ROUND 18 / OCTOBER 14-16, 2022
PHILLIP ISLAND CIRCUIT / PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA
P76
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
out of the Championship hunt,
and the title fight got another
shake-up not long after. Marquez
was handed down a long-lap
penalty for causing the crash
which he'll serve at the next race.
Trying to come back through
and at least into the points at
the time, Quartararo then sud-
denly slid out of contention at the
Southern Loop, lowsiding off into
the gravel in another huge twist.
"[I] was struggling a lot in
turn four because of the wind,"
Quartararo said. "I already made
a mistake there earlier at the
beginning of the race. After the
second mistake, I tried to push.
I was quite far behind. I did man-
age to overtake a few riders, but
no more 4-5/10ths. We dropped
one second or even more. Maybe
in the last lap we drop 1.2-1.3
seconds. It was frustrating. On the
last three races we prove that we
are not together as a team. We are
not at the level to fight for this title.
We concede actually many, many
points."
LOCAL WILDLIFE
TROUBLES
Along with its fabulous long, open
bends and stunning sea views, Phil-
lip Island has gained notoriety over
the years for another thing: wildlife.
Seagulls have been a constant
menace at this track since the late
80s, but wildlife of another form has
appeared this weekend. A wallaby
ran across the track in front of Aleix
Espargaro during MotoGP FP1
while both Moto3 FP3 and Moto2
qualifying were prematurely red
flagged due to geese nonchalantly
crossing the track. For Espargaro,
this situation was unacceptable and
brought the matter up in Friday's
Safety Commission meeting. "At the
beginning everybody was laugh-
ing because I understand it could
be fun," he said. "But they under-
stood it was a very, very important
thing in terms of safety. For me, is
unacceptable. It was very danger-
ous. We ask for them to improve,
to close a bit better the track (with
higher perimeter fencing)."
Briefly...
Quartararo was hoping to
maintain the championship
lead in Australia but a
crash now has him down 14
points to Bagnaia.
