Fabio Di Gianantonio rued the fact that Gresini wasn’t “patient” enough with him following his debut rostrum at Phillip Island, remarking that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Italian was left without a berth in the premier class for 2024 after the Gresini squad elected to drop him amidst a tough sophomore campaign in the series, Di Gianantonio running as consistently the slowest of the Ducati-equipped pilots for the bulk of the year.

As Honda refugee Marc Marquez was confirmed to be taking over his ride within the Gresini team next season, Di Gianantonio made a key breakthrough with the setup on his machine. He secured points in both the sprint and grand prix races in the Japanese Grand Prix before scoring a best-ever result of fourth in Indonesia.  

Di Gianantonio managed one better to secure a debut podium finish in this weekend’s Australian GP having fought for victory throughout the contest. He admitted post-race that “sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time”, and wished that Gresini had a “little more patience with me” before opting to drop him.  

“Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time, and everything happened so fast with Marc (Marquez) and things so if that hadn’t happened and the team had a little more patience with me things could have been easier,” explained Di Gianantonio.

“It’s only my second year in MotoGP, and other riders have done an incredible job from the start of their careers here but for me, it just took a little more time.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, so you have to work and understand against the best riders in the world and sometimes you just have to trust.

“It isn’t easy, but keeping up the hard work paid off in the end.”

Di Gianantonio added that he “took a little step back” in terms of aggression while fighting for victory in the closing laps with the likes of Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia as “they are fighting for the championship”.  Admitting the race felt “long”, he relished to fight the opportunity to fight up front and described the encounter as a “pure, fun race.”

“It was a long race for sure, as Pecco (Bagnaia) said we weren’t ready to do this long distance on Saturday, but it was a pure, fun race,” continued Di Gianantonio.

“I started well and was fast from the beginning, I tried to manage the rear tyre but I was also trying to push a little bit to not lose too much ground in the first laps.

“Then I caught Brad (Binder) and passed him, so I tried to make a little gap but it was not possible. Also, there was a little bit of wind, and when you were in front it was more difficult to push.

“The two in front were quite strong, and I wanted to overtake Pecco at Turn 4, but he did really well and I saw a little gap but I didn’t want to get into anything as they were fighting for the championship so I took a little step back.

“I knew I could have another opportunity to overtake Jorge later, so I tried to copy Pecco’s moves on me and it worked so it was a good race.”

MotoGP has elected to cancel the Australian Grand Prix sprint race due to extreme wind conditions at the Phillip Island on Sunday, which forced the Moto2 race to be shortened.

Series organisers Dorna announced on Friday that it was going to switch the sprint and grand prix encounters around on the schedule to avoid the extreme weather expected to hit the area on Sunday, with Johann Zarco securing a debut premier class win in the thrilling contest.

A further decision was then made on Saturday to move the Sunday action forward by an hour on the timetable to try and get in the Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP sprint race before the weather was expected to get worse in the afternoon.

While the Moto3 race was able to reach full distance, the intermediate class encounter was red-flagged and ultimately called after running ten of the scheduled 23 laps due to wind levels increasing beyond safe levels.

The decision was made to cancel the MotoGP sprint shortly before its expected start time as the weather forecast failed to show improvement.

The loss of the sprint spells bad news for Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, who was looking to recover some of the points he lost to title rival Francesco Bagnaia after dropping to fifth in the Australian GP as a result of a gamble to run the soft compound rear tyre failing to pay off.

The Spaniard faces a 27-point deficit to recover across the remaining four events of the 2023 campaign, with the next stop on the calendar being the Buriram International Circuit for the Thailand GP next weekend.

Tony Arbolino secured a second victory of the 2023 Moto2 season at Phillip Island after the race was red-flagged and called just before mid-distance due to inclement weather.

The Italian survived the early laps that saw many of the front runners fall victim to the cold and windy conditions afflicting the Australian venue. This included early leader Sergio Garcia, Speed Up’s Alonso Lopez, Arbolino’s team-mate Sam Lowes, GasGas’ Jake Dixon and Gresini’s Filip Salac, all of whom ran within the top five in the early tours.

All this ended up leaving Arbolino out in front by a monstrous 12 seconds by the time half-a-dozen laps had been completed, with pole man Fermin Aldeguer running second ahead of Pons’ Aron Canet.

Arbolino continued to extend his advantage out front across the remaining laps to around 15 seconds before the red flag was shown on lap ten as the conditions continued to deteriorate.  

