MotoGP Australia: Marc Marquez “Correct decision”, Joan Mir "conditions were getting worse”
Marc Marquez and Repsol Honda team-mate Joan Mir shared the opinion of most riders that cancelling Sunday’s Australian MotoGP Sprint race had been the right decision.
The Sprint was delayed from Saturday afternoon, when it was replaced by the full 27-lap grand prix, due to weather forecasts warning of extreme wind and rain for Sunday.
The storm duly arrived. MotoGP Warm-up and the Moto3 Grand Prix were completed, but the Moto2 race was abandoned after 10 laps due to the worsening conditions.
After a meeting with the teams, the 13-lap Sprint, due to start at 1pm, was cancelled.
“Unfortunately, we couldn't race due to the weather conditions,” said Marquez, who dropped to 15th after a soft tyre gamble on Saturday but was third fastest in the wet Sunday warm-up.
“They made a good decision yesterday to move the main race to Saturday because like this we were able to hold the [Grand Prix] race in a normal way.
“Today the forecast was quite bad. In warm-up it was acceptable, but then it looks like the wind was super strong and especially with these bikes, with all aerodynamics we have, it becomes a bit dangerous.
“If it was possible [to race], we don’t know, but of course Race Direction have a lot of experience and I think they chose in a correct way because in the end we will have more races in the future.”
Team-mate Joan Mir agreed the track had been ‘quite rideable’ for the warm-up but conditions continue to deteriorate.
“Honestly, this morning we tried this track, the conditions were very tricky but quite rideable,” said Mir, who crashed after contact with Luca Marini on Saturday and was eleventh in the warm-up.
“But then it's true that the conditions were getting worse and worse, and it was probably the right decision to cancel the Sprint race.
“This weekend was not the best but we bring some positive stuff for the next races. I hope that in Buriram we have a chance to show again our potential and thank you very much to everybody for the support.”
Wet weather is also forecast for next weekend’s Thai MotoGP.
