An interesting race unfolded at Brno earlier today when virtually every rider began the race on rain tires, and then the track remained dry throughout the race. Marc Marquez (Honda) was the first rider into the pits … changing to his dry bike with slicks. This turned out to be the decisive move in the race.
Marquez stormed to a huge lead as his competitors took several laps longer to switch from rain tires to dry tires. In the end, Marquez cruised home for the win ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa in second and Maverick Vñales (Yamaha) in third.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) led the first several laps, but was delayed by his team when trying to switch to a dry set-up in the pits. He ultimately finished in 15th position.
Marquez stretches his lead in the championship points race. Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
MURGUEZ…!!!
gentlemen, as i already indicated was going to happen (well before the summer break) what you witnessed at Sausage Ring was the Titanic striking that proverbial “berg”. at that moment “icy Atlantic water” began flooding the forward mail hold. and now at “Bruno” what has happened…? that’s right, water has completely filled that first compartment and has begun spilling backwards over the #1 bulkhead. did i mention the bulkheads only rise to E deck…?
yeah, it’s a problem.
According to Marquez, he made a last minute decision to go with the soft rain. I suspect he intended to pit early regardless of which rain tire he went out there with. His second bike was set up for a dry track from the get go. They were clearly gambling on no rain.
Everyone knew the soft rain tires were no good and only lasted a few laps. Miller even announced he could only get one lap out of them. Seems like those tires provide the perfect opportunity to put in a fast lap or two and then expectedly slip behind all of the championship contenders to pit early without giving them the opportunity to follow Marquez in.
Is this how it happened? Or was it just preparedness and circumstance? Idon’t know, but that kid and crew are wiley enough to have done just that.
While it sounds like it was a weird race, I couldn’t help but notice that KTM and Aprilia both put bikes in the top-10. Interesting…
Espargaro ran a good race on the Aprilia. That eighth place also includes a three position penalty. He may well have ended up in 8th anyway due to some fast company moving up the field, but it was a good run nonetheless.
Everyone that is talking about how brilliant Marquez is must have skipped the post race interview.
While all the other teams were using hard and medium rain tires at the start, Marquez in a last minute decision told his team to go with “soft” rain tires.
That resulted in Marquez dropping through the field like a brick.
The net effect was he had no choice but to come in for slicks far sooner than anyone else and thus was able to begin his march to the front far sooner than the other teams.
So maybe you could call it “dumb luck” due to a bad tire choice to begin the race.
Certainly wasn’t because he is brilliant.
Did he deserve to win? Damn right he did. But this win wasn’t because he’s “brilliant” or far smarter than the other teams.
Hate to break it to you, but Marquez was playing coy. That race went according to plan.
Because Honda can predict the weather.
They knew if it stayed dry they would want slicks asap. If it rained they would want to be on the soft rain tire. It was either going to rain, and they would be on the correct tire, or it wouldn’t, and they would do exactly what they did. I believe the soft tire falling apart was a great deception. Everyone thought they were in trouble, not short pitting.
If Honda truly believed it would rain they would have had the second bikes set up for the wet.
I completely disagree. If everyone else had pit on lap 2 he would have been screwed. Marquez is not the type to slow down unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think he just got lucky,but at the same time he was smart enough to realize that he should pit so that he could get some clear track and not have people in front of him blocking the fast lines.
That’s part of the con. They didn’t want anyone to pit with them.
Re: “If everyone else had pit on lap 2 he would have been screwed.”
Or he might have won by 2-3 seconds instead of 20. This is Marquez we’re talking about here…
I infer sarcasm, though am not sure that was your intent.
Regardless…Big Red may or may not have better weather modeling than other teams. Weather prediction mixes art and science.
More to the point, Big Red appears to have modeled the ideal actions to maximize results in their favor for any and all potentials.
That, and MM and his team appear to constantly school the rest of the world in the very fine art of swapping bikes.
If your name is Vinales, Zarco, or anyone else with designs to dethrone MM, I respectfully suggest you setup a bike swap simulator in your workout area forthwith, if you don’t have one already, and master it blindfolded in full race garb. The race team paddocks must similarly train for their parts. Honda thoroughly owns the paddock in this exercise.
Team Honda constantly displays a level of intent and intensity sorely lacking in every other MotoGP team, and accurately reflected in Honda’s results for the past several years.
I used to think it was mostly financial backing, but have lately changed my mind. Honda wants that trophy every year like no one else.
Like I said, I guess some of you missed his post race comments.
