MotoGP 2023 Round 14 – Motegi

October 1, 2023

A race, a parade, and a cluster

Psychedelia from the Japanese Grand Prix

From my limited perspective–the kitchen table at my home in Indiana–it was an enjoyable last weekend in September/first weekend in October as MotoGP arrived in The Land of the Rising Sun. Something for every taste and budget, as it were. In the premier class, young Jorge Martin continued his assault on the 2023 title, elbowing his way to pole, another Sprint win, and being declared the winner of the red-flagged main event on Sunday. Somkiat Chantra led an Idimetsu Honda Team Asia 1-2 in an increasingly familiar Moto2 parade. My boy Jaume Masia won again in a tightly contested Moto3 tilt with the lightweight title chase tighter than bark on a tree.

The MotoGP race itself was a portrait of disorder at the start. The clouds and humidity which featured all weekend finally gave way to rain five minutes before the start, with all riders on slicks. Well, not ALL riders, as Luca Marini and Alex Marquez were absent, nursing injuries received in the Buddh steam bath last week. Anyway, when the red lights went out, the grid departed their starting spots as if they were skating on black ice, and the wet race white flags came out on Lap 1. All the serious riders immediately entered the pits, leaving Fabio Quartararo, Michele Pirro, Stefan Bradl, Franco Morbidelli and Cal Crutchlow circulating on their way to complete irrelevance on slicks, gambling with nothing to lose that the rain might suddenly, unexpectedly quit. Check the standings at the end of Lap 1–you’ll never see those numbers at the top again.

Martin occupied P4 at the end of Lap 2. By Lap 6, in the driving rain, he had sliced through the top of the order into P1 where he stayed through the end of Lap 12, at which point the race was red-flagged. Although a restart was possible, the conditions failed to improve sufficiently to allow it, probably to the relief of the riders. And so Pecco Bagnaia’s lead in the 2023 title chase was cut from 13 points on Friday to three points on Sunday evening. Marco Bezzecchi trails Martin by 48 with Brad Binder, who crashed today and gutted my fantasy team, another 13 points back, but still in it by my reckoning, with the nasty, life-threatening part of the schedule starting in less than two weeks.

Still no announcement as to Marc Marquez’ plans for 2024, despite assurances that they would be revealed by this weekend. Ditto for Pedro Acosta, as there is now some doubt that he will get his ticket punched for MotoGP next season. A bunch of riders will be getting promoted from Moto3 to Moto2 next year, as per usual. We took issue with the provisional 2024 calendar elsewhere this weekend, even before we become fully immersed in the brutal piece of the 2023 schedule starting next time out in Indonesia, where afternoon temps are reliably in the 90’s and the humidity is like a wet towel. As one of our faithful readers commented concerning the riders and their attitudes toward the killer schedule, beatings will continue until morale improves.

Come back for more in two weeks.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Dorna, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Motegi, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Motegi, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 6 Comments »

About the 2024 MotoGP Calendar

September 30, 2023

Testing the limits of human endurance again, but more

After a cursory examination of the provisional 2024 MotoGP calendar, we are once again going to get all up in Carmelo Ezpeleta’s business. We thought (think) the 2023 calendar is brutal enough to get a few riders and crew members hospitalized. The Powers That Be took our comments to heart and produced a calendar for next year which is even worse.

22 rounds. Four back-to-back rounds. A late season Pacific flyaway with six rounds in seven weeks, including four hotties–India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Round 9 in central Asia–Kazakhstan, of all places. 12 European rounds and 10 outside Europe. 11 rounds before the summer break and 11 following. 44 races counting the Saturday Sprints.

Here’s a reference I’d wager NONE of you will understand. Rumor has it that there will be two additional rounds on the 2025 calendar, one in Irkutsk, the other in Kamchatka. Anyone?

For 2024, Lusail gets moved back to Round 1, followed by the annual demolition derby at Algarve in Portugal. After a week off comes the first back-to-back in Argentina and COTA. Then comes Jerez, followed by Le Mans. The second double of the year goes from Barcelona to Bologna. Then comes Sokol, which has two asterisks, designating it, once again, as the annual loss leader, The Round Most Likely To Get Cancelled. Teams get a week off to prepare for the third double in Assen and East Germany, followed by the summer break, during which everyone loses interest in motorcycle racing in general.

