MotoGP at Phillip Island, the circuit where a tyre crisis reshaped the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. File image. Photo: Ken So / Unsplash
Marc Márquez arrived at Phillip Island with a 43-point lead and a chance to put one hand on the MotoGP title with two rounds to spare. He left with no points, a black flag and a championship that would run all the way to Valencia. Jorge Lorenzo won the 2013 Australian MotoGP on October 20, 2013, 13 years ago today, in a 19-lap race that Bridgestone and Race Direction had shortened and split in two because the rear tyres could not be trusted on the circuit’s new asphalt.
A rookie with a 43-point cushion
Márquez was 20 years old and in his first premier-class season with Repsol Honda. He had already won races, and as a result, heading into round 16 of 18, he led the standings on 298 points. Lorenzo, the reigning champion on the factory Yamaha, had 255. Márquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa was third.
The arithmetic was therefore simple. Lorenzo needed to win in Australia and needed Márquez to have a bad day. In other words, a normal weekend would have left the title all but settled.
New asphalt and unknown tyres before the 2013 Australian MotoGP
Phillip Island had been resurfaced at the end of 2012, but no MotoGP bike had run on the new surface before the race weekend. However, when the bikes did, the combination of high grip, a smooth surface that kept tyres loaded through the long sweepers and unusually high temperatures pushed rear tyres past what Bridgestone had planned for. As a result, some rears lost tread and cracked. Bridgestone’s Shinji Aoki later said the best race lap was more than two seconds faster than a year earlier.
After analysing tyres on Saturday, Bridgestone set a maximum safe stint of 14 laps on a rear slick. Then Sunday morning warm-up showed that 10 laps was the safer limit. Consequently, the solution was unprecedented for a dry race: the MotoGP distance was cut from 27 laps to 19, and every rider had to pit once to swap to a second bike, with no set of tyres used for more than 10 laps. In practice, that meant the stop had to come at the end of lap 9 or lap 10. The Dunlop-shod Moto2 race was halved to 13 laps for the same reason.
One lap too many at the 2013 Australian MotoGP
Lorenzo started from pole and led every lap. Pedrosa came in at the end of lap 9 and Lorenzo a lap later. Márquez, however, was expected to pit with Lorenzo but stayed out. As Lorenzo rejoined from his stop, the two made contact into Turn 1, and Márquez only came in at the end of lap 11, outside the window. Because of that, Race Direction showed him the black flag and he was disqualified. Bryan Staring was also disqualified for the same breach.
Lorenzo won by 6.936 seconds from Pedrosa. Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi took third by passing Cal Crutchlow at the Honda Hairpin on the final lap, by 0.116 seconds. Contemporary reports, including Cycle News, put the blame on a communication breakdown between the Repsol Honda pit wall and its rider rather than on the rider alone.
From 43 points to 18, and four at the end
The 2013 Australian MotoGP result cut Márquez’s lead to 18 points, 298 to 280, with Pedrosa on 264. A week later at Motegi, Lorenzo won again and Márquez finished second, so the gap shrank to 13. Finally, at Valencia on November 10, Lorenzo won a third straight race, but Márquez rode a controlled third place, which was enough. He finished the season on 334 points to Lorenzo’s 330.
Márquez became the first rider to win the premier-class title as a rookie since Kenny Roberts in 1978, and the youngest premier-class champion. In the end, Lorenzo lost the crown by four points, in a season in which Phillip Island had handed him a 25-point swing for free.
Why the 2013 Australian MotoGP still matters
For tyre supply. The 2013 Australian MotoGP exposed what happens when a resurfaced circuit sees a MotoGP bike for the first time on a Grand Prix weekend. The series arranged a tyre test at Phillip Island on March 3 to 5, 2014, with selected MotoGP and Moto2 riders, and Bridgestone returned that October with three new rear options built to last the full 27 laps, plus a new asymmetric front. The 2014 race ran its full distance with consistent tyre performance.
For race procedure. A mandatory stop turned the pit board into a deciding factor. After all, pace was not the problem for Márquez at Phillip Island. Instead, the problem was information, and teams took the lesson about clear, unambiguous signals in races with a fixed pit window.
For Márquez. The near miss became the first of his seven MotoGP titles, and it gave an early look at the trait that defined his career: a rider prepared to push to the very limit of what the rules and the tyres allow.
For that reason, the history is part of the backdrop this week. MotoGP returns to Phillip Island for round 18 on October 23 to 25, with Márquez and Jorge Martín separated by two points, according to MotoGP.com. Our weekend schedule roundup has the session details, and how Motegi rewired the Moto2 title fight sets up the intermediate class heading Down Under.
Related coverage from Backfire Racing
- Today in Motorsport History, October 12: Rossi clinched his 2003 MotoGP title at Sepang
- A clutch, a raised hand and 25 points: how Motegi rewired the Moto2 title fight
- Toyota seals WEC title, Phoenix has a winner, Austin is four days out
- Today in Motorsport History, October 19: Hawthorn wins the 1958 F1 title by one point
Sources
- MotoGP.com: Phillip Island classics, the best of the Australian GP
- Bridgestone tyre Q&A after the 2013 Phillip Island race (Ultimate Motorcycling)
- Autosport: MotoGP arranges Phillip Island test after tyre dramas
- Bridgestone on its 2014 Phillip Island tyres (Ultimate Motorcycling)
- Cycle News: Lorenzo wins, Márquez DQ’d in Australia
- Crash.net: Final 2013 MotoGP standings
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