MotoGP 2013 - Rd16 - Australia

The controversy started well before the scheduled start on Sunday, with the race distance shortened on two separate occasions, and the unprecedented introduction of a 'dry' flag-to-flag race for MotoGP. While the flag-to-flag rule allowing riders to change from dry to wet tyre-equipped bikes, and vice versa, has been a part of MotoGP for many years (and was famously first put to the test at the 2006 Phillip Island event), it has never been used for an all-dry race.

The main reason for this decision was rider safety concerns relating to shortened tyre life on the newly-laid track surface. Friday testing revealed that rear tyres were overheating, and thus wearing at an accelerated rate on the island circuit's fresh, grippy surface. This affected both the Bridgestones used by the MotoGP riders, and the Dunlops used by the Moto2 field. Moto3, which also runs Dunlop tyres, was unaffected, presumably due to the lower top and sustained speeds in this class.

Initially, Bridgestone requested all riders use the Hard rear tyre for the race, but as Saturday's practise sessions wound out, it became apparent that even this compound wouldn't survive a full race distance, which led to the decision to make Sunday's race a two-part flag-to-flag event with a compulsory pit-stop on lap 13 or 14 (the two options provided to prevent pit lane congestion), and a reduction in race distance by one lap to 26 laps.

Sunday morning's warm-up session revealed that even 13 laps was optimistic for the rear Bridgestone's life, which led to a second change in format; the race distance dropped to 19 laps, and the compulsory pit stop on lap 9 or 10. For Moto2, their total race distance was cut to 13 laps, but there would be no flag-to-flag bike change.

Qualifying
Before all this unfolded, the focus was on Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez, the championship leader who came to Phillip Island with a chance to secure the 2013 title. With a 43-point gap over his nearest rival, Yamaha Factory Racing's Jorge Lorenzo, Phillip Island marked the first time this season that Marquez could win the championship, should the right combination of race results occur.

In the Free Practise sessions, Lorenzo was quickest in the first two, while Dani Pedrosa topped the timesheets in sessions 3 and 4. LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl, who had fractured his ankle at the previous round in Sepang, rode the early practise sessions, but was noticeably off the pace, and took no further part in the weekend.

Qualifying 1 for the bottom half of the field saw Ducati Team's Andrea Dovizioso make the most improvement, making it into Qualifying 2 and moving from thirteenth to ninth place. Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati) moved from twelfth to tenth by the end of Q2, at the expense of CRT riders Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing ART) and Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar ART).

At the top of qualifying, Lorenzo broke Casey Stoner's 2008 lap record of 1'28.665 with a 1'27.899. This was despite a lesser top speed than Marquez, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda). Lorenzo's record lap was also achieved with a "passenger" in the form of a seagull Lorenzo struck at Turn 9 which remained wedged in the offside radiator shroud until the Spaniard pitted.

Thus, Lorenzo's new record lap saw him take pole position for the race, with the rest of the front row completed by Marquez and Rossi. Row 2 was made up of Bautista, Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech3). The two Australians entered in the MotoGP class, GO&FUN Gresini Honda's Bryan Staring and Paul Bird Motorsport's Damian Cudlin qualified 21st and 23rd respectively on their CRT machines.

Sunday's warm up session revealed more serious rear tyre issues, which led to a further reduced race distance of 19 laps, which in turn bumped the compulsory pit stop window back to laps 9 and 10.

Race
In strong winds, and with dark clouds to the west threatening to bring rain into the equation later in the race, the team's gridded up for this unique race format. While some mechanics and crew were on their traditional grid spots, others were out the front of their respective garages getting the second bikes ready, with a lot of buzzing back and forth between pitlane and the grid.

When the red lights went out, Lorenzo led away strongly, while Pedrosa edged ahead of Rossi and Bautista before the first corner. At turn 4, Marquez pounced to take the lead, but Lorenzo regained it one corner later. Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) made a strong start to be in fifth (up from seventh) by the end of lap 1.

The race quickly settled into a rhythm, with Lorenzo leading Marquez and Pedrosa at the front, while further back, Rossi, Bautista, Crutchlow and Smith were locked together in their own battle.

As the race neared its midpoint, more attention was being focused on the pitlane than the track, as the 31,500 raceday fans were waiting to see not only who would pit first, but how this would affect the race.

On lap 9, one of the two permissible under the rules, Pedrosa was first in, taking the approximately 25 seconds to ride through pitlane, change bikes and rejoin the field. He was followed in by Bautista, Smith, Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati) and several of the CRT bikes.

On his out lap, Pedrosa touched the white pit lane exit line, an offence under the rules, which required him to give up the position to Marquez he had "gained" for crossing the line.