The severe wind ultimately forced race direction to call off any potential restart, thus declaring Arbolino the victor – though his hopes of taking chunks out of title rival Pedro Acosta’s points lead were dashed due to half-points being awarded.

Canet ended up being credited with second having passed Aldeguer shortly before the stoppage, the Speed Up man therefore left to complete the rostrum in third.

The sole remaining Gresini entry of Jeremy Alcoba came home fourth ahead of Italtrans’ Joe Roberts, while Izan Guevara secured his best Moto2 result to date in sixth for GasGas.

Somkiat Chantra rose from 16^th on the grid to claim seventh in the end ahead of SAG’s Bo Bensneyder, with Acosta taking ninth in the final reckoning having started from 31^st and last on the grid after crashing on the sighting lap.

Marco Ramirez completed the top ten for American Racing, while team-mate Rory Skinner secured his first ever Moto2 points finish in 12^th just behind the other SAG machine of Taiga Hada.

Acosta now holds a slightly reduced 56-point lead over Arbolino with just four rounds of the 2023 term left to run.

Deniz Oncu snatched away victory from Ayumu Sasaki to secure victory in a soaking Australian Moto3 encounter, while series leader Jaume Masia could only manage eighth.

Oncu displayed strong speed throughout the entirety of the 21-lap race, which got underway in heavy wet conditions that also provided limited vision for the riders.

The Turk was part of a lead group made up of pole man Sasaki and Husqvarna team-mate Colin Veijer, CFMoto’s Joel Kelso and Leopard Racing’s Adrian Fernandez. It would be Fernandez who made the lead his own as the race progressed, the Spaniard enjoying a lead of just over a second as the race moved past half-distance.

Disaster would follow just half-a-dozen tours from home though as Fernandez dropped his Honda after running slightly wide at Turn 11, leaving Sasaki to take the lead ahead of Oncu and Kelso.

Oncu had managed to recover from a couple of nasty moments himself to close onto the rear of Sasaki as the duo began the final lap, the KTM Ajo pilot backing out of a move at Turn 1. He continued to stalk the Japanese rider across the remainder of the lap before finally diving down the inside at Turn 10.

He managed to get his machine stopped to secure the spot, Oncu taking the chequered flag 0.407s clear of Sasaki to record his third victory of the term.

Sasaki thus had to make do with a sixth runners-up finish of the season though, as title rival Masia could only secure eighth, he narrowed his points deficit to just four heading into next weekend’s Thai Grand Prix.

Kelso meanwhile secured his maiden Moto3 rostrum result at his home event after electing to back off in the closing couple of laps after suffering a couple of moments in the tricky conditions.

Veijer claimed a distant fourth ahead of Fernandez, who managed to quickly remount and salvage a top-five result.

Sic58’s Ricardo Rossi ended up sixth ahead of Taiyo Furusato and Masia, while Snipers’ Matteo Bertelle and CIP’s Lorenzo Fellon completed the top ten.

Daniel Holgado lost further ground in the championship battle having only secured 13^th, the Tech 3 man’s cause not helped by a crash on the sighting lap. Diogo Moreira also suffered the same fate, the Brazilian retiring not long into the race as his bike was unable to be sufficiently repaired.

Several riders lost out on top ten finishes due to falling foul of the conditions. Erstwhile title contender David Alonso fell victim to Turn 4 early on as did Ivan Ortola, while Mario Aji went down from sixth after losing the front at Turn 11 just past mid-way.

David Salvador crashed from the top ten after high-siding dramatically at Turn 8, while David Munoz also went down in a similar vein to Fernandez and Aji at Turn 11.  

MotoGP points leader Francesco Bagnaia affirmed that he “knew” opting for the medium compound rear tyre was the “correct” choice to fight for victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati pilot started the weekend on the back foot compared to title rival Jorge Martin having failed to reach Q2 directly after managing only 11^th in Friday’s FP2 session. He did well to limit the damage to the Spaniard, who scored pole at Phillip Island, in qualifying though by salvaging third on the grid.  

The Pramac Ducati rider elected to gamble and run the soft compound rear tyre for the race however, Martin enjoying a gap of 4.5 seconds at its peak ahead of Bagnaia as the reigning world champion saved his rubber. This proved to be a clever play as Bagnaia chased him down as Martin began to struggle for rear grip late on.

