Category: MotoGp

The first race of the delayed 2020 MotoGP season ended up with three major riders with injuries with two requiring surgery.

Alex rins suffered a crash during Q2 on Saturday at turn 11 which caused a dislocation-fracture to his right shoulder, he was declared unfit to ride in the race.

Cal Crutchlow’s race day didn’t really start because he got injured during the warm up  and was taken to a local medical facility in Spain. Crutchlow who races for LCR HONDA  had surgery on his wrist and had two screws inserted into his wrist, he’s quoted as saying he will give it a go Friday and see how his wrist feels.

Meanwhile at HRC Honda, Marc Marquez also had issues in the first race of the season as he came off the track twice in the race,  the second time he crashed and end up with a fracture on his upper arm.  He as since had surgery to insert a steel plate in his arm on Tuesday and is resting but he wants to race this weekend. On Thursday afternoon he was declared fit to ride by the medical staff .

Featured image courtesy of Box Repsol/Honda Racing

The nineteenth and final qualifying session of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place in relatively cold conditions. The contrast between this nineteenth round and round eighteen two weeks ago in Sepang has been drastic, a polar opposite in terms of temperature especially, but it was nonetheless the usual trio of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) who were looking to be the favourites.

Q1 was first, though, before the pole position shootout, and it was one rider short with Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) missing out after a bizarre FP3 crash at the end of pit lane courtesy of the cold weather draining the temperature from the carbon brakes of his satellite Ducati Desmosedici GP18. The Italian, whilst coming out of the pits braked, unleashing the power of the front carbon brakes, causing his tyre to come to a halt instantly. The end result was to cause Bagnia to face plant the track.   A lack of memory courtesy of the face plant as well as a wrist injury, saw him declared unfit aftert a trip to the hospital.

Of the riders who did compete in Q1, it was Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) who advanced through to Q2.

The final pole position of 2019 went to Fabio Quartararo, quite fittingly, as the qualifying master of the season, the one who was usually able to find the most with a fresh soft rear tyre, was able to come out on top of Marquez in their penultimate scrap of the season. Marquez will start alongside the Frenchman, returning the front row after his eleventh-place qualifying in Sepang, while Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) completes the front row.

Row two is headed up by Maverick Vinales, who is joined by Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and – more worryingly for the Spaniard, as well as Quartararo – Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) who could cause problems for Vinales tomorrow should he get past the #12 in the opening stages tomorrow. It is not easy to pass a Ducati, nor is it easy to pass in Valencia. Additionally, for the Yamaha riders they know that they need to pass early in the lap so they have a chance to build a gap before the main straight because they cannot live with the horsepower of the Ducati. This was Rossi’s problem in Sepang, but as in Motegi it could be the problem of Vinales, and possible also Quartararo now in Valencia with Miller and Dovizioso having the potential to cause frustrations.
Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) enjoyed a positive final qualifying of his rookie season, taking seventh on the grid ahead of teammate Alex Rins, who will have work to do tomorrow from eighth with his strong race pace, and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) who completes the third row.

Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team) heads up the fourth row ahead of Pol Espargaro who was briefly sixth despite qualifying in Q2 on a hard rear tyre. Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) disappointingly was the slowest rider in Q2 and qualified twelfth, his fastest time being the first lap of his first tyre and three tenths of a second slower than his FP3 time in the freezing conditions of Saturday morning.

Johann Zarco (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, qualifying thirteenth in what might be his final ride for LCR Honda, maybe his final ride for Honda and maybe his final ride in MotoGP but it also might not be some of those- it might not be any of them. Joining the Frenchman on row five will be Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro (Ducati Team) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) who crashed three times on Saturday before qualifying.
Row six will see Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) start from sixteenth on his final MotoGP appearance ahead of Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) who may also be competing his final MotoGP race this weekend. The sixth row is completed by Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing).

MotoGP first-timer Iker Lecuona (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) made an impressive first qualifying appearance in the premier class, qualifying nineteenth, ahead of Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing), who join him on the seventh row, as well as Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3), his teammate on the satellite RC16 for this weekend, the Malaysian also making his final appearance in MotoGP.

Featured  image courtesy of Yamaha Racing.

Qualifying for the nineteenth and final round of the 2019 Moto3 World Championship in Valencia took place in conditions similar to the rest of the weekend, with track temperatures remarkably low.

