A wild day at Le Mans saw mixed weather conditions. Starting on dry slicks, the weather forced the riders to switch to rain tires after just a few laps, and the return of a dry track near the end of the race posed challenges for the riders, most of whom chose not to change bikes, once again.
Jack Miller (Ducati) came out on top … winning his second race in a row. On the podium with Miller were Johann Zarco (Ducati) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).
Marc Marquez (Honda) crashed twice during the race (apparently unhurt) and retired. Marquez joined a host of other riders who crashed out – only 16 riders finished the race.
Quartararo takes the championship points lead. He is just one point ahead of Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia, who finished fourth today.
The next race is at Mugello at the end of this month. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
Hi all,
This is about the result, the winners and the race. MM93 did not do well but frankly – who cares.
Now, before I am flamed as I am sure I will be. Here is my logic.
1. Do any of you have a personal friendship or investment into the success or failure of MM93
2. Was the race not entertaining enough to watch.
So, I say… Great race. plenty of challenges and finally great to see someone else at the front of the pack :):):):)
Why not care, even without personal friendship or investment? Marc is hard-working, talented, pleasant, and seems to be a decent person who gets along well with his team and family.
Why not cheer for the recovery of the currently most talented road racer in MotoGP?
The race was okay, but it was more entertaining when Marc was leading, and then lapping 1.5-2.0 seconds faster than the rest of the field.
For me, I care about all the riders, good or bad. And, as we have seen, what we thought were average riders, they have come back with a vengeance once they had a good team and a good bike. So all in all MM93 is being challenged and he is responding, which makes the races a lot more entertaining and good to see new faces on the podium.
“finally great to see someone else at the front of the pack :):):):) ”
Finally? Did you take the last year off?
A wild and crazy weekend for sure. I wasn’t a Miller fan when he jumped from Moto3 to the show but he won me over a couple of seasons ago and now has taken his place as a true top level winner and very likeable guy too. Quartàŕaro and Zarco have gained in maturity and race craft lately. Bagnaia is the rider who was really impressive by coming from so far back of the grid and looks strong for a championship this season. Marc’s troubles show clearly how all of the riders may be just one injury away from a career change even for an alien.
On a side note, all of the paddock is watching the progress of 16 year old Pedro Acosta. If you haven’t been paying attention to Moto3 and think it’s just for those little 150mph 250s then just remember his name.
How many times has MM crashed in the last two races/practice sessions?
I can think of 5, including at least 3 this past weekend at Le Mans. One serious concussion at Jerez, and landing on his head after the high-side at Le Mans.
I’m on record as saying MM would come back surprisingly fast. I take it back – it’s looking like the needle jumped the groove. I’m seeing a lot steeper climb back. I think he’ll make it, but my feel now is he’ll never be the Beyond-Alien he was.
I continue to feel that MM93 isn’t back yet. If he’s being affected by the pressure, can’t focus, letting things get to him, still nursing his injury (or recovering his strength), he’s just not the competitor he was.
Will he ever get there? It’s fascinating to watch. I can’t imagine the weight of demands he must feel. Makes me wonder what team goals he’s facing this year.
I agree with other comments, it’s refreshing to hear total transparency and not excuses. This is a sign of a true champion.
I was firmly convinced that Marc had a solid chance at the Championship this year, but his recovery was not as complete as I had thought. Now, it looks (to me) like he only has an outside chance this year.
We each draw our own conclusions from what we saw in this race, but these are mine: Marc’s old fire and determination are back. He still has the speed. His strength and last-millimeter-of-precision skills have not completely returned.
It feels like the Marquez of 2013 has returned – extremely talented, but not quite there. I expect the return to form, ie the progression from 2013 to 2019 will take place again, but IMHO it will take months rather than years. My guess is that from here through the end of the season, he may well be the highest point scoring rider, but I’m not expecting the difference to be enough to win the Championship this year.
My relatively safe projection is that the current top 5, plus Marc, will be the top 6 at the end of the season. I expect that Jorge Martin will come back strong, but won’t have an impact of the championship this year. I don’t expect Mir to move up from where he is in the standings.
It should be a good year in terms of racing. There are a lot of riders that should do well on some tracks, but the main contenders for this years title seem to have started rising to the top.
Marc sent some pretty strong signals that he is back.
He also sent two very strong signals (crashes) that he isn’t back. His pace is improving but he shouldn’t be throwing himself on the ground if he wants to resume his career as a winner. He’s still a bit fragile from his injury.
Yeh, being fast is only part of the game. Your head has to be in it as well. Corner after corner, lap after lap.
