Category: MotoGp

The 2019 MotoGP World Championship returns to action this weekend after the summer break with the Czech Grand Prix, round ten of the season.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) comes into this round as the clear championship leader – fifty-eight points clear of Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) – and the favourite for this weekend. Still, Marquez is the only rider in 2019 to have won more than one race in the MotoGP class, with five wins to his name in the first half of the season. Additionally, in his history in the premier class, Marquez has only missed the podium in Brno once, back in 2014. In 2013, his first year at Brno on a MotoGP bike, Marquez won; 2015 saw him take second place between the two factory Yamaha riders; in 2016 he was third and the top-placed rider with the soft-option rear wet tyre; in 2017 he completely out-smarted the rest and won by almost twenty seconds in the flag-to-flag conditions; and last year he was out-raced by Andrea Dovizioso who made the most of the power advantage of the Ducati. This year, Ducati do not have that same power advantage over Honda, and that could be enough for the reigning World Champion to pull clear on Sunday afternoon.

With Ducati still suffering with mid-corner speed, they are relying on their power, and Dovizioso’s race-craft to win this weekend. The #04’s tactics have won him several races over the last few years, including last year in Brno. However, the aforementioned power gains of Honda this year could make things more complicated for the Italian this year. Previously, Dovizioso would sit at the front, knowing that people can’t pass him in the middle of the corner, and that he is better on the brakes, better on acceleration and better on top speed. Compared to Marquez, at least, the latter two points are no longer as valid as they were before.

The characteristics of Brno have historically leant themselves to ‘corner-speed bikes’ quite well. Whilst Honda have been successful in Brno with four-strokes – with Rossi, Gibernau , Pedrosa, Stoner, Crutchlow, and Marquez – Yamaha have also found success there with their almost opposite design philosophy. Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) won for Yamaha in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. In addition to his Honda wins in 2001 and 2003, Rossi is the most successful rider in Brno in the premier class with six wins. In total, Rossi has eight wins in Brno, and of course his first win in the World Championship came at the Czech track in 1996. After a difficult period for the Italian before the summer break, Rossi is in need of a strong result in Brno, where he has not been on the podium since 2016.

Perhaps Yamaha’s best options for this weekend lie in Rossi’s Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammate, Maverick Vinales, and Petronas Yamaha SRT’s star rookie Fabio Quartararo. Vinales is riding the crest of a wave at the moment. He has not ridden the M1 as well as he is now since his first races with Yamaha in 2017 and will fancy himself for the podium this weekend at a track which should suit the M1, although the Spaniard has not been on the Czech GP podium in the MotoGP class – his last rostrum in Brno coming in 2013 when he was second in the Moto3 race.

Quartararo, on the other hand, arrives in Brno after his first crash in a MotoGP race in Sachsenring. Brno shares characteristics with Assen and Catalunya, where Quartararo was strong and took consecutive podiums. On the other hand, Brno shares characteristics with Mugello, where the Frenchman was tenth. What you can say, though, is that Brno is less reliant on top speed than Mugello, which sees the highest speeds of the year. With that in mind, the flowing nature of Brno should prove fruitful for the #20.

What works for Yamaha generally works for Suzuki, and sometimes even better. For example, when Marquez crashed in Texas this year, it worked well for Yamaha, as Valentino Rossi inherited the lead, but it worked better for Suzuki because Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) had better pace. Similarly, the meandering undulations of Mugello work well for Yamaha, but this year they worked better for Suzuki who have more power in the GSX-RR than the YZR-M1.

One of the key features of Brno is ‘Horsepower Hill’, previously known as ‘Honda Hill’ – a tag which may return this year for the run between turns twelve and thirteen. This is the part of the track that will not work for the weak-motored M1, but with slightly more power in the GSX-RR Suzuki could make advantage of this area. For sure, they will be at a disadvantage here to Ducati and Honda, but their potential advantage in the rest of the track could cancel this out. Alex Rins has a good chance to win this weekend, which would edge Suzuki back ahead of Yamaha in their private battle for the title of ‘best MotoGP inline-four’.

Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) will be missing once again following his crash in Assen. Stefan Bradl continues to be his replacement, who is fresh from a podium finish at the Suzuka 8 Hour on the factory Honda.

Featured image courtesy of Box Repsol

The ninth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place in Germany at the Sachsenring, where Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) took his tenth consecutive win at the German track.

Marquez made a relatively bad start from his tenth-straight Sachsenring pole and was out-dragged towards turn one by fellow front-row starters Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), but the #93 out-brakes the Yamaha riders around the outside on the entry to the first turn.

Vinales, in turn, forced out Quartararo in turn one, as Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) took third. Before the end of the first lap, though, Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) took third away from Miller, although the Ducati rider came back in turn one.

A crash for Quartararo broke the pack up on lap two. The Frenchman was unhurt but it allowed a gap to appear between Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) in fifth and Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) in sixth.

On lap three, Marquez started to move the pace on, and Mille started to struggle. Rins had already passed him back for third, and before the end of the lap Crutchlow was through for fourth. Miller’s lack of pace had brought Danilo Petrucci back towards him and Crutchlow, and the second Mission Winnow Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso was there, too, as well as Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT), Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in tenth.

At turn twelve on lap four, Alex Rins got past Maverick Vinales for second place as Marquez’s advantage grew to six tenths. Marquez’ strategy was to use the first two laps to warm his front tyre, and then push to open a gap. It was a strategy which worked – Rins was able to go faster than Vinales, but not fast enough to close Marquez.

