by Michael Esdaile
MotoGP teams view the flowing, fast and brutal-on-tires Phillip Island circuit as an outlier on the calendar, and 2025 demonstrated that its reputation is well earned.
This year is the third successive Australian MotoGP won by an independent team. Trackhouse Racing Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez won his first MotoGP Grand Prix race in a clean runaway from the field in 2025; the nine-time Grand Prix World Champion, Marc Marquez won at the circuit in 2024 on a 2023 Ducati Desmosedici fielded by Gresini Racing; and Johann Zarco won on the Prima Pramac Ducati in 2023, coming out on top of a last-lap scrum as riders tried to nurse their machines home on completely shagged tires.
In addition, Marc Marquez also holds the race record for 27 laps of Phillip Island: 39:47.702, set on the year-old GP23 in the 2024 race.
Weather always seems to play a role at Phillip Island. Races have been moved around on the weekend in prior years due to rain and wind, and this year saw the second-coldest track temperatures (21 degrees Celsius or 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the modern MotoGP era.
More, from Michael Esdaile:
Marco Bezzecchi’s unfortunate encounter with a gull during the MotoGP Sprint race on Saturday at Phillip Island is only the latest motorcycle-bird collision at the circuit. While Andrea Iannone hitting a sea gull with his head is perhaps the best well-known incident, there have been several others at the track.
Many years ago, Kawasaki was testing its ZX7R Superbike at Phillip Island. Aaron Slight was behind Australian Marty Craggill when there was an explosion of feathers – and Craggill fell off – in a straight line. Slight braked to a stop, laid his factory Kawasaki down on the grass and ran to Craggill, who was screaming “I’ve lost me arm, I’ve lost me arm.” Aaron could see that Craggill’s right hand was on his left shoulder, so he grabbed the Aussie by the right thumb and swung his arm back around into Craggill’s view. Then the ambulance arrived.
Rob Phillis wanted to get his shotgun and go cull some of the Cape Barren Geese. Adult Cape Barren geese are large birds, typically measuring 30–39 inches long and weighing between 8–11 lbs. At a rider’s briefing some years later, the riders were asked for input and Phillis said: “what are you going to do about these Cape Barren Geese?” “Oh well Robbie, they are protected,” came the reply. “What about us riders!” Phillis barked back.
Phillis once had a seagull beak embedded in the web between two fingers. He arrived back at the pit lane complaining of a “sore hand”. Peter Doyle (Kawasaki team manager) took a look then grabbed a pair of needle-nose pliers and extracted the seagull beak.
