2013 Australian MotoGP
Curiously, despite its high speed nature, the way Phillip Island flows through the fast turns means that it is not known as a horsepower track. Of course, the riders with a power advantage will find passing down the main straight much easier, but for outright lap times and over race distance, top speed here is less vital than most would imagine.
In fact, the fastest ever lap of Phillip Island by a motorcycle was recorded by Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha way back in 2013, his 1m27.899 for pole position remains the outright benchmark. The fastest race lap was also set that year on what was then a freshly resurfaced track. Marc Marquez the holder of the race lap record at 1m28.108, 2013.
The race that year (2013) was quite controversial…. The grip of the new surface had seen tyre supplier Bridgestone caught out and the Japanese tyre manufacturer could not guarantee that their tyres would last more than ten laps. Thus the 2013 Australian GP was turned into an essentially two-part encounter over 19 laps, compared to the originally scheduled 27-lap distance.
Riders were instructed to pit for new rubber after no more than ten laps. However, the Repsol Honda crew failed to bring Marquez in soon enough as they misunderstood the instructions, believing that Marquez could do ten laps and then pit for new rubber on lap 11. Marquez did that and rejoined the race right behind Lorenzo.
However, Marquez was subsequently black flagged and disqualified from the race… Lorenzo went on to win with Dani Pedrosa second and Valentino Rossi third.
The then 18-year-old finished fifth in the Moto3 race that year in a contest won by Alex Rins ahead of Maverick Vinales.
Image AJRN
With 2013 being such a landmark year for the Australian GP, we thought it would be interesting to trawl our archives to bring you these images from Andrew Northcott from the event that year. Enjoy.
2013 Australian Grand Prix Images