With twenty-four laps to go, Marquez’ advantage was over one second, and with twenty-two to go it was approaching 1.5 seconds over Rins, who in turn had over one second back to Vinales, whilst Crutchlow was pressuring the #12.

When Marquez’ gap reached three seconds, he backed the pace off to conserve the tyre which had been a concern over the weekend for the whole field, such were the temperatures and the particular demands of the especially anti-clockwise Sachsenring.

Marquez’ lead was extended further on lap twelve when Alex Rins crashed at turn eleven out of second place. If his win wasn’t assured already, it was now. Marquez continued out front for eleven relatively comfortable laps, and took his tenth-straight Sachsenring win. Additionally, it was his fifth win of the season, and his championship advantage opened up to fifty-eight points ahead of the summer break – a healthy margin with ten races to go and a useful buffer with strong tracks for Ducati coming up on the calendar.

Maverick Vinales spent most of the race with Cal Crutchlow no more than two tenths behind him. Originally, this was for third place but Rins’ crash made that into the second-place battle. Towards the end, the gap between the Spaniard and the Briton increased and Vinales took second place 4.587 seconds behind Marquez, and over three seconds clear of Crutchlow as he took his third podium of the season a week on from his dominant win in Assen.

Crutchlow was unsure whether he would be able to race on Sunday such was the pain he was in after his bicycle accident between Assen and Sachsenring in which he broke the top of his tibia. To turn from that on Sunday to a third place and his second podium of the season in Sachsenring is impressive from the Briton who has struggled for front feeling with the 2019 Honda. Finishing the first half of the season the way he started it is a good way to go into the summer break for the #35.

Fourth place went to Danilo Petrucci who came out on top in a big battle between himself, Dovizioso, Miller and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar). Petrucci knew that Sachsenring was not a favourable track for Ducati, but he enjoyed the track himself – with a new Ducati contract for 2020 under his belt he had no problems taking points away from Dovizioso who he now trails by only six points in the championship.

Dovizioso himself was able to turn a difficult weekend and a thirteenth-place grid slot into a fifth place, although this was not enough to lift his mood as he saw the 2019 world title slip even further away.

Jack Miller took sixth place. To be fighting with the factory GP19s is all Miller could have hoped for in Sachsenring, and he had them both well in sight at the flag. Joan Mir was seventh after a strong ride in which he almost certainly learned a great deal about how to fight in a MotoGP race and how to conserve a tyre.

Valentino Rossi was in the fight with Mir and the GP19s until the closing stages of the race, when his medium rear tyre – which most riders commented was harder than the hard compound – started to give up. The summer break has come at the right time for Rossi, who needs to reset for the second half of the season having missed the podium since Texas and not been in the top five since Le Mans.

Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) suffered similar late-race pace to Rossi and finished ninth. Perhaps it is useful to consider in this moment that Morbidelli has been open about modelling his own riding style on Rossi’s. Considering the comparable results of the two in recent races, perhaps it can be judged that – at least for this year’s edition of the YZR-M1 – this decision by Morbidelli has not been the best one.

Stefan Bradl, in place of Jorge Lorenzo at the Repsol Honda Team, was able to finish tenth, giving the factory Honda team their first double-top ten since Malaysia 2018 when Marquez won and Dani Pedrosa was fifth.

Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) finished eleventh, ahead of Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), the heavily and increasingly injured Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) and Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) who completed the points.

Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) was sixteenth, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) whose clearance to race was a questionable one after being admitted to hospital and admitting himself to headaches after a practice crash on Friday. The Italian had a big run-on in turn one early in the race, which compromised his result. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) crashed early on, and was the final classified rider in seventeenth.

After Fabio Quartararo crashed out on lap two, Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) also crashed out a lap later. There was not another retirement until Rins dropped out on lap nineteen. After Rins fell, only Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) dropped out, as he crashed with two laps to go after a strong ride in which he was fighting for the top ten.

Featured Image courtesy of Box Repsol

This weekend the MotoGP World Championship heads to Germany and the Sachsenring for round nine of the 2019 season and the last race before the ‘summer break’.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is unbeaten in Sachsenring since 2009 when he was sixteenth in the 125cc race. Since 2010, he has taken pole position and won every race at the Sachsenring, and since 2013 each of those has come in the MotoGP class. It is a run of remarkable dominance for a rider and a bike which, theoretically, shouldn’t work at the German track.

Sachsenring is unique in that it contains a period of thirty consecutive seconds per lap with the rider on the left side of the tyre: no turning right, no period with the bike straight up-and-down, no period with the gas wide open for thirty seconds. Additionally, there are no long straights in Sachsenring, although a bike which is strong on corner exit is useful out of the final corner and up the steep hill out onto the start/finish straight. Furthermore, there is only one big stop, and hard braking, particularly hard trail braking, is Marquez’ biggest strength.

On paper, Yamaha and Suzuki should have the edge in Germany but, even before Marquez, Honda have won every race in Sachsenring since 2011, with Dani Pedrosa winning that year and 2012, with Marquez taking over from the following year. Yamaha’s last win in Germany came with Jorge Lorenzo in 2010, a year on from defeat to Valentino Rossi. Suzuki, on the other hand, haven’t won in Sachsenring since Kenny Roberts Jr. in 1999, before four-stroke Grand Prix bikes and probably before Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) knew what a Suzuki was.

