Marc Marquez (Honda) stormed away from pole position to lead every lap of the Argentina MotoGP race earlier today. The win by Marquez moves him to first place on championship points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), who finished third today. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) fought Dovizioso until the final lap when he was able to overtake the Ducati rider and finish second.
Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
I thought Rins had a pretty impressive race. It will be nice if Suzuki can start really pushing for podium spots. I don’t know if he is a fast enough rider to actually give Marc anything to worry about but he usually looks pretty fast.
I posted earlier about Marq deciding to jet away as a different race strategy because Dovi has been controlling the pace.
I’m right. This is from Dovi’s mouth at Motorsport.com posted April 2nd:
Third-pace finisher Dovizioso was more philosophical about the gap, highlighting that Marquez could have been even more dominant in 2018 without the dramas that destroyed his race.
“The distance [to Marquez] of today is very important, because Marquez put 10 seconds over us, but also it could have been more,” said the Ducati rider.
“Last year he could have beaten us by more, so I don’t want to view it as more worrying than usual.
“The problem today is that he managed to maintain a good pace, while we all went slower. There were no possibilities [to challenge Marquez].”
Dovi is admitting that he slows the pace down for his Ducati to compete. You have to read between the lines here. A lot of racecraft poker going on between these guys. But I do believe the long runs in practice when Marq is consistently fast on old tires proves that he’s been following Dovi. I think the Honda’s motor is stronger this year as evidenced by his pulls down the straights at the two races.
Last year, anytime someone passed Dovi in the curves, he just patiently waited to pass them on the straights.
Honda is giving Marq more power to negate Dovi’s advantage. And Marq will now be pulling away in the corners and staying in front on the straights once he’s ahead.
Dude, you’re not only reading between the lines, you’re reading between the letters and adding your own words at random.
Dovi’s quotes, when read in the context of the interview, were in reference to last year’s Argentina race, when Marquez’ antics cost him a sure win. Dovi (and Rossi) are saying that even though this year’s dominant win by Marquez makes it looks like Honda has come up with something drastically improved, it’s not the case because he would have had similar results last year AT THIS RACE had he not gotten himself in trouble.
All of this has nothing to do with your hare-brained theory that Marquez has suddenly discovered that his throttle goes all the way to the stop. Are you serious? You really think Marc Marquez has been stuck behind a deliberately sandbagging Dovi for a year, not realizing that he just go faster is he used more throttle???
Burtg’s comments were correct. Dovi was absolutely sandbagging in Qatar, as well as a number of races last year. The Honda was slower than the Ducati last year, but is faster this year.
This year, the sandbagging may well work against some of the other mfgs, but it won’t work against the Honda.
I personally enjoyed last year’s race in Argentina. It was a shame that Miller was robbed. Marc could probably have caught him from the pits, but I’m not convinced the others could have.
Even though Marc apologized, he put on a show of talent that was totally amazing.
My understanding of things is that Crutchlow deliberately tried to give a tiny push
and gain valuable momentum.
Intentional or not, it was definitely against the rules as published in a related article in MotoGP.com
where did you read that?
https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/917005/1/crutchlow-slams-ridiculous-jump-start-penalty-updated
Maybe it was subconscious, but racers gonna race
What if anything can MotoGP do to better insure the Championship winner is a forgone conclusion? IOW, just squeeze every single remaining drop of suspense out of the annual exercise.
Rossi strikes yet another blow for old pharts everywhere! I’m a huge fan.
Rossi is inspiring. There was a whole string of young dudes trailing behind him. It must feel great for him to show them his tail lights and end up #2 on the podium.
Burtg..good observation, Marquez and Rossi showed how to deal with Dovi/Duc but if they all stay on form then what? To get to the podium, fortune may favour the brave, but it could get messy. In Moto 2, Baldassarri was brilliant !
Well, it was a race for second place from the moment they came off the line. Marquez just had it dialed in. From the practice sessions, I actually thought Rossi and Vinales might have enough to at least keep #93 in sight, but it wasn’t to be. At least the race for the rest of the podium was an exciting one.
The upcoming COTA race will likely be pretty similar, I’d wager. It is a very technical track, so at least the Yamahas have the opportunity to make a good showing if they qualify well. They can get good enough distance between themselves and the Ducatis so they don’t get mobbed down that long back straight. Suzuki should do well too.