He admitted he made a mistake with tire choice at the beginning of the race, but according to Pacer he was lying.
It was all just a charade.
I saw the post race commentary. I can’t say whether or not he is poker facing, but it looked clear to me that they were betting on a dry race. If you intend to pit early, thinking there is an advantage to be had, you are going to want to do it at a point where none of your closest competitors will take a hint from you and follow you in. You also don’t reveal that kind of strategy in post race commentary since you might play that hand again in the future. Not saying that is the reality, but you can’t really say people leaning towards that belief are missing something either.
How much more of a hint does Marquez need to offer than to wave his hand and peel off the track and into pit lane? Anyone following him could have done the same, right then and there, and the crew managers for every other rider could have held up signs to the effect of, “COME IN! #93 ALREADY PITTED, AND IF’S HE’S PITTING, SO ARE YOU!”
The thing is, it’s not as if all the other riders and teams base their decisions on what Repsol Honda and Marc Marquez do. It’s beginning to look like maybe they should, but they don’t.
Repsol Honda and Marc took a chance, they were prepared for just such a scenario, and it paid off. Had it gone the other direction and started raining, he would have been doubly screwed.
The one real damning thing is that some of the other teams weren’t even prepared for the possibility of a dry line, and the need for slicks. How is it that only Repsol Honda was already set up with a slicks-shod bike on lap two while so many of the other teams were completely caught out?
Don’t get me wrong. I think he pitted because he had to. Dropping back and pitting behind every other championship contender I think may have been intentional. It doesn’t matter what anyone else puts on the pitboard as they would have to wait a lap to do the same. Teams may not run their strategy based on what Marc Marquez does, but racers will typically follow the leader in the heat of the moment.
With slicks on and the soft rain tire to start, all I am saying is that the evidence shows they bet on a drying track and intended to pit early. The rest is just purely speculative.
Those following when MM peeled off (who were not contenders in the championship) could have followed him in, but if their back up bikes were not set up with slicks, and they obviously weren’t, it would have done them no good. As it was a lap later, after MM was already back out turning 10s a lap quicker times, most of the competitors bikes were not ready when the riders came in to change. ALL of the other teams were caught off guard, and two laps later were still scrambling to get slicks on and suspensions set up for a dry track. Lorenzo said his bike was not ready and they sent him out with half wet half dry suspension settings.
True of course, but Marquez wouldn’t know whether their bikes were ready or not, so that wouldn’t have affected any strategy he may have had to peel off undetected by the other contenders.
true of course Jeremy, but he was in 10th when he peeled off. All the fast guys were in front of him and past pit lane when he bailed. I doubt he worried whether the bottom half of the roster’s bikes were prepared or if they were on slicks or not. The guys he had to worry about had another 2 minute lap to put in before they could get to the pits and their back up bikes, and that’s IF their bikes were ready which in some or most cases, they were not.
All just speculation of course.
Like I said, all the fast guys were in front when he peeled off which was the point I think. He may have been in 10th position when that happened, but he had only just slipped behind Pedrosa about 30 seconds before entering pit lane if I remember right. The other couple of riders that passed him just before he entered were all part of that jumble/group.
Watching from the perspective of Marquez’s camera during that lap, it certainly looked like he was opening doors to let people get around him. Which he would probably do anyway if he knew his pace were dangerously slow. So again, we are just down to speculation. But it is fun to speculate!
Was MM sworn under oath, under penalty of perjury? Surely MM and team Honda would never lie as part of their strategy to win a MotoGP Championship Trophy?
I mean, yeah, regularly risking death @ 220mph, cornering on the front wheel @ 110mph is acceptable, but surely a 3-time World Champion poker player would never lie about the cards he just used to win a Championship round? A strategy he would repeat every single time if it suits his needs?
/sarc off
Correctomundo!^
“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” – in this case it looks like MM/Honda was one of the few if not only combos to have spare bike already set up in dry configuration – without that, his initial choice may have been a lot worse indeed.
Agreed.
Yes, I too agree. It seems Honda finally ‘got it, and knows in a wet race that might turn dry, to have the dry bike setup, ready. They certainly don’t want to school the other teams on that, play dumb, “oh, we just came in early”. Not all the time do they make the right choice, but it helps when others don’t.
Lotta computer-chair expertise this morning. I’m mainly interested in what into the VR/Yamaha decision-making process. Interesting theories already advanced. We may never know.