The back nine starts at Silverstone, then on to Austria. The last doubleheader of the year takes us from Aragon to Misano. Then the teams spend mid-September girding their loins for the dreaded and dreadful flyaways. In quick succession India, Indonesia and Japan. A week off to hydrate and spend time in the hyperbaric chamber. Then, boom, Phillip Island, Thailand and Malaysia. The last men standing will have a week to convalesce before the usual finale in Valencia.

We haven’t really gotten into the hard part of the 2023 calendar yet and the riders are begging for mercy. Aleix is not happy, Fabio is stressed out. The weather in India forced the truncation of races in all three classes, with only 16 riders even finishing the main event. Alex Marquez and Luca Marini ended the weekend in the hospital with fractures. The brolly girls were exhausted from fighting frizz all weekend. And it will hit the fan for real on 13 October when things get ginned up in Indonesia.

Whatever happened to the 18-round season? The occasional back-to-back? The three round Asian flyaway? Time to rest between qualifying on Saturday and the Sunday race, except for Assen? Inquiring minds want to know. These are our heroes out there getting their brains bashed in and having their life expectancies shortened in Ezpeleta’s incessant quest to overtake F-1 as the preeminent racing league in the world. Something’s gotta give.

Any of you planning to attend Round 9 please extend my warm regards to Borat’s sister.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Dorna, FIM, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Motegi, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP | 3 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Round 13–India

September 24, 2023

Pecco opens the door for Martin and Bezzecchi

As expected, this weekend’s Grand Prix of India was hotter than a freshly f**ked fox in a forest fire. Rather than thinking of it as the hottest race weekend ever, it might make more sense to view it as the coolest Indian Grand Prix of the next ten years. How hot was it? Prima Pramac Ducati pilot Jorge Martin, with the conditioning of a triathlete, was unable to drive his Desmo to Parc Ferme, having to get off at his garage. His team poured ice water into his leathers, on his neck, removed his helmet, and tended to him as he sank to his knees. There is some confusion as to whether he actually lost consciousness. Suffice it to say that, with 7 races (plus 7 sprints) in the next 9 weeks, this is a scene we are going to see again and again. Carmelo Ezpeleta and his minions at Dorna want to squeeze every last dollar out of this series. Their efforts may yet result in a rider losing his life. With Kazakhstan and Aragon getting added to the 2024 calendar, the squeeze will continue.

Jorge Martin, flirting with disaster in the Indian Grand Prix

The Tissot Sprint on Saturday was a bit of a cluster, as Luca Marini barged into teammate Marco Bezzecchi in Turn 1 of Lap 1, with Pol Espargaro, Stefan Bradl and Augusto Fernandez getting caught up in the ensuing fire drill. Bezzecchi and Fernandez would continue, but Marini broke his collarbone, causing my fantasy team to take a hit. Bezzecchi laid down a vapor trail from the back of the pack and ended the day in P5, foreshadowing what would occur in Sunday’s main event. Pecco and Marc Marquez–remember him?–claimed the second and third steps of the podium behind race winner Jorge Martin.

In Sunday’s race, Bezzecchi once again was in a league of his own, taking the lead in Turn 4 of Lap 1 and riding off into the smog. He was pursued by Bagnaia, Martin and Marquez. On Lap 6 Marquez slid out, dropping from P4 to P16 before climbing back up to P9 at the flag. Pecco did the world a favor by hitting the deck on Lap 14 while running second, causing his team and Ducati management another epic case of heartburn.

Once Bagnaia left the building, Martin and Fabio Quartararo–remember him?– took up the chase. Fabio, aboard the woeful Yamaha M1, did not appear to present any kind of threat to Martin until late in the last lap, when Martin inexplicably went walkabout, doubtless due to his fighting heat stroke inside his leathers and helmet. Suddenly, #20 and #89 were in a fight for P2, with Martin desperate for the four extra points that would come his way if he held on against the Frenchman and literally passing out. He was able to lunge inside #20 late and stand him up, hold on to P2 and avoid mayhem, but this episode is a harbinger of things yet to come in Indonesia, Thailand, Qatar and Malaysia.