I put it out there at the beginning of the season that he would be formidable again by midseason and still think that is the case. He is showing some form, but he still needs time to get the senses engaged to that elite status again.
I don’t think he’ll be as dominant as he was in the past, though, and that had nothing to do with his injury/recovery. That has to do with some real competition from Fabio and Pecco.
Amazing day for Ducati! A win plus all four riders in the top five.
Really mature ride from Jack and Zarco, working hard for the money. Marquez just really is not quite there yet, I sure he will get there just might take a few more races. But he may find that he is now just one of a number of fast guys, rather than miles out on his own. It happens to all of them, in the end. The demise of Rossi is a case in point. One of the greatest GP riders of all time, but……it happens.
An exciting race, as would be any race going from dry to full wet to dry again. For a couple minutes I thought this was the start of MM93’s return, then two crashes and he’s done.
MM93’s single-vehicle crash in the first race of 2020 occurred solely because of his pointless and vain glorious attempt to finish 2nd instead of his then-guaranteed 3rd (again, the first race…an effective difference of zero.) As star-studded of a career as MM93 had pre-2020, it must break Honda’s balls that his hubris cost Honda (so far) two full years of MotoGP competition. Honda’s current odds to win the 2021 trophy look insurmountable.
If Honda is a responsible race organization then they know their situation is 100% on them. They developed a bike that only one man can win on and/or failed to secure other riders good enough.
Every other manufacturer with more than 2 bikes won races with both factory and satellite teams last year. Honda shouldn’t have found themselves in a position where their success is completely reliant on one rider.
Impressive ride by Jack Miller. Two in a row! Actually, impressive rides by everyone in the top 10. Good to see Alex Marquez bring ‘er home.
When Marc was ahead at the beginning, he shouldn’t have tried to break away. We’ve seen so many riders in the lead go down in the wet because they are on the limit.
But then again, they always say a rider needs to find his rhythm and keep the right amount of heat in those rain tires.
He didn’t look comfortable out there in the lead. I was predicting he would crash.
Then he was rushing things and pushing hard which led to the second crash.
At least he’s rediscovering the limits of the bike again.
Glass half full says Marc rode at the front again, for the first time since his injury. Glass half empty says he crashed twice under conditions where he’d previously often dominated. I’m guessing he’s looking for that last 1% feel with bike. Will he regain that? And when?
According to Marquez, he crashed because he had trouble staying focused.
That is one thing about that guy I respect. He rarely ever blames anything or anyone else when he things go awry. If he loses, he tried “the maximum” but just wasn’t fast enough that day. If he crashes, he loses “focus” or “pushed to hard,” or made some kind of “mistake.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say the setup was bad, the team couldn’t get it together, the tires worked fine all weekend except during the race, etc.
He’s in an unfamiliar place, having to rebuild his form and pace. He’s always been a winner and had very few setbacks. It seems like an oxymoron to say this in a discussion about racing but I think he needs to slow down and regain his form slower, instead of trying to hurry back to the front. Fighting for the championship probably was never a realistic goal this year. Time to put it back together with steady work.
I’m pretty sure Marc feels a lot of self induced pressure to get back to winning asap. He has watched Honda not winning races for over a year now, and Honda pays him a boat load of money to win races for them. That has to weigh on him.
Racers like Marquez dont ease back into anything when they are in the he saddle of their motorcycles. They only know either they are winning or they’re not.
A while ago I posted that Agostini mentioned that MM should go out and ride and be happy to come in last, while he was still waiting the races out.
My comment got mixed reviews. I still think Ago was right.
If you finish, you’re not really dead last are you? There are always a few guys who don’t make it that far. Like…well.
I saw the “focus” comment about the second crash and it made me think of his concussion during the last race weekend in Jerez. That seemed pretty serious when Marc said he didn’t know where he was 20 minutes or so after his FP3 crash. I went back and watched a slo-mo of his first crash in the Le Mans race and, sure enough, he landed on his head as a result of that high-side. There is supposed to be a concussion protocol followed in MotoGP (involving cognitive function testing), but it seems to be frequently ignored.
Hmmm, that is some food for thought. I can remember doing a downhill MTB race a day after sustaining a concussion (undiagnosed.) The best way to describe just before I crashed in the race was that I knew what I should be doing, but my body wouldn’t follow instructions. I can remember yelling at myself in my head, “Weight back! Brake now. BRAKE NOW!” That day ended very much like Marc’s, except without the airbag suit.
Wow.
What a crazy race. Dry to rain to dry.
Really bad day for Team Suzuki
Not too good of a day for Team’s Honda or Aprilia either.