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This will
be the 14th consecutive year that a Grand Prix has held in Australia since
1989. The first two events were staged at Phillip Island, followed by six
at Eastern Creek, before returning to Phillip Island in 1997.
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Honda
have taken six victories in the premier class at Phillip Island. The only
non-Honda win was by Yamaha with Max Biaggi in 2000.
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For the
past three years the racing at Phillip Island in the premier class has
been exceptional. Just 0.124sec covered the podium finishers in 1999, less
than half a second covered the top four in 2000 and last year was the
closest 500cc race of all time with less than three seconds covering the
first nine riders home.
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For the
past two years the same three Italian riders have filled the podium slots
at Phillip Island; Loris Capirossi, Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi.
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Alex
Barros is scheduled to become the first rider ever to make 150 consecutive
starts in the premier class of GP racing. The last time that Barros missed
a race was at the British GP at Donington in 1992.There are four current
riders who have an ongoing start sequence going back more than 100 GP
events, including Max Biaggi who started at his 150th consecutive GP event
at Sepang, this being a mixture of starts in the premier class and the
250cc class.
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Alex
Barros has finished fourth on three occasions at Phillip Island in 1998,
2000 and 2001, but has not managed to make it onto the podium. At the
Malaysian Grand Prix Barros started from pole for the fourth time in his
career and for the first time since the British GP in 2000. Barros
celebrates his 32nd birthday on the first day of qualifying for the
Australian Grand Prix.
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Loris
Capirossi won the 125cc race at Phillip Island back in 1990 to clinch his
first World Title and become the youngest ever World Champion, a record
that still stands.
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As at all
the other MotoGP races this year that have been run in dry conditions,
Sepang produced both new race and lap records. The improvement in the race
pace and lap record in Malaysia was by a greater margin than at any
previous GP in 2002. On average the improvement in the race record
has been by more than 21 seconds and the improvement in the lap record by
more than eight tenths of a second.
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At the
Malaysian Grand Prix Josh Waters became the youngest ever Australian rider
to compete in a Grand Prix at the age of 15 years and 262 days.