In Q1, Tatsuki Suzuki’s (SIC 58 Squadra Corse) first lap was enough to move through to Q2 with the fastest Q1 time. Wildcard Carlos Tatay (Fundacion Andreas Perez 77), Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) joined the Japanese in advancing to the second qualifying session for the lightweight class.

Q2 saw Andrea Migno (Mugen Race) score his first career pole position, putting him in the best place possible at the start of what will be his 100th Grand Prix start tomorrow. Jaume Masia ensured a Mugen Race double front row, scoring his first top-three qualifying since Argentina, a race he went on to win. Between the two teammates on the front row for the final race of the season is the in-form qualifier of the junior category, Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) who was denied a third-straight pole by Migno. The front row is important for Ramirez, who is looking to overhaul Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) for third in the championship.

Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) qualified fourth ahead of rookie and emerging star of the fly away races, Canet’s replacement for this season in Estrella Galicia 0,0 Sergio Garcia, and one of the outstanding riders of this weekend, Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) who completes the second row.
Row three sees World Champion Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) starting ahead of Tatsuki Suzuki and Darryn Binder; while Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers) and his teammate Tony Arbolino – who suffered a big high side early in the Q2 session which hampered his chances – were split by the wildcard Carlos Tatay who qualified eleventh in his second ever GP.

John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) had a disappointing final qualifying of the season and will line up thirteenth tomorrow, ahead of Niccolo Antonelli (SIC 58 Squadra Corse) and Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0); while row six sees Raul Fernandez (Valresa Angel Nieto Team) line up ahead of wildcard Xavier Argtigas (Leopard Impala Junior Team) and Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) who crashed before setting a time in Q2.
Jeremy Alcoba (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) lines up at the head of the seventh row after narrowly missing out on Q2 with his final lap as he replaces Gabriel Rodrigo. Thailand winner Albert Arenas (Valresa Angle Nieto Team) and Qatar victor Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) join the newly crowned CEV Moto3 Junior World Champion on row seven.

On row eight, Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) starts ahead of the injured Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta Racing) and Stefano Nepa (Reale Avintia Arizona 77); whilst Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) starts ahead of Dennis Foggia (SKY Racing Team VR46) and last year’s Valencian GP winner Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in what looks like the Turk’s final race in Moto3 and in grand prix racing for the foreseeable future.

Celestino Vietti (SKY Racing Team VR46) takes the worst qualifying of his rookie season in the final race of the year with twenty-eighth – Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) and Tom Booth-Amos (CIP Green Power) join the Italian on row ten.

An early crash for Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) ended the Japanese’s chances of a good qualifying in what seems to be his final race in Moto3 – the former Red Bull Rookies champion will start from last.

Featured Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

This weekend the 2019 MotoGP World Championship arrives in Valencia for the final round of the season.

Twelve months ago it was Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) who triumphed in torrential conditions, bringing Ducati their third victory at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo after Troy Bayliss in 2006 and Casey Stoner in 2010. Repeating such a result in dry conditions would be tough for Dovizioso, the tight and twisty layout of Valencia, which offers little chance to open up the bike and use the power, working against the characteristics of the Desmosedici.

In comparison, for World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) Valencia can work quite well. The compactness of the track means that agility is key, and Marquez’ upper-body strength combined with the RC213V’s compact design means this combination can be deadly at Valencia. Previously we have seen front tyre troubles impact Honda’s performance in this final race, but simultaneously seen Marquez overcome them. For example in 2016 when he chased down Jorge Lorenzo in the latter parts of the race after choosing to save his tyre in the first part of the GP. However, Marquez has not won in Valencia since 2014 in the mixed conditions, his only premier class victory at the track, so dominance akin to what we saw at the last Spanish round in Aragon would be a surprise.

And the surprises at this weekend’s Valencian Grand Prix have already started, with Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) announcing his retirement from grand prix racing at the end of this weekend. ‘Surprise’ might not be the correct word, but it was perhaps unexpected for the five-times World Champion to announce his withdrawal from the World Championship this weekend. It will likely not be a fitting end to Lorenzo’s illustrious career – the Spaniard is without a top ten since last August and his retirement comes as a result of poor performances at least in part injury induced, that Lorenzo does not see a resolution to.

