Marc Marquez (Honda) survived a close battle with the other “aliens” to continue his perfect season with his seventh victory at Catalunya. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got out front early, but eventually slotted into fourth place while Marquez, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Dani Pedrosa (Honda) battled at the front. An exciting final lap saw Pedrosa apparently touch Marquez and then run wide, allowing Rossi to slot into second place. Pedrosa finished third, with Lorenzo fourth.
Marquez has already built a massive points lead in the championship. For additional details, results and points visit the official MotoGP site.
All this talk about bike differences makes me wonder: Who would come out on top with a super-secret Repsol test with CS27 MM93 and VR46 on identical bikes? I’d love to see this happen, what a spectacle. Rossi is SO CLOSE to MM and of course the incredible CS – it would be awesome to see how he measures up to MM and re-energized VR…
Predictions? Yes, I know it’s just speculation, but it’s fun to think about.
Well, first they wouldn’t be exactly alike if each is allowed to tailor their bike to their liking. What I mean is, if no allowance to do that the default setup might favor one over another, no fault of their own. I’d still watch the race as it would be interesting but realizing also that in the real world these bikes are “fitted” to each rider.
“…in the real world these bikes are ‘fitted’ to each rider.”
That is, unless you’re the defending 2006 Moto GP World Champion and your teammate happens to be an unproven Spanish smurf beloved by your team’s primary sponsor.
~smirks benignly at mickey~
Lol..I can take it VLJ.. My smurf looked good Sunday. Arm surgery went well, and he’s feeling good. Nobody is mentioning him, but he passed Lorenzo, passed VR and passed MM as well. Yellow flag mistake probably prevented a win, but he’s almost always on the podium, and was again this week. Best rider to never win a premier class championship.
All you naysayers who said he would lose his job this year are again eating crow as Honda said it was a top priority to re- sign him for another 2 years.
Btw loving my CB 1100 so much so that after putting 7000 miles on my 13, I traded it in on a 14 dlx. Now I’m REALLY happy!
Sorry there is a comment between this and VLJs that is awaiting moderation. ( something I dont understand as I have never said anything on this forum requiring moderation
re: “Predictions?”
A: VR46. all the moves the upstarts are doing he’s already done.
I know it’s a good MotoGP race if I’m screaming at the TV. I’m just getting my voice back today.
What a great season so far. Rossi looking better than he has in ages. The video clip of him strangling MM when they were back at parc ferme is both funny and probably quite accurate; I’m sure Rossi understands that this season the only thing between him and another championship is that outstanding young man. I’d love to see Rossi get another feather in his cap, but at this point the only way it looks like that will happen this season is a big injury for MM and of course no one wants that. The next few races are going to be exciting!
Yes, the lap times are often very close between the factory Yamahas and Hondas, but when do we ever see #99 or #46 reel in and pass #93 or #26 on a long straight? We see Marc and Dani do this lap after lap to Jorge and Vale. The Yamaha riders then have to claw it back in the slower sections, and round and round they go. In terms of reduced tire wear/less mental fatigue/greater margins for error, which method do you suppose is more conducive to consistent late-race lap times?
And the Hondas aren’t like the fast-but-recalcitrant Ducatis. The orange and blue bikes handle just fine.
The moral of the story for Yamaha: No matter how sharp the blade, never bring a knife to a gunfight.
Very interesting to read Rossi’s comments in Ten Questions with Valentino Rossi on the Cycle World website. He says that the Honda’s biggest advantage is braking and corner entry speed. So perhaps it is just the ability to delay braking for a corner by just that tiny margin that gives a Honda the advantage at the end of a long straight. he also said that his tire had gone off slightly so he couldn’t fight back after Marc and Dani passed him at the end of the race.
I wish that Fox Sports 1 would show the post race interviews, even if in the pre-race coverage before the next race. without this we are left searching for tidbits on the various websites.
It was interesting, though I believe he said that was Marc’s advantage, not necessarily the Honda’s if you are referring to the same article I read. The only Honda-specific advantage that he may have implied (I say implied because he referred to both riders, but not the Honda specifically) is that it that the Honda is easier on the rear tire.
I can’t help but think there is a slight rider advantage for both Honda riders. Pedrosa is absolutely tiny at 63″ and 112 pounds while Marquez is a bit heavier at 130 pounds and 66″. In comparison Lorenzo is 68″ and 141 pounds and Rossi is an absolute pig at 72″ and 143 pounds. As such, I can’t help but think that that extra poundage for the Yamaha riders could cause extra tire wear and extra fatigue for the riders. Pedrosa may be too physically small to hold up as well as Marquez. Marquez may be in the sweet spot compared to everyone else, not too heavy to cause excessive tire wear but big enough to still muscle the bike around. Barring any injury, I think a perfect season for Marquez is not out of the question. Lorenzo and Rossi, well, Lorenzo seems to have lost his “magic” this tear. He always seemed to get that huge starting jump and this year, especially after that little faux pas, just doesn’t seem to have the fire he once had. And The Doctor seems to be happy just being in front of Lorenzo. Pedrosa would like to challenge Marquez, but as we saw last race, he couldn’t control ( muscle ) the bike around Marquez.
And, by the way, what was up with that, ” hey, the race is finished let’s cut away to the Lemans race now.” At least they made up for it by broadcasting the moto 2 and 3 races later in the day. That’s the first time this year I’ve seen those races, they’ve always been on Fox 2 before. I do enjoy the larger competition there. And, OMG, there’s another Marquez coming up.
re: “He says that the Honda’s biggest advantage is braking and corner entry speed.”
braking, entry speed, mid corner speed, exit speed, full throttle acceleration, traction control, high side control, sitting static in the Repsol garage, etc.