Honda is fast in Sachsenring because their bike likes to slide, historically, and so have their riders – especially Marquez. Whilst Yamaha and, since 2015, Suzuki make their time in long corners by leaning on the edge of the tyre, the Honda makes its time in the same corners by rotating the bike with the throttle. This works in Sachsening because so much time is spent, all at once, on one side of the tyre, so to spend all of those thirty seconds ride on the very edge of the tyre can lead to it overheating more than by coming slightly off that edge, and using the power to turn. This is especially handy for Marquez, who spends his time away from the MotoGP paddock turning left and going sideways on a flat track.

Despite this, especially Yamaha will fancy their chances of taking it to Marquez this weekend. The #93 has won 50% of the races so far in 2019 (Argentina, Spain, France, Catalunya), three more than anyone else, making it hard to envisage the ‘King of the Ring’ being defeated this weekend, but Yamaha go to Germany in a good moment.

Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) won just one week ago in Assen with a dominating margin of almost five seconds over Marquez at a track where the seven times World Champion has won five times. Vinales has not won in Sachsenring before, but seems to be back to the kind of form and confidence that saw him win three of the opening five races in 2017, and if that translates here he could end Yamaha’s nine-year wait for a German win, whilst extending the run of Spanish winners in Germany to ten successive years.

Similarly, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) is in a strong moment of his career, with two podiums in the last two races. In fact, Quartararo has as many podiums this season as either of the factory M1 riders. Saturdays seem to be where Quartararo is particularly shining at the moment, though, as the Frenchman has taken two poles in succession and three this year. Perhaps Marquez is out of reach over thirty laps on Sunday, but Quartararo could end the Spaniard’s German pole record the day before.

It will be interesting to see what Suzuki do this weekend after Alex Rins’ crash out of the lead last week. The Spaniard had a good shot at winning before his hard front tyre let go at turn nine of the Dutch track. Now, in Germany and with Yamaha in a good moment, it will be important for Rins and for Suzuki to beat the M1s this weekend in the battle of the inline-fours.

Ducati face a difficult challenge this weekend, like in Assen where they missed the podium. Ducati have never won a dry Germany Grand Prix, with their only win coming in 2008 when Casey Stoner won after Dani Pedrosa crashed out of a mammoth lead at turn one on the Honda. Additionally, Ducati’s only podium in Germany in the 1000cc era (since 2012) came in 2016 in the flag-to-flag race when Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) finished third. Dovizioso’s last dry weather podium in Sachsenring came in 2012 when he was on the Tech 3 Yamaha, and Ducati’s last dry weather podium in Germany came in 2010 when Stoner beat Rossi to third place on the Italian’s return from a broken leg.

Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) led the Ducatis last year in fourth place on the satellite Pramac-run machine. This year, on the factory bike, it will be interesting to see whether the #9 can take it to the machines better suited to Sachsenring over race distance.

Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) is missing this weekend after his practice crash in Assen last week. The Spaniard is being replaced by HRC test rider Stefan Bradl who gets his first outing in Repsol colours.

Featured image of Box Repsol

The eighth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place at the TT Assen, an ideal circuit for a motorcycle which turns well in the middle of the corner, which was demonstrated on Saturday by Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) taking pole position from fellow Yamaha M1 rider Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) on the similarly characterised Suzuki GSX-RR.

It was Rins who made the holeshot. The Spaniard is used to necessitating strong launches thanks to his usual qualifying positions, which often have him off the front two rows. Such a launch this time saw him come out of the first corner in first place.

Maverick Vinales slotted into second, although it was Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who arrived at turn one first. The 2013 Moto3 World Champion got the better of the 2017 Moto3 World Champion on the exit and followed Rins for the first lap.

However, Mir was able to reclaim second from Vinales soon after, and when Rins dropped the Suzuki at De Bult on lap three the rookie took the lead.

Mir’s problem about twenty seconds later was a simple one: he realised he was leading. The rookie ran wide at the Ramshoek and Fabio Quartararo came through to assume the lead.

It was no surprise to see Quartararo leading, such has been his pace this year, with a podium and three pole positions to his name already on the satellite YZR-M1, and it was even less of a surprise to see Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) follow the Frenchman through.

Vinales was not far behind his compatriot Marquez in taking up position behind Quartararo, and Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) looked as though he would be able to catch the Japanese bikes in front of him as well in the early phases.

Soon, though, it became clear that the win would be contested between Quartararo, Vinales and Marquez. Quartararo, like Mir, had a problem when he got to the front. However, it was a more pressing one than that of his fellow rookie with whom he was teammates in 2016. Quartararo had a stability problem, and in the Veenslang his bike developed a speed wobble lap on lap. The Frenchman had to roll the throttle completely to get his bike back under control, and that put Marquez behind in a difficult situation.

Eventually, the Spaniard got past Quartararo due to the wobble, but one minute later he had dropped behind both Quartararo and Vinales thanks to a mistake at turn one. With Quartararo out front from Vinales, the #12 had a chance to get to the front and try to pull away before Marquez had the opportunity to pass the Frenchman himself.

Once more, it was a speed wobble in the back straight which cost Quartararo to Vinales, who did as Marquez before him and swept around the outside of his Yamaha stablemate. Marquez wasn’t far behind his compatriot, as he scythed inside the satellite M1 of Quartararo at the Ramshoek, a place where the #93 has been exceptionally fast historically. On a Honda which had looked unsettled all weekend it was a particularly outstanding pass – more so than usual, perhaps.

