The first Saturday Grand Prix in eight years didn’t disappoint. But then Phillip Island rarely does.
The time-shifted Australian Grand Prix was an afternoon of motorcycle racing’s greatest hits.
It started as a demonstration of pure pace, with Jorge Martin dominating off the lined and putting what seemed to be an insurmountable 3.5 seconds on the rest of the field.
It turned into a strategic thriller, with different tyre strategies converging into a battle for the lead on the final lap.
It even featured some Marc Márquez daring, though the Phillip Island ace couldn’t overcome the limitations of his Honda machinery to make a lasting impact.
But it ended with something brand-new: Johann Zarco on the top step of the podium.
At the 120th time of asking in his seventh season in MotoGP and at 33 years old the popular Frenchman is a premier-class winner at last.
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He couldn’t have wished for a more spectacular way to claim his maiden.
It was a grand prix dominated by teammate Jorge Martin for 26 of 27 laps, but the Spaniard’s soft-tyre strategy unravelled dramatically in the final laps of the race.
Zarco was biding his time in a pursuing four-rider pack and timed his pounce to perfection.
“From the last five laps I began to understand that something was really possible, to catch something fantastic,” he said.
The time lines met on the last lap at Miller Corner, turn 4. His ailing teammate was struggling badly for traction. His saw his opportunity.
“I was really focused to overtake,” he said. “For sure I was maybe thinking to overtake him on another corner where there is a better drive and I can do a huge difference, but I also had to avoid an attack from the guys behind, so that’s why I attacked in that moment.
“I was not thinking about the [Martin’s] championship [chances]. I was really focused on what I had to do for me.
“I’m so happy I did it. Philip Island is also a special track that everyone loves. I feel even strong feeling to cross the line in first position here in Phillip Island.”
MORE AUS GP NEWS
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And cheered on by an estimated 32,450-strong crowd — the Island’s greatest Saturday attendance since Casey Stoner’s last home grand prix in 2012 — Zarco made his first victorious backflip since 2016, when he won his second Moto2 crown.
“Great to see it!” he said. “I was not thinking about it, then during the lap I said, ‘I have to do it’ and I found a good spot.
“I didn’t do a very nice backflip. It’s normal after seven years you miss a bit of skill! But at least I landed on my feet, and the crowd was so happy to share it with me.”
You’d have struggled to have found anyone unwilling to celebrate Zarco’s long-awaited drought-breaker.
MARTIN GAMBLES, LOSES
But pleasure on Zarco’s side of the garage contrasted with crippling pain for his teammate, Jorge Martin.
Martin has talked a big game in the last six days since crashing out of a comfortable lead in Indonesia. It cost him valuable points, but he insisted — with justification — that he had been the fastest rider of the weekend.
He repeated that same mantra after controlling Friday practice in Australia, exuding confidence that momentum was with him, not Bagnaia.
It looks a lot like hubris now.
Perhaps he believed too strongly in his own pace, that it could overcome all challenges. Maybe he wanted to deal a psychological blow as well as a points one by winning by a massive margin.
Whatever the reason, he chose the soft rear tyre, a decision that cost him what should have been a straightforward victory and put him further behind in the championship battle.
The strategy was clear: push hard early, open a big gap and survive the final phase as the medium-tyre runners closed the gap.
But the soft didn’t fade; it collapsed. A mid-race 3.5-second advantage shrunk to nothing, and he was helpless but to finish fifth, shipping nine more points to Bagnaia.
What was the point?
He had the speed to win on the medium tyre. He had a gilt-edged opportunity to win back at least five points from Bagnaia.
The soft virtually guaranteed him the lead off the line, but it left so much of the rest of the race to chance.
It was a high-risk gamble with limited upside.
In the last two grands prix he had the potential to score 50 points. He’s walking away with a paltry 11.
A lot can change over the four grands prix, and 27 points isn’t insurmountable. But given he and Bagnaia are both on factory-spec Ducati bikes, big swings are unlikely.
Days like these will condemn him to defeat.
WINNING THE TITLE IS A THINKING RIDER’S GAME
The inverse example is title leader Bagnaia.