Lorenzo’s retirement means that Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) will be the last remaining ‘Alien’ – the quartet of Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Rossi and Stoner who were the men to beat in MotoGP at the end of the last decade and in the beginning of this one – to race in MotoGP, the last one to stop. It is easy to forget that it has been already seven years since Stoner retired at the end of 2012, and Lorenzo’s announcement also highlights Rossi’s longevity in motorcycle racing. Having raced his 400th Grand Prix in Phillip Island, Rossi is about to enter his twenty-fifth season of GPs, but his time too is closing and in twelve months time it could well be the Italian who we are saying ‘goodbye’ to.

Rossi is still without a podium since Texas, having been unable to successfully pass Dovizioso for third last time out in Sepang, and so the end of 2019 will be a welcome relief for the nine-times champion who will be eager get on with testing next Tuesday as much as anything else.

On the other side of the factory Yamaha garage, though, Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) will be wishing there were a race in December and another in January because the Spaniard has finally found what he needs to regularly fight for wins. His Sepang victory came off the back of a disastrous end to the Australian GP one week before. The could temperatures of a Valencian November could be helpful for Yamaha and Vinales, as they look to end this season with back-to-back wins.

Elsewhere, but remaining with Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) is looking to finish as second Yamaha for the season by beating Valentino Rossi in the championship overall. There are six points separating the rookie from the veteran, so the odds are in Quartararo’s favour. Primarily, though, Quartararo will look to end his first season as a winner in the MotoGP class.

Featured Image courtesy of Jaime Olivares/Box Repsol

The fifteenth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship takes the series to Thailand and Buriram for the second time after the Chang International Circuit was added to the Grand Prix calendar last year.

The Thai track offers a reasonably unique challenge. Unique enough, at least, for Michelin to bring a tyre construction to Buriram that only otherwise sees action in Austria.

Last year, it was this tyre which allowed Yamaha to be competitive, giving them the rear support they require to exit turns with good drive. The same tyre allowed the M1 to finish 3-4-5 in Spielberg earlier this year, and so it is expected that it could see the slowest bike on the grid be strong this weekend as well.

This is counter-intuitive when looking at the layout, which is dominated by long straights and hard braking zones in the first half. The second half lends itself more to the M1, courtesy of an abundance of corners of varying lengths and radii, as well as direction changes where the cornering stability of the Yamaha becomes overtly advantageous.

The divided nature of the Buriram track means that several bikes can find lap time, as we saw last season when the two factory Yamaha riders fought with the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and the factory Honda of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team).

The gains made by Honda in the engine department this season mean that a repeat of last season’s last lap duel is not guaranteed. In 2019, the RC213V can live with the Desmosedici in the straights and, in the hands of Marquez, out-turn it in the corners and in particular the short corners, like turn three in Austria or the final corner in Buriram, something which could prove pivotal for the outcome of the race should it come down to a final lap scrap once again.

All of this is good for Marquez, this weekend perhaps more than any other, as the reigning World Champion needs to out-score Dovizioso by two points on Sunday to win his eighth Grand Prix title and his sixth in the premier class. This year Marquez’ racing philosophy has changed; whereas before he lived for the fight, he now lives for the twenty-five points. Such a change in strategy has seen him produce some devastating performances, for example in Aragon two weeks ago where he won by almost five seconds and at one point led by over seven. In the context of this weekend, his new way of racing could see him make things dull for the viewer, disappearing in the first laps to allow him the option to cruise to the flag and pick up another championship, four races from the end of the season.

There are two people who can stop Marquez from walking away from Buriram with another title: himself and Dovizioso, the Italian being the more likely. In 2018, the Ducati rider took Marquez to the final corner, as he did in Austria in the first race back after the summer break. Such a performance will be required once again from Dovizioso if he is to put off the inevitable until Japan at the beginning of the triple header.

It will not, though, be a case of a duel. At least, that is unlikely. The two Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders, Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi, should be there in the fight as they were last season. Especially for Rossi, the stiffer casing of the rear tyre should be a benefit this weekend. Additionally, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) should be in the mix as he has so often been in 2019, as well as perhaps the factory Suzuki of Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who will be keen to respond to his poor race in Aragon. On the contrary, Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) will be looking to continue his form from Aragon, where he was third, and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) too after he finished sixth in MotorLand and felt he had podium potential.

