Phillip Island circuit flooded ahead of Australia MotoGP practice

Wet weather is currently battering Victoria with the downpour prompting flood warnings across the state from the Bureau of Meteorology.

Low-lying parts of the circuit are currently under water while some facilities such as car parks are inaccessible due to the weather conditions. 

MotoGP safety cars have been lapping the circuit throughout the afternoon while the official media bike has also been in action.

Autosport understands MotoGP officials are currently not concerned about the flooding affecting the two official practice sessions scheduled for tomorrow.

That’s despite the current forecast indicating the rain will continue throughout Friday.

There is better news from Friday evening onwards, though, with partly cloudy conditions forecast by the BoM for Saturday and mostly sunny conditions for Sunday. 

While track action may not be affected, it’s unlikely the weather that has been lashing the east coast of Australia won’t cause operational headaches this weekend, particularly if car parks, both inside and outside the circuit, can’t be re-opened.

There were similar scenes at the Bathurst 1000 in regional New South Wales last weekend which saw most car parks permanently closed due to mud, while spectators and trackside campers were subject to miserable conditions. 

The weather was bad enough that the Top 10 Shootout, which traditionally decides the first five rows of the Bathurst 1000 grid, was cancelled for the first time in the race’s six-decade history. 

The Thailand MotoGP race two weeks ago was heavily affected by wet weather, with heavy rain forcing a delay of almost an hour. 

The downpour also led to the prior Moto2 race being red-flagged and eventually abandoned after an attempt to restart it was thwarted by the weather.

Free Practice 1 for MotoGP at Phillip Island is scheduled to kick off at 9:55am local time (11:55pm BST).