The last Australian Grand Prix scheduled at Phillip Island never started. On Sunday, "due to limited visibility affecting the operation of the medical helicopter", the MotoGP race was cancelled "in addition to the Moto2 and Moto3 races", motogp.com announced, and the MotoGP riders did two parade laps behind the safety car instead. That makes Saturday's Sprint the Island's final result in the championship, and Marc Marquez won it.
Marquez leaves Australia 10 points ahead of Jorge Martin, the figure motogp.com gives, with 365 to 355 on the official standings. Those totals reconcile with the pre-weekend table, Martin 355 and Marquez 353, plus 12 points for the Sprint win and none for Martin's crash. Marco Bezzecchi is third on 315.
Saturday started with a crash. Marquez went down at Miller Corner on his first flying lap in Q2, a "classic front-end tuck" in motogp.com's qualifying report, went back out on his second bike as conditions worsened and took pole in 1:34.203. The margin was 1.494 seconds, which motogp.com calls "the biggest pole position margin since the 2019 Czech Grand Prix". Alex Marquez qualified second, Johann Zarco third and Martin fourth.
Martin made the Sprint his fight anyway. Alex Marquez got ahead of him on lap 2 and Martin took the place back at Turn 1, per the motogp.com Sprint report. Marc Marquez led from lap 5 after a Martin error at Turn 4. Martin got back past at Turn 1 on lap 6 and tried again on lap 8 but could not hold the lead either time, and he crashed at Turn 8 on that eighth lap, of 13.
Marquez won in 19 minutes 9.411 seconds, 0.323 seconds ahead of Alex Marquez, with Fabio Di Giannantonio third at 0.590, on the official classification, which Crash.net's results table matches. A works Ducati, a Gresini Ducati and a VR46 Ducati filled the podium. Bezzecchi, Martin's team-mate at Aprilia, was fourth and Pedro Acosta fifth. Francesco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales did not finish.
Ai Ogura crossed the line sixth and was then given eight seconds for a tyre pressure infringement, which dropped him to 13th and out of the points. motogp.com says the penalty moved Brad Binder up to sixth, Jack Miller to seventh, Diogo Moreira to eighth and Iker Lecuona to ninth. Zarco retired from fifth with "a technical issue". Raul Fernandez retired too, still carrying the right index finger fracture from Indonesia.
Martin, the 2024 champion, was first reported to be more badly hurt than he turned out to be. Crash.net's results piece had a right radius fracture and a suspected ulna fracture; after a CT scan, Aprilia's statement on motogp.com reads: "The only confirmed injury is a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius." He will not fly back to Spain for treatment. On Sepang, team manager Paolo Bonora would go no further than "We will work for it." Nothing is confirmed.
Sunday was a different problem. Race director Graham Webb told motogp.com, as quoted by Crash.net, that the helicopter needs "a window of around 60 minutes" at both Phillip Island and Melbourne before a race can start, because the hospital is "further than 45 minutes by road". "Just based on safety, we need to make sure that, if we do have any issues, we're covered," he said, adding: "It's a bit of a shame, it's unusual." The start was delayed by several hours while Warm Up and the Moto3 and Moto2 races were cancelled, Crash.net reports; The Race has Moto3 called off first, then Moto2, and the MotoGP call at 3.35pm local, after a hoped-for 4.30pm start.
The Moto3 title was already settled: Maximo Quiles clinched it at Mandalika on 11 October, so the class lost a race and nothing else. Moto2 lost more: Manuel Gonzalez leads Izan Guevara 265.5 to 260 on the official standings, the same 5.5 points he took out of Mandalika, and that gap goes to Sepang as it was.
Marquez put it this way: "The conditions were acceptable, but unluckily the medical helicopter was not ready to fly," he said, per Crash.net. "Phillip Island didn't deserve to have its last race cancelled."
The cancellation cost Marquez something and Martin nothing. Martin had already been ruled out of the Grand Prix, so a Sunday race would have been one in which only one of the two title contenders could score; with no race, neither did. Before the cancellation motogp.com counted 173 points still available from Phillip Island to Valencia. Take away the 25 for the Grand Prix and it is 148 across the four rounds left on the calendar: Sepang on 1 November, Qatar on 8 November, Portimao on 22 November and Valencia on 29 November.
Qatar is still on the official calendar for 6 to 8 November, and Autosport reported on 20 October that the teams association, IRTA, has told teams it intends to hold the race.
On the official standings Bezzecchi is 50 points back, Acosta 102, Ogura 106, Di Giannantonio 113 and Raul Fernandez 129, all inside 148.
Sepang is the first place the gap can move, and it moves only one way if Martin cannot ride. A Sprint and a Grand Prix there are worth up to 37 points; a Marquez double with Martin absent would take the lead to 47. If Martin does start, he does so a week after the fracture, and no recovery time has been published in anything read for this piece.
Carmelo Ezpeleta's farewell on motogp.com dates the circuit's Grand Prix history to "the first race here in 1987" and looks ahead to Adelaide, which takes over the event in 2027, according to The Race: "That is why we are excited about the future in Adelaide." His sign-off to the Island: "even if it is not the ending we had hoped for, we simply say thank you."