PHILLIP ISLAND, Australia — Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix at the Phillip Island Circuit was postponed because of windy conditions on Saturday.
Qualifying for the penultimate event of the MotoGP season has been scheduled for Sunday morning prior to the race.
Morning running on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix was limited to just a few laps as high winds and rain hit the Phillip Island Circuit. While the rain eased in the afternoon, strong gusts of wind persisted. Riders attempted to run during Free Practice 4 but an emergency Safety Commission meeting between the MotoGP class riders ruled it was too dangerous to continue running today.
Before the red flag, Maverick Vinales turned the fastest lap of the day.
“I thought there would be a small possibility that we would be riding today, but I think we have to be clever and put safety first,” Vinales said. “In these conditions it was very easy to make a small mistake that would do a lot of damage. It’s not that easy to go into turn one with 340km with the wind, the problem was the wind. So, the majority’s decision was to cancel the remaining sessions today. Tomorrow we’ll see how the new schedule will work out. Anyway, I‘m quite happy, I‘m very confident in all situations. The program is decided by other people, I will just try to concentrate and then tomorrow we will see what the plan is.”
However, six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez acknowledged the conditions.
“In my opinion it was very dangerous, the wind was there and with the speed on this circuit, you feel it a lot,” Marquez said. “I was riding alone and you could feel the wind, but it looks like when you overtook another rider like with (Johann) Zarco and (Miguel) Oliveira, you feel it a lot more. For safety reasons we decided to cancel it. There was no need to risk that much in qualifying, we were right on the limit of being able to ride and in the end we have another day to do it tomorrow. It will be a busy day with warm up, qualifying and race but it’s not the end of the world.”