I read that Rossi and his team agreed that he would come in when his pit board said box, so he stayed out until he got the message. The Team waited too long to give him the message on the pit board.
Back in the day, Ali called it the “rope a dope”. Brilliant.
Yamaha must be cursing their failure to implement text notications on the riders dashboard. Rossi’s agreement with the team was to pit when they showed him the board. By the time they showed him the board it was too late. If they had the texting system he could have come in one lap earlier, if they sent him the message. So it’s not a repeat of Rossi’s mistake at Sachsenring where he ignored the pit board, even though it looks that way. All credit to MM and Honda, well deserved win.
Watched only the last few laps, need to go back and watch the first where all the action happened. (I can’t believe all of the others continue to allow MM and his crew such massive advantages in these kinds of conditions).
All this talk of predictions and results makes me wonder: would anyone care to compare MotoGP league points and season standings? I’d like to see where the experts lie…
I share your incredulous reaction Re. MM/Repsol Honda’s clear advantage in maneuvering every pawn to their clear and distinct advantage. It appears something other teams intend to ignore, to their fatal doom.
I have done more than my own share of hating on Big Red, just for being so dominant. But you gotta give credit where it’s due. Nobody takes this game as seriously as Honda. One gets the feeling they have input data into a super computer to analyze every potential, and know before hand the proper reaction to it.
Yamaha, Ducati, the other contenders, they should hang their heads in shame the way Honda owns them. It’s frankly disgusting.
If I owned the purse strings for any other leading team, I’d immediately summon the race team leader and give him the shake down of his life. His ears would not stop ringing for hours.
Shakem’ like a dog shakes a rat!
Today’s race very clearly explains the reason why Marquez is the defending MotoGP champion and current points leader.
Dude, you nailed it with one sentence. Bravo. There’s MM and the rest of the field can suck eggs. I have truly and finally crossed over the line to the MM fan boy crowd.
The direction he is looking and the relationship between front and rear tire means… that he is drifting…. at that angle!! daheck!
Norm observation about the fairing is correct, there are internal “wings” on that fairing…
The brake lines seem to sport extra protection, I wonder if it’s related to the new fairing.
Freddie rode like that w/ carbs…
Am I wrong or was it deemed a wet race and mandated that everyone start on wets . After that choice is by discretion .
I believe “wet race” just means you’re allowed to come in and swap bikes during the race, not that you have to start with rain tires.
That is correct Brian. You can start on slicks even if it is a wet race.
I don’t know the regulations of the GP circus. But it appeared if the race is called “wet” everybody must have to start with wet tires. If that’s the case this race turned into a joke. MM wasn’t the only rider to come in after 2 laps to change their tires by jumping to their other backup race bike. Some of the smaller race teams did it too. But they’re bikes aren’t as fast as MM’s Honda nor are anyone else out there as schooled on how fast to jump from 1 bike to another as MM. The fact Ducati & Yamaha race teams hadn’t even readied their 2nd race bike for this possibly was shocking. Nor had Suzuki. I congrat Vinales on the Yamaha for winning 3rd place on the podium.
It was nice to see Lorenzo lead the race the first few laps on his Ducati with it’s different fairing.
Looking through the rules on wet vs dry races. It’s tricky to tease out all of the bits, but I don’t believe whether a race is declared wet or dry dictates what kind of tires are mounted. It DOES dictate the response to varying climatic conditions.
For example: we all have seen races, presumably declared dry, where rain will result in a race stoppage, and races, presumably declared wet, where rain results in riders switching to machines prepared appropriate to the new conditions.
For further info, consider:
http://www.motogp.com/en/Inside+MotoGP/Key+Rules
http://www.fim-live.com/en/sport/regulations-and-documents/grand-prix/
WTH? Did every forsaken team except for Repsol flunk 2nd grade math? Earth to teams not named Repsol: did you really think Team Repsol’s tire choice was so stupid to start the race on rain tires?
MM starts on rain oriented tires during what seems like drying conditions on the track, with what paddock guy Dylan describes as pretty dry lines on the track. MM, the apparently best freakin’ poker player on earth, starts with a straight face, takes the hole shot, then within two laps is being passed by flunkies he normally laps. On lap two MM pits for dry slicks, after which he promptly laps ten seconds less than the next fastest slug on the track.
The rest of the field waits at least TWO LAPS to swap bikes. OK, now get your calculator. 2 laps x 10 S advantage per lap = …………wait for it……….TWENTY SECONDS.
And what is MMs winning margin? 19 S.