Assuming Martin will not get penalized for unzipping his leathers during Sunday’s race, the championship heads to Japan next week with Bagnaia holding a 13 point lead over Martin and clear of Bezzecchi by 56 points.

Elsewhere, my boy Jaume Masia dominated the Moto3 race, pulling into a tie for the series lead with Daniel Holgado, with Ayumu Sasaki a single point behind the pair. (The 2023 standings are as close as most of the races in this, the most exciting division in MotoGP racing.) Pedro Acosta continued his domination of Moto2 winning easily today, on his way to MotoGP next season. The paddock was abuzz all weekend with the rumor, expected to be confirmed next week, of Marc Marquez’s defection to Gresini Ducati commencing next year, with the Marquez brothers riding together on the Italian Ducati satellite operation. Morbidelli to Pramac Ducati next year is now firm. Zarco to LCR Honda is now firm. Rins to the factory Yamaha team next year is now firm. Nakagami remaining with LCR Honda next year is now firm. The question left to be answered for 2024: Who will take Marquez’s seat on the factory Honda team alongside Joan Mir?

Footnote: Things in the cosmos have settled down now, as I have assumed my rightful place in our fantasy league, seizing the lead for the year with today’s result, despite the sorry performances turned in by Aleix Espargaro and Luca Marini. Don’t call it a comeback, bitches.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ducati, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 3 Comments »

RIP Evans Brasfield

September 16, 2023

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/features/rip-evans-brasfield-44594668

Evans Brasfield became my editor at Motorcycle.com in 2018 upon the unfortunate departure of Kevin Duke to parts unknown, one of the radical staff reductions-in-force that have plagued industry publications during the past decade. I had read some of Evans’ work and was familiar with him by name only. He continued as my editor until early this month when MO published my mid-season review of the 2023 MotoGP season.

During these six years, I cannot remember a single time when Evans lost his temper or criticized me for anything undeserving of criticism. He agreed to my stipulation that my work get posted without much, if any, editing by Dennis or anyone else. He did his best to protect me from the Verticalscope suits in Toronto. He gave me utterly manageable deadlines and was entirely supportive of my efforts to enhance MO’s coverage of racing. He had clearly forgotten more than I ever knew about motorcycles, but was tolerant of my ignorance and complimentary of my writing style or lack thereof. He managed to get me paid out of a freelance budget that had shrunken dramatically. He was able to answer to his own corporate masters and the interminable bean counters without making me feel worthless. In short, he was every freelance writer’s dream editor.

Since 2008 when I took my first stab at covering MotoGP, I have reported to Joe Magro, Sean Alexander, Kevin Duke, John Burns (briefly) and Evans. I pitched Joe on allowing me to assume the role of MotoGP Correspondent before I had actually watched my first race. (When he asked me if I was a rider, I said yes because I thought he had said “writer.”) Throughout the years, my editors at MO have supported my efforts despite my being an old Hoosier who drives cars. They sent me to Malaysia on a junket in 2014, probably because none of the real editors wanted to go sweat their cojones off for a week on the equator, but it was a blast and I got to meet a number of folks in the business–Jensen Beeler, Marie Wilson and David Emmett, to name a few.

To me, Evans’ passing feels like the end of an era. I’ve been at this for 15 years, but am skeptical that it will continue now that my rabbi has left the building. Certainly whoever steps into his job will be looking for someone capable of bringing more to the party than dick jokes and actionable slurs. And even though I was never able to shake Evans’ hand in person, I join with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of riders and writers who will miss his even temper and thoughtful posts. Once again, we are shown the hand of God and are left to shake our heads and mumble about how the good die young. Happy trails, Mr. Brasfield.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Moto, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing | 9 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – Round 12 Misano

September 10, 2023

Nothing but spoilers here

Moto3 was a four-man cage match. Deniz Oncu, my boy Jaume Masia, and teenagers David Munoz and David Alonso spent the second half of the race in a small, select group going very fast in close quarters. During the last two laps it looked as if any of the four could win. At the flag, Masia trailed Alonso by 4/100ths of a second in the best race of the weekend.

Moto2 was another master class by The Next Great Spanish Rider as Pedro Acosta led from wire to wire, followed at the end by Celestino Vietti and Alonzo Lopez. A parade, despite the breathless efforts of Matt Birt and Louis Suddeby to make it interesting. The only remaining question is where Acosta will end up next season in MotoGP, or rather whose seat he will take. KTM may have to break a heart or two or a few contracts to hold onto this guy, who has Alien written all over him.

