Friday Morning Scenes from Phillip Island MotoGP

Posted on 15 Oct, 2015 by Scott Jones

Marc-Marquez-left-grip-Phillip-Island-2015-S

When we arrived at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit yesterday it was over 30 degrees C with bright sunshine that seemed to burn right through your shirt. Apparently there’s an ozone issue here that makes for an abundance of UV rays, yay!

Friday morning, in a contrast typical of this part of the world, the weather had changed to cold, windy, cloudy. Pit lane was gray and chilly as the mechanics warmed up the bikes for the first time that morning. One of the first details to catch my eye was the left handle grips on Marc Marquez’s bikes. He is still feeling the discomfort of a broken left hand, so he is using oversized grips – he needn’t tighten his fingers as far to hold on tight.

Marquez came out to watch the preparations looking pensive rather than his usual (for Friday morning) jovial self.

With rain looking likely, I crossed the start-finish bridge and walked around the outside of the track, past the final turn, past MG, and stopped so I could look up at Lukey Heights. Valentino Rossi started off slow but came on strong at the end of FP1.

Following the same plan, Jorge Lorenzo began slowly but finished fast, fastest of them all as it turned out with a 1’30.047 and a .348 gap ahead of Marquez who was second fastest. Though I didn’t notice Rossi using the Yamaha winglets on his bikes, Lorenzo did.

While Ducati started 2015 winglet revival, the Italian factory now appears to be copying Yamaha’s late to the game strategy by moving the winglets up and forward. Pervious versions of the GP15 winglets had been lower and of varying shapes and sizes.

After announcing in the Thursday press conference that he’d join Marc VDS in 2016, Jack Miller was fifth fastest on Friday morning at his home race.

A second Australian joins the MotoGP field this weekend as Damian Cudlin is filling in the injured Alex De Angelis.

Yet a third Australian is in the MotoGP field as Ant West is filling in for the still-hobbled Karel Abraham.

Dani Pedrosa is hoping to ride his wave of momentum to another win on Sunday.

The views here at Phillip Island are so lovely that sometimes even the riders have to take a moment to appreciate them. When Cal Crutchlow got back to work he managed sixth best in FP1.