One thing which could spoil all the plans is the weather. With WorldSBK having a round earlier in the season in Buriram, the MotoGP race is forced to happen later on, in what happens to be the back end of the rainy season in Thailand.

Rain is predicted for the weekend, and a wet race would be a first for the CIC. Furthermore, should practice be compromised by rain, riders will be on the limit to try to make Q2 directly whilst also trying to find a good race set up should Sunday remain dry.

Finally, after his injury in practice at Aragon, Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) is back in action this weekend aboard his RC16 to partner Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) in his second race in place of Johann Zarco.

Featured Image courtesy of Jaime Olivares/Box Repsol

The fourteenth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place at MotorLand Aragon, as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) dominated proceedings to record an eighth victory of the season.

It was a lights-to-flag beat-down of the opposition by Marquez, winning in the end by 4.836 seconds after slowing over the line to celebrate his latest triumph – the seventy-seventh of his career in just his two-hundredth start. Other important and alarming numbers from Marquez include his points advantage in the championship, which now stands at ninety-eight, meaning the Spaniard can wrap up his eighth world title at the next race in Thailand.

This victory, and the style in which it came, was predictable from FP1, when the World Championship leader led the session by 1.6 seconds over Maverick Vinales, who was the only rider within two seconds of Marquez. This year it has been easy to say that Marquez’ life has been made simpler, by a Honda which is as fast as the Ducati in a straight line, and faster than all the other bikes, meaning he does not have to push so far over the limit as in the past when the RC213V was relatively slow. However, the gap to the second Honda, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL), at the flag on Sunday was 10.390 seconds. In a period in MotoGP where the entire field can be within 1.5 seconds of each other over one lap, and a top fifteen within twenty seconds or less, the amount of time Marquez put into his opposition in MotorLand was nothing short of astounding, and for his rivals it was another demoralising exhibition of talent from the twenty-six-year-old.

Behind Marquez there was a good fight, the Aragon GP being almost reminiscent of the World Superbike rounds of early-2019 when Alvaro Bautista was capable of clearing off by fifteen seconds or more. Surprisingly, it was Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) who led the fight for second early on, before being overhauled by Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) after the Spaniard had passed and dropped Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT).

After Vinales passed Miller he decided to chase Marquez. This would prove to be a mistake from the #12, as he stressed his tyres excessively, leaving him defenceless at the end when both Miller and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso arrived with superior grip and superior power. It is easy to pick this hole in Vinales’ plan, but he was almost cornered into it. Vinales’ M1 is significantly slower in the straights than the Ducatis of Miller and Dovizioso, so he could not afford to sit behind Miller and wait for the final lap, or towards the end of the race, because Miller would have been able to fight back with the straight line speed and braking stability of the Desmosedici. Nor could Vinales pass Miller and then sit half a second ahead of him to protect his tyres, since that too would have left him vulnerable to an attack he would have been unequipped to repel. Therefore, trying to escape was Vinales’ only option in view of making the podium and yet it was the strategy which cost him the trophy. This highlights the necessity for Yamaha to continue to work to give its riders a more competitive package for next season, one which is not so vulnerable in the straights in particular.

Whilst it was a difficult race for Vinales and Yamaha to miss the podium on a track they were proving to be – surprisingly – quite competitive at, for Ducati a double podium was almost a miracle. Misano had been a disaster for Ducati and, apart from Miller’s lap to put him on the second row on Saturday in Aragon, it was looking as though it could be another tough race for the Bologna bikes. Dovizioso’s pace, though, was good, and the Italian made a decent start and made good progress from the fourth row to arrive in third place with ten laps to go, whilst Miller had a brilliant beginning to the race and looked after his tyres well. Both of them were able to take advantage of the grip-less Vinales in the end, and bring Ducati its first double podium since Brno, where the podium was identical to the one in Aragon.

Three seconds behind the battle for the podium, Fabio Quartararo was the second Yamaha over the line in fifth, fifteen seconds ahead of the next Yamaha, Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), in eighth. Cal Crutchlow was sixth, ten seconds off the win but after a much better weekend than Misano. Perhaps the biggest surprise of Aragon was Aprilia, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) starting from fifth and finishing seventh, although the RSGP always seems to work well in MotorLand. Behind Espargaro were Rossi, Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) who completed the top ten.

