Category: Crew On Two

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Can Anyone Stop Rea in Laguna Seca?

This weekend, the 2018 Superbike World Championship heads to California, and the Laguna Seca circuit, home of the famous “Corkscrew”. Negotiating turns eight and nine efficiently this weekend will be critical to achieving a good result, but the puzzle of Laguna Seca is not only limited to its most famous section. Coming over the crest of a hill at turn one on full lean angle and at around 160mph gives a breath-taking start to the lap, which leads straight into the second turn at the double-apex Andretti Hairpin. The complexity of this section means mistakes are inevitable across the weekend, so minimising having a setting to give good confidence when braking on angle is essential for this part of the track. Then the circuit flows right into turns three and four. Three is merely a kink, but it is important to take a good line to be able to make a good turn four. At the same time, in the race, the layout of this part of the track means that the fastest line also leaves you open to a pass, so finding the right compromise will be important in the early laps.

Turn five is a fairly simple, flat right hander, but the radius combined with the relative lack of camber means that it is easy to get sucked in, but the important thing here is the corner exit, because there is then a reasonably long run to turn six through the un-numbered right kink. There is a lot of camber to offer a lot of support in turn six, meaning there is potential for a pass. Turn seven is very fast, on the left side of the tyre. As Always the riders are on the limit of the track boundaries on the exit, and track boundaries in Laguna are enforced not by the Race Direction but by the run-off areas themselves, which are largely gravel – rest easy Mr. Haydon. After the run down the Corkscrew, it is the tricky Rainey Corner, where the riders push the front hard as the downhill run continues before another heavily cambered corner at the penultimate turn. Finally, the last corner is the best overtaking spot, as highlighted by Eugene Laverty in 2013, but as Casey Stoner showed in the MotoGP race back in 2008, it is also quite easy to make a race-deciding mistake at turn twelve.

Image courtesy of Honda Pro racing

Chaz Davies best mastered the Californian circuit in race one last year, which was a remarkable victory, only two weeks after he was run over by Jonathan Rea in Misano race one. This year, it is not physical issues which have the potential to hinder Davies this weekend, but rather problems with the bike. Davies has struggled since Imola, and especially in Donington and Brno. In Donington, Davies suffered his worst weekend of the season, missing the podium in both races; then, in Brno he suffered again, but with some crashes in race two he was able to make the podium. Laguna has been a good track for both Davies and the Panigale in recent seasons, and the Welshman will be hoping to make a return to the top step.

It was Jonathan Rea who took victory in the second Laguna Seca race last year, and the form he is in at the moment would suggest another double could be coming the way of the new ‘most victorious’ rider in World Superbike history. He took that record from Carl Fogarty in race one in Brno two weeks ago, but contact with his KRT teammate Tom Sykes left him as a spectator from lap three in the second race. The frustration from the incident was put to one side, though, as he put pen to paper on a new two-year deal to pilot the ZX-10RR until 2021. As for this weekend, Rea and Davies have been the two to beat around Laguna since 2015, and with the Welshman currently in a difficult moment, this weekend could well be a Johnny Rea domination.

But maybe Marco Melandri can take it to the reigning World Champion. He should have won race two in Brno but made a mistake at turn three which put him out of contention. Melandri made the podium last year in race two, and may prove to be the only rider with any hope of stopping Rea taking yet another double. However, if his instability issues reappear this weekend, Melandri could have a bigger problem in Laguna than anywhere else – few places require total confidence, especially in the front end, as the Weathertech Raceway.

What about Sykes? Well, he took two wins in Laguna – one in 2013 on his way to the championship, and the other in 2014 when he shared the winning that day with Melandri, the last time the Italian won in Laguna. He took a pair of second places in 2015 behind Chaz Davies and in front of Rea both times, before he took a third US win in 2016. A podium was followed by a crash two weeks ago, and with his record in Laguna Seca, this weekend could offer an opportunity for Sykes to expand on his solitary victory of 2018 so far.

Perhaps the biggest question for this weekend is: what can the Yamahas do? Three race wins out of the last four races, across both riders, and including a double for Michael van der Mark in Donington one month ago leave the R1s under significantly more pressure to perform and achieve big results, especially with the Ducati riders having fairly large question marks over the heads of their competitiveness, as well as Sykes. The Pata Yamaha riders could be the biggest contenders to Rea this season, ad they have to be in a good position to be able to try to challenge the championship leader.

The Aprilias could also have something to say this weekend, with Eugene Laverty making good progress at Brno a couple of weeks back, taking a sixth in race one and a fourth in race two. He was backed up, too, by Lorenzo Savadori who, despite having a bonfire underneath his rear tyre for most of both races, managed to shadow his Milwaukee Aprilia teammate to take seventh in race one and fifth in race two. Coming here, Laverty was confident of being able to achieve podium results, and the progress in the last races would point towards being able to get near that. Maybe they are quite far away, still, but with some luck they might be able to get themselves on the box. Laguna has been a good circuit for Laverty in the past. He only has two podiums, but has only ever raced there once on competitive machinery, in 2013 (when both podiums came), including a stunning win in the second race that year.

There are also three Americans on the grid this weekend: the two WSBK regulars, Triple M Honda’s PJ Jacobsen and Red Bull Honda’s Jake Gagne; and the wildcard Josh Herrin on a Yamaha.

Feature image courtesy of hondanews.eu

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Lorenzo Doubles Up in Barcelona

Jorge Lorenzo qualified on pole position for the Catalan MotoGP, with a stunning final sector on Saturday afternoon. It was his first Ducati pole and gave him the perfect opportunity to put his superior pace to use, and demolish the field as he had done two weeks previously in Mugello. His only real threats came from Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, who had shared similar pace with each other across the weekend and had the potential to upset Lorenzo’s rhythm.

Jorge Lorenzo ahead of Marc Marquez and his teamate, Andrea Dovizioso . Image courtesy of Ducati media

Marquez made a great start, whereas Lorenzo did not, and made it into first place, with the buffer of Andrea Iannone’s Suzuki between him and Lorenzo. However, the number 29 ran wide when trying to pass Marquez for the lead on lap one in turn 10, allowing Marquez back through and the #99 Ducati into second place as well. This let Lorenzo line up perfectly a pass into turn one. Marquez defended the inside as hard as he could but Lorenzo was unstoppable on the brakes.

From there, Marquez tried to stay with Lorenzo and, despite looking at ease, he was clearly on the limit because, when Dovizioso crashed behind him at turn five on lap nine, he dropped the pace and let Lorenzo go by two seconds, preserving his second place and the twenty points that come with it.
Jorge Lorenzo’s pace in this race was incredible. Between lap seven and thirteen, his lap times were separated by less than one tenth of a second, and over the whole race only 1.2 seconds separated his fastest time from his slowest. This was vintage Jorge Lorenzo and when he rides like that, there is no one person on the planet who can stop him.