MotoGP was interesting for a while this weekend, at least until the end of Q2, when Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Pecco Bagnaia assumed the positions they would occupy in both the Sprint and Sunday’s main event. Grizzled veteran Dani Pedrosa made the most of his second wild card round of the year with P4 finishes in both races. During the last third of Sunday’s race, it looked like he could snatch the final podium spot from Bagnaia, but the Italian, seriously wounded in last week’s race in Barcelona, dug deep enough to hold onto his 16 points. Martin now trails Bagnaia by 36 points in the 2023 title chase.

Once again, all-time track records fell like bowling pins this weekend, the last European round until the season finale in Valencia. In two weeks, it starts to get real, as the flying circus enters the autoclave, eight races in ten weekends, most of them in equatorial heat. In two weeks the combatants will be in India, with daytime high temps well into the 90’s, foreshadowing what most of the next two months will look like. Thus far, 2023 has been, relatively speaking, all fun and games. The provisional calendar for 2024 includes 22 rounds, with Kazakhstan added to the calendar and Aragon making a comeback.

MotoGP is approaching critical mass, a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest ecosystem which will test the limits of machines, men and the laws of physics. Stay tuned.

The start of your typical Moto2 race.
Dani Pedrosa returns in style.
A little local color.
A little more.
Luca Marini and the Italian Air Force.
Italian warplane loitering over the track.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Dani Pedrosa, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Misano, MotoGP Results | 7 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Round 11 – Catalunya

September 3, 2023

For Pecco, A Bad Time for an Injury

We have been banging on for some time about how quickly a solid lead in the 2023 championship can/could change, based upon a cramped calendar and venues with the climate of blast furnaces. Today, we may have seen what I’ve been talking about. This is about the untimely injury Pecco Bagnaia received in Turn 2 of Lap 1 of the Catalan Grand Prix, when he high-sided out of the lead in front of a harried group of riders with full fuel tanks and gritted teeth.

There was simply no way for Brad Binder to avoid striking the prone Bagnaia, running his KTM across the Italian’s legs. Luckily, this was not the crash that killed Marco Simoncelli at Sepang in 2012, when a bike ran across his neck, nor the fatal injury suffered by Shoya Tomizawa in 2010 when his chest was crushed in a 250cc race in San Marino. At the time this article was posted, doctors were saying nothing more than Bagnaia’s legs suffered injuries necessitating a CT scan to determine the extent of the damage. During the race, pit reporter Simon Crafar casually referred to Bagnaia’s injury as a mere “tib fib,” along the lines of the injury suffered by Alex Rins at Mugello in early June and which has kept him out of action since. HRC is hoping Rins will be fit for next week’s Misano tilt, which would mark three months since he was hurt.

If Pecco has a “tib fib” or two, his season is effectively over. The 66-point lead he enjoyed prior to today’s race will not hold up over the next 13 weeks. Everyone who knows this sport knows all it takes is the blink of an eye…If he somehow avoided a catastrophic injury today, he is likely out for two or three rounds anyway, meaning it is a brand new day in the premier class.

Lost in the sauce of today’s frightening events was the historic Aprilia 1-2, with Aleix Espargaro and your boy Cole Trickle (OKA Maverick Vinales) taking the top two steps of the podium after the restart, joined by Jorge Martin. The announcers spent the entire day rattling on about tire wear, which is getting terribly old. How is it that none of the big manufacturers can design racing tires that will hold up for 25 laps? Wouldn’t the proceedings be more interesting if we could focus our attention on something other than tires? Exhibit A in this conversation is this photo of Vinales’ front tire about halfway through today’s race.

Anyway, today’s race was most exciting for me owing to the changes I made to my fantasy team roster prior to the weekend, substituting Espargaro and Vinales for Bezzecchi and Binder:

Midway through today’s Moto3 race, there was a 25 bike lead group separated by around three seconds. Just let that sink in for a moment. It was riveting until the very end, especially since two contenders, series leader Daniel Holgado and up-and-coming teenager David Munoz, got bumped out of the race on the last lap. Race results:

2023 standings after 11 rounds:

Moto2 was fun to watch, as Pedro Acosta, Heir Apparent, moved from ninth place on the grid to take the lead midway, only to have his tires melt down, forcing him to a P6 finish. Always fun to watch Aron Canet and his tattoos finish in second place.