With Bagnaia securing the runners-up result behind new winner Johann Zarco, he extended his points lead over Martin to 27 ahead of Sunday’s sprint encounter after his rival slipped to fifth on the last tour – the Italian after the race explaining that he knew Martin’s early advantage was “not enough” for him to hang on once his tyres began to degrade.

“It was a very long and very tough race, and I think I missed Q2 yesterday because I focussed on using the medium more and trying to do more laps with it,” began Bagnaia following the Australian GP.

“I think he (Martin) was the only one with the possibility to race with the soft because yesterday and today he did many laps and was quite fast, but I think the maximum amount of laps he did was 19, and even this was stopping and starting again.

“Doing the full race is always a different story, and when I saw the gap he made in the early part of the race I knew it was not enough to stay there with margin in the last laps.

“During the race I was just trying to be careful with the rear tyre as I knew it was the correct choice, and I knew when Brad and Fabio (Di Gianantonio) started to fight we were catching him without pushing.

“I knew then it was the correct strategy, but I couldn’t quite do enough to beat Johann (Zarco), he deserved the victory today.”

Bagnaia added that is not getting too far ahead of himself despite having outscored Martin by 34 points in the last two race outings, the Italian remarking “anything can happen” across the final nine races of the year.

“We have to be careful because I had 62 points of a gap before Barcelona, and we lost the lead very quickly so anything can happen,” said Bagnaia.

“It’s easy to start having problems, so it’s important to have weekends like this in trying to be faster when you’re struggling and doing your best to be at the front.”

Johann Zarco admitted that he “felt so calm” when crossing the line to take his first MotoGP victory in the Australian Grand Prix, his first in any class since 2016.

The Pramac Ducati rider stitched together a clever 27-lap outing at Phillip Island, the Frenchman’s decision to heavily save his medium-compound rear tyre allowing him to attack the riders in front in the closing stages.

Having run fifth behind series leader Francesco Bagnaia for the bulk of the encounter as he looked after his rubber, Zarco began to move forward as the race entered its final quarter as he saw team-mate Jorge Martin begin to struggle on his soft-compound rear tyre.
Having first dispatched Bagnaia he then moved clear of the battling Brad Binder and Fabio Di Gianantonio to start the final lap in second, less than half a second behind the ailing Martin.

Zarco then dived down the inside of the Spaniard at Turn 4 to secure the leadership, the two-time Moto2 world champion holding off a chasing Bagnaia in the concluding corners to finally secure his first premier class win in his 120^th series start.
He admitted that he “felt so calm” when taking the chequered flag, adding that he had joined the “big guys” by winning at the renowned Phillip Island venue.

“This feels quite good because you always try and push to get it (win), but you have to say other riders have got the pace and the feeling to do it,” said Zarco.

“Until you find the feeling also, it’s impossible to catch the win. Pecco got it and has won so many races, and it’s Jorge’s (Martin) time now, and in qualifying he’s doing amazing things.

“We’ll see what we can do in the future, but I’ll sleep well tonight as to win at Phillip Island in the dry is great as it’s a track we all like because you feel you are part of the big guys when you win here.

“I felt so calm in the moment (crossing the line), I was like ‘this is it, it’s done’ and it felt so good. The emotion then came, and it was great to get the congratulations from the other riders.”

Zarco described the decision to stick with the medium rear tyre as “important” in his quest for success, describing that he knew the win was potentially on as he saw his team-mate falling back towards the chasing group with around five laps remaining.

“This was a special one, and the choice of the medium tyre was important. I was thinking when I saw Jorge pull away that I could at least fight for the podium, second wouldn’t be easy but I felt it was possible,” continued Zarco.

“But the last five laps when Jorge began to drop away, I felt something even more was possible.

“I was thinking I had to be behind Jorge by the last couple of laps or the final one because I tried to really look after my rear tyre, and then maybe on the last lap use my acceleration (to get past.)

“I understood five laps from the end that Jorge was possible to catch, so I overtook the others. I could maybe have passed Jorge at Turn 6 they way I passed Marc (Marquez) earlier in the race, but if I waited one of the others might have attacked me.”

Johann Zarco snatched away victory from team-mate Jorge Martin on the very final lap of a thrilling MotoGP Australian Grand Prix, while Francesco Bagnaia extended his points lead.

The Frenchman rode a canny race from the outset as he looked to preserve his medium compound rear tyre in the early laps, his strategy to sit behind series leader Francesco Bagnaia’s factory Ducati and wait for an attack in the latter stages.