That’s a long list of advantages that resulted in a sub 2sec. winning margin. How does that list look by order of importance?
full throttle acceleration #1
braking #2
fuel efficiency #3
re: “when do we ever see #99 or #46 reel in and pass #93 or #26 on a long straight? We see Marc and Dani do this lap after lap to Jorge and Vale.”
90 degree V’s, the internal combustion equivalent of THOR’S HAMMER.
I believe Soichiro Honda even spoke that he believed the V4 the best overall motorcycle engine with inherent traits of compactness, broad power band, smoothness and linear power. I think the V4’s have always been kinder to their tires.
it’s the engine configuration every father hopes will one day ask to marry their daughter.
I’d say the M1 is a pretty good gun right now. Yamaha just needs to bring a larger caliber. At the start of the season there was a good click or click and a half difference between the Hondas and Yamahas. Now it looks to be down to about a half click at recent races. Will they catch the Honda this season? Probably not but look at it this way, any bike/rider combination that finishes a MotoGP on the same lap as MM is damn fast. Any bike/rider finishing within 10 seconds of MM is an alien rider on a great bike. If you’ve ever raced then you know what I mean.
and that’s why I follow MotoGP, just for days like that.
Wow, two good MotoGP races in a row. What will we do without the sleep we used to get watching these races? Great to see Dani giving it a good try, even if the tire bump near the end was just about suicidal.
I’d love to hear from somebody with real insight explain why the Hondas were so much faster than the Yamahas at the end of the race. For most of the race Rossi was running the same pace as Marquez, toward the end it wasn’t even close. Are the Hondas better in tires? Do they use less fuel? From what little you can see from TV it looked like the Yamahas were in “Shell Economy Run” mode at the end, like their CPUs decided to take some power away to be sure they could finish the race. 20 liters isn’t much fuel for a 1000CC race engine over the length of a MotoGP.
It will be really interesting if Honda has to run a control ECU in 2016.
Goose
The Hondas were not doing much faster laps at the end. Check out the Lap Analysis on Motogp.com. for the real figures. When you compare lap times for the last three laps between Marquez and Rossi you see that Rossi was 0.020 slower on lap 23, 0.095 on lap 24 and faster on lap 25 by 0.133 sec.OK the last lap was due to Dani almost taking MM out but still those lap times are just a wisker apart.
I didn’t see the Hondas going much faster at any point. Rossi was there to take 2nd back from Dani when he made his mistake. When Rossi did begin to fade, the difference was tiny.
FWIW, I believe the riders manually control the maps/programs. They get messages on their pit-boards about when to change during the race based on fuel load and tire wear.
Thanks for the suggestion but the MotoGP site only records lap times, what I’m looking for would show up as a KPH lower top speed, the difference in lap time would be tiny. No big deal, probably just my imagination anyway.
To what Dave said, the riders do have some control but the ECU (really the software geeks in Japan) has the final say. There was a fairly well know incident a few years ago when Pedrosa was leading a race, his ECU decided (incorrectly) that he didn’t have enough fuel to finish the race. The ECU cut his power, he got passed by people he had put well behind him. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Dani’s pit after the race.
Goose
Honda has an obvious hp advantage over the Yamaha, not to take anything away from MM. he has this season in the bag.
re: “I’d love to hear from somebody with real insight explain why the Hondas were so much faster than the Yamahas at the end of the race”
re: “Are the Hondas better in tires?”
yes.
re: “Do they use less fuel?”
yes.
re: “20 liters isn’t much fuel for a 1000CC race engine over the length of a MotoGP.”
no.
great to see Rossi out front most of the race, and though he couldn’t break away like the old days, just a great dog-fight between all four of them.
Can’t believe MM kept it on two wheels after Dani touched tires with him1 it looked like MM squirmed a bit, but held on to first. Amazing race to watch. re-runs on Fox-1 on wednesday i think..
Best race so far for this year with lots of competition up front, no one could get away this time so hopefully it continues to be this exciting.
DOC, DOC, DOC!!
couple of falls of MM shy from winning the championship…
hey DP and JL, guess which old dog still can teach you new tricks about a race?
These things sure would be a lot more compelling if Marquez’s bike didn’t have such an obvious top-speed advantage over Rossi’s down the long straights. I would love to see how this would all play out if Rossi could slipstream Marquez whenever he wanted, the way Marquez always does to the Yamahas.
Anyway, still a really good race. Not sure what’s happening with Jorge, though, that he’s nearly always finishing behind Valentino this season.
re: “Not sure what’s happening with Jorge, though, that he’s nearly always finishing behind Valentino this season.”
no love for -97. nothing personal, just business.
You mean #99? MM rides on the “edge” more than anyone else. Apparently JLo had traction issues.
re: “You mean #99?”
no -97. Marcus has a full boat at 175, Jay’s only got 78. 175-78 means he’s 97 points adrift. what’s Yamaha supposed to do with that..? make a conscious decision to ice skate up hill…?
no, you “raise the sail with the strongest hand”. that’s why there’s 2 riders. cue the Ross, 9x worl’ champeen. go get ’em tiger.
There wasn’t supposed to be any math with this article.
re: “There wasn’t supposed to be any math with this article.”
technically there isn’t. that was a copy/paste of a text from team director Meregalli. he says math’s one of those “occupational hazards”.
This race was beautiful to watch.
+1. Thrilling race. Hope we see more like this going forward. Didn’t Rossi win in Assen last year?
re: “Didn’t Rossi win in Assen last year?”
Oh Lord, here we go…