Spending less time with MotoGP these days and more time schvitzing about my health. When one is staring down the barrel of a potentially life-threatening diagnosis, one’s attention starts to wander at the prospect of sussing out all these diminutive Spaniards and Italians and Joe Roberts.
Thanks to daylight savings time–or perhaps in spite of it–I missed the Moto3 tilt entirely. As the winning margin was 4/100ths of a second I expect it was a good one, and I’m pleased to see David Munoz getting back in shape.
I’ve been wondering what it is that Ducati Corse sees in Fermin Aldeguer. Yesterday’s Moto2 confab gave some clues, although it was not a dominating performance in my opinion. The cool thing about Moto2 at this point is that Joe Roberts leads the series, presaging the possibility of seeing an American rider in the premier class for the first time since the days of Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies. With Trackhouse Racing now running Aprilias in MotoGP it seems logical to expect Joe to graduate next year. And ain’t nobody care if Raul Fernandez loses his seat after this season. Underachieving is his middle name.
I don’t have much to say about the big bikes this weekend. Jorge Martin won another Saturday Sprint but once again was the victim of an unforced error on Sunday, crashing out of the lead in a race that was his to win. The late race drama was provided courtesy of Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez in a preview of what we can expect to see for the rest of the season. Unlike so many of you, I’m not a Marquez hater, and it’s nice to see him not having to override to be in contention. I have trouble getting all excited about Pecco; sure, he’s highly skilled, but he has the best bike on the grid, the best team behind him, and an enthralled nation gasping over his every move. I fully expected Marquez to beat him yesterday, waiting for Pecco to get twitchy under the assault of a guy who routinely ignores life-threatening situations. There was a day not that long ago when a rider seeing “Marquez +.2” on his pit board would generally go into convulsions. Yesterday in Jerez, there was a single bump, after which Pecco put the hammer down and Marquez minded his manners.
A few more races like we had on Sunday and it’s a fair assumption that Marquez and Bagnaia will be teammates next year, complete with the Lorenzo/Rossi wall down the middle of the garage. Marquez has a total of four races under his belt on the Duc after 11 seasons on Hondas and has pretty much fully adapted to the new world order. Even with the permanent disability in his right arm and being in his 30’s he’s better than all but one or two riders on the grid. When he was going after Bagnaia yesterday the locals in the stands went completely mental, which is always fun to watch and listen to. With three or four or five riders clearly in contention the sport is not as dull as it was when #93 was winning everything in sight. I will maintain that Marquez is good for the sport and look forward to seeing him on the top step in the foreseeable future.
So there.
A Little Local Color
Late-Braking MotoGP 