Having staved off a determined Marc Marquez, who opted for the softer rear tyre, Zarco began to make his move towards the front as the race entered its final quarter.

Pramac Ducati team-mate Jorge Martin, who had also elected for the softer rear tyre, had built up a commanding lead through the encounter of around 3.5 seconds at its peak, though his gamble began to catch up with him as he fell steadily back into the four-man tussle for second as the laps wound down.

As the final lap began Zarco had managed to navigate his way past Gresini’s Fabio Di Gianantonio and KTM’s Brad Binder into second, the gap to Martin now down to less than half a second.

Now with significantly more rear grip than his team-mate, Zarco enjoyed good drive through Turn 3 and managed to dive past the Spaniard into Turn 4 – Bagnaia also slipping past his championship rival in the process.

Zarco was able to hold off Bagnaia across the remainder of the tour to finally take the chequered flag for his maiden premier class win in his 120^th series start.

Bagnaia claimed much-needed points for the runners-up spot to extend his points advantage from 18 to 27 heading into Sunday’s sprint race at Phillip Island.

Di Gianantonio meanwhile had also managed to get the better of Martin on the final circulation to secure third and his first-ever premier class rostrum finish, the Italian showing the paddock his mettle as he enters his final few races with the Gresini Ducati outfit.

Martin lost further ground as he was passed by Binder on the run to the line, the KTM man securing fourth as the pole-man fell from first to fifth on the final tour.

Marco Bezzecchi came out on top of a frenetic battle for sixth for the VR46 Ducati squad ahead of home hero Jack Miller’s KTM, while Aleix Espargaro ended up as the best-placed Aprilia in eighth.

Alex Marquez secured welcome points for ninth on his racing comeback on the sister Gresini entry, while Enea Bastianini recovered from a poor start to round off the top ten on his factory Ducati.

Maverick Vinales struggled for speed throughout en route to 11^th, while Fabio Quartararo at least managed to salvage points as he stole 14^th from a badly fading Marc Marquez on the very final lap.

Raul Fernandez and GasGas’ Pol Espargaro, the only other two riders who chose the soft rear tyre, also struggled in the closing laps and fell out of the points to 16^th and 17^th respectively.

Franco Morbidelli could only manage 18^th on the other Yamaha, while Takaaki Nakagami was the last classified finisher in 19^th.

Augusto Fernandez and Joan Mir both crashed out as the race approached half-distance, Honda’s Mir going down at Turn 4 while battling with VR46’s Luca Marini. Fernandez came unstuck at the very same bend just a lap later, though he lost the front of his GasGas KTM on entry to the corner.

Jorge Martin decimated the MotoGP field at Phillip Island to secure his third pole of the season by 0.416s, while title rival Francesco Bagnaia escaped Q1 en route to third.

Martin came out all guns blazing from the outset of the pole shootout, the Pramac Ducati pilot immediately lapping under the 1:28s bracket on a 1:27.846s effort to head the rest of the pack by over four-tenths-of-a-second.

Looking completely at one with his Ducati, the Spaniard then quickly got down to business in extending his leading advantage as the final runs got underway.

With a clean track in front, Martin stitched together a monstrous 1:27.246s tour that put him six-tenths clear of anyone else at that point.

Brad Binder got closest to usurping Martin, though the South African could only get to within 0.416s of him to claim second for the factory KTM outfit.

Bagnaia meanwhile completed a solid salvage effort to complete the front row in third, the factory Ducati rider having escaped Q1 by a couple of tenths along with Honda’s Marc Marquez.

He still lapped nearly half a second adrift of his chief championship rival though, leaving him with a tough task to prevent his 18-marker lead from being reduced in the Australian Grand Prix.

Aleix Espargaro managed to get a hold of a slipstream from the blazing Martin to slingshot his Aprilia into fourth, while Johann Zarco rounded off the top five on the sister Pramac Ducati entry.

Fabio Di Gianantonio again impressed in sixth for Gresini ahead of Marquez, while Jack Miller ended up eighth on the other factory KTM machine.

Maverick Vinales failed to match the speed of his team-mate and could only get ninth ahead of VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi, while GasGas’ Pol Espargaro and the other factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini completed the Q2 runners.

Augusto Fernandez looked good to make it out of Q1 throughout the test having led the way in the opening runs ahead of Bagnaia, though he ultimately came unstuck after Bagnaia went quicker and Marquez utilised his slipstream to snatch away the final spot.

