The Motorcycle World Championship lands this weekend in Australia. The Phillip Island circuit hosts the eighteenth race of the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 season. In the queen category, the World Cup is still in a fist, with the top five classified with a difference of only 40 points.
The current world champion, the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), continues to lose steam while the Italian Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) transmits better sensations. They are not the only ones. The Catalan Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) is 20 points behind the leading couple, and the Italian Ene Bastianini (Ducati) is 39 points behind. Only one behind is the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati).
The MotoGP race will be held on Sunday, October 16 at 5 a.m. Spanish time (27 laps), while Moto2 will run at 3:20 a.m. (25 laps) and Moto3 at 2:00 a.m. (23 laps). The broadcast will be carried out by DAZN, a platform that has the rights until 2027 and that can also be found on Movistar.
Miller is precisely the proper name that everyone is betting on in this season finale and even more so when it comes to the "home race", even though it is his teammate "Pecco" Bagnaia who is in the best position.
But for all of them there is a compelling argument, that of the powerful "Armada Ducati", which with up to eight bikes in the starting line-up are capable of giving a surprise at any time and on any circuit.
The fight should be focused on Quartararo and Bagnaia, but Miller arrives at the Indian route grown by his performance in the last grand prix and also by being newly married to his girlfriend Ruby, in addition to having the support of the always large local fans.
After two years with the country closed "hard and fast" due to the global coronavirus pandemic, forecasts suggest that the public will turn completely to its best MotoGP rider, especially knowing that he has been the one who has scored the most points added in the last three grand prizes played so far, from Aragon to Thailand, passing through Japan.
Although Miller will not be the only contender, because in this fight and on a fast and technical circuit like Phillip Island, the rest of the Ducati may have a lot to say, including the Spaniard Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), that he arrives at a track that he likes a lot: "it's one of my favorite circuits," he said on Thursday.
It would not be fair to leave out the one who really is the leader of the championship and current champion, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, even though he only has a two-point advantage over Bagnaia and arrives at a circuit that is not one of the most favorable to the conditions of the Yamaha YZR M 1, although if he is able to get the best out of the motorcycle of the brand on the tuning forks, he would have to be one of the riders to take into account.
Phillip Island has not been raced since 2019 and there are a few riders who have never ridden on this beautiful track on the shores of the Tasman Sea, such as the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16), the Spanish Alex Márquez (Honda RC 213 V ), the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16), who did not ride then due to injury, or Fabio Quartararo himself, who crashed on the first lap.