Of course, demolishing the best riders in the world two races running opens up inevitable questions about a World Championship challenge. Can he do it? Probably not, but possibly. Over the past two races we have seen that Lorenzo has the pace to win races, the problem is that they were both at circuits he adores. We haven’t yet seen how he might go at a circuit he is less suited to. Another problem is that he is forty-nine points behind Marc Marquez in the championship, and it’s perhaps fair to say that taking two race wins out of Marquez and with twelve rounds left is not so easy. Furthermore, Lorenzo is not as consistent as Marquez. Where a bad weekend for Marc in the remaining races might be a fourth or a fifth, it could be a lot worse for Jorge, especially if the track conditions are neither wet nor dry. Speaking of which, Assen is next, the birthplace of Jorge Lorenzo’s wet weather demons, courtesy of the crash he suffered in the Thursday practice at the Dutch TT back in 2013 in which he broke his collarbone. In the years since 2013, Lorenzo has only managed to podium in Assen once, in 2015 on his way to World Championship number five.

After Assen comes Sachsenring, another of Lorenzo’s weaker circuits; and the other thing that Assen and Sachsenring have in common is that Marc Marquez loves them both: he has five wins in Holland and is unbeaten since 2008 in Germany. However, if Jorge can somehow keep the gap to Marquez below fifty points after the next two races, the ones which come after the summer break are far more favourable: Brno suits, both him and the bike, as does Austria. He goes well in Silverstone and the Desmosedici won there last year in the hands of Dovizioso.

Misano is the perfect place to be an enemy, Lorenzo’s favourite role! Aragon is one of his best circuits during the season and he is the only one, other than Marquez to win there since 2013. In Japan too, Lorenzo moulds Motegi into his circuit by focussing on corner exit and acceleration from low speed, Phillip Island again suits his style, so long as it does not provide changeable conditions. He has always enjoyed Sepang and he was under the lap record there in this season’s winter test and lastly Valencia is another of his best circuits. Thailand is a question mark, but in theory the Ducati should work quite well there. So, Lorenzo can fight for the championship, but the next two rounds can eliminate that possibility.

Marc Marquez unable to keep with the pace of Jorge Lorenzo. Image courtesy of Honda Pro racing

For Marc Marquez, the race was perfect. He missed the win, but that does not matter. After Mugello, Andrea Dovizioso had closed down the Spaniard’s advantage in the championship to 29 points – a recoverable margin. But after Barcelona, Dovi is precisely as far back as Lorenzo: 49 points. Furthermore, Marquez’s advantage over the factory Yamahas increased to 27 over Valentino Rossi, with Maverick Vinales a further eleven back. With Assen and Sachsenring being races Marquez can definitely win, he could have the title all but won by the summer break.

Valentino Rossi’s race proved uneventful and yet it exceeded expectations. He did not have the pace of either of the factory Ducatis or Marquez, but the crash of Dovizioso allowed the number 46 to recover a podium position, more than he could have expected. In Assen next time out, it will be almost precisely one year since he or Yamaha last won a Grand Prix, but despite this the Italian is still in mathematical championship contention. There still needs to be more found from Yamaha with the acceleration of the M1, and what they tried in the Monday test after the race did not aid that, but with what he has there is no questioning the great job Rossi is doing, and in Assen you can never discount him.

Cal Crutchlow ahead of Dani Pedrosa. Image courtesy of Honda Pro racing

Cal Crutchlow finished fourth. He was embroiled in a mid-race battle with Dani Pedrosa and Danilo Petrucci, but upped and left just quick enough to evade the attentions of Johann Zarco and Maverick Vinales when they turned up in the fourth-place battle with just a few laps to go. In truth, it seemed that Cal could have finished on the podium in the first part of the race. He took over one second out of Valentino Rossi when he was chasing down Pedrosa and Petrucci, and dealt with the number 9 quickly, only for his charge to be halted by Pedrosa, whose defence was very strong. Crutchlow also ran wide in turn 10 at one point to hand the fifth position back to Petrucci, and that meant that it was only with seven laps to go that he passed Pedrosa for fourth place. He duly departed, but was too late to do anything about Rossi. Anyway, a fourth place finish from eighth on the grid was a good result for Crutchlow, especially as he went against the Honda grain by using the soft rear tyre.

Dani Pedrosa did a similar thing, using medium tyres front and rear, rather than the hard-hard combination which was more expected from the Hondas. This worked for him in the beginning of the race, because he had enough grip, but also enough support, to make a good pace. However, by the end of the race, he had no rear grip left – edge grip nor drive grip – so he had little to fight Crutchlow with. Even still, he positioned the bike very well, which is why it took Cal so long to get by the number 26, but in the end tyre grip won out, as usual, and Pedrosa wound up in fifth place, just ahead of Maverick Vinales.

And what a disappointing race it was for Vinales. Through the weekend he had spoken about how he had worked to be more comfortable in the race, how he felt he had found something for the first five laps. But he had no chance from the start, from which he put the M1 in reverse and fell through the pack to the back end of the top ten. Whilst his teammate, Valentino Rossi, and also Johann Zarco, are able to be aggressive in the first laps, Vinales is not, and this issue must be fixed if he is to win races. This is not a new thing, though, it was the same last year: in Qatar, he did not get going until halfway through the race. It was the same story in Argentina. In Assen he crashed trying to recover from a bad qualifying and a poor start and he could have won in Phillip Island had he started better. The difference is that now, these poor starts ruin his whole race because he cannot overtake – whereas he was able to still come through to the podium or even win in 2017 after a bad start, in 2018 he can go nowhere. The worst thing for Vinales is that it is only him having the problem, and whilst he is suffering with this, the other side of the Movistar Yamaha garage is enjoying its fourth podium of the year and third in succession. Something has to change in the #25 box, and quickly.

One positive for Vinales, is that he was three seconds clear of Johann Zarco at the end of the race, which didn’t look remotely likely before Le Mans. Since then, though, the Frenchman has become a little bit invisible. It was somewhat expected in Mugello, because Johann struggled there last year, but in Barcelona, he finished fifth last year, so only seventh place this year seems a bit odd. But, next up is Assen, and for Johann that is the scene of his first MotoGP pole position which he took in wet conditions last season. Hopefully for him he can have another good weekend this year in Holland to get his season back on track.

Danilo Petrucci had a strong start to the race, but suffered towards the end, no doubt with tyre wear, and could only manage eighth place. seven seconds behind him was Alvaro Bautista who scored his fourth successive top ten finish with ninth place, a couple of seconds clear of the factory Suzuki of Andrea Iannone who had a bizarre race, going from challenging for the lead on lap one to being 24 seconds away from the win by the end, and down in tenth place.

Pol Espargaro. Image courtesy of Markus Berger/KTM media

Pol Espargaro took KTMs best result of the season in eleventh place, ahead of Scott Redding who had a good race to twelfth – a good result after probably his best weekend on the Aprilia. Thirteenth went to Karel Abraham, who was the final finisher. Franco Morbidelli was fourteenth, but classified three laps down.

Only fourteen classified finishers leaves plenty of retirements: Mika Kallio was the first to go on lap one; then Sylvain Guintoli crashed out two laps later; Tom Luthi went one lap after Guintoli; Aleix Espargaro crashed one lap after Luthi; then came Simeon’s exit with seventeen to go; one lap before Dovi crashed; then Rins retired with thirteen laps left; two laps later Taka Nakagami folded the front in turn five whilst trying to pass Bradley Smith, and took the British rider with him; Jack Miller crashed with seven to go; Tito Rabat’ Ducati blew up one lap after Miller bowed out; and finally Hafizh Syahrin had a strange crash at turn four.

