…after my boy Jorge Lorenzo fell, together with his multiply-fractured collarbone, out of the 2013 championship race in a relatively tame high side on Wednesday, nothing like Marquez’s high side on Thursday, in which the rookie went completely ragdoll in a pas de deux with his bike, broke a finger, broke a toe, walked away and qualified on the front row.
One of the racing publications suggested the possibility that Lorenzo might try to race on Saturday without having qualified on Friday. Not sure how that works, other than badly. If Lorenzo can be 85% by Saxony he can wait for Pedrosa to crash, or, delightfully, the rookie to CAUSE Pedrosa to crash in a silly overtaking move somewhere like Laguna or Brno.
What a bummer it is to be kind of Pedrosa-neutral, ready to see him BEAT Lorenzo for the title, but now having to almost hope he has bad luck and collects a DNF or two in order to make it a horse race again.
If Marquez were to accidentally dump Pedrosa on the way to a win Sunday, Livio Suppo’s worst nightmare come true, the standings would look like this:
Pedrosa 123
Marquez 118
Lorenzo 116
Crutchlow 91
Just sayin’.
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A. Competing = starting a race.
B. Qualifying = finding one hot lap.
C. Racing = consistent hot laps
D. Winning = Doing lots of C and leaving some B for when it is necessary or opportune.
When turned upside down this approximates the food chain in MotoGP. There are two, maybe three D’s. There are four or five C’s. There are three or four B’s. And the rest–16 or so–are mainly out there turning laps, maybe qualifying top six in the rain, looking for photo ops for the sponsors, chasing promotional opportunities. Lots of training, great reflexes–kind of guy who could snatch your dollar bill out of the air from 2″. But the top 10 are the only guys with even a remote chance of a podium.
So, 60% of the field is out there to wear the colors and get some exposure for the sponsors. Of the rest, perhaps four or five have a chance of winning a race. The rest, if you’ll pardon the observation, are satisfied with one hot lap in qualifying, keeping the shiny side up for 25 laps, letting attrition take its toll on the field, and telling everyone about their “Top Ten” finish and what a thrill it was, how the team–everyone but him, really–worked really hard all weekend blah blah blah. That he didn’t actually overtake anyone all day, but managed 9th place nonetheless. In the words of Gilbert Godfrey, “Big whoop.” Some pretty big names in this group. Former world champions.
Nice that at least one of the top ten is a “CRT” baller, Aleix Espargaro. Make it a new rule that if brothers are competing in the series, they must either both be on prototypes or both on Frankenbikes. We’ve had the Spies rule, then the Marquez rule. Time for the Espargaro rule.
Tags: Cal Crutchlow, Dani Pedrosa, Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Honda, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, motogp, Nicky Hayden, valentino rossi, Yamaha
Late-Braking MotoGP 
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