Moto2 Australia FP1: Augusto Fernández in a typical Phillip Island session…

Arriving at the Phillip Island circuit for the 18th round of the season, the Moto2 World Championship is like that of MotoGP: completely open! In fact, only 1,5 points separate the leader Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) of his vassal Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia). Further in the general classification, Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) and Celestine Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) are mathematically still titratable, even if with a maximum of 75 units to be awarded in the last three races, this remains almost purely theoretical, the Spaniard of the Sito Pons team already showing a deficit of 53,5 points , the Italian of the team Valentino Rossi 73,5!

It is therefore a two-way fight, a sort of race within the race, which we are preparing to witness on a track not used since 2019 due to Covid, with a small advantage for the championship leader, this being the the only one to have already raced at Phillip Island in Moto2, the other contenders being still in Moto3 at that time.

The weather, generally cool, windy and unsettled, is the other big question mark for this weekend in the southern lands. After several weeks of rain, the forecast now anticipates cold weather (16° in the air, 22° on the ground), windy and unsettled, but, for the moment, with beautiful sunshine.

 

 

While waiting to discover more, here is the table of available references dating back 3 years:

Phillip Island Moto2™	2019	2022
FP1	1'45.823 Jorge Martin	1'34.704 Augusto Fernández
FP2	1'33.010 Jorge Martin
FP3	1'33.555 Fabio Di Giannantonio
Q1	1'34.357 Sam Lowes
Q2	1'33.565 Jorge Navarro
Warm-up	1'32.933 Brad Binder
Course	Binder, Martin, Lüthi
All time lap record	1'32.470 Tito Rabat (2014)

 

At the opening of the session, Zonta van Ddn Goorbergh (RW Racing GP) made a mistake on his opening lap, followed a few seconds later by Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo).

 

Alessandro Zaccone (Gresini Racing Moto2) and Manuel Gonzáles (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team) follow suit: the tires are cold and the wind is blowing hard…

 

 

The session is then interrupted with a red flag.

On resumption, Tony Arbolino turns out to be the fastest and registers 1'36.898 while Celestino Vietti ends up in the gravel without gravity.

 

 

It’s the moment when a few drops of rain appear…

Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) recorded 1'36.477 before making an error, while Tony Arbolino regains command in 1'35.534.

 

 

The raindrops are just a memory and Augusto Fernandez registered 1'35.077 at the top of the table, before continuing in 1'34.704.

 

 

As the last quarter of an hour approaches, Ai Ogura is only in 16th position, more than a second behind the championship leader.

Five minutes later, the rain returned to the Phillip Island circuit, this time a little more heavily. Almost all the riders return to their box, but the track dries very quickly and most of the bikes return to the track six minutes from the checkered flag.

Jeremy Alcove (Liqui Moly Intact GP) falls at high speed but without gravity, before Jake Dixon, then positioned third, progressed to the top of the table, in 1'34.505.

 

 

His time is however canceled and that's good Augusto Fernández which concludes this session in the lead.

 

 

Australian Moto1 Grand Prix FP2 results at Phillip Island:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com