A race of attrition, then, in the premier class for the Catalan GP, but it was Jorge Lorenzo who came out on top. Can he continue this form in Assen, or will Marquez reclaim his authority in the 2018 World Championship?

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Bastianini Converts Barcelona Pole for First Win Since Japan 2016

The seventh round of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship looked, in the early phases, to be a fairly straightforward, uneventful affair, at least in the fight for the lead. Jorge Martin bolted immediately, only Tatsuki Suzuki able to go with the Spaniard. It looked set, Martin would win, eventually breaking the Japanese, and assume the championship lead.

Moto3 2018: Round Seven – Barcelona, Catalunya image courtesy of hondanews.eu

But it did not go like that. It was not Suzuki who faltered, it was Martin, crashing at turn nine on lap nine. He tried to re-join but the bike wouldn’t allow it. Suzuki duly fell back to the chasing pack of about ten or eleven riders, unable to maintain the pace Martin had previously been setting which had been good enough to pull the pair clear.

The drama was not done there, though, as Aron Canet and Albert Arenas came together into turn four with six laps to go and took down Nicolo Bulega in the process. Bulega had returned to the front-running pace this weekend, and felt he had the potential to win the race. When he was taken out, he was angry and expressed that to Canet and Arenas who at the time were both lying on the floor; Canet eventually carried away on a stretcher whilst Arenas was able to walk off. Bulega’s anger at the incident was understandable; he had finally gotten back to the front of a Grand Prix after spending all of last year at the back end of the top ten, and all of this year fighting for last, and crashing. That said, putting that before the safety of your competitors when they are clearly suffering is not perhaps the best way to go about things. Canet and Arenas were both largely unharmed in the incident, as was Bulega, and that is the most important thing.

The craziness did not end there: Jaume Masia made contact with John McPhee as a result of avoiding Marco Bezzecchi at the end of the pit straight. Masia lost control and collected Andrea Migno when he fell. Again, both riders were okay, but this time there was less anger in the gravel trap, and Masia was as apologetic as was to be expected, which Migno acknowledged.

That left five bikes in the leading group: Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, John McPhee, Gabriel Rodrigo and Tatsuki Suzuki.

They had six laps to sort themselves out, and in those six laps it was Bastianini who took charge, and broke away just enough in the final stages of the race to put himself out of danger into the final corners, as he took his first win of the season, and first since Motegi 2016 when he beat Brad Binder with some stunning late-race pace. This win was different, though, for Enea, because it was his first outside of Gresini, and it also brought him into championship contention. He climbed up to fourth in the championship, and now sits thirty-five points behind table-topping Bezzecchi, but, perhaps more importantly, twelve points behind Jorge Martin who still surely has the be the championship favourite. There are another four points in front of Martin to Fabio Di Giannantonio, but the Italian’s poor weekend in Barcelona showed a weakness in his season which could cost him in November.

Bastianini celebrating his win. Image courtesy of HondaProRacing

So, Bastianini is back in the championship hunt with this victory, but it is Marco Bezzecchi who remains atop the standings after he snatched second place from Gabriel Rodrigo on the line. It had been a tough weekend for Bezzecchi, struggling to find a good feeling with the PruestelGP KTM across all three days, but he still managed to arrive in the podium, showing his strength and potential in this season – even when things aren’t quite correct, Bezzecchi manages to be there and score important points for the championship. His strength is his consistency, and this is highlighted by the statistic that the Italian has finished on the podium in every race which he has finished. Bezzecchi is in the championship hunt 100%, it’s just hard to believe he can be there at the top until the end.

Third place went to Gabriel Rodrigo, who claimed his first podium of his Grand Prix career. There is no doubt that Gabri deserves this, he has been challenging near the front for a few seasons now, only for crashes to take him out of contention. Unfortunately, crashes are still a big part of his racing, but if he can find a way to finally phase them out somewhat, he can be a regular podium contender.

John McPhee took fourth place, his best result of the season, and it shows what he can achieve when he makes a good qualifying. As he becomes more in tune with the CIP-Team Green squad, surely results such as these will only become more recurrent for the Scot, as he surely looks to find himself a Moto2 ride for next season.

The only man who could match Jorge Martin’s pace at the start of the race, Tatsuki Suzuki, could in the end only manage fifth place. Still, it is a much better result than he picked up in Mugello, and also his best result of the season – his previous best being sixth in Le Mans. Kaito Toba led the second group home, with a sixth place finish, his career best, ahead of Di Giannantonio who recovered from running off track at turn five to finish seventh and move into second in the championship. Alonso Lopez came from the back of the grid to finish eighth in the second of his four home races; Dennis Foggia took his first top ten finish as a full-time Grand Prix rider with ninth palace which is a good result from a difficult weekend; and Raul Fernandez rounded out the top ten, which is very impressive from the Spanish wildcard – surely we will see him in the GP paddock full-time next season.

Eleventh place went to Jakub Kornfeil, ahead of Makar Yurchenko, Adam Norrodin, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Livio Loi rounded out the points. Philipp Oettl was sixteenth and the seventeenth and final finisher was Lorenzo Dalla Porta.

Darryn Binder was the first retirement on lap one. He was joined on the side lines by: Kazuki Masaki, Jorge Martin, Marcos Ramirez, Ayumu Sasaki, Tony Arbolino, Albert Arenas, Aron Canet, Nicolo Bulega, Andrea Migno and Jaume Masia.

Featured Image courtesy of hondanews.eu

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First Moto2 Pole for Quartararo

Fabio Quartararo. Image courtesy of Honda pro racing

In 2015, Fabio Quartararo came into the Moto3 World Championship with the Estrella Galicia team as the next big thing, and a double CEV Moto3 champion. The rules were changed for Quartararo, to allow champions of the Moto3 Junior World Championship to graduate to the World Championship from the age of 15, rather than 16 years. But a broken ankle in Misano 2015 pretty much ended his year, and a move to the Leopard team, who won the 2015 World Championship with Danny Kent, as well as KTM machinery hindered the Frenchman’s progress. He had an awful 2016, not even reaching the podium. Fabio then went to Moto2 in 2017 with the Pons HP40 team, but was fired from the team at the end of the year after another tough season. Speed Up was the destination for Quartararo for 2018, and up to now, he was looking pretty ordinary: 20th in Qatar, 22nd in Argentina, 15th in Texas, 10th in Jerez, 8th at home in Le Mans, and 11th last time out in Mugello. There has clearly been progress, but nothing which you might say is pointing to something special.

However, since Quartararo arrived in Barcelona, he has been rapid. He may have been only 23rd fastest in FP1, but that was only 1.1 seconds of the top time; then in FP2 he was third; FP3 he was eighth and in qualifying he took his first ever Grand Prix pole position, and Speed Up’s tenth their relatively short history. It was a brilliant lap by Fabio, and completely unexpected – he has been nowhere for two-and-a-half years and all of a sudden he arrives on pole position, and by over one tenth which is a huge rarity in Moto2. His consistency over the weekend points to promise for Sunday, but he really is an unknown quantity, it is difficult to say what he can achieve.

Alex Marquez and Marcel Schrotter join Quartararo on the front row, Marquez having looked strong all weekend and Schrotter similarly. For Marquez, tomorrow is crucial; with the championship falling away from him he needs to take a lot of points out of the championship leaders and tomorrow offers a good opportunity to do just that, with some unusual names seemingly able to mix it with the typical front runners. A win tomorrow could launch Marquez back into contention.