And I gotta say… The jumpstart call on Crutchlow was lame. Maybe the call was legit, but it sure didn’t look like it from the angle I saw it from.
There’s a video posted on the Internet that shows Crutchlow’s start from a side view.
Crutchlow was moving slowly forward when the red lights went out.
The rider not only has to be behind the white line when starting, but also not moving, even if he is still behind the white line.
that makes sense, because in slow-motion on my TV, you can see the red lights go out, then Crutchlow wheel pops up after the lights go out. if he was moving, creeping, and that is not allowed, i can see it.
I did see it (after I posted), and no doubt he was inching forward. The rules consider it a jump start, so race direction isn’t wrong in that regard.
I’m a bit cynical, even though no fan of Crutchlow.
In all the shots where the lights and Crutchlow are in the same shot, no movement can be seen. The side video showing movement has the lights overlaid. I’m not quite saying that the sync was deliberately off, but it would not surprise me at all.
Anyone else feel that the ride-through penalty for barely moving a millimeter at the start is far too severe? Crutchlow may not have actually jumped the start, but even if he did, it wasn’t by enough to give him any sort of advantage, and the stewards essentially removed him from the race.
The punishment does not fit the crime. Maybe they can require the rider to surrender one place during the race, which he then has the chance to make right back up, but that’s about as far as it should go. They really need to amend this jump-start rule.
That’s a tough one. Introducing variance into the penalty creates ambiguity. Race finishes could become a long period of appeals and counter arguments.
I think rules are most effective when treated as gates. Did it happen, or not? If yes, penalty. If no, carry on.
They already have plenty of ambiguity for everything else. Most penalties are at the discretion of Race Direction, and they have been far from consistent over the years.
That said, I agree with you that penalties should be clear.
Just throwing this out there…what if they had a starting gate Supercross style? They’d have to have individual gates and it could cause more problems than it solves, but it is possible.
They can each have a grid girl holding the gate. Nothing is, or can, possibly go wrong with this idea.
I agree with you. That does not in my mind constitute a jumpstart. I was reading in an article that Cruthlow’s telemetry data even showed that the clutch was still fully disengaged when he “jumped the start.”
While I think the current penalty for a jumpstart is fine, I believe they need to reevaluate and redefine what a jumpstart actually is because this was not an example of one as far as I’m concerned. The bike wasn’t under power, he did move but didn’t (I think) cross the line… Maybe this could be a different offense – illegal movement at the start or something – that earns a different, lesser penalty from a true jump start? Maybe?
Having seen the side-view of the launch that Dorna put out, I can at least now understand why they called it on him. He undoubtedly inched forward. But yeah, it was like being beheaded for j-walking.
I thought the jump start call was pretty lame too. He certainly didn’t gain an advantage with it. Tough call.
Would have liked to have heard the string of expletives in his helmet when his dash board showed he had to ride through lol
telemetry, clutches…..
the issue is movement. There should be no scope for those other details. Should a guy with a dragging clutch be allowed to creep forward? Or someone paddling the bike slightly? Of course not.
As we have the ‘long-lap’ punishment as an option this season, we will have what most people think to be a more appropriate punishment for a jump-start infringement (A minor one, anyway). The rule book probably hasn’t caught up yet.
Crutchlow aimed a very strong personal attack on Freddie Spencer following the decision, which was way out of line in my book. As you can imagine, UK commentators and fans are siding with Cal.
Many people overlook the significance of a jump start. The knock-on to your race and weekend, not to mention the effect on everyone else’s weekend, is in chaos-theory realms of potential outcomes. 0.1 of a second in the first 200m of a race can easily be five points come the finish line.
Crutchlow gained no advantage there, potential or otherwise. The penalty did not fit the crime.
They don’t need to change the rules, as to what constitutes a jumped start. They need to amend the penalty. There are already penalties in place for other infractions whereby the offender must surrender a position (or more than one position) on track, but he still has the ability to overtake those riders afterward. That’s the sort of penalty that suits the crime here.
The ride through took 25 seconds. That’s a heck of a penalty for what I saw of Crutchlow’s “jump start”
As you said, they instituted the “long lap” penalty this year, which I was under the impression this was exactly the kind of situation for which they would use it. Why they did not remains a mystery.
Ride-through penalty for a 1-inch head start is indeed overboard.
MM dominated and that makes for a boring race and race season for MotoGP. The moto2 and 3 races were good. Glad I didn’t pay for a MotoGP subscription, I saw what I wanted online.