How many times do we have to watch this parade to notice MMs winning in such conditions? Pit early = win race. (I’m not the only one to be convinced MMs starting on rain tires was a bait and switch scam. If anyone else started on dry slicks, MM would have done the same. He starts on rain tires, as do all or most contenders, two laps later the winner is already pre-ordained and his initials are Marc Marquez.)
On a similar note: MM swaps bikes in about 2.5 S or less, quicker than anyone else on the paddock. Is MM the only contestant to take this often required procedure so seriously that he appears to practice it, like, maybe 100x every effin day of his life? Has MM ever hiccupped swapping bikes? I have not seen it. Others, almost every time. Every other contestant can not touch MM’s prowess swapping bikes. He’s smooth as BU-ttah. Have others no shame?
At this point, I’m convinced no one takes this thing as seriously as MM, and for this reason alone, I’m more willing to enjoy seeing losers lose till they wake up and challenge him. If they think MM plans to rest on his laurels, they could not be more wrong.
55 degree lean angle @ 125kph? No problem. Lean and enter turns @ 120kph, with the rear tire 2 inches in the air? No problem.
It’s time to turn the page, and welcome the current and forever king, till someone comes up and knocks him off the pyramid. Don’t hold your breath.
Great race! Lots of twists and turns (in the first lap or two).
Agree with most of your points. MM outsmarted the lot, even Rossi the master game player.
Rossi the master game player? Last year we saw that his authority was such that he overruled those in the garage who knew better.
This time, he & his team got caught up in the on-track battle and the team had cold feet about making a decision. Which tells you that they fear him, rather than respect him. So his ego gets in the way again.
I concede that it’s a more difficult decision than for someone at the back of the grid (e.g. Redding) who can come in really early with nothing to lose. Yamaha might’ve had some dodgy radar information about the approaching weather, as the Tech3 guys had a disaster with their calls. Rossi and Vinales did exceptionally well to come through the field as they did, but for Rossi the message is clear;
Your opponents are smarter and faster than you. And it’s only by profiteering from their misfortune that title number 10 will come.
I want someone to win the title, not wait for others to fail-to.
Rossi has always had an uncanny ability to come thru the field from mid pack and lower to near the front. Something I guess he learned from his years as a poor qualifier lol. The guy is a master passer. It really shows the difference in talent between the Rossi and the also rans. It gets harder when he catches up to the real contenders but given a long enough race Rossi could probably finish on the podium every time lol.
Rossi waiting so long to pit…don’t know what he was thinking. He’s lucky the damage was limited to 4th place.
What I want to know is why were the teams so convinced it was gonna rain throughout the race. I understand it was spitting a little bit before the start, but I didn’t hear anything about any big storms that happened to miss the track at the last minute. Don’t they have people who can interpret weather radar? I mean, I can sit here with nothing but my phone and a window, with precip in the area, and probably 90% of the time correctly predict conditions at my location for the next hour. It just doesn’t seem like this should be such a difficult thing.
“90%” I’m guessing you don’t live along the front range in Colorado
I just spent a week riding out there. Man they get some crazy weather patterns every day. We had 50 degree swings in temp, heat, rain, hail something different every few hours.
The Brno forecasters were about as accurate as our local guys. They were calling for more rain on Sunday which is why almost everyone’s back up bike was set up for a wet track. Marquez said it looked like it was going to clear up to him, which is why his back up bike was set up with slicks.
LOL I turned on the heater when I got home today.
What a crap race. The thing was fully decided on lap two.
Man, every time it’s a flag-to-flag race, Marquez goes in first and proceeds to kill everyone, while Rossi stays out too long and completely scuttles his chances. It’s becoming a broken record.
No, great strategic race.
Yes, couldn’t have said it better about MM and Rossi myself.
+1
The winner was decided but the drama was how close to the podium Vinales, Rossi and Dovisioso could get. I thought it was great and keep in mind that it’s still so close that MM could have a fall or mechanical failure next Sunday and be back in 4th in points.
Turned out to be a brilliant move by Marquez, but before that it looked like his tire choice was a total blunder. Man, the switch to slicks from rain tires in the pits was a mess. See Iannone dump the Suzuki going into his box? And Lorenzo who was finally showing some great speed came in to change to slicks and they didn’t have his bike ready.It keeps going downhill for him.
Sure has been an interesting season.
Oh yea, congrats to Dani on his 150th podium
MURGUEZ…!!! (observe HRC revised intake and aero fairing)