Francesco Bagnaia, image courtesy of honda pro racing

Championship leader, Francesco Bagnaia, will aim for his fourth victory of 2018 from fourth on the grid – an omen? As you might expect, Bagnaia has looked fairly risk-free and still blisteringly fast all weekend. He may have missed the front row today but this seems to be the type of race which suits Bagnaia perfectly, as he tends to have a little bit extra on his rivals, at least those on Kalex chassis’, when it comes to tyre conservation. This advantage could prove vital tomorrow, and Pecco will be keen to return to the rostrum after missing it at home in Italy two weeks ago.

Brad Binder will line up fifth for tomorrow, and is another rider who has looked consistently quick this weekend. The South African is still without a podium in 2018, and tomorrow’s race seems like it could offer a great opportunity for him to change that, now he has finally made a good qualifying. The final spot on the second row will be taken by Mattia Pasini, who has not been so consistent this weekend, but might just be able to sneak a decent result if he can make a good start and get his defence on.

Xavi Vierge has not had such a stunning weekend, but nonetheless made the head of row three in qualifying, ahead of Joan Mir, who is surely aiming for a third consecutive podium, and Sam Lowes who will just want a solid points haul after a torrid beginning to 2018.

Lorenzo Baldassarri has not had the pace you might have expected so far this weekend, and only managed tenth place in qualifying. He needs to make some changes in warm-up on Sunday morning if he is to take a result which can help his championship. Joining the number seven on row four are Simone Corsi and an impressive Tetsuta Nagashima.

Luca Marini is in better physical condition than in Mugello, where he managed an impressive seventh place, but could still only manage thirteenth place and the head of the fifth row in qualifying. Iker Lecuona and Romano Fenati join Marini on row five.

Andrea Locatelli and wildcard Edgar Pons will be either side of persistently poor qualifier Miguel Oliveira. Fortunately for Miguel, it never seems to matter if he qualifies in the depths of the top twenty, because he always makes a stunning start and first laps. From eleventh in Mugello he won, but tomorrow, from seventeenth will be tough for the Portuguese. He will need to make the most of the long run to turn one from the grid if he is to make a good result tomorrow. But, if he can get to the top ten early, he might just be able to use the KTMs impressive tyre management to his advantage and come through to the top five or even the podium. One thing is for sure, Oliveira is not particularly intent on making these races easy for himself.

Jorge Navarro disappointed with only nineteenth on the grid, but did beat Hector Barbera’s replacement, Augusto Fernandez who has been incredibly quick this weekend but for whatever reason could not replicate his pace in qualifying. Barbera is out because he has been sacked from the Pons HP40 team due to a drink driving incident in the week, and the decision of the team is entirely understandable, and indeed correct.

A little bit about Fernandez: he was riding a Superstock 600 Yamaha R6 in the European Moto2 Championship (effectively the STK600 in European Moto2 is like a race within a race, think European Supersport Cup), and riding it well, until he got on a Moto2 Tech3 Mistral 610 at the Aragon round of the European Moto2 Championship back in 2016, at which point he immediately launched himself into victory contention. Last year, he was drafted into the Speed Up team to replace Axel Bassani, but he was dropped from Speed Up this year and has since been riding a private Suter back in the European Championship again, on which he challenged Jesko Raffin (on a Kalex) for the win last weekend in Barcelona. It’s fair to say Augusto is trying to make the most of this opportunity with the Pons team, and hopefully he does enough for them to keep him. Isaac Vinales rounds out the seventh row.

Khairul Idham Pawi and the returning Remy Gardner are in front of Domi Aegerter on row eight; then Steven Odendaal, Bo Bendsneyder and Danny Kent (1.681 off Quartararo) will make up row nine; Joe Roberts, Niki Tuuli and Dimas Ekky row ten; Stefano Manzi, Eric Granado and Jules Danilo row eleven; and Federico Fuligni is the final rider on the grid and the only one on row twelve.

Interestingly, Manzi on the Forward Suter was only 0.020 seconds faster than Fernandez’ time last week, and his teammate Granado was 0.025 seconds slower than the Spaniard.

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First 2018 Pole for Bastianini

The Qualifying top 3. Image courtesy of Honda pro racing

It’s been a difficult start to the season for Enea Bastianini, he is over forty points off the championship lead and has only finished three races. But, in true “La Bestia” style, he turns it all around in Barcelona, the scene of his first World Championship podium back in 2014. This time, he’s come back with a pole, his first since 2016 and first (obviously) with the Leopard Honda squad. The pace has been there all weekend, too, so perhaps this is the weekend for Enea to recharge his championship challenge.

Of course, Bastianini on pole means Jorge Martin does not receive the Pole Position Award (a genuine surprise) and this was mostly due to traffic. Put simply, Martin got unlucky, and Bastianini the opposite. In fairness, the traffic Martin encountered was, for the most part, doing nothing wrong. But anyway, Martin has the potential to perhaps do what he tried in Mugello: break the pack. In Italy, his teammate, Fabio Di Giannantonio, and Marco Bezzecchi went with him, but they haven’t had such strong pace this weekend. Maybe Bastianini can go with Martin, but that might be about it.

Jorge Martin. Image courtesy of Honda pro racing

Tatsuki Suzuki will be hoping to make more of his front row in Barcelona than he made of his front row in Mugello, where he finished seventeenth. Ayumu Sasaki joined Suzuki on the front row in Italy, and finished one place ahead of the Sic58 Squadra Corse rider, so will have a similar aim. Aron Canet and Kaito Toba – impressive again – round out row two.

John McPhee finally had a decent qualifying, and he will start from seventh place tomorrow on the CIP KTM, and joined by Gabriel Rodrigo and Marco Bezzecchi on the third row. Not a great qualifying for Bezzecchi, championship leader, but he has looked decent this weekend, and will still have hopes of a podium finish for tomorrow and limiting the damage done in the championship done by Martin.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta heads up row four, from Kazuki Masaki and Nicolo Bulega, who is, apparently, back. Bulega has had a miserable year, and actually it even goes back to last year where he had a best position of fourth. But the Italian showed some good signs in Mugello, and this weekend he has been very quick, often in the top ten. Unfortunately, a mistake in the final sector cost him almost one second, and so he will have to do what he can from the back of the fourth row tomorrow; but a podium is not entirely out of the question tomorrow for Bulega, and that is something pretty much everyone expected they would not be saying (or writing) at any point this year.

If it was a bad qualifying for the championship leader, Marco Bezzecchi, it was even worse for Fabio Di Giannantonio. The Italian has been struggling all weekend, never in the top ten, and a crash in the early stages of qualifying got his session off to a bad start, from which he could only recover to thirteenth. He only had one run, in the end, as it took the Gresini team almost the whole session to repair Diggia’s bike. He has a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Jakub Kornfeil and the impressive wildcard, Raul Fernandez, round out row five. Interesting to not that Fernandez, in the Angel Nieto Team, was ahead of both his teammates, Andrea Migno and Albert Arenas.

In fact, Migno finished qualifying in sixteenth place, ahead of Jaume Masia and Philipp Oettl on the sixth row. Albert Arenas heads up row seven ahead of Darryn Binder and Adam Norrodin, whilst Tony Arbolino is ahead of Makar Yurchenko and Alonso Lopez on row eight. Row nine sees Marcos Ramirez ahead of Dennis Foggia and Livio Loi; whilst Vicente Perez and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat complete the grid.

Niccolo Antonelli did not run in qualifying, because he dislocated his left shoulder in a crash at turn two in FP3 in the morning.

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Lorenzo Takes First Ducati Pole in Barcelona

After taking his first Ducati win two weeks ago in Mugello, Jorge Lorenzo today took his first Ducati pole position with a stunning 1’38.680 at the death of Q2 to beat Marc Marquez. It was Jorge’s 40th pole position in the premier class and 66th in all classes, and as a result we can fairly safely assume that Mr. Lorenzo is ‘back’. A shame for Ducati; they wouldn’t have minded too much if Mugello proved to be a one-off, but it seems that Lorenzo really has solved the Desmosedici puzzle, and about two weeks too late for him to remain in Ducati. But can the number 99 win tomorrow? Well, possibly. His race pace this weekend has been the best of anyone, and by a reasonable distance. However, tomorrow will show the reality of the situation regarding the effectiveness of the modified fuel tank Lorenzo had asked for so insistently. It worked in Mugello but only tomorrow will we see whether that is transferable to other tracks. If he is there until the end, it works generally, if he falls back again like in Le Mans, there is still more to be done. But, ultimately, Jorge Lorenzo should win tomorrow.

Jorge Lorenzo. Image courtesy of Ducati media

However, it won’t be entirely simple, being MotoGP an’ all. For a start, Marc Marquez is starting alongside Lorenzo on the front row of the grid in second place. Leaving aside the longest front end slide to be save in all of history, Marquez’ day was pretty flawless. Sure, it looked more difficult for him to make lap time than it was for the likes of Lorenzo, but when does Marc Marquez, or any Honda rider for that matter, look as though he isn’t on the brink of a crash at every corner? The answer would be never. From this, it is perhaps possible to say that the Honda is not necessarily a more rounded motorcycle this year, but it is perhaps better at doing what it was already good at. Either way, that save was a stunner, and so was his qualifying, coming from Q1 – after a crash in FP3 cost him a final time attack to make Q2 directly from the combined free practice times – to so nearly take the pole position; if he had done it he would have been the first rider to ever come from Q1 to make pole position in MotoGP (Tom Sykes took pole in Sepang 2016 for World Superbike after coming from Q1).

But the most important for Marquez is that he is in the front row. If he can get in front of Lorenzo and stay in front tomorrow, he can definitely take the fight to Jorge. Perhaps critically, it seems again like Marquez can run the hard rear tyre. He had a few off-throttle slides on it, but his pace was good, so it depends on two things: track temperature and whether Marc wants to take the risk. The second point is almost invalid. It’s also worth pointing out that whilst he was strong on the soft tyre, Marquez also seemed quite comfortable on the soft compound rear that most of the rest of the field seem intent on running tomorrow afternoon. Marquez looks strong, but it will be important for him to break Lorenzo’s rhythm.

Marquez proved to be the Honda meat in a Ducati front row sandwich, as Andrea Dovizioso recovered from a difficult first run in Q2 to make the front row in his second flying lap. He was a way off, three tenths separating Dovi from teammate and polesitter Lorenzo, but Dovizioso has never been a pole hound, and you know that he has been working on race pace all weekend. Again, like Marquez, it seems like he can run either the hard or the soft rear, although you get the feeling he would rather run the soft – as we know, the Ducati works best when there is good grip. With all the glory Lorenzo has enjoyed in the last races, it will be important for Dovi to re-establish his dominance in the factory Ducati garage tomorrow. He can win, but it would be a surprise.

Fourth place in qualifying went, arguably surprisingly, to Maverick Vinales. First of all, P4 for Vinales in a qualifying at Barcelona with 50 degree track temperatures shows Yamaha are making progress with the issues which the M1 has, and this is very promising for them for both tomorrow and the rest of the season. Through all the weekend, Maverick has looked good, and more importantly has been constantly favouring the soft compound rear tyre. Especially in comparison to his teammate, Valentino Rossi, who seems to be edging towards the medium rear for tomorrow. This is positive for Vinales, as the soft rear tyre could give him the grip at the start, especially if many people run the medium or hard rear tyres, as it could allow him to make a decent start, not lose too much in the first stages of the race and finally use his late race pace to charge for the podium, and a factory Yamaha podium in Barcelona would be, to say the least, unexpected.

Andrea Iannone. Image courtesy of Suzuki racing

Andrea Iannone topped FP4, despite being very inconsistent and not really making a long run, but could only manage fifth in qualifying. A middle-of-the-second-row start for Iannone tomorrow gives him a good opportunity to make a good start and put himself in the mix with the Ducatis and Marquez. In the morning’s FP3, Iannone was matching the pace of Lorenzo, high 39s. If he can repeat this tomorrow he can be in the mix for the podium or even the win, it’s just about whether he can make the soft rear tyre last in the heat.

Danilo Petrucci rounded out the second row. It would be a surprise to see Petrucci remain in contention tomorrow, being a rider who tends to be quite hard on the tyre, but opposing that idea is the pace of the Italian, who was running in the mid-1’40s today, which pretty much matches everyone bar Lorenzo and Marquez. Temperature, as for everyone, will be the critical factor for Petrux tomorrow, because of all the rider who are probably looking to run the soft rear tyre, he is the one who will suffer with it the most.

The first spot on row three will be occupied by Valentino Rossi tomorrow as he qualified seventh. The Italian was disappointed because he felt his potential was enough for the second row, but a mistake on what could have been his best lap at turn ten cost him that, and left him with row three for tomorrow. Unfortunately for Rossi, it looks like he can’t make the soft compound rear last the distance and will have to run the medium to get to the end without falling off a lap time cliff. Despite this, Rossi suggests the biggest issues will come from the front tyre, he feels that this is the limiting factor. Many riders have favoured the soft front this weekend, including Rossi, but in his fastest run in FP4, he ran with a medium front and rear. We know that Rossi always likes to focus on the race pace, so maybe he has something for tomorrow, but after Saturday his chances don’t look quite as good as one day ago.

Rossi will be joined on the third row tomorrow by Johann Zarco who has had another quiet weekend, but his pace is mid-1’40s, so he can fight for a good result tomorrow, and Tito Rabat who has been yet again very impressive on the Avintia Ducati. Surprisingly, Tito’s pace is even better than Zarco’s, and arguably even better than Rossi’s. If he can make the soft rear tyre last the distance tomorrow, which it looks like he can, Rabat could turn a fair few heads tomorrow.

Pol Espargaro. Image courtesy of Markus Berger/ktm

Row four is an all-Honda affair, with Cal Crutchlow leading Dani Pedrosa and Takaaki Nakagami. Jack Miller, Hafizh Syahrin and a disappointing Alex Rins complete row five, whilst row six consists of Aleix Espargaro, Bradley Smith and Franco Morbidelli. Pol Espargaro was nineteenth, ahead of Scott Redding and Karel Abraham, whilst the eighth row sees Alvaro Bautista in twenty-second ahead of Mika Kallio and Tom Luthi. Sylvain Guintoli and Xavier Simeon who crashed at turn four complete the grid.

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati Media

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Lowes Takes First WSBK Win in Brno

After his domination of the first race at the Czech round of the 2018 Superbike World Championship, it was difficult to see anyone defeating Jonathan Rea, by this point the most victorious rider in World Superbike history, in the second outing in Brno.

However, Tom Sykes saw to that. On lap three of the race, after starting from ninth place thanks to the reverse grid rules, Rea tried a move on Sykes for sixth place at turn twelve, before the run up ‘Horsepower Hill’, but ran wide. Sykes, as you might expect, squared the corner off and tried to beat Rea out of the corner. Unfortunately, though, the pair made contact and Rea ended up in the gravel. That is the essence of what happened, but it did not end there.

Whilst the race was continuing, Rea stood at the side of the track and offered a sarcastic applause to his KRT teammate, obviously not impressed by what happened, and after the race he explained that he felt that Sykes ran into him on purpose, citing the 2013 World Champion’s line on the exit of the corner compared to Eugene Laverty’s in front as evidence since Sykes was out a little wider than Laverty. Rea also questioned why it always seems to be only with him that Sykes can fight and ultimately blamed his teammate for the incident. Obviously, Sykes himself had a different perspective on the incident and felt that Race Direction were correct in their verdict that it was a ‘racing incident’ and so took no action. Whatever opinion you have on this, you have to admit that there is no a clear rupture in the Kawasaki Racing Team garage, and the unsurprising continuation of Rea in Kawasaki – which was announced the following day – may also indicate that the number 66 is leaving the ZX10-RR at the end of 2018 to look for greener (bluer) grass in another garage.

Back to the race and, one lap later, Marco Melandri took the lead at turn one from Alex Lowes. Two corners after that, the Italian was in the gravel, his victory hopes gone. All of a sudden, the race was blown wide open: Rea, serial winner, was out; Melandri, the Brno specialist was out of contention and the two Yamaha riders were leading from Chaz Davies and Eugene Laverty.

Chas Davis. Image courtesy of ducati media

Given the struggles of Davies in the Czech Republic, a round which had not shown an upturn in form for the Welshman after a tough Donington, it was hard to see him getting near the Yamahas of Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes. The Yamaha riders were the first to try the new, wider, taller Pirelli tyre and it was one of the things which helped Michael van der Mark take the double back in the UK. On the other hand, Davies had struggled since its introduction and it would not be a ludicrous assumption that missing something with this new tyre is a major factor in the number 7’s current struggles – although, it is a surprise that it is he that is struggling, not the diminutive Melandri.

So, with Davies on the limit and with no answer to either of the two Pata Yamaha R1s, it was down to the Anglo-Dutch leading pair to decide who should be the victor: would Lowes take his first World Superbike victory, his first of any kind since the first British Superbike race at Assen in 2013; or would Van der Mark take his third win in four races on his first Brno visit? Judging by race one, it should have been Magic Michael’s all day – he had better pace than Lowes, and by the midpoint of race two he was making an impression on the 2013 British Champion. But Lowes responded. He managed the gap well and with three laps to go he seemed to break Van der Mark’s spirit as the Dutchman seemed to settle in for second place behind his teammate and be content with completing Yamaha’s first World Superbike 1-2 since Portimao 2011 when Marco Melandri led Eugene Laverty home at the Portuguese circuit. And that is how it went. In the end, Michael let Alex go and the Brit took a first win that has been a very long time coming, and a well-deserved one at that, too.

It was a stunning ride from Lowes. So many times we have seen him faulter in promising positions, especially back in the Suzuki days. But on Sunday the #22 showed off the revolutionised Alex Lowes; the rational, calm and consistent rider that began to emerge in the beginning of last season and who has begun to flourish in 2018 and this victory is just deserves for the change in attitude he took for 2017. In the preview for this weekend, I asked the question of whether the motivation Lowes gained from his teammate’s double victory in Donington would be enough to overcome Van der Mark this weekend should they end up in a position where they both had the opportunity to win, and he showed that it was.

Marco Melandri. Image courtesy of Ducati media

Perhaps more importantly, the win showed that the Yamaha is a genuine race-winning motorcycle. For sure, Rea and Sykes (in a separate incident to the one already discussed) crashed, Davies struggled and Melandri cost himself a chance of the win, but Yamaha still had to capitalise and they did so with a stunning 1-2. From now the most important thing for Yamaha is to manage expectations: ultimately they still aren’t quite at the level of Kawasaki or Ducati, but they are getting closer, and perhaps that is the most important thing.

Behind the podium trio of Lowes, Van der Mark and Davies (a great result for Davies, by the way, after another really tough weekend), Eugene Laverty brought home his Milwaukee Aprilia RSV4 in fourth place – his and the team’s best result of the season and proof of further steps forward from the SMR team, despite Aprilia’s limited interest in WSBK. Still, though, Laverty is complaining of his classic rear grip issues and whilst it is improving it is still not where he would like it. Amongst rumours of the team’s switch to Suzuki or BMW for next season, this result is quite positive in terms of the team’s chances of staying with Aprilia for 2019. What is not so positive is the signs coming from Noale, which all point towards furthering their efforts in MotoGP, highlighted by statements from Romano Albesiano after they announced the signing of Andrea Iannone to the MotoGP outfit for next year, in which he spoke of Aprilia’s increased commitment in GPs. Whilst Lorenzo Savadori backed up Laverty’s fourth place with a fifth of his own, you can’t help but feel there will be some different machinery behind the Milwaukee logos for next year.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi . Image courtesy of Ducati media

Following the two Aprilias over the line was in sixth, again impressing on the Aruba.it Junior Team Ducati. Once more, it was tyre wear towards the end of the race that cost the Italian-Venezuelan a chance to finish further up, but his ability is shining through this year. Unfortunately for Michael, he now has a four-week break until his next race in Misano. He is only doing the European races this season so he will therefore miss the next round of the World Championship in Laguna Seca.

Leon Camier will not miss Laguna, and will hopefully be in a better physical condition than this weekend when he arrives in California for round eight of the season. Of course, Leon is still suffering with pain and discomfort from his crash in Aragon back in round three of the series, but that did not stop him taking another top ten on Sunday with seventh place, another good result on the Red Bull Honda.

Xavi Fores completed yet another frustrating weekend, although nowhere near as bad as Donington, with an eighth place on the Barni Racing Ducati. It has been some slump from the Spaniard in the last few rounds, but hopefully he can return to the form that saw him take so many podiums in the first part of the season in the races coming up.

Toprak Razgatlioglu ensured he took two top tens away from his first ever race weekend in Brno with a ninth in race two to follow on from his tenth place in race one. This was the target set for him by the Puccetti Racing Kawasaki team, so despite it not being the stunning second place of race two in Donington, the Turkish rider should be happy with his weekend.

Roman Ramos rounded out the top ten on Sunday, to take his first finish inside the first ten riders of 2018. The new engine revs regulations have hit the customer Kawasaki teams extremely hard because, unlike KRT, they do not have the resources to find ways around the harsh rev limits placed on the ZX10-RR, but it seems that Ramos and the GoEleven Kawasaki team are finding their way, and hopefully the Spaniard can have a better second half of the season.

Loris Baz finished a disappointing eleventh – you get the feeling that both he and Althea Racing cannot wait to get to the end of the season so that they both can see the back of the BMW because they just do not seem to be getting the support they need to make progress.

Twelfth place went to Jake Gagne, again a way off Camier but again at a circuit he does not know. It will be interesting to see what Gagne can do at Laguna, a track he knows well,  because he needs to prove himself. He did, at least, beat PJ Jacobsen on the Triple M Honda who finished thirteenth, ahead of Yonny Hernandez and Marco Melandri who, after his excursion early in the race, finished fifteenth albeit without his rear brake pedal.

After a weird crash at turn ten which should have high-sided him but thankfully did not (thus highlighting the lack of grip in the intense Czech summer heat) Tom Sykes finished a lowly sixteenth, no doubt to the minor amusement of his teammate, Rea, but disappointment of Kawasaki, who ended Sunday with no more points than they had at the end of Saturday. Leandro Mercado and home rider Ondrej Jezek were the last of the eighteen finishers. Apart from Rea, only Jordi Torres failed to finish the race.

Drama and intrigue surrounded this race, but the biggest talking point is still Yamaha and their resurgence, this time spearheaded by Alex Lowes. Laguna Seca is next, previously a very good circuit for Ducati, but also for Rea and even Aprilia – Laverty is eyeing a podium. Can Yamaha win again in California, or will normal service be resumed by the World Championship leader and record breaking Jonathan Rea?

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati media

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Bagnaia Still on Top as Moto2 Heads to Barcelona

This weekend the 2018 Moto2 World Championship heads to Barcelona and the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for round seven of the season, with Pecco Bagnaia leading the championship from Miguel Oliveira and Lorenzo Baldassarri. Major changes have occurred in Montmelo since the World Championship was last there: firstly, the entire circuit has been resurfaced after riders claimed that they would be unable to return to Barcelona last year when the track was in a terrible condition – fortunately the new surface offers plenty of grip. Secondly, for the first time since Luis Salom’s fatal crash in 2016, the World Championship will be using the original layout, with the two high speed right-handers to end the lap. Adaptations have been made to the track in the corner which Salom crashed (was turn twelve, now thirteen), the whole corner has been widened, as has the run-off area, which has also been given a healthy coating of gravel to satisfy safety demands. However, the old turn ten will still be unused, because of the issue with run-off on the exit of that corner which is unavoidable thanks to the F1 chicane that has been used by all MotoGP classes for the last two years, so the tighter turn ten will be used, meaning the left flick at turn eleven will also be used, so for the first time the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will consist of fourteen corners.

Coming into this round, Miguel Oliveira will be hoping to continue his winning form after picking up his first victory of the season last time out in Mugello to break the Italian domination of the intermediate class so far in 2018. Miguel last won in Mugello in 2015, a win which launched his championship challenge after a difficult start to the season. Pecco Bagnaia is unlikely to buckle in the way that Danny Kent did in the second half of 2015, but in turn Miguel is much closer to Bagnaia in the championship than he was to Kent back in the Brit’s World Championship year and as has been said many times since 2015, when Oliveira starts winning it is hard to stop him – the last part of 2017 is testament to that.

But Oliveira could have a tough job to beat Alex Marquez, who won in Barcelona in superb style last season, beating Tom Luthi by 4.452 seconds and 5.322 ahead of Oliveira. It has not been the start to the season that Marquez would have been hoping for: no wins and only three podiums, in Qatar, Texas and Le Mans. Furthermore, Alex has started to be shown up by his rookie teammate, Joan Mir, who took his first podium in Le Mans and took another in Mugello last time out where he beat Marquez by 3.203 seconds. Tyre wear seems to have been the major issue for Marquez this year, losing out in the final stages in the battle with Bagnaia in Austin, as well as in Le Mans, and in Mugello he fell away in the final five laps also. If he wants to win this weekend he is going to have to address this issue.

And that is assuming that he has the speed to go with the tyre longevity. Particularly, whether Marquez has the speed to beat his teammate. Joan Mir has made huge progress in the first six rounds of the 2018 season, his 2019-2020 MotoGP deal with Suzuki is testament to that, and the next step for him is to take his first intermediate class victory. Mir was victorious in the Barcelona Moto3 race last season, a win which included a tough move on Jorge Martin in the entrance to the chicane section of last year’s layout. A repeat of his Moto3 result of last season would propel the rookie into genuine championship contention, and would also be a huge worry for anyone trying to beat him to that title.

“Anyone”, such as Francesco Bagnaia. The Italian has been sublime this season, with only a ninth in Argentina providing any blots on his copy book. He may have missed the podium last season and, whilst that was not ideal with Oliveira winning, it was important points for the championship fight which looks as though it could go all the way to Valencia with so many riders involved in the scrap. Furthermore, Bagnaia was one of the two fastest riders on the track in the last five laps of the Mugello race, only Mir able to match his pace. Being faster than the KTM of Oliveira in the final laps with the conditions how they were in Italy was very impressive, and positive for the future. Unfortunately, it was not a great weekend for Bagnaia last year in Barcelona, when he finished over twenty seconds away from the win in thirteenth place. He will, not just want, but need more than that this season. This weekend, Bagnaia needs to be on the podium; he needs to stabilise the championship.

Bagnaia’s fellow VR46 Academy rider and flatmate, Lorenzo Baldassarri, could really do with another win this weekend if he is to be back in genuine championship contention. Of all the contenders, including the rookie Mir, Baldassarri is the one with the biggest question mark over his head – you just do not know what he is going to do. For example, he could be dominant like in Jerez, or maybe he will struggle to be in the top ten like in Austin. Realistically, Balda should have won in Mugello, but a mistake on the exit of Borgo San Lorenzo on the final lap gave Oliveira the only chance he needed to take victory away from the number 7. Perhaps that disappointment will fuel Lorenzo’s charge to the podium or maybe even the victory this weekend, similarly to how the eagerness to bounce back from a difficult Austin round led to his dominance in the Spanish Grand Prix.

In injury news, Remy Gardner is back this weekend after his motocross crash before Jerez in which he broke both legs. However, it is uncertain whether Gardner will be able to complete the weekend, so don’t be surprised to see Hector Garzo once again hanging around the Tech3 garage this weekend. Last weekend, Garzo finished fourth and seventh in the two European Moto2 World Championship races in Montmelo, so he is in tune with the track and at a decent speed – he is ready to come in if he needs to.

Featured image courtesy of Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool

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Bezzecchi Heads the Lightweight Class as it Arrives in Barcelona

The 2018 Moto3 World Championship arrives in Barcelona this weekend for round seven of this season, and to the old circuit layout – the two fast right handers ending the lap.

Coming into this seventh round, Marco Bezzecchi still holds a slim lead in the standings after his impressive start to the season for PruestelGP. Second place in Mugello was the best he could manage with the KTM on the limit with the front tyre for almost the whole race, in almost every corner. For sure, the KTM lost a lot of time in the corners, and Bezzecchi was the only rider who could manage that to be able to fight for the win, but the straight line speed advantage that appeared for the Austrian bikes in Le Mans was apparent once more, and that kept the Italian in the game. He would have been disappointed to miss out by so little – just 0.019 seconds in the end – in his home GP, but, really, did even he expect to be leading the World Championship after six rounds? It was only fourteenth for Bezzecchi in Catalunya last year, but of course he was on the CIP Mahindra and as in every other round it is difficult to read too much into Bezzecchi’s result last year. We will see what the number 12 has this weekend during Free practice.

It was Jorge Martin who took his third win of the season in Mugello. Both he and his teammate, Fabio Di Giannantonio, looked fabulous all weekend long and clearly had far superior pace in the main body of the lap compared to Bezzecchi. In fact, being able to hold off the number 12 KTM in the final run to the line was impressive in itself, and ultimately Martin deserved the victory. He probably also deserves to be leading the World Championship at the moment but the DNFs of entirely not his making in both Jerez and Le Mans have prevented that from happening. Jorge is surely the favourite this weekend, too; he lost out in the final corners to who else, but to Joan Mir in last season’s race[at Barcelona], the move of the eventual World Champion also costing Martin a place to Fenati. But what Martin showed in Mugello was that, even with the slipstream, he can break the pack. Sure, Diggia and Bez caught him, but only because they had pace to match him, not because of slipstream. If Martin can split the pack like he did in Mugello again in Montmelo this weekend, it will likely be the same trio from the Italian Grand Prix, joined by maybe a few others, who contest the win, and that will work perfectly for the number 88 who would be able then to exercise his pace better than in a twenty-bike group more typical of Moto3. With his Red Bull KTM Moto2 deal in his back pocket for next year, when he will replace Miguel Oliveira, Martin will be looking to confirm that the Austrian factory took the right decision in picking him by making a good weekend in Montmelo.

So Martin is the favourite, but after being denied his first win in Le Mans for absurd penalties and being, for the third time in three years, denied by less than one tenth from victory in his home GP, Fabio Di Giannantonio will be desperate to win this weekend. This could end in one of two ways: it could power him to victory, or it could leave him in the gravel. It was only seventh place last year for Fabio in Barcelona, so for the championship – in which he is only eight points adrift of the top spot – it will be important for him to better that result. In fact, considering the consistency of both Martin and Bezzecchi, it will probably be important for Diggia to find the podium,  and he is well capable of that.

Of course, in Spain, all the Spanish riders will want to do well, especially Aron Canet, who since his crash in Jerez which took three others with him has been quite under the radar. He was impressive in France but due to his grid penalty it only got him as far as eighth place, and in Mugello he was almost transparent again, only managing eleventh place. He is not out of this championship, sitting in fourth place, only 22 points away from Bezzecchi, but his results need to pick up quickly before the championship becomes out of reach for him.

In wildcard news, a common thread in Spanish races, Raul Fernandez will be in attendance for the Angel Nieto Team this weekend. In the week following the Barcelona round of the Moto3 Junior World Championship last weekend, there has been much said about Andreas Perez in light of his tragic accident last week, and there is no doubt that every rider will be thinking of Andreas this weekend, but perhaps especially Fernandez, who shared the grid of the CEV Repsol with him at the beginning of this season, so expect a passionate display from Raul, who first came to the attention of Grands Prix back in 2016 at Valencia where he made his debut in the World Championship. A difficult season last year with Aspar on the Mahindra kept him away from GPs, but now he is back atop the Junior World Championship standings and will be hoping to be in and around the fastest riders this weekend.

Featured image courtesy of hondanews.eu

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World Superbike Heads to Brno for the First Time Since 2012

World Superbike is in a very interesting situation; in fact, it is in the same situation as MotoGP was back in 2016, after Andrea Iannone took Ducati’s first win in six years at the Austrian Grand Prix,  Ducati then became a threat, a realistic option for a race win in most races. In this instance, in World Superbike, it has been Michael van der Mark who has brought Yamaha into the realm of realistic contention for race wins. Now, instead of hoping for a win, Yamaha have to expect wins.

Going into Brno, there is no reason why they cannot win. Nobody has been to Brno, apart from the test earlier this year between the Dutch and Italian rounds of the World Championship, since World Superbike last raced there in 2012, when Marco Melandri on the factory BMW took both victories. Melandri also won in 2011, when he was aboard the Yamaha, sharing the wins with Max Biaggi on the Aprilia. Of course, it would be a surprise to see a BMW on the top step in the Czech Republic this weekend, given the lack of support Loris Baz and the Althea Racing team receive from Germany, although they expect to be able to continue their good form from Donington where Loris Baz qualified second for the first race of the weekend.

But with Yamaha’s recent gains, especially in cool conditions, it would not be out of the question that we could see Yamaha challenging again this weekend and, theoretically, the nature of the circuit should lend itself to the R1, since power is not what makes or breaks a lap in this circuit and corner speed is essential. But if Yamaha do continue their winning streak this weekend, will it be Michael van der Mark or Alex Lowes who does the winning? For sure, after his teammate’s double win in Donington, Lowes will be fired up for this weekend, but will that be a match for Van der Mark’s undoubtedly heightened confidence?

For Aprilia, it would be a surprise if they were to match the victory of Biaggi in 2011, the bike just is not there yet. After Eugene Laverty’s promise in Donington was let down by a sticking throttle, he will be after redemption this weekend, whilst Lorenzo Savadori will be hoping to build on his impressive form from the UK round of the World Championship. The positive for Aprilia is that they should have the power to launch them up ‘Horsepower Hill’, but will they have the chassis and the balance to get them through the rest of the lap with decent efficiency?

Kawasaki can never be discounted, though. It was a surprise to not see them take a win in Donington, partly because Tom Sykes has been so successful there over the years, but also because the layout perfectly suits the fluid riding style of the reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea. The current championship leader has the unusual ability to be able to run both high corner speed and stop-start riding styles in the same moment, which is perfect for Donington: running high apex speed in the first half of the lap is critical, whilst in the second half of the lap, through the Melbourne Loop, braking performance and acceleration are key. Somehow, Rea and his team manage to get the bike set up for both. In Brno, he will only need one, though, the corner speed. For sure, the braking stability and acceleration are important to be able to get in and out of the big ‘ess’ bends of Brno effectively, but you can counteract that well by running well through the middle of the corner with a lot of speed to carry good momentum, and that is typically what teams look for in Brno.

Furthermore, the KRT pair of Rea and Sykes are two of only four current World Superbike riders who have finished on the podium in Brno, along with Marco Melandri and Loris Baz. In fact, Rea is the only rider other than Melandri on the current grid to have won in Brno, which he did back in 2010 aboard the Castrol Ten Kate Honda. With this in mind, you might consider that the field will have a tough time beating either of the factory Kawasaki riders this weekend, but that was the thought going into Donington, and look what happened there. Moreover, Brno’s emphasis on corner speed severely hinders, in theory, Sykes who prefers the stop-start style of riding, and tends to run quite low corner speed. Finally, should both KRT riders be on the podium in race one, which is always likely, they will of course be starting on row three for race two and, whilst it might be expected that Rea should make a good start, the same thing might not be applicable to Sykes, who finds it difficult to overtake, typically, and that difficulty will only be increased by the difficulty in overtaking in Brno caused by the short straights.

Overall, we should be in for an interesting weekend in Brno, and Friday’s three free practice sessions will tell us a lot about what to expect from the races on Friday and Saturday.

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