It should have been much more for Rins, who had podium potential, but taking out Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) on the opening lap in turn twelve dropped the #42 to nineteenth and a subsequent long-lap penalty further compromised his race, leaving him ninth.

Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) finished where he started – eleventh – after fighting with Nakagami, Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team, twelfth) and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3, thirteenth) for most of the race. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was last for six laps after a mistake on lap four cost him seven seconds. The Spaniard recovered to fourteenth, finishing ahead of compatriot Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) who completed the points.

Sixteenth place went to Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) after another difficult weekend for the Italian who was ahead of Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) – the lone factory RC16 rider finishing seventeenth on his first replacement ride for Johann Zarco due to Pol Espargaro’s withdrawal from the race following his FP4 crash on Saturday. Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) was eighteenth ahead of wildcard Bradley Smith (Aprilia Racing Team) and Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) who was disappointed in twentieth. Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) was the only rider behind Lorenzo, the Malaysian being the final classified finisher in twenty-first.

Featured Image courtesy of Jamie Olivers/Box Repsol

After a damp FP3 on Saturday morning which saw limited running from most riders, qualifying in Aragon for the fourteenth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place in perfect conditions.

The first session saw a surprise, as Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) prevented Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) from advancing to Q2 using the tow of Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) who topped the first session.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was 1.6 seconds faster than everyone in Friday morning’s FP1 session and, although the championship leader had not been close to the 1’46.8 that gave him that advantage since FP1, pole position was almost guaranteed. Once more, Marquez was unable to match his 46.8 from Friday morning, but his 1’47.009 was enough for pole position by 0.327 seconds over Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT).

Marquez’ pace is superior for Sunday’s race, but it looks like the battle for second place will be between Quartararo and Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), who line up alongside the #93 on the front row.

Jack miller (Pramac Racing) produced a surprise by putting his independent Ducati in fourth place in a track where the Desmosedici has not been entirely comfortable this weekend. There is another surprise in the middle of the second row, where Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) will start from tomorrow after a brilliant lap following Marquez at the end of Q2. The last spot on the second row went to Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who seems to be staring down the barrel of a fourth-consecutive fourth place finish tomorrow.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) starts from the front of the third row, highlighting the strength of Marquez on the same bike, who was 1.313 seconds quicker than the #35. Franco Morbidelli and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) will join the Briton on row three.

Crutchlow’s late lap to go seventh pushed Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) off the third row, and the Italian will start back in tenth which could limit his chances. Andrea Iannone was unable to make much of his Q2 appearance and will start eleventh courtesy of Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) missing qualifying due to a crash in FP4 which could also see him miss tomorrow’s race, which he would start from twelfth.

Thirteenth place went to Alex Rins, the Spaniard being the fastest rider to miss out on the pole position shoot-out. There is a lot of work now for Rins to do tomorrow, but his pace is strong and he can still make a good result if his start is good. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) qualified fourteenth, whilst Danilo Petrucci’s struggles aboard the Ducati Team Desmosedici GP19 continued, the Italian finishing only fifth in Q1 to qualify fifteenth overall.

Sixteenth place went to Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) who is having another tough weekend aboard the satellite Desmosedici. Joining the reigning Moto2 World Champion on the sixth row are fellow rookie Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) and 2014 Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing).

Mika Kallio’s replacement of Johann Zarco at Red Bull KTM Factory Racing for the rest of the season came as a shock earlier in the week, but the Finn has had a decent weekend in Spain on his return to racing after the injury he sustained in Germany last year. Kallio will start nineteenth, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) and Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) on the seventh row, Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) will head up a two-man back row from Bradley Smith (Aprilia Racing Team) who is wildcarding this weekend for the first time since Barcelona.

Featured Image courtesy of Jaime Olivares/Box Repsol

Rivalries have been a key part of sport since the beginning. Rivalry inspires competitors to achieve more than their perceived capabilities. This is true for all sport but especially for motorcycle racing, where pushing beyond the limit can have significant consequences.

Throughout the history of grand prix motorcycle racing, rivalries have played a large role in its narrative, whether between factories or riders: from Hailwood and Agostini to Rainey and Schwantz, to the MotoGP era and Rossi’s on-track feuds with Biaggi, Gibernau, Stoner and more – rivalries have taken on an important role in the story of motorcycle racing, to transform it from a cold engineering pursuit of the fastest way to cover a Grand Prix distance to a heated conflict where lap time is the warhead and the motorcycle is the ICBM.

