Aussie riders light up Saturday with three front row starts

There have been some great Saturdays at Phillip Island and under perfect skies, the Liqui Moly Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2025 saw the Australian riders put on a great show for their fans.

In the three classes, three Aussie riders have ensured that they will start from the front row of the grid after some great Qualifying action, and Jack Miller put a silver lining on top of that with a great fourth place in the MotoGP™ Sprint race.

Over 13 laps Miller and his Yamaha fought hard and, in spite of a lack of straight-line speed compared to the KTM and Ducatis, finished right behind Pedro Acosta, and held out Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Joel Kelso became the first Australian rider to qualify on pole position for his home Moto3 Grand Prix with a brilliant performance. From the very start of the session the Darwin rider and his LevelUp MTA KTM took the fight to World Champion Jose Antonio Rueda, and in the end the two were split by just 0.091s.

Kelso will be fighting to become the second Aussie to win in the lightweight class, following in the steps of Miller, who won at Phillip Island in 2014.

A little further back on the Moto3™ grid Jacob Roulstone also went straight into the second Qualifying session and the Red Bull Tech3 KTM rider qualified in 13th place for Sunday’s race.

In Moto2™ Senna Agius went oh-so-close to taking pole position and will start Sunday’s race from the front row of the grid. The MotoGP™-bound Brazilian Diogo Moreira just edged him out of pole position but Agius has two what could be significant advantages over him. First, he has no championship ambitions to protect, so he can go all-out for the race win, if that is where he finds himself.

Second, he has a wingman. Right alongside Agius on the grid will be Manuel Gonzalez on the other Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact Kalex, so if it comes down to the final laps, a two-against-one situation just may allow the Aussie to gain the upper hand.

The other Moto2™ Aussie Harrison Voight, who is having the first of two race weekends as a substitute rider, placed 13th in Q1 and will start Sunday’s race from 27th on the grid on the QJMotor Frinsa MTI Boscoscuro.