— Marquez in contention for title as Philip Island beckons
Despite missing out on the win last time out in Malaysia, Repsol Honda Team rookie Marc Marquez has a mathematical chance of winning the World Championship at this weekend’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island if he beats Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo by sufficient points to go into the last two races with a 50-point margin.
Marquez now holds a 43-point lead heading into the race, meaning that a win could get him the title should Lorenzo not finish second – which would be the first time a rookie has taken the championship in 35 years since Kenny Roberts in 1978. However this might be tricky with the form Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa is in, following his dominant win in Sepang last time out. Pedrosa is not out of the title chase yet, but knows that only wins will suffice to keep his chances alive.
Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi will hope that the notoriously colder conditions at the track will suit their M1s better, with both not quite competitive enough in Sepang. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow will aim to take the fight to the front-runners once more, as a set-up error in Sepang left him with too much power in the early stages, spinning the rear tyre up too much in the bends and loosing traction.
GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, who beat Crutchlow last time out, will aim for a repeat or better, whilst many will be awaiting whether LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl will be declared fit after fracturing his right ankle on the Saturday in Sepang. Tech3’s Bradley Smith had one of his best races to date in Malaysia, and will be aiming to take that rhythm to Australia, whilst the Ducati Team of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden will look to close the gap to the Japanese manufacturers.
Yonny Hernandez will continue to substitute for Ben Spies on the Ignite Pramac Ducati, with Damian Cudlin also maintaining the spot in the PBM team. Luca Scassa remains the replacement for the inured Karel Abraham. All three will be once again looking to get past Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, who remains the dominant force in the CRT category.
World Championship Standings MotoGP™
1 Marc Marquez 298 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 255 pts SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Dani Pedrosa 244 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 198 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 166 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Alvaro Bautista 136 pts SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
7 Stefan Bradl 135 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Andrea Dovizioso 120 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Nicky Hayden 102 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Bradley Smith 89 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Aleix Espargaro 83 pts SPA ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Michele Pirro 50 pts ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
13 Andrea Iannone 47 pts ITA DUCATI Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team
14 Colin Edwards 32 pts USA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
15 Hector Barbera 29 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
16 Randy De Puniet 27 pts FRA SUZUKI Suzuki Test Team
17 Danilo Petrucci 23 pts ITA IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project
18 Yonny Hernandez 17 pts COL DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
19 Hiroshi Aoyama 13 pts JAP FTR Avintia Blusens
20 Claudio Corti 11 pts ITA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
21 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
22 Karel Abraham 5 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Alex De Angelis 5 pts RSM DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
24 Michael Laverty 3 pts GBR PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
25 Bryan Staring 2 pts AUS FTR-HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
26 Javier Del Amor 1 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
27 Martin Bauer 0 pts AUT S&B SUTER Remus Racing Team
28 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project
29 Luca Scassa 0 pts ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
30 Ivan Silva 0 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
31 Blake Young 0 pts USA APR CRT Attack Performance
— Moto2
The Moto2™ class looks set to provide a thriller of a race as the grid heads to the second of the triple-header in Phillip Island for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix with the front-runners separated by only nine points.
Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding had a race to forget last time out in Sepang, with his lead cut significantly by Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro, who now lies a strong second with 75 points still to collect. The race however, does not appear to be between only two any more, as Espargaro’s teammate Esteve Rabat lies only 28 points off Redding, and took a dominant win in Sepang.
The entire field looks strong, with the likes of Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Tom Luthi, Came IodaRacing Project’s Johann Zarco, and Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter putting in great showings in Malaysia. However, there will be many eyes peeled on whether local talent Anthony West on his QMMF Racing Team machine will be able to repeat his podium from last year.
Alex Mariñelarena continues to substitute for Dani Rivas in the Blusens Avintia team, whilst Mike di Meglio’s replacement in the JiR Moto2 team will be Japanese rider Kohta Nozane.
World Championship Standings Moto2™
1- Scott Redding GBR Kalex 224
2- Pol Espargaro SPA Kalex
3- Tito Rabat SPA Kalex 196
4- Mika Kallio FIN Kalex 156
5- Takaaki Nakagami JPN Kalex 138
— Moto3
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom is the man to catch once again as the Moto3™ contingent heads south to contest the Tissot Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, with the Mallorcan having extended his lead at the top of the championship with a hard-fought win last time out in Malaysia.
He now holds a 14-point lead from nearest rival, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins, whom he narrowly beat in Sepang. Yet Rins is right on his heels and looking to claw back points to improve his championship aspirations. One rider looking for an increase in performance is Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales, who struggled somewhat in the Malaysian heat, despite not being far off the leading pace.
Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Arthur Sissis will be doing their upmost to impress their home crowd, with Sissis getting a podium at the circuit last year. However this year it is Miller who is the rider on form, and will no doubt be aiming to stop the Spanish dominance. They will be joined by two local wildcards in the form of Lachlan Kevney with the Bullet Racing team, as well as Callum Barker from Barker – McVey Racing.
World Championship Standings Moto3™
1- Luis Salom SPA KTM 284
2- Alex Rins SPA KTM 270
3- Maverick Viñales SPA KTM 258
4- Alex Marquez SPA KTM 162
5- Jonas Folger GER Kalex KTM 137
— MotoGP – Round 16 – Phillip Island
— Aussie watch: quick quintet under the microscope
Across the three classes at this weekend’s Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix there will be almost 100 starters – and five of the full-time World Championship riders will be racing on home soil. King Casey may not be racing, but there are still Aussies looking for home support in each of the three categories on view, Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP itself.
The numbers home fans are looking for are 50 – 67 – 95 – 8 – 61. The first two belong to our two representatives in the elite MotoGP field, Damian Cudlin and Bryan Staring.
Both are Johnny-come-Latelies in this high-class company: West Australian Staring got the call just before this season started to sign up with Fausto Gresini’s squad, while Taree man Cudlin arrived even later: the race in Aragon, Spain, two weeks ago was his first of the year as he replaced Yonny Hernandez at Paul Bird Motorsport.
It’s Cudlin who rides the #50 bike, a home-grown machine from the British-based Paul Bird Motorsport team. It’s a minor miracle that he is there at all: he crashed at Eastern Creek when he was 18 and was told he might never walk again.
Runner-up in the World Endurance Championship last year, Cudlin spent a long apprenticeship in that category and further honed his skills in his adopted homeland of Germany.
He was German Supersport champion in 2010, made his Moto2 debut in that year’s German Grand Prix, finishing seventh, and earned a MotoGP debut in Japan in 2011 as stand-in for the great Loris Capirossi on a Pramac Ducati.
Now the 30-year-old has been released from IDM Superbike duties with RAC (Racing Against Cancer) BMW in order to accept the PBM offer to ride in all three long-haul races at season’s end.
It hasn’t gone exactly to plan: early retirement in Aragon with gearbox trouble on debut for PBM was followed by a bizarre mishap in Malaysia last weekend when a ruptured exhaust left Cudlin with “a seat like a frying pan” and forced him out after seven laps.
Staring, who rides the #67 bike, proudly has Australian national titles in 125cc, Supersport and Superbike racing on his CV, but the MotoGP learning-curve has proved unusually steep for the 26-year-old from Perth.
“I’ll be going in wide-eyed,” he admitted when the news of his move to the Italian squad broke. Soon after, Staring’s debut turned sour when he retired after just one lap of the Qatar Grand Prix.
“Gutted with my race last night. I still can’t believe it,” he said. “More tricks to MotoGP than what’s in the handbook.”
Staring rides the CRT (Claiming Rules Teams) bike in the Gresini squad as opposed to the faster satellite Honda raced by teammate Alvaro Bautista. Development work and his own apprenticeship are tough.
“If ever we have something new to try I guess that’s where things are slowed down,” says Staring, “as it’s only me doing the laps and I can only do so many laps in a 45-minute session to learn not only the best outcome in terms of that new part while all the time still trying to learn the circuit.
“It’s just an absolutely enormous amount of information to take in over the four sessions before you race. I’ve only got two arms and two legs!”
He’s only got two World Championship points as well, picked up when he made it to the end of a Catalunya race that eight other riders failed to finish. Will he be around the MotoGP scene in 2014? Already we have learned that Moto2 front-runner Scott Redding is moving to the Gresini squad: where that leaves the likeable Staring remains to be seen.
The man on the #95 machine in the Moto2 class will be the most familiar of all to Phillip Island fans. It’s 15 years since Anthony West made his debut there as a 125cc wild card; his last race in Malaysia last weekend was the 200th of his Grand Prix career.
That is a remarkable statistic for two reasons: West has struggled year in, year out to find the machinery and the financial backing to prolong his career. And he is only the second Australian to pass the 200-race milestone, the other being the great Jack Findlay, winner of three premier-class Grands Prix in a 20-year career through the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Just once has Queenslander West stood on the top step of a World Championship podium, and that was at a wet Assen in the Netherlands a whole decade ago. That success cemented West’s enduring ‘Rain Man’ nickname. “I’ve always liked big bikes because you can slide them around and use the rear wheel like in dirt track racing,” he said. “That’s my style, and that’s why I can go fast in the rain.”
Rescued from relative oblivion by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation last year, West surprised everyone, himself included, with second place at Phillip Island. A repeat might be too much to hope for – he hasn’t finished higher than seventh this year – but with Ant West it won’t be for want of trying. He has just scored points for the seventh time this year with 13th in that 200th milestone Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Australia’s last two hopefuls race in the Moto3 class. The #8 Caretta Technology – Racing Team Germany FTR Honda belongs to another Queenslander, Jack Miller. He likes to call himself ‘Aussie Jack’ and is in his second full season in the class.
Miller has exceeded expectations this season with no fewer than 11 points-scoring finishes, putting him seventh overall in the Moto3 standings. Malaysia last weekend saw him storm through to the top six in the closing stages and he now stands seventh overall on 89 points.
Whatever else happens this year, Miller’s future is secure: he has already been signed by the top squad in the category, Aki Ajo’s Red Bull KTM team.
“We are very happy to have signed Jack Miller to ride for us next season,” said the man who has guided names like Mike di Meglio, Sandro Cortese and current MotoGP sensation Marc Marquez to world titles. “I think that everyone has seen that he is one of the biggest talents for the future in the World Championship.”
Where does Miller’s arrival leave current Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Arthur Sissis? The Adelaide youngster rides the #61 bike for that squad this season and must hope for a string of strong results between now and the last race in Valencia to cement his own place. Malaysia didn’t provide one: Sissis qualified poorly and finished 19th.
He too produced a surprise podium finish at the Island last year in third place but Indianapolis brought his only top-six result of 2013 so far and he is four places below his compatriot in the overall standings on 59 points.
All to play for, then, among the Aussie quintet: Staring and Cudlin seeking to secure a place at the elite level, West keen to build on his 200-race foundation, and teenagers Miller and Sissis desperate to make their own way to the top.
