By This morning’s free practice session for the 56th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix was cancelled due to bad weather.
The schedule for Friday the 15th of November will be adjusted as follows. The morning Qualifying 1 session at 07:45–08:30 local time (GMT +8) will become Free Practice. Qualifying 2 at 16:15–17:00 becomes the single qualifying session.
Heavy rain from Typhoon Toraji rendered the Guia Circuit too wet to be safely ridden, as the Macau Meteorological Office raised the No. 3 Typhoon Signal – not the full typhoon warning No. 8 that shuts down the city, but slippery enough for the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee (MGPOC) to cancel the session on safety grounds.
Typhoon Toraji is projected to continue travelling westwards until 15th of November, when it will turn south and begin to dissipate. A few showers are forecast for the 15th, with some strong gusts of wind.
Gusts can particularly affect riders on the track section around the reservoir, from the approach to Fisherman’s round to the start/finish line, and some exposed parts of the narrow, twisting Guia Hill section such as the Dona Maria lefthander.
With temperatures expected around 26°C and humidity up to 98%, the riders can expect a hot, slippery qualifying session.
Good news for the race on Saturday morning: the forecast is a dry, if cloudy, day.
Photo credit: GCS
Words by Tom McGrenery