Moto2 standings after 11 rounds:

Finally, in MotoGP

Premier class year-to-date:

Next weekend on the Adriatic coast at San Marino. Our best wishes go out to Pecco Bagnaia for a speedy, complete recovery. You gave us a big scare today, dude.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Aprilia, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Maverick Vinales, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 11 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Round 10–Red Bull Ring

August 20, 2023

To the spoils go, um, the victor.

MotoGP announcer Matt Birt does, on the whole, a pretty impressive job calling races. He has an encyclopedic memory, working knowledge of the bikes themselves, an intimate familiarity with the various tracks, and mountains of facts and figgers at his disposal. He has literally forgotten more about the riders than you or I have ever known. The plummy British accent doesn’t hurt anything.

There are, however, two aspects of his announcing game that just grind me. The first is his reliable tendency (probably imposed by Dorna as a condition of his employment) to overhype every single aspect of the sport. As an example, given the fact that upwards of 99% of the people on the planet don’t give a rat’s ass about motorcycle racing, he uses the noun “glory” and its adjectival form way too much. He casually describes the outcome of, say, a Moto3 victory from 2016 as “his famous win…” On the other hand, I think MotoGP offers much more interesting racing than F1 and IndyCar, but he typically makes no effort to draw comparisons with 4-wheel racing, which is odd.

My second gripe has to do with Matt’s unceasing efforts at profundity. He doesn’t simply want to describe the action; he wants people standing around the virtual water cooler and commenting on online forums quoting his descriptions, which aspire to epic poetry. Occasionally he trips over his own metaphors. Which is what occurred (at least once) today when he got tangled up in mid-sentence, proclaiming in the post-Moto3 drivel that, “To the spoils go, (uh-oh) the victor.” It was clear he realized his gaffe in mid-sentence, but he was stuck. He couldn’t just say “ellipsis” and go on. He had stepped in it, had to scrape it off his shoe, and hope–probably with good reason–that no one other than a few journo-humps like me would notice.

As to the racing, most of the action in the premier class all weekend took place in the first ten seconds of the Saturday Sprint, when four or five riders got clattered in Turn 1. Readers will assess whether Jorge Martin or Maverick Vinales was to blame, but I think it was just the track layout itself, which funnels way too many big motorcycles with exaggerated wing things into a very tight space with everyone carrying full fuel and adrenaline loads. (One might argue that the beautiful track at Estoril, Portugal was taken off the calendar years ago due to an even more dicey first turn.) Bezzecchi, Oliveira and, eventually, Zarco would record DNFs as a result.

Some time later, the stewards decided to blame Martin for the event, after he had finished on the podium lol. This irked a number of riders whose day was ruined, although I’m not convinced it was exactly #89’s fault. He had to serve a long lap penalty on Sunday but still managed to score a handful of points on both days. Otherwise, it was all Pecco all the time on both days. One thing I can say without, as dad used to say, fear of successful contradiction is that Bagnaia will win most of the races out of which he doesn’t crash. His 62 point lead in the championship at the halfway point, while not insurmountable, is formidable. Martin and Bezzecchi look to be engaged in a cage match for the rest of the year and may become teammates at Pramac before all is said and done. Personally, I want to root for the skeletal Brad Binder and his KTM, as I am growing tired of the Ducati oligopoly.

Once again, the best race of the weekend was the Moto3 tilt. Heir apparent Pedro Acosta looked to be running away from the field in Moto2 until Celestino Vietti showed up late in the day to rain on his parade. Matt and Louis were anxious to proclaim that Vietti had, accordingly, been resurrected after a full year of whistling Dixie, but I’m not sold. Let’s see how he does during the Bataan Death March in September, October and November. Hell, let’s see how everyone does during the remarkably oppressive back nine. Dorna is probably going to discover, the hard way, that next year’s calendar needs more thought.

