The Island is set to roar as anticipation builds for MotoGP™

After three races last month, motorcycle racing's elite are prepared to make Friday’s opening day of the Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2024 one to remember.

Following a week off after the Japanese round, the MotoGP™, Moto2™, and Moto3™ teams are ready to tackle the 4.45km Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Each category will get two sessions to set up a great weekend of racing.

As always, MotoGP™ will lead, with the 300 horsepower machines, taking to the track at 10:45 a.m. for a 45-minute Practice session and again for an hour starting at 3 p.m. The at-should afternoon session has become one of the must-see events of any race weekend because of ‘Qualifying Zero’, the session-within-a-session that seeds the top 10 riders directly into Saturday’s all-important second Qualifying session.

While many would be expecting to see the Ducatis of points leader Jorge Martin and World Champion fighting for overall honours, the three other GP winners from earlier in the season, Maverick Viñales, Enea Bastianini, and Marc Marquez (out a fifth Island win, and his first on a Ducati) will be out to make sure they take one of those all-important slots.

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The KTMs cannot be discounted, especially that of local hero Jack Miller, who is making his last home GP appearance on the Austrian machine before moving to Yamaha for 2025. After the rookie season, he has had rising star Pedro Acosta, who is sure to impress on his Island MotoGP™ debut.

There is much to watch in the rest of the practice sessions. Moto3™ starts the day at 9:00 am, with a second session set for 1:15 pm. Darwin's Joel Kelso and Jacob Roulstone from Jamberoo (New South Wales) will seek to fly the Australian flag high. The brilliant Colombian teen David Alonso (KTM) may have already secured the title. Still, the fight is on for second between Spain's Daniel Holgado (GasGas) and Dutch youngster Collin Veijer (Husqvarna). 

In Moto2™, the two Practice sessions start at 9:50 am and 2:05 pm, respectively, and Ai Ogura looks to have one hand on the title before he steps up to MotoGP™ next season. Riders of the Italian Boscoscuro chassis have looked to have an edge over their rival Kalex riders, and the battle is well and truly on for second between Spaniards Sergio Garcia, Alonso Lopez, Aron Canet, Manuel Gonzales and Fermin Aldeguer, with American Joe Roberts thrown into the mix. 

As usual, the future racers will feature in the Oceania Junior Cup, with two sessions at 11:45 am and 4:15 pm. Hunter Cornie leads the series points from Ethan Johnson and Nikolas Lazos, from Hunter Charlett and Elijah Andrew (160).