MotoGP Australian Grand Prix: organisers cancel Sunday races
Poor visibility prevented the medical helicopter from operating, leaving the sprint as the weekend’s only race and Marc Marquez with a 10-point championship lead.
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Poor visibility prevented the medical helicopter from operating, leaving the sprint as the weekend’s only race and Marc Marquez with a 10-point championship lead.
Organisers cancelled the Australian Grand Prix’s Moto3, Moto2 and premier-class MotoGP races at Phillip Island on 25 October. Sunday’s racing never began, leaving Marc Marquez’s 10-point championship lead over Jorge Martin unchanged.
Ducati rider Marquez had won the sprint—the shorter race—on 24 October ahead of Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio. Martin’s crash turned his two-point championship lead into a 10-point deficit.
The Race said poor visibility prevented the medical helicopter from operating, and the weather never improved enough to attempt racing. MotoGP cancelled Moto3 first, then Moto2, and called off the premier-class race at 3.35pm local time after abandoning hopes of a 4.30pm start.
The dry MotoGP sprint was therefore the weekend’s only race. Moto2 and Moto3 riders completed practice and qualifying but left without racing.
MotoGP announced a farewell lap behind the safety car, with riders stopping on the main straight to greet fans. This was an announced non-competitive activity, not a replacement race. The farewell marks Phillip Island’s replacement as Australian Grand Prix host by Adelaide’s street track in 2027.
Martin started fourth and repeatedly exchanged the lead with Marc Marquez. He ran wide at the Miller corner and Southern Loop, while Marquez also passed him back. Martin then crashed at speed at Hayshed, Turn 8, rolled through the gravel and was taken on a stretcher to the medical centre. Marquez controlled the remaining laps without a further challenge from Alex Marquez.
The 16-year-old was sent off at Fleetwood in his second start of the season, leaving Arsenal short of wing options before Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
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| Position | Rider | Gap to winner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marc Marquez | Winner |
| 2 | Alex Marquez | 0.323 seconds |
| 3 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | 0.590 seconds |
| 4 | Marco Bezzecchi | 1.074 seconds |
Bezzecchi ended the sprint 50 points behind Marc Marquez in the championship.
Aprilia declared Martin unfit for the remainder of the weekend. The team’s subsequent CT scan confirmed a non-displaced fracture of the distal right radius—a break near the wrist in which the bone has not shifted—and ruled out a suspected fracture of the ulna, the other forearm bone. Aprilia said on 25 October that Martin would remain in Australia for treatment rather than return to Spain.
In wet qualifying on 24 October, Marc Marquez recovered from a crash on his first lap of the final session to take pole position—the first place on the starting grid. His best lap was 1 minute 34.203 seconds, 1.494 seconds faster than his brother Alex.
Honda’s factory team withdrew from the rest of the weekend after MotoGP medical director Dr Angel Charte declared Luca Marini unfit to compete. Marini was the team’s only entrant and had completed just two slow practice laps while unwell on 23 October.
Four championship rounds remain scheduled, although the Qatar Grand Prix remains uncertain. The cancellation removed the full-distance Australian race as an opportunity to change the title standings; Marquez takes his 10-point lead to the next scheduled round at Sepang in Malaysia.
The appeal tribunal removed an additional suspended spectator ban, but each club must still play its next home Scottish Cup tie without fans and pay the visiting side £100,000.
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