The photo finish from today’s Moto3 fight. The margin of victory was .005 seconds.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ducati, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Racing News | 4 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – Round 9 Silverstone

August 6, 2023

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Aprilia, British Motorcycle Grand Prix, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 5 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Mid-Season Report @ Motorcycle.com

August 3, 2023

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/professional-competitions/motogp-2023-mid-season-report-44593252

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Dorna, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Racing News | 2 Comments »

MotoGP 2023– Round 8 Assen

June 25, 2023

Saturday

Marco Bezzecchi loves him some Assen.

Untouchable on Friday. Pole early on Saturday. Sprint winner on Saturday afternoon.

Marc Marquez had another train wreck of a weekend. Qualified in P17 after colliding with Enea Bastiannini in the morning warm up. Finished the Sprint right where he started. Looking utterly demoralized, hovering on the edge of the existential abyss, looking down. Says he is committed to the Honda project, but making it sound like an involuntary commitment, you know, like with a rehab facility or nuthouse. More of a sentence than a commitment.

Brad Binder had the pickiest long lap penalty ever very late in the Sprint, costing him a podium and elevating Fabio Quartararo–remember him?–to the bronze medal. Pecco had a nice race, taking the hole shot, giving up the lead to Bezz on Lap 2 but still collecting nine points on Saturday.

Sunday

The Moto3 championship race tightened considerably, as series leader Daniel Holgado screwed the pooch in qualifying and ended up starting from the back of the grid, from where he crashed out early and finished the day out of the points. Honda pilot Jaume Masia, meanwhile, my pre-season pick for the title, won another barnburner, holding off Sasai, Oncu. and Munoz, cutting Holgado’s lead from 41 to 16 points heading into the break.

Moto2 was refreshing, as Brit Jake Dixon won his first ever grand prix (then spoiled it by crying during Simon’s crappy post-race interview), ahead of the resurrected Ai Ogura and savant Pedro Acosta. During the race, Acosta had to serve a long lap penalty during which he clearly had both wheels in the green. Such an error would cause a mortal to have to repeat the penalty, but for an Alien-in-Waiting the stewards said, “nothing to see here.” Pretty blatant, IMO. Acosta and Toni Arbolino seem to have their tickets punched for MotoGP next year, but it remains to be seen for whom Acosta will be laboring. Gresini Racing has already sent signals it intends to sign Arbolino and jettison FDG.

Prior to the start of the premier class tilt, it was announced that Marc Marquez, for the fifth time in eight rounds, had been declared unfit to race, citing a bruised ego, a broken spirit and shattered confidence. Albert Puig tipped his hand in an interview in which he essentially said that if #93 wants to seek greener pastures next year Honda would not hold him hostage. Perhaps HRC has figured out that paying a rider $30 million a year to ride an unrideable bike doesn’t make much sense. After all, if the rider is going to end up in the gravel, it would be better if he were only working for minimum wage.

The race itself was okay, ignoring the eight riders who failed to finish and allowing Jonas Folger to build his points lead over Marquez. The Killer Bees–Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and Binder–led all day, trailed by Aleix and Jorge Martin. For the second time in 24 hours, apparently for the benefit of those who missed it yesterday, Binder put a tiny bit of his front wheel in the green on the last lap, incurring a track limits violation and dropping him from the podium. Yesterday’s beneficiary was Fabio Quartararo; today’s was Aleix. Bagnaia’s lead in the 2023 chase now stands at 35 points, and he is looking strong enough to take the hardware for the second year “on the trot.” lol. Bezzecchi and Martin are fast young guns and will be in the picture for years to come. Binder is fast off the line and, if the racing gig doesn’t work out, given the murderous KTM pilots on their way to the premier class from Moto2 and Moto3, could find work filming instructional videos on the rules of racing.

Now that interest in MotGP is peaking, after the June triple header, Dorna will let all the air out of the balloon by taking the next month or so off, staying out of the headlines and driving fans back to F1, soccer, MLB and NFL OTAs. I will attempt to assemble a coherent mid-season report for Motorcycle. com which should post in early July. 12 races will take place after the summer break, including two more triples: Indonesia, Australia and Thailand in October, Malaysia, Qatar and Valencia in November. Six races in seven weeks to close out the season. The Bagnaias and Bezzecchis of the world need to watch out for an injury in October which could cause them to record multiple DNSs and impact the title chase.

For everyone but Marc Marquez, life goes on.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Dorna, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Assen, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 8 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »