Qualifying for the Australian grand prix has been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and will now take place ahead of the race on Sunday morning in a revised schedule.
The extreme winds to hit the area affected the earlier-run FP3 session, with most riders electing to remain in their garages for most of the session due to the danger of riding in the blustery winds.
This came to a head in FP4, when Tech 3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was blown off course into Turn 1 and crashed as a result. The Portuguese was thankfully uninjured aside from some heavy bruising, and will be reviewed ahead of qualifying just in case.
The remainder of the session was red flagged due to Oliveira’s high-speed incident, with the following rider’s meeting deciding to cancel qualifying and move it into Sunday morning where the wind is expected to calm significantly.
MotoGP Q1 is therefore now scheduled to go ahead at 10:20am local time after the warm-up sessions are completed, with Q2 set to get underway at 10:45am ahead of the Moto3 race set for 12:00pm.
