Weather conditions oblige cancellation of MotoGP™ Tissot Sprint
Sunday, 22 October 2023
Due to inclement weather, the Tissot Sprint at the MotoGP™ Guru by Gryfyn Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was cancelled.
Changes were made to the schedule to try and ensure the maximum track action in the safest possible conditions on Sunday, but the weather – forecast to worsen throughout the day – obliged the cancellation of further track activity following the conclusion of the Moto2™ race.
MotoGP™ would like to thank all the fans who attended the Australian Grand Prix! We look forward to seeing you again next season when we return to the awesome Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. MotoGP™ will now be back in action for the OR Thailand Grand Prix from the 27th to the 29th of October.
Riders head out to greet fans as the weather closes in on the Island
Before all that, the riders also headed for the Hero Walk after the Warm Up session.
“Thank you to the fans for enduring the cold and windy conditions”
Hear from Dorna Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta after weather obliged the cancellation of the Tissot Sprint.
CARLOS EZPELETA: “As we expected the conditions today were not the most favourable, which is why we had the GP yesterday. It’s not an easy decision, for sure. This morning actually the feedback was positive from the MotoGP™ class riders, it was not negative, more positive than the other classes actually, and so Moto3™ were difficult conditions but the race was able to go ahead, and then we had to red flag Moto2™ because of some gusts of wind and the forecast was that it was only going to get worse during rest of day.
“We spoke with the teams and that was more or less the feedback. It wasn’t all the teams, but that was more or less the consensus. You know it’s always hard to make a decision like this. It’s really important to say thank you to the fans for enduring the conditions of cold and wind who came to see how great MotoGP™ is and we hope to be here next year and complete our schedule. There are still four great race weekends to look forward to on the MotoGP™ calendar.
“Clearly in hindsight it was the correct decision to move the main MotoGP™ race, but hindsight is always a tricky thing, because this time it’s in our favour, and clearly we were able to complete the greatest and most important part of the weekend’s schedule, the fans were able to see a fantastic race yesterday. Today has been a little harder, the conditions have just been quite hard, but this is part of what Phillip Island is. It’s a great circuit with great fans, but sometimes we have these conditions.”
