The first day of Moto3 of the Australian GP did not start well for Izan Guevara, with a crash in the morning session and delayed positions in the afternoon session, but shortly after the end he took an important step forward that made him finish on Friday with a result that would make him mathematical champion on Sunday.
The Mallorcan climbed with his last two laps from the lower-middle zone of the classification to a fourth place that would be worth his weight in gold on Sunday, because although Sasaki won first place, he can allow himself to lose 20 points to the Japanese and in this way he would only cut 12. In addition, and more importantly, he finished just ahead of García and Foggia, who are his two immediate pursuers, although with the Italian second and the Spanish third, and taking two more points from the Italian will be champion, something that would happen with this fourth and sixth.
The rain of the days preceding the start of the grand prix at Phillip Island finally gave way on Friday, although the track woke up wet and it was not until the end of FP2 that it was in really good condition and the important times arrived. Sasaki’s 1m37.797s was nearly three seconds quicker than his morning time, though still far from the 1m36.050s of the track record, held by Álex Márquez since 2014.
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After the Japanese, the following qualified to close the top 14 with provisional direct access to Q2: Suzuki, Moreira, Guevara, García, Foggia, Migno, Nepa, Masiá, Fernández, McPhee, Kelso, Ogden and Toba.