Lately, MotoGP races have seen some riders stand out, such as Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) or Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati). The Australian GP at Phillip Island is up next, and this circuit typically provides closely contested races with minimal differences between riders.
Bagnaia addmited that he expects a different kind of race, with a bigger group at the front: ‘I think that last year was quite clear how difficult is to pull away in this track. Because during the weekend I was competitive, I was thinking it was possible to pull away, but Jorge tried at the start, then after three/four laps, came [Álex] Rins, then I tried. But every time I was pushing a bit, the other guys were following. So it’s like useless to push too much, also because the tyres here are a problem. Turn four can be a problem. So we have to be careful with everything. It’s more like a race before having this casing of the rear tyre: controlling, controlling, controlling and then try to do something in the last laps. Obviously it’s better to be already in the first positions of the group. But pulling away, or you are luck that in the first five/six laps you open two seconds, but if you aren’t doing that it’s more difficult. So we’ll have KTM, we’ll have Honda guys, Yamaha guys, so it will be a big group for me’.
Also Martín considers that it will be difficult to create a gap in the front: ‘For me it’s a bit of the same: even if you are super, super fast is difficult to pull away. For sure I think for us, when you are battling for a championship, maybe it’s better to make a fast race so the group is not of 15 – at least five or six – but we never know. We have to wait until Sunday and see’.