In Misano, we saw the birth of a new rivalry, one which was hard to envisage all of sixteen months ago. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) has dominated MotoGP since he arrived in the premier class in 2013, and his strength continues to grow. The outlook of the future of MotoGP begins to look increasingly bleak when fans are faced with the prospect of one of the most divisive figures in racing cruising to world titles at will until he decides to go and do something else.

In the Superbike World Championship, Jonathan Rea has dominated the last four championships and is now the greatest rider in the history of production-derived motorcycle racing. Similar to the case in MotoGP with Marquez, it was difficult to see an end to the domination of Rea, such was his strength, but this season Alvaro Bautista arrived and has won fourteen races. For the first part of the season, Bautista was not only unbeaten, but completely unrivalled, winning races by over ten seconds as if it were nothing. The middle of the championship did not go to plan for Bautista and now the championship fight is all but over. However, the Spaniard showed that Rea is beatable, and identified himself as the anti-Rea.

This year, we may have finally identified the anti-Marquez, the rider who can challenge the (currently) seven-times World Champion in the future and prevent a monotonous domination of the sport by its most exciting rider. Fabio Quartararo has been enjoying a stellar rookie season aboard the Petronas Yamaha SRT YZR-M1, with several podiums and pole positions, out-classing not only his more experienced teammate Franco Morbidelli but also the factory Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, on numerous occasions.

The San Marinese MotoGP was no different, with Quartararo finishing as top Yamaha, having led most of the race and fought with Marc Marquez at the end of the race. Although Marquez came out on top of the duel with an outrageous display of braking performance into turn eight and tactically clever defensive riding into turn fourteen, Quartararo finally took the leap of fighting for a race win. The Frenchman was unable to topple Marquez on this occasion, but with Quartararo there is the certainty that he will be there to fight with the #93 on many more occasions across the next ten years or more.

This presents a dilemma for Yamaha. Ducati want to win the World Championship and despite their best wishes and those of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), it looks perhaps unlikely that the #04 can challenge Marquez over the course of a season and come out on top. Therefore, Ducati might want to sign a new rider for 2021, one who they believe can win them their second MotoGP championship. Fabio Quartararo might be one of the riders they want to sign, but so might Maverick Vinales. If Ducati are considering one of these two riders they will likely try to lock down Quartararo before Vinales, meaning Yamaha need to act quickly to secure the services of Quartararo from 2021 – something they want to do because they, too, want to win the MotoGP World Championship – quelle surprise!

The problem for Yamaha comes with irony strapped to the side like fuel in a 1960s F1 car, just waiting to blow up and cut their legs off. The problem is Valentino Rossi, who wants six or seven races at the beginning of 2020 to decide if he wants to stay in MotoGP for another year or two. Forty-year-old Rossi has not had a good year in 2019, and hasn’t had a podium since round three where an uncharacteristic error cost him the win in Texas. The Italian is undoubtedly capable of fighting at the front of MotoGP with the correct machinery, but the correct machinery is evidently not the one that Yamaha are currently providing him, whereas it evidently is for Quartararo and Vinales. If Yamaha want to secure their potential future star, Quartararo, they need Rossi to make a decision on his future by Jerez, or tell him his services are unrequired for 2021.

If Quartararo were to hold out for Yamaha – a very plausible scenario considering his comfort with the M1 – Ducati could sign Vinales, who must surely be beginning to believe that his success is more likely to be found away from Iwata. During the period of Vinales swapping deep blue for red, Rossi could quite conceivably decide that it is time to go and do something else, leaving two vacant seats in Yamaha, with only one available to be filled by Quartararo, of course.

It would make sense for Franco Morbidelli to take the second factory Yamaha seat, but Morbidelli has the same setup and riding style issues as Rossi, and even then there would be a duo of vacant seats in the Petronas squad.

Fabio Quartararo’s performance in Misano was superb, both for him and for Yamaha. But now, the factory must face some difficult decisions which have the potential significantly impact its future, perhaps for the better but maybe for the worse.

Featured image courtesy of Yamaha racing