That’s too bad you can’t justify $150 for the Moto GP steaming package cuz it’s 4 hours of steady motorcycle diet to enjoy. Some guys don’t need details but I can’t get enough.
Crutch got robbed, young Yamaha guys are hungry as hell, and Rossi (I’m about to take a big serving of crow) ran a great race. The slip steam and sling shot moves were fun to watch. The telecast in high def is fantastic. The Aprilia colors popped off the screen.
COTA is in 2 weeks and I’m going to see if I can make there. Does anyone know if the track management has made any improvement to the track surface? Over the last few years, the riders have hated the surface conditions. I’m guessing the good Ole’ Boys running the track are going to tell DORNA to hell with the track surface and just run the race. Indonesia and Finland are building tracks for Moto GP, so we could soon see ‘Merica with no Moto GP. racing.
Marquez was masterful. Great race for 2nd and third. Rins even worked his way up to play, but Rossi and Dovi were too much for them. Good job for Rossi. He looked so happy in the interviews. Vinales was a cluster F. Finally he qualifies well and then a poor start, then a crash. His start was better than Lorenzo’s though. Morbidelli, Quatararo and Nakagami were impressive until Morbidelli took out Vinales.
Poor Zarco…last year fighting for wins and podiums, this year just fighting to get a point.
Did you see the camera shot on MV’s bike nose at the start? He started out right behind MM and by the time they got to the first corner, there were 6 bikes ahead of him. Jlo said he hit the pit lane button for a split second. At that point, MM was a spec on the horizon.
I’ve been suspecting for a long time that Dovi has been controlling the pace because his tires won’t last at an all out pace. His superior acceleration has allowed him to keep everyone in check.
Honda decided to test that theory today and it paid off. Mark decided to go all out. Amazing!
Honestly, Dovi’s strategy has made the racing boring with the slower pace, riders stacking up behind him and making it a processional until the last couple laps when he speeds up.
Marquez decided to run his own pace this time. I don’t see how Dovi will be able to keep up if this becomes Marq’s new strategy.
Honestly, I enjoyed watching this good old fashioned butt kicking!
puig didn’t!
And VR working his way into second as well. Boom.
It was awesome!
If Dovi is controlling the pace, it’s only because the other riders allow it. There’s no way MM waited around in Qatar. His post-race interview indicated he gave it his all the entire time. In Argentina, he said the bike had “perfect feeling,” enabling him to run in the one thirty-nines without pushing. Dovi said his bike didn’t have good feeling today. The Yamahas are having rear traction issues. The Suzukis are qualifying poorly. At this level, no one ever rides easy and “controls the pace,” not with 10 aliens snapping at their heels hoping beyond hope to score a win. I think what you’re seeing with Dovi is a master rider using strong power and superior braking to overcome a bike that doesn’t corner with the best. Such a combo is really hard to pass.
I posted earlier about Marq deciding to jet away as a different race strategy because Dovi has been controlling the pace.
I’m right. This is from Dovi’s mouth at Motorsport.com posted April 2nd:
Third-pace finisher Dovizioso was more philosophical about the gap, highlighting that Marquez could have been even more dominant in 2018 without the dramas that destroyed his race.
“The distance [to Marquez] of today is very important, because Marquez put 10 seconds over us, but also it could have been more,” said the Ducati rider.
“Last year he could have beaten us by more, so I don’t want to view it as more worrying than usual.
“The problem today is that he managed to maintain a good pace, while we all went slower. There were no possibilities [to challenge Marquez].”
Dovi is admitting that he slows the pace down for his Ducati to compete.
He said in the post race interview in Qatar that he kept a ginger pace in the beginning as well to conserve the tires. It’s a common tactic and many lead riders will do it on tracks notorious for eating tires. Riders behind the pace setter will often be plenty happy to sit behind and wait for the throwdown in the last few laps. Any rider leading that race would have likely used the same tactic.
Dovi wasn’t riding slowly in Argentina… He was giving it all he had. Marquez was just so much faster than everyone else at that circuit. Same will likely be true for the upcoming COTA race. It’s not a new strategy for Marquez. It’s just something he would not have been able to do in Qatar.
Marc would do this every race if he were able, so would everyone else. Dovi may control pace early on, but it’s not as though anybody has been able to pass and ride away, or anyone else on a Ducati has been able to employ superior acceleration to drive their opposition back. Dovi has just been plain fast.