nepa; impressive given the latter’s two long laps. Munoz slipped to fifth in the final lunge to the line, Kelso recovered to finish in 11th place, with Roulstone 13th.
Alonso’s 11th win for the season equalled the record set by Valentino Rossi in the lightweight class back in 1997, so the Colombian channelled Rossi for his podium celebrations, donning head bandages like the Italian did back then.
Moto3 – Top 5
- David Alonso COL CFMoto 33m49.557s
- Daniel Holgado SPA GasGas +2.936s
- Adrian Fernandez SPA Honda +2.939s
- Stefano Nepa ITA KTM +2.957s
- David Munoz SPA KTM +2.972s
RACE – Moto2
The intermediate class served up one of the most hard-fought races of the entire weekend, with victory only decided in the final corners of the final lap.
Canet got the holeshot, with Lopez passing polesitter Aldeguer into turn 1, too. This trio soon opened a gap on those behind, with Ogura holding down fifth behind Gonzalez. From 13th, Agius was inside the top ten within the opening lap and fifth by lap 8.
By lap 10, the leading trio were 4.3s clear of Ogura, Agius, Gonzalez and Arbolino. Aldeguer tried to make a break at this stage, and would put a gap of 0.7s on Canet by lap 13, but the latter slowly began to reel the former in. On lap 17, Canet had the lead again, and with Lopez more than 4 seconds behind, it was set up to be a two-way fight for victory.
The lead duo were lapping consistently in the 1m30s - a good four tenths faster than anyone else – as Agius was sitting in fourth ahead of Ogura. On lap 21, Lopez crashed out, elevating Agius to a provisional podium. Aldeguer regained the lead on the same lap, but Canet fought back on the final lap, passing for the lead at Turn 4 before a very aggressive move by Aldeguer at Turn 10 sent both riders wide and almost ended their race.
Aldeguer held the advantage over Canet to the finish, but all eyes were on Agius, who cruised to his first ever Moto2 podium. Fourth for Ogura gave him a near-unbeatable 65-point lead in the Moto2 championship with three races remaining.
Moto2 – Top 5
- Fermin Aldeguer SPA Boscoscuro 35m08.816s
- Aron Canet SPA Kalex +0.194s
- Senna Agius AUS Kalex +7.228s
- Ai Ogura JPN Boscoscuro +8.385s
- Diogo Moreira BRA Kalex +10.742s
RACE – MotoGP
A freak incident led to a dramatic start for Marc Marquez when a visor tear-off, removed by Marquez on the grid, lodged under his rear wheel. When the lights went out, he spun up on this, with the resulting loss of traction dropping him from second to 13th going into Turn 1.
Polesitter Martin got the holeshot ahead of Bezzecchi and Bagnaia, but within a few corners, Marquez was back up to sixth.
Bezzecchi’s long lap penalty for the Sprint incident with Vinales dropped him back to seventh on lap 4, while Marquez had moved up to fourth after passing Binder on the same lap. Two laps later, Bezzecchi was last after crashing at Turn 4, while Marquez was third after passing Morbidelli. Miller was improving, too, up to 12th after starting in 15th place.
On lap 12, a small mistake from Martin allowed Bagnaia and Marquez to close in, with Bagnaia taking the lead at Turn 3. By the end of lap 12, Martin was back in front and Marquez had snatched second place off the #1 plate holder.
Two laps later, it was becoming clear that Bagnaia couldn’t match the pace of those ahead, falling back to be more than one second adrift by lap 15. Marquez, meanwhile, was eating into Martin’s lead with each lap. The gap was just 0.078s on lap 19 when Marquez began to probe for a pass.
On lap 24, Martin left the door ajar at Turn 4 and Marquez pushed through. Coming into Turn 1 with three laps to go, Martin returned the favour, before Marquez took the lead again at Turn 4.
Now the hunter instead of the hunted, Martin tried several times to regain the lead, but the #93 had the hammer down. Perhaps deciding the championship was more important than the race, Martin eased off in the final couple of laps, allowing Marquez to take a popular win – his first at Phillip Island since 2019 and fourth overall here.
Second for Martin extended his championship lead over Bagnaia to 20 points – double what he entered the weekend with.
Off the podium, Bastianini dropped back before picking his way forward, with Binder, Morbidelli, Vinales and Di Giannantonio for company. Two separate duels saw Diggia finish fourth ahead of Bastianini, while it was a near photo-finish for sixth as Morbidelli and Binder crossed the line split by just 0.016s. Vinales was eighth, ahead of another pack that included Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Raul Fernandez, Miller and last year’s winner, Zarco.
MotoGP – Top 5
- Marc Marquez SPA Ducati 39m47.702s
- Jorge Martin SPA Ducati +0.997s
- Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati +10.100s
- Fabio Di Giannantonio ITA Ducati +12.997s
- Enea Bastianini ITA Ducati +13.310s