He would subsequently be pushed back to 14^th by Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati, though he will start 17^th due to receiving a penalty for blocking Fabio Quartararo during FP2 on Friday.

Yamaha rider Quartararo’s tough weekend failed to improve on Saturday as he could manage a lowly 17^th in qualifying, meaning he will start just ahead of Fernandez in 16^th. Team-mate Franco Morbidelli meanwhile was a disastrous 20^th ahead of only LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami.

The Japanese rider is the last LCR man left standing after Alex Rins was forced to pull out from the rest of the Australian event due to suffering pain from his still-recovering leg.

Joan Mir was 16^th on his factory Honda, while Luca Marini struggled with his wrist injury at the fast Phillip Island venue en route to 18^th just ahead of RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira.   

Brad Binder fronted a KTM MotoGP 1-2 at the end of Friday at Phillip Island, while Francesco Bagnaia will be forced to escape from Q1 once again.

Times steadily reduced as the session progressed, with Jorge Martin’s FP1-leading effort of 1:29.030s remaining as the fastest of the weekend until the final 15 minutes of the session. Aleix Espargaro was the man to eclipse Martin’s time, the Aprilia man banging in a 1:28.841s.

Despite having further improved on his following gambit, team-mate Maverick Vinales moved ahead on a 1:28.649s before Martin smashed the Spaniard with a 1:28.299s.  

It would be Binder who ultimately walked away with the honors on Friday by breaking the 1:27 barrier, the KTM pilot managing a 1:27.943s to put himself just 0.148s clear of team-mate and home hero Jack Miller as the day came to a close.

Another late improvement from Vinales ensured he ended the day third overall just ahead of Martin, whose second flying tour was compromised as he came across a struggling Bagnaia. His first lap was still good enough to keep him fourth though, while GasGas’ Pol Espargaro impressed to complete the top five.

Marco Bezzecchi was sixth for VR46 ahead of Fabio Di Gianantonio, the Gresini rider’s late-season resurgence continuing in Australia as he secured a guaranteed Q2 berth.

Enea Bastianini outshone team-mate Bagnaia once again to secure eighth ahead of Aleix. At the same time, Johann Zarco clung onto the final automatic pole shootout passage having posted the same time as Espargaro.

Bagnaia was the first man to miss out on a Friday Q2 place, the Italian improving on his final lap but still coming nearly two-tenths-of-a-second short of out-running Zarco.  This leaves him in the pressurised situation of having to progress from Q1 for the second straight week.

Also struggling were Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, who posted times good enough for only 16^th and 17^th respectively for Honda and Yamaha behind the returning Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati.

Marquez was also the only man to go down during the test, the six-time premier class champion losing the front of his RC213V mid-way through the slow Turn 20 right-hander. Quartararo meanwhile had his final lap compromised at the same bend, as Augusto Fernandez moved across in front of him while on a slow lap on entry to the unsighted corner.

Alex Rins ended up as the best-placed Honda in 12^th overall for LCR, the Spaniard just 0.002s adrift of Bagnaia.

Luca Marini also struggled as he lapped just over 1.2s from Binder’s benchmark to complete the day 19^th just behind the other factory Honda of Joan Mir.

Miguel Oliveira also struggled to put together a competitive lap as he languished down in 20^th by the end of the day, the RNF Aprilia racer ahead of only LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli.

Organisers of Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix have named Travis Auld as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Auld, who arrives after spending several decades in senior positions at the Australian Football League, will replace Andrew Westacott in the position.

Westacott announced at the end of 2022 that he would step down from his role in mid-2023, following 11 years as the CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, which oversees Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix and MotoGP’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Under Westacott’s stewardship the event grew to become one of Formula 1’s most-attended grands prix, while its contract was recently extended through 2037.

“I am looking forward to leading one of the biggest and best international events in the country,” said Auld.

“I want to thank the Victorian Government, specifically the Premier and Sports Minister along with the AGPC Board led by Paul Little for the opportunity to lead the Australian Grand Prix Corporation,” said Auld.

“The possibilities are endless on the back of the extraordinary growth that F1 has experienced globally along with Moto GP going from strength to strength.

“My role is to ensure we deliver two world class events that are the best possible experience for drivers, riders, teams, and fans from across the globe.”

Next year’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is scheduled to take place on March 24, as the third round of the season.