With ten laps to go the battle was on between Vinales and Marquez. It had taken two years of waiting but it had finally arrived, and it was Vinales who made the first mistake – and it was almost immediate as he ran wide and off the track in turn one, handing the lead back to Marquez.

Vinales, though, had been particularly fast through turn twelve, able to turn tighter than Marquez or Quartararo. It was an area where he was strong in the multi-bike scrap in 2018, as well, although this time he had the confidence to move Marquez out of the way, force him to close the throttle and move through at the fast kink of turn thirteen – the Hoge Heide.

Marquez would not get another chance to lead to reply to Vinales, who edged away and finally took a commanding win with a gap of almost five seconds over Marquez. The win had looked possible all weekend, and should have been the expectation of Yamaha coming into the weekend considering the characteristics of the track and how they match with the characteristics of their bike. Vinales, too, had been riding well all weekend and – despite a couple of mistakes – looked comfortable on the bike in the race. It was his first win since Australia 2018, and Yamaha’s too, at a track similarly suited to a bike which is strong on the edge of the tyre. The win was also an important one for Vinales, as it solidified his bettering of his teammate since the championship returned to Europe.

Second place for Marquez was an important one, similarly to the second place he secured in Assen back in 2016. Dovizioso was off the podium, down in fourth place, and having beaten the Italian in every race since Qatar – with the exception of Texas when he crashed – is surely now well on his way to world title number eight, especially with Sachsenring coming up next just one week after Assen.

The speed wobbles suffered by Quartararo he put down to himself and a mistake in line choice down the back straight, something he corrected when Marquez and Vinales passed him and he could see his error. No doubt, though, that the lack of straight-line stability affected the pole sitter’s confidence and pace, even after his correction. He might have won, but either way two consecutive podiums for a rookie, and now just five points off the top Yamaha, is an impressive start to his life in the premier class.

Despite suffering in the middle of the race, Dovizioso was able to recover to fourth, re-passing Joan Mir and his teammate Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) to do so. Nonetheless, it was easy to understand Dovizioso’s resignation after the race as, in all likelihood, the championship has all but slipped away once again, and it is unlikely to get any better, mathematically next weekend.

Featured Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing

Continuing from part one the racing  further down the pack the 2019 Assen TT Motogp race was just exciting.

In Assen, the Ducati bikes suffered because of a lack of grip in the heat. All three GP19 riders – Dovizioso, Petrucci and Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) – commented that the heat of the afternoon affected the feeling of the bike a lot. When the Desmosedici has little rear grip it cannot make use of its biggest weapon – its engine – and without this it is too weak on a circuit like Assen where so much time is spent where it does not like to be, on the side of the tyre.

Danilo Petrucci appeared to slumber in the final corner, and that allowed Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha MotoGP) to make a neat lunge on his inside at the final corner for fifth place, the Italian’s best result in MotoGP and a good response to Barcelona when he crashed twice, including that huge high side at turn thirteen on Saturday. Morbidelli was also very strong at the end of the race, and faster than Mir, Petrucci and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) who were ahead of him. He passed all three between lap twenty-one and twenty-six, although he ran out of time to think about Dovizioso.

Danilo Petrucci took sixth place as a result of Morbidelli’s last corner move after battling with Dovizioso for most of the race whilst suffering the same grip issues as the #04.

Cal Crutchlow passed Joan Mir on lap twenty-five. He might have been able to go with Morbidelli, but had to go wide in turn one after the Italian had passed him to avoid the #21 which cost him 2.5 seconds to the satellite Yamaha. It had been a difficult weekend in entirety for Crutchlow, who was 1.2 seconds off pole (despite being sixth) and suffered with grip, like the Ducati riders, in the afternoon.

Joan Mir was eighth for his equal best result in MotoGP. The rookie’s short battle with the two factory Ducati was somewhat reminiscent of the battle between Bradley Smith – then on Tech3 Yamaha – and the two factory Ducati bikes, then of Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden, at the 2013 Dutch TT. Unlike Mir, Smith came out on top, but the Ducati was a much different machine then, Suzuki didn’t exist in MotoGP and Smith finished ninth, behind Aleix Espargaro on the Aspar CRT Aprilia, 33.751 seconds off the pace. In comparison, Mir’s eighth was 24.268 seconds off the win, fifteen seconds off the podium.

Jack Miller’s ninth place was his worst finishing position of the season, but also only his fifth finish from eight races. Miller’s style has often not suited the flowing tracks, and with Ducati this is emphasised. When you look at his best results of the season (third in Texas, fourth in Le Mans and fourth in Argentina) you see that they are ones with some hard braking and, in the case of Argentina, where the bike spins a lot. They are tracks where you can make lap time without using the edge of the tyre.

Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) took his first top ten with Aprilia, which was a welcome result after a difficult start to life in Noale, although the weekend was a strong one from The Maniac despite starting down in twentieth.

Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was eleventh and once again the top KTM. The Spaniard said he would only ride if there was a chance of points such was the pain he was in to ride as a result of his Barcelona testing crash.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) was also in pain to ride after he was hit by Bradley Smith at Barcelona. The Catalan rode with a reported broken femur and a bone edema to twelfth place, ahead of Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3). Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) was in the top ten before rear tyre problems dropped him to fourteenth, ahead of Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) who completed the points.

Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) finished sixteenth, whilst Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) remounted after a crash to finish one lap down in seventeenth.

