The Australian Grand Prix has been delayed by over two hours due to poor weather at Phillip Island on Sunday.
The last-ever MotoGP race at the iconic Phillip Island circuit is now due to kick off at 4:30pm local time (5:30am GMT), having originally been scheduled for 2pm. The pitlane is scheduled to open at 4pm local time.
New race start time: 4:30pm AEDT / 5:30am GMT / 6:30am CET / 1:30am ET / 10:30pm PT / 2:30pm JST / 11:00am ISTWhile Melbourne continues to witness heavy rain, lack of visibility remains the chief problem, preventing MotoGP's medical helicopter from operating. The championship rules require the helicopter to remain on standby should a rider need to be airlifted to hospital.
The organisers had to push back the start of track action several times through the day, and it wasn't until 2pm that they issued a revised schedule.
"As we wait for visibility to improve, the new provisional pitlane opening time for the MotoGP Grand Prix at the Red Bull Grand Prix of Australia is now 16:00 local time," the championship said in a statement.
"Due to the delays caused by the poor visibility affecting the operation of the medical helicopter, the Moto3 and the Moto2 races have both been cancelled."
Track action for the day was due to kick off at 9:40am with the MotoGP warm-up. But the session was rescheduled to 11am before being cancelled altogether. Moto3 and Moto2 races at Phillip Island were also called off one after the other as the day went on to prioritise the premier class.
Poor weather had been forecast throughout the weekend at Phillip Island, with conditions deteriorating on Sunday as expected.
There were discussions about MotoGP proactively altering the schedule at the start of the weekend, but no such changes were ultimately made.
All sessions on Saturday went ahead as per schedule, with qualifying taking place in wet conditions before the circuit dried in time for the sprint.
"So essentially at the moment there's a limitation on the medical helicopter to fly," MotoGP Race Director Graham Webber explained. "Like I say, there's bad weather in Melbourne and here, and so there's actually two places that we need to be able to say go, basically. So that helicopter needs a window of around 60 minutes in both places, Phillip Island and Melbourne, in order for us to start the race.
"Again, just based on safety, we need to make sure that if we do have any issues that we're covered, that we can get a rider quickly to hospital. Generally at some circuits we can use the road, so like with an ambulance, but unfortunately because the distance to the hospital is over 45 minutes, essentially we have to rely on that helicopter and therefore, yeah, we're really held by the weather really.
"So yeah, it's a bit of a shame, it's unusual, like I say, most circuits we can reach a hospital within 45 minutes, which is our regulation. But here in Phillip Island, the hospital is further than 45 minutes by road, therefore we rely on the air ambulance."