WATCH: When a MotoGP rider narrowly escaped a chaotic collision with a Kangaroo at the Australian GP
Revisiting the time when Aleix Espargaró nearly collided with a Kangaroo at Phillip Island
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Aleix Espargaro
Australia’s rich wildlife is often displayed at Phillip Island when the Moto GP circus arrives. The iconic Grand Prix has seen multiple instances of animals and birds appearing on the track when the riders are roaring around the circuit. It’s become a highlight of the Australian Grand Prix. One such incident took place last year, on the 10th of April 2022, when Aleix Espargaró was on a hot lap at the infamous circuit
A wallaby (kangaroo), apparently unfamiliar with the mid-corner speeds a MotoGP bike can reach, decided to cross the track, hopping across the oncoming MotoGP bikes. Aleix’s Aprilia reached over 140 MPH as he narrowly escaped a collision with the wallaby. Espargaró avoided the wallaby by just a few feet. This incident led to a bunch of riders demanding better rider protection.
Espargaró spoke about the meeting held because of this incident; the Spaniard labeled his wallaby near-miss as He said, as reported by Autosports, “unacceptable. At the beginning [of the meeting] everybody was laughing. But they understood it was a very important thing in terms of safety. If yesterday I caught the wallaby, I was doing 220 km/h, big, big, big crash.”
Aleix commented on how it would not be possible to keep the birds from flying into the circuit, but there needs to be action taken against the wallabies: “For the birds you can’t do anything. Birds can happen. But wallabies cannot happen.”
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Andrea Iannone killed a seagull by headbutting it at Phillip Island
In 2015, Andrea Iannone was riding his Ducati around the iconic Phillip Island circuit when he encountered a flying seagull. This incident occurred at the famous turn 11 – the mighty descending right-hand corner. Iannone was leading the Grand Prix when he approached T11.
The Seagull was sitting in the middle of the track. The bird immediately tried to fly away as the bikes came around that corner. But the seagull never managed to; the bird collided with Andrea’s helmet (which had a ‘bulls-eye’ graphic imprinted on it) and was rendered motionless.
The 2015 Australian Grand Prix is iconic for a lot more reasons than this one incident. The race saw an intense four-way battle for the win between three legends and the fiery Ducati of Iannone.
Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, and Valentino Rossi fought for crucial points in the World Championship. Marquez took the famous win, but Rossi’s comments and the subsequent ‘Rossi-Marquez’ rivalry that began after this race took over the headlines.
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Himanshu Chavan
(232 Articles Published)