Marc Marquez (Honda) won his second race of the year today at the COTA circuit in Austin, Texas. Marquez has dominated racing at this circuit since it came onto the scene, and now has 7 wins and 7 pole positions there.
Marquez took the lead in the first corner and built a large gap over second place Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) who, in turn, built a large gap over the rest of the field. Both Marquez and Quartararo cruised home to first and second place, respectively.
Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) had an up-and-down race, but eventually worked his way into third place to fill out the podium.
By finishing in front of Bagnaia, Quartararo extended his points lead in the championship, which now stands at 52 points over Bagnaia. With just 3 races remaining, Quartararo can clinch this year’s title by finishing in front of Bagnaia at the next round in Misano in three weeks. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
Nice tribute to Nicky Hayden by Marc Marquez!
Good to see Marquez win it. He probably needed that mentally. To see him dominate like that on a track that favors his “good side” relative to other tracks does truly indicate how far he is from being fully fit.
Fabio has been master class all year. Even a fully fit Marquez would have his hands full with that kid.
The King is back!
Congrats to Beth Miller!
She was chief steward at the event. The first woman chief steward at any FIM event ever.
She was mobbed by the world press. Not so much by the US press.
Way to go Beth Miller! Thanks for the shout-out.
You watched the diesels riding around?
Atta boy Mickey, nothing like fresh crow, is there?
a 4-stroke @ 16-17 thou sounds about the same as a 2-stroke at 10 or 11. moto 2/3 don’t do it aurally for me, but when 93 came past the camera/microphone half way down the back straight by himself… wow
No.
No Mickey. I spoke to he husband last week. Both him and Beth are super nice people.
If she was in any way involved with that Moto3 debacle…I’m not sure I’d be patting her on the back just yet.
A 5 lap sprint race with the immature, hot headed riders in Moto3? What could possibly go wrong?
I’m not chief steward, but I said out loud to my wife that there would likely be a spectacular crash during the sprint race.
If someone as dumb-as-a-stump as me knew that decision would be a train wreck, surely the stewards should have considered it.
That’s an interesting thought.
You haven’t really been around racing much have you?
At this point it is Quartararos to lose, and that’s great by me. He’s found consistency this year and upped his strategy considerably. That is true racecraft and it’s refreshing to see.
Great ride by Marc. Smart ride by Fabio. Good recovery by Pecco. There has been a lot of talk about Marc being out-skilled by the “youngsters”, but today is a strong indication that Marc will be back on top if, and it’s a big if, he fully recovers. In the mean time, the dominance only shows up at the counter-clockwise tracks. All 3 of the podium finishers seem to be decent people as well as good racers.
I was a fan of Mir in M2, but have become a non-fan for his whining and on-track antics. Looks like Jack is getting tire of him as well. Martin should be a regular at the front when fully recovered from injuries.
I’m there with you regarding Mir as I also liked him in Moto2. For some reason this year, he’s behaving in a rather entitled manner, believing he’s riding well enough to be winning but he isn’t. For some reason, he isn’t behaving as if he needs to be riding better than everyone else instead.
I think Marc is already back to his old form, but I agree that his physical healing isn’t complete. Mentally, I think he is over the hump and where he needs to be, which is on track to break all the records before his time is up.
Fabrizio: “Did you see how many people Marc was mean to in COTA?”
Lol.
I count 20.
Master class by Marquez today.
Quatararo rode intelligently.
Poor A. Espargaro ate dirt all weekend.
Those bumps gave me the Willie’s watching at home, cant imagine what it would be like riding over them at those speeds
Those NASCAR worshiping Texas cowpokes tested the track surface with a 3/4 ton, 20 year old pickup and it seemed just fine to them. You got a problem with that?
I don’t think the riders will be racing there again until they get those bumps fixed. Some of them didnt want to race this time, with several saying it was too dangerous to race.
I read that COTA will have to resurface turns 2 – 10 to make the MotoGP calendar next year.
I wonder if DORNA put a muzzle on the riders during the event to keep their pie holes shut. I watched a number of riders bounce out of their saddle on a couple of bumps. I miss Indy, which catered to the average Jane/Joe fan, not the motorhome blue bloods.
There were no muzzles… Riders complained candidly about the bumps.
They’d have to do this every year or so if they don’t fix the problems deeper under the track.
I was reading from an expert on paving race tracks. He says the problem is in the job, not the soil.
They ride four strokes because that’s what street bike people want to see.
ADVs are popular in the US. So next time the smart team would bring some suspension with a bit more travel and make some press about running a more ADV setup, and maybe win.
It’s all about pandering already. Where’s the rub?
Not