After Alex Rins dropped the #42 Suzuki on lap three, Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) ended yet another miserable weekend in the gravel to DNF a third consecutive race for the first time since 2011. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) was the unfortunate victim of Rossi’s crash, as the Italian was trying to pass Nakagami when he fell at turn eight. Nakagami was rag-dolled quite heavily. Rossi went to check he was okay whilst the Japanese was lying in the gravel trap next to the barrier, and after a trip to the medical centre the #30 was declared fit and will be okay to ride at Sachsenring.

Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was the final retirement, when he pulled the KTM into pit lane ten laps from the flag.

Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing

Track temperatures approaching fifty degrees greeted the MotoGP riders when they went out for qualifying at Assen, the eighth round of the 2019 World Championship.

Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) was fifth in free practice three, but had his lap cancelled for exceeding track limits. Nonetheless, it was expected that the factory Yamaha rider would move through to Q2, because he had looked quite good on hot-lap speed through the weekend. However, the Italian was not fast enough, and it was Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who went through with Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) took the lap record and the third pole position of his rookie year in MotoGP with a 1’32.017. He nearly broke the 1’32 barrier on his final flying lap but missed out in the final sector. He then set his airbag off celebrating his pole. The Frenchman has had outstanding pace this weekend, and if he can get away and do his rhythm from the start he has a great chance of his first MotoGP win.

Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) will line up second on the grid tomorrow after a superb lap from the Spaniard. If he makes a start he might be one of the only riders who can go with Quartararo.

Another rider to have a chance of going with Quartararo is Alex Rins, who went through qualifying one to qualify third. The TT Assen circuit suits the Suzuki and the Yamaha well, with the long flowing corners suiting the nimble, stable front ends on the YZR-M1 and the GSX-RR. Quartararo, Vinales and Rins made the most of this in this qualifying.

Whilst Assen works for Suzuki and Yamaha, it has not worked for Honda this year, with Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) out of the weekend after a big crash at turn seven on Friday. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL), too, have been suffering with the front end of the 2019 RC213V this weekend which has visibly missed stability. Marquez, even, was unable to continue his one-hundred per cent front row record for 2019, and he lines up fourth for the 2019 Dutch TT, although his front end save in turn one was perhaps the highlight of the session.

With Marquez on the second row are Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) who was the second-fastest Honda on the 2018 version.

Cal Crutchlow was seventh fastest in Q2, ahead of the top Ducati, Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) who was eighth. Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) completes row three.

Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) heads up row four from Andrea Dovizoso (Mission Winnow Ducati) who seemed to go backwards on Saturday. Pol Espargaro was twelfth-fastest.

Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) lines up at the head of row five on Sunday, ahead of Valentino Rossi and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini); whilst Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) heads up row six from the two KTMs of Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech3) and Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) who fell at De Strubben in the closing stages of Q1.

Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech3) heads up the back row, from Andrea Iannone (Aprilia acing Team Gresini) who will be disappointed after a good weekend. Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) will start from last.

Featured Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing

MotoGP heads to the Netherlands this weekend and the Circuit van Drenthe for the 70th Dutch TT at Assen, round eight of the 2019 World Championship.

Normally, arriving in Assen means uncertainty over the weather, but 2019 seems as though it will be as 2018, with no threat of rain and warm conditions throughout the weekend in stark contrast to the snow-affected Saturday of the Dutch World Superbike round back in April.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) arrives in Assen as the championship leader, having won four of the seven races so far in 2019. The Honda rider’s points lead grew much healthier last time out in Barcelona, when two of his three proposed rivals for the title failed to finish whilst the #93 took a comfortable win. Indeed, the reigning World Champion also won in Assen twelve months ago, in what was one of the most thrilling races of recent times with a group of eight riders battling it out for the win almost from lights to flag. But it was Marquez who made the escape, and at a track at which Marquez has won five times in his Grand Prix career – including twice in the premier class, 2014 and 2018 – stopping him from doing the same this weekend will be a tough ask.

Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) has ten wins in Assen, the last one coming back in 2017. Indeed, that 2017 triumph remains his latest, and ending the two-year wait for victory will not be easy this weekend. Whilst Marquez will surely be contending for the win on Sunday, things are less obvious with The Doctor, who has struggled for consistency with his YZR-M1. Only two podiums have come Rossi’s way in 2019 so far, the most recent at round three in Texas and, whilst it looked as though he would be in the fight for the rostrum last time out in Barcelona, his retirement on the second lap meant it was impossible to tell.

However, if the Yamaha works well this weekend, expect not only Rossi to be fighting at the front, but also his Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammate, Maverick Vinales, to be there as well. The Spaniard has only two wins in Assen, and they came back-to-back in 2011 and 2012 – the last ever 125cc Dutch TT and the first Moto3 World Championship race in the Netherlands. That said, in 2017 – when Rossi was victorious – Vinales had arguably the stronger pace, but a poor qualifying meant he was pushing hard to come through the field – too hard, and he crashed at the final chicane. Vinales’ poor qualifying has been a trait of his time at Yamaha, as have his poor starts. He finally made a good one in Barcelona, and looked to have the potential to fight for the podium in those early stages before his race was cut short, like Rossi’s, on the second lap.

Perhaps the biggest star of Catalunya was Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) who took pole in qualifying and finished the race in second place. The Frenchman’s first podium came arguably six weeks later than it should have, considering his pace in Jerez, but it came at the right time. Quartararo was on the podium in Assen in his first race there, back in 2015 in the Moto3 class as well as last year in the Moto2 race. The #20’s silky-smooth riding style has gelled well with the Yamaha this season, and after taking his fist podium in Montmelo, the first trip to the premier class top step will be on Quartararo’s agenda this weekend.

Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has only three podiums in Assen, but that includes one last year when he was second only to Marc Marquez, and stuffed Maverick Vinales in the Ramshoek on the final lap. Rins had podium pace but not the straight line speed to get there in Barcelona – Danilo Petrucci’s Mission Winnow Ducati proving an intense annoyance for the Spaniard – but with the lack of emphasis on straight line performance in Assen there is a chance for Rins to return to the rostrum, and perhaps even add to his win tally this weekend at a circuit which should suit the Suzuki as well as the Yamaha, and for all the same reasons.

Whilst the low top speeds and limited number of hard accelerations, combined with the long, fast, flowing corners of Assen suit the Yamaha and Suzuki, they in theory work hard against the Ducati. The last podium for Ducati in Assen was 2017, with Petrucci – then on the satellite Pramac machine. In comparison, though, their last win in Holland was back in 2008 with Casey Stoner, and Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) has only three premier class podiums in Assen – one on Honda, one on Yamaha, and his only Dutch TT Ducati rostrum came in the mixed conditions of 2014. Last year the Desmosedici’s superior acceleration kept it in the podium fight, as Dovizioso was able to respond to overtakes in the final chicane immediately into turn one. This could prove the bane of Yamaha this year, but for Honda and Suzuki perhaps not, such have been their horsepower gains since 2018.

Featured image courtesy of Box Repsol

The seventh round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place in Barcelona, as misfortune for his main championship rivals saw Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) greatly extend his points lead.

The race started out promisingly, with Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) taking the holeshot. The Italian led the first lap-and-a-half, closely followed by Marquez and Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who made a good start from the second row. Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team), too, had made a good start from row four. A look behind from Marquez on the opening lap caused Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT), Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) to check up, and Lorenzo was able to take advantage and move up to fourth behind Vinales.

Vinales’ corner speed in turn nine on the second lap was far better than that of Marquez and Dovizioso ahead of him, and had to back out of the throttle on the exit to avoid the Honda rider. Lorenzo behind, riding at the front of a race for the first time in Repsol Honda colours, tried to take advantage. Lorenzo out-braked Vinales into the dead-stop turn ten, but as he did so Marquez dived to the inside of Dovizioso. The #04 Ducati rider checked up to try and square off turn ten, since Marquez had taken his line away. As Dovizioso slowed, Lorenzo closed in on his former teammate more rapidly than he was expecting. To try to avoid Dovizioso, Lorenzo squeezed the front brake a little harder, which caused him to fold the front. Out of control, Lorenzo’s #99 Honda hit Dovizioso’s #04 Ducati, whilst Vinales had nowhere to go and was also caught up in the mess.

Behind, Valentino Rossi was trying to pass Danilo Petrucci. To pass a Ducati on a slower bike, you have to push past the limit, and Rossi did just that, into turn ten to pass the #9 Desmosedici. He was going long, and was also unable to avoid his teammate’s YZR-M1. Four riders were out in one corner, and with Marquez out of the incident clean, he already had the victory in sight.

In second place was Danilo Petrucci, and behind him was Quartararo and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar). The speed disadvantage of Quartararo’s M1 meant that it was not until Rins passed the Frenchman that Petrucci came under real pressure. However, the Suzuki was not quite fast enough on the main straight for a pass into turn one, nor could it accelerate out of turn nine quick enough to put the Spaniard alongside Petrucci to pass into turn ten. So, instead of moving past Petrucci and setting his sights on Marquez early on, Rins was forced to sit behind the slow-to-turn Ducati until lap fourteen, when he forced his way through in the middle of turn four. It was a tough move, and there was plenty of contact, but it was fair enough from the pilot of the nimble Suzuki.

Rins’ advantage over Petrucci was short-lived though. Although he had seemed to have a strong pace throughout the weekend, Rins was unable to drop Petrucci and close Marquez down once he had some clear track. Instead, after three laps of leading Petrucci, Rins watched as the Italian came back through. In trying to reclaim second place for himself at turn one on lap eighteen, Rins lost the rear end, made some small contact with Petrucci’s bike, and did well to stay on. He dropped to seventh, and now started a fightback through the pack to try to regain a position on the Catalan GP podium.

As soon as Rins ran wide, Quartararo sensed an opportunity, and he moved past Petrucci in turn three. Unlike Rins, the Frenchman was able to get away, and was the fastest rider on the track for most of the final seven laps, although he was not able to put Marquez under any considerable pressure.

The reigning World Champion was untouchable in Barcelona for the final twenty-three laps. In fact, such was his eagerness to get to the front on lap two when he passed Dovizioso, it is possible to say that Marquez’ pace would have been good enough to win fairly comfortably even without Lorenzo, Dovizioso and the two factory Yamaha riders dropping out on the second lap. The race bore similarities to Assen 2016, when Marquez finished second knowing that his rivals for that year, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, were not scoring big points (Lorenzo in a crisis of confidence and Rossi in the gravel). After that race, Marquez’ championship advantage was twenty-four points. After the 2019 Catalan Grand Prix, Marquez’ points lead stands at thirty-seven points over Andrea Dovizioso. With Assen next up and Sachsenring also on the horizon, it is hard to see that advantage decreasing by the summer.

