Late-Braking MotoGP

It always feels good when Aleix Espargaro does well

Aleix and his muscular Aprilia were fastest in the sunshine on Friday, slowest in the wet Q2 on Saturday morning, so-so on a damp track in the Saturday Sprint and good enough to win on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. At a track like Silverstone, wide and free-flowing, the Aprilia is at its best, and one can come from P12 on the grid to the top step of the podium. (The Noale factory also put three of its four bikes in the Top 5 today, as Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Vinales both had excellent outings.) Pecco Bagnaia took the lead from Jack Miller in the main race on Lap 2 and held it until the final couple of turns on Lap 20, settling for 20 points and extending his lead over Jorge Martin in P2 and Marco Bezzecchi, who crashed out of contention on Lap 6 and fell to P3 for the season. Bez also trashed my fantasy team, as I had used a Boost on him which worked out on Saturday but bit me in the ass today.

Marc Marquez has now failed to score any championship points in a grand prix since Sepang last year. His season of unabated misery continues, well, unabated.

The Moto3 race was, as usual, outstanding, with virtually everyone in the lead group during the first half of the race. At the checkered flag, it was rookie David Alonso (the first Colombian ever to win a GP), bridesmaid Ayuma Sasaki in P2 as is his wont, and series leader Dani Holgado in P3. My boy Jaume Masia crashed out of podium contention early in the race and will probably keep my season predictions from going three for three.

The Moto2 race later in the day saw Fermín Aldeguer win his first Moto2 race ahead of Aron Canet and wunderkind Pedro Acosta who, courtesy of Tony Arbolino’s curious P10 finish, took over the 2023 season lead on his way to MotoGP next season. He did not appear to break a sweat in what little I saw of the race today.

Alex Marquez won the Saturday Sprint and was looking strong in the main event before an apparent gearbox problem forced his retirement. The serious bumping and grinding which took place in the GP left a number of riders missing pieces and parts, lots of aero wings and Fabio Quartararo’s front fairing littering the track. Summer in Britain feels like fall in the US, setting the riders up for massive cases of cognitive dissonance as we get into October and November in the Asian blast furnaces. Repsol Honda didn’t even bother providing Marquez with a brolly girl, which is an editorial statement as much as a meteorological one. And was I hallucinating, or does it appear #93 is starting to grow a mustache? Hoping no one recognizes him during his last few months with Honda?

I’ve got stuff to do today, people to see, places to go, cats to kill. A leggy blonde waiting for me to take her to Menard’s and back to her place for dinner. Yeah, I know. The stature that comes with being a world authority on MotoGP gets you the pretty girls who like to spend an afternoon at Menard’s and Home Depot. There are different ways to get paid in this world.

Two weeks to the Red Bull Ring. Those of you attending the race should make sure to spend some time in the mountains before all the permafrost melts and they come crashing to the ground, filling the valleys, and making the rest of the world look like Indiana.

Tags: Aleix espargaro, Alex Marquez, Aprilia, Bruce Allen, Ducati, fabio quartararo, Honda, KTM, Marc Marquez, marco bezzecchi, pecco bagnaia, Silverstone

This entry was posted on August 6, 2023 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Aprilia, British Motorcycle Grand Prix, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.