On lap 10, Lorenzo led the way into pit lane, and everyone expected Marquez, who was right behind, to follow him in. Instead, the Repsol Honda stayed out, which would ultimately prove to be his undoing. Marquez was joined by Staring on lap 11 as the only two riders who hadn't pitted on laps 9 and 10, and this is where the confusion began.

After pulling in on lap 11, Marquez rejoined the field, banging fairings with Lorenzo at high speed in turn one. With battle resumed at the head of the field, a heated discussion between officials and Repsol Honda and HRC personnel was happening in pitlane over the one-lap-too-many rule infringement. It would later transpire that Marquez's crew had misinterpreted the rule to read that riders could pit AFTER lap 10, rather than ON lap 10.

Staring's team appeared to make the same mistake, leaving the Aussie out one lap too long. Disappointed, Staring pulled into the pits, and out of the race, on lap 15.

The lap after his compulsory pit stop, Luca Scassa, filling in for the injured Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Motoracing CRT bike, went for a wild ride on the grass down Gardner Straight after running wide at turn 12, but kept it upright and rejoined the field.

By lap 12, the field had settled back into position, with Lorenzo at the head of the field and Marquez closing, passing Pedrosa for second place on lap 14, but by this stage, the black flag was being displayed, which meant Marquez had to withdraw from the race, pulling in on lap 15.

After 12 laps, Cudlin, on the PBM CRT bike, was being passed by the front runners, and would eventually finish two laps in arrears.

For the final few laps of the shortened race, Lorenzo gradually extended his lead over Pedrosa, from 1.23 seconds on lap 15 up to 6.93 by the chequered flag. A sprinkling of rain on the last lap added a final bit of drama to what had already been a seriously dramatic day.

Behind Pedrosa in second, Crutchlow, Rossi and Bautista continued their battle for the final podium slot, while Smith had fallen back into the clutches of Dovizioso, Iannone and Hayden. On lap 17, Rossi made a move on Crutchlow stick, and held off the Brit by barely a tenth of a second over the finish line.

Bautista finished fifth, followed by Smith, Hayden, Iannone and Dovizioso, with de Puniet completing the top ten and also claiming the top CRT place.

Lorenzo's victory was his sixth of the 2013 season and his 50th grand prix victory overall, while the result was also the first time since 2006 that the MotoGP race winner at Phillip Island wasn't Casey Stoner.

"I'm really happy with this win, we've also been lucky because Marc made this mistake," Lorenzo admitted afterward. "So we've been lucky but we were unlucky in the middle of the championship so today is a balance."

"Today's race was very stressful - above all before the start, as the rules were being changed every five minutes," Pedrosa said. "Everything was turned on its head and it was very difficult to adapt first time, without making any mistakes. Marc made mistakes and I did too.

"Everything was going so fast and it was confusing for both the riders and the mechanics. We had to be clear about which lap to enter the pits, as it wasn't obvious which was lap 9 and which was lap 10. The two bikes needed to be prepared and the tyres as well, the pit lane was much longer than normal... it was all so strange today.

"Although the second bike wasn't the same for me as the first, I managed to take second in the race and be very competitive"

Marquez was surprisingly calm about his championship-changing penalty, at least in his official team press release!
"Today was our first experience of a flag-to-flag race, and suffice to say it wasn't a good one. My team and I had set out a strategy and we thought that we could come in after lap 10, but in reality this counts as an extra lap. We hadn't had that in mind and this was a huge mistake.

"We had everything well planned and I followed the instructions on my pit board. You learn from these things though, so now we have to move on and focus on the race in Japan."

Some very minor consolation for Marquez came from the fact he set a new MotoGP race lap record at Phillip Island of 1'28.108, eclipsing the previous 1'30.059 mark set by Nicky Hayden in 2008.

With two rounds remaining, Marquez's championship lead has been slashed from 43 points to 18; Lorenzo within striking distance on 280 points to Marquez's 298. The defending champion candidly rated his chances as only around 20 or 30 percent, despite the result. The Marquez DNF means that Pedrosa, on 264 points, is also a mathematical possibility of taking the title. Rossi holds a 35 points buffer over fifth placed Crutchlow; 214 points to 179.

2013 MotoGP World Championship

Rd 16 - Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
October 20, 2013

1. Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 29'07.155
2. Dani PEDROSA Honda +6.936
3. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +12.344
4. Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha +12.460
5. Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda +12.513
6. Bradley SMITH Yamaha +28.263
7. Nicky HAYDEN Ducati +32.953
8. Andrea IANNONE Ducati +35.062
9. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +35.104
10. Randy DE PUNIET ART +37.426
21. Damian CUDLIN PBM +2 laps
DQ. Bryan STARING FTR Honda

Images: motogp.com, JUST BIKES