Whilst mechanical problems cost Quartararo a debut rostrum in his fourth MotoGP race back in Jerez, in Barcelona it was a different story. At the site of his first Grand Prix win – in 2018 in the Moto2 race for Speed Up – Quartararo brought both himself and Petronas Yamaha SRT their first premier class podium. In Assen – being a circuit with almost no straights – victory will be the target for the young French rookie. Quartararo’s pass on Petrucci was fantastic, and the lap he put together after that to leave the Italian with no option to pass the Frenchman once they arrived at the straight was superb as well. The #20’s ability to capitalise on the YZR-M1’s advantages is what brought him this debut podium, and is what could see him win a race this year.

Danilo Petrucci was able to use the advantages of the Ducati to defend his podium, to make it three podiums on the bounce for the Mugello winner. Quartararo had too much pace for the Italian once he came through, but Petrucci’s calmness when under such immense pressure from Rins in the first half of the race was impressive. Petrucci did not have the pace for third, but he made it anyway, and that is a testament to the level of his riding at the moment.

Fourth place will be a disappointment for Alex Rins, who was simply frustrated by Petrucci’s non-existent corner speed. The Suzuki can punch off corners quite well from low-speed, but Petrucci’s defensive riding meant that the GSX-RR’s main positive point – its mid-corner speed – was nullified.

It was a strong race for Jack Miller (Pramac Racing), who came from fourteenth on the grid to finish fifth, ahead of Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who had his best ride since Qatar with sixth place. Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) had another strong ride on the factory RC16 with seventh place, in front of Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) who was visibly struggling with grip when he was on the live world feed in the latter part of the race. Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) took his first top ten since his leg was destroyed in Silverstone last year, whilst Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) took his first top ten in orange.

Eleventh place went to Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) which is the Italian’s best result for Aprilia. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech3) was twelfth, whilst Team Suzuki Ecstar test rider Sylvain Guintoli was the final finisher in thirteenth.

Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) crashed out on the first lap, whilst Bradley Smith (Aprilia Racing Team) took out Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) whose left leg was injured in the crash. That happened one lap before Jorge Lorenzo took himself out of the race along with Dovizioso, Vinales and Rossi. One lap after the four-bike incident at the front, Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech3) dropped out, before Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) saw his Catalan GP come to an early end. Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) crashed at turn seven when he missed the braking point, slid out off-line and lost the front when he touched the throttle. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) was the final retirement when he lost the rear going into turn four trying to pass Jack Miller.

Featured Image courtesy of Box Repsol

Track temperature is often the limiting factor in Barcelona, and it seemed to be the case for qualifying for the seventh round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship.

Q1 saw Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) recover from his huge high-side in FP3 to top the session from Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar), who both advanced to Q2.

In Q2, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) took his second MotoGP pole position in response to his first crash on a MotoGP machine in FP3. It was a crucial result for Quartararo because he has had a strong race pace all weekend. If he gets to turn one first it could be bad news for the others.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) has struggled, by his standards, this weekend in Montmelo. Nonetheless, he positioned himself well on the track for his second run in Q2, and with the assistance of a Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) tow he managed to take second place, and put himself in a good position for tomorrow. He might not have the outright pace of Quartararo or Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar), but he might not need it, such is the expectation of high tyre wear in the race and the speed of the Honda.

Franco Morbidelli took third place on the grid, which was quite remarkable considering the size of his crash in the morning. With Valentino Rossi taking his best qualifying since Texas as he took fourth. The circuit is a good one for Yamaha thanks to the long, flowing corners, which allow it to negate its disadvantage in the half-mile straight. Between Quartararo, Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Morbidelli and Rossi, Yamaha has a good chance to take its first victory of the season tomorrow.

In the middle of the second row is Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati). The #04 has also looked strong this weekend, and seems to be in the frame for the podium fight. The nature of the tyres could see Dovizioso take his favoured strategy to hit the front and control the pace for the first part of the race to save his tyres. If his main rivals are Yamaha riders and the Suzuki of Alex Rins, Dovizioso has a strong chance to do just this in the 2019 Catalan GP, a race he won in a similar way from Marc Marquez in 2017.

Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) will start from the back of row two. For both Petrucci and Dovizioso, the start could be crucial to allow the Ducati’s to control the race in the early part to try and save some tyre for what will surely be a battle at the end.

Maverick Vinales’ weekend has been a quiet one. The Spaniard was out of Q2 overnight but made a step in the morning. Third place in qualifying would have been his best since Argentina when he was second on the grid, but a three place penalty for blocking Quartararo leaves him in sixth for the start, which will be a crucial one for the #12.

Alex Rins perhaps has the strongest race pace, and it looked like for once he would be able to qualify well and be able to use that pace to escape at the front on Sunday, but a crash in turn ten on his second run whilst following Maverick Vinales cost him the front row. Instead, Rins will start eighth – not ideal, but better than he has endured in the past. There is still a good chance for Rins in the race to take his second MotoGP victory.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) will go from the back of the third row in ninth place after making a step overnight from a difficult Friday.

Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) had one of his best days of the season on qualifying day for the Catalan Grand Prix. He qualified directly to Q2 and will start tenth on the grid, joined by Joan Mir and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

It has been a good weekend for Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing), who was fifth overnight. A crash in FP3 saw him go to Q1, which he was unable to advance from. Instead, Bagnaia qualified thirteenth, ahead of his teammate Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) who crashed in the Q1 session, but was unaffected. The two Pramac riders will be joined by Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) in what is an all-Ducati fifth row.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) is another rider who has looked strong this weekend, but was unable to deliver on his free practice promise come qualifying, when he ended up qualifying sixteenth. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) join the Japanese rider on row six.

Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) will head up the seventh row, from the Red Bull KTM Tec3 pairing of Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin; whilst the two wildcarding test riders, Bradley Smith (Aprilia Racing Team) and Sylvain Guintoli (Team Suzuki Ecstar), join Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) – who qualified last for the third consecutive race, thanks to mechanical issues with his number one bike – on the last row.

Featured Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing

Two weeks on from a magnificent race in Mugello at the Italian Grand Prix, the MotoGP World Championship heads to Barcelona for round seven of the 2019 season.

This weekend will be an important one for MotoGP, as it marks the seventieth anniversary of the motorcycle world championship, the first of course taking place on the Isle of Man back in 1949. Much has changed since day one, of course. The Ducati Desmosedici GP19 that Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducat) rode to victory in Mugello two weeks ago almost unrecognisable in comparison to the Norton which won the 1949 Senior TT in the hands of Harold Daniell, and the story is the same when it comes to the tracks, the people involved, the culture of world championship motorcycle racing and politics involved. MotoGP is now a sport for complete professionals. Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) has said on many occasions how the sport of today misses some of the “romance” of that of his early career in the 1990s and 2000s. You would suspect that Daniell’s reaction to 1996, the year of Rossi’s World Championship debut, would be quite similar.

But, whilst MotoGP in its current form may be missing “romance”, it is certainly not missing entertainment or excitement. Mugello was a prime example of that, with four riders and three different bikes separated by only half a second over the line. Petrucci’s winning margin over Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was just 0.043 seconds for his first ever MotoGP victory, and that is the MotoGP we see today: closer, more competitive than ever before.

Fresh from continuing Ducati’s reign in Mugello, which stretches now for three years, Petrucci arrives In Barcelona looking to continue a trend of the last two years, which has seen Ducati pilots take victory in Mugello, and then Barcelona, back-to-back, first with Andrea Dovizioso in 2017 and then with Jorge Lorenzo in 2018. Perhaps it seems less likely for Petrucci to continue this, especially considering his declarations in Mugello where he stated that from now on his primary focus is to help his teammate, Dovizioso, win the World Championship. However, it remains to be seen how Petrucci reacts to winning his first race, whether it will trigger him to continue winning, and to go on to win a lot more races as we have seen with other riders in the past – Dovizioso himself being a prime example.

Losing points to Marquez in Mugello was a disappointment for Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) who will have seen the Italian round of the series as a chance to claim points back on the Spaniard. Instead, the #04 arrives in Montmelo in the knowledge that he must win, or at least beat Marquez, if he is to keep his championship hopes alive. The gap at the moment is twelve points, which may not seem like much, but with Assen and Sachsnering on the horizon, taking points in Spain this weekend will be vital for Dovizioso.

Strangely, Marquez has only won in Barcelona once in the premier class, back in 2014 when his then teammate Dani Pedrosa ran into the back of him in what was turn eleven, costing himself the win despite arguably being faster at the end of the race than the #93. Despite his low frequency of top step visits in Montmelo, Marquez has missed the podium only once in MotoGP at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, and that came in his troubled 2015 season, when he was pushing over the limit to try and go with Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha M1, who eventually won. Marquez has finished second in each of the three Catalan Grands Prix since then, to Valentino Rossi in 2016, to Dovizioso in 2017 and to Lorenzo last year. The reigning champion is, though, on great form, and will be a strong favourite going into this weekend.

The fourth rider in the group at Mugello was Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who had yet another strong comeback from a poor qualifying. What Mugello exposed was Suzuki’s continuing lack of top speed. Fortunately for Suzuki, whilst they miss top end they have a bike which can punch off corners well from low speed, which is what Yamaha miss. Rins was able to use this to stay with the group, although had he managed to establish a gap of half a second or more, he could have gotten away such was his speed in the corners. The straight in Montmelo could also prove a problem for the GSX-RR this weekend, but in his home race Rins could be the only rider with a strong shot at challenging Marquez – but he needs to qualify well.

Valentino Rossi has won ten times in Montmelo, the most recent of those being that 2016 triumph over Marquez. The last two years have been contrasting for the Italian, though, with Barcelona proving one of Yamaha’s weakest tracks in 2017 when he finished only eighth, although it was a return to the Catalan podium last year as he finished third behind Marquez and Lorenzo. After a disastrous home round in Mugello, and with questions being asked about his commitment to his Yamaha contract in the current, disappointing, moment in the Iwata marque’s history, Rossi will be eager to put the voices considering a close retirement for The Doctor on hold this weekend, especially with Assen next up on the calendar, which could prove his last opportunity to win in 2019.

For Rossi’s teammate at Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Maverick Vinales, Mugello was little better. Vinales came home as top Yamaha in Italy, but that meant only sixth place. In fact, Mugello was a catastrophe for Yamaha. At a track where they had been on the podium for fifteen consecutive years, the top Yamaha was almost seven seconds from the rostrum. Anyway, like Rossi, Vinales will be aiming for redemption this weekend, at his home race.

It should be noted that Barcelona is the circuit at which, twelve months ago, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) took his first GP victory. One year one, he could be Yamaha’s best bet of a win in Barcelona and is looking in fine form, having nearly taken pole in Mugello before finishing tenth in the race as top rookie.

Finally, the grid will have twenty-four bikes this weekend, as Suzuki test rider Sylvain Guintoli and Aprilia test rider Bradley Smith will be in action for their respective factories.