Nearly every week the MotoGP™ commentary box is treated to some special guests and this weekend at the Pramac Generac Australian Grand Prix was no different. MotoGP™ commentators Steve Day, Matt Birt and Simon Crafar were joined for MotoGP™ FP1 and FP2 by Australian legend and former premier class race winner Chris Vermeulen.
The former factory Suzuki rider offered insight and analysis on the day’s action, including all of the key stories from an incident-filled opening day. The stand-out moment from the day was Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo highsiding during FP1; a crash that forced him out of FP2 as well.
The Australian immediately talked us through the incident: “These conditions can catch out the best, especially at Siberia in a low grip situation like we have now. When you exit Turn 4, you get on the gas quite hard and you brake not that hard into Siberia. Then the rear came around on him really quickly.
"Off the throttle, there's not a lot you can do, there was just not enough load on the rear tyre. Once it starts going like that, there’s not a lot you can do, there’s no controlling it, it’s more luck if you manage to stay on it.”
Thanks to Chris Vermeulen for joining us on the first day of what is no doubt a special, but also busy, weekend for the Aussie racer. Tune into MotoGP™ FP3 on Saturday morning at 10:50 local time (GMT+11) with Steve Day, Matt Birt and Simon Crafar.