Bagnaia has received his fair share of criticism in recent weeks. He’s struggled to recapture the effortless pace he enjoyed before his serious crash in Barcelona, which had allowed Martin to close a 66-point gap on him so quickly.
His double Q1 appearance this and last weekend didn’t help, particularly when he failed to make Q2 in Indonesia. It was easy to suggest the pressure was mounting.
And surely it was. It’s just it wasn’t weighing as heavily on him as perhaps it had looked.
Process and procedure have ruled in Bagnaia’s garage. It hasn’t always looked spectacular, but he’s picked his battles, played the numbers and emerged with more than a grand prix victory’s worth of points in the lead.
“All these laps on the medium tyre yesterday have helped for sure,” he said of his approach to the weekend, which was always going to test the tyres. “Yesterday we didn’t have the chance to be in Q2 directly, but we prefer to do more laps with the medium to be more ready, because the grip this year was less but we were faster, so the consumption of the rear was much higher.
“The decision for the rear tyre was quite clear. When I started the race and I saw the other guys were going very fast and opened the gap, I just thought maybe it’s too much and it would be better to be more calm, relax and push after many laps.
“It was the correct one.”
In a fortnight Martin has made himself look like a title pretender, Bagnaia has looked every bit the reigning world champion.
DI GIANNANTONIO MUST GET A SEAT ON THE GRID
How much feel-good can you cram into one podium?
Fabio di Giannantonio would like to try for a little more.
The likeable Italian is writing a remarkable story of redemption in a season already replete with narrative twists.
Di Giannantonio is the reverse side of the Márquez-to-Gresini coin. While news of the Spaniard’s Ducati switch has been the month’s dominant story, comparatively less coverage has been given to the man he’s displacing.
To be fair, the 25-year-old second-year rider has generated little to write about in his first 18 months or so in MotoGP.
But his upturn in form in the last month has been remarkable.
An equal-best eighth in Japan, an outright best fourth in Indonesia and now a maiden podium with third in Australia. It’s a trajectory heading only in one direction.
But it’s a reminder of what was expected of him in his maiden 2022 season, and with mere weeks to go this season and only the factory Honda bike left unsubscribed, it’s certainly timely.
“We worked so hard for this and we achieved it,” he enthused. “I’m super proud about my growth. We did a great job through all the year.
“I’m just proud — proud of my team, my staff at home and also of myself. I did a good job today. It was just amazing.”
Much of his turnaround is down to his switch in crew chief, from the inexperienced Donatello Giovanatti last season to Frankie Carchedi, who engineered Joan Mir’s 2020 title-winning campaign.
He’s spoke about fundamentally relearning his way through MotoGP. In some senses this is his true rookie season.
There may be time for only a glimpse of what he can do, but in the context of him achieving his best results when he’s been under the most pressure, it’s hard not to be impressed.
It may not be factory Honda for him, but whichever team Honda plucks Márquez’s replacement from — and the strongest rumour continues to be Miguel Oliveira — must surely be thinking that Di Giannantonio could be a more than handy replacement.
HOW DO YOU TOP THAT ON SUNDAY?
Race organisers moved swiftly to rescue the grand prix from Sunday’s dire forecast for high winds, and the decision certainly delivered.
But now the sport faces an odd Sunday, with a half-distance sprint race worth not many points masquerading as the headline act.
That’s if we get the sprint at all, with conditions so sketchy that the entire schedule has been brought forward an hour to try to open a bigger window for the weather.
“That’s the risk we run down here,” home favourite Jack Miller said. “We’ve had the most beautiful, stunning location for a motorcycle track the last three days, but the irony of that is it also turns to shit.
“Fingers crossed we all have been panicking too much and it does its typical Phillip Island thing and does the opposite of what it says it’s going to do, but we’ll have to just wait and see.”
Miller, who finished seventh after struggling with what he suspected was low front tyre temperature running in clear air, said he at least felt he’d got a reasonable amount out of his home race, even if the result fell short of Friday expectations — though he hoped he could move forward in his typically strong sprint on Sunday, weather permitting.
“All in all it’s been a positive Phillip Island grand prix,” he said. “The backwards format means we’ll see what we can do tomorrow win the sprint race.”
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