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Phillip Island says goodbye this weekend, Yamaha loses Toprak Razgatlioglu for the rest of the season and Honda finally reveals its 2027 line-up. Here is everything that mattered in MotoGP on Tuesday, 20 October, in one place.
The shoulder injury from Mandalika is worse than first thought. Toprak Razgatlioglu, who put his dislocated shoulder back in himself after the FP2 crash and still raced the Sprint, will have surgery in Milan on 26 October and misses the last five rounds. Test rider Augusto Fernández takes the seat until Valencia. Toprak's message to team-mate Jack Miller before the final Australian GP at Phillip Island: “Racing in front of your home crowd is always special.” Full story.
Jorge Martín still leads the championship by just two points from Marc Márquez, but the Aprilia rider admitted he had no answer to his own team-mates in Indonesia. “On the fast corners they were able to put more speed with less spin, and I was spinning like crazy,” he said, losing around a tenth in each of two corners and finishing 6.9 seconds behind winner Marco Bezzecchi. With limited track time at the coming venues, that gap is his biggest worry. .
Chicho Lorenzo came out in his defence, calling the tyre-pressure rule that cost Martín positions in the Sprint “absurd” and accusing Aprilia of losing more points through internal clashes than its rivals gained. He still believes Martín can handle the pressure, but warned that Márquez's weapon is to “emotionally destabilise his biggest rival”. .
Adelaide takes over in 2027, so this weekend closes a chapter. Raúl Fernández, who won his first MotoGP race here last year and arrives from his first pole and second place in Mandalika despite a broken finger, admits he will “cry a little”. He believes the RS-GP's stability in fast corners suits the track. .
Casey Stoner, six wins in a row at the circuit from 2007 to 2012, confessed he never felt comfortable there: “That place can bite you so quickly.” Free practice starts on Friday with sunshine forecast before rain and cooler weather later in the weekend. .
Qatar is on. IRTA told the teams the rescheduled Qatar GP goes ahead on 7–8 November, after Australia and Malaysia, with security assurances from the Qatari authorities. Yamaha and Honda have dropped their objections, but around 75% of the grid is said to have reservations, and riders will be asked about it at Phillip Island on Thursday. .
2027 weekends get shorter. Aprilia's Massimo Rivola and Tech3's Guenther Steiner pushed for three practice sessions and a separate Sprint qualifying. Mat Oxley estimates 35 fewer minutes on track and up to one million euros saved per rider per season. Francesco Bagnaia is unhappy about losing the Sunday warm-up. .
Kevin Schwantz looked back on 25 wins, the 1993 title and the rivalry with Wayne Rainey, and tipped Pedro Acosta to shine on a Ducati “if Márquez hasn't led him too far astray” (read). Jorge Lorenzo explained his post-racing plan: ten apartments, ten monthly rents (read).
The paddock settles into Phillip Island ahead of Thursday's media day: expect the first reactions to the Qatar decision, Yamaha's plan without Toprak and the title contenders' first words before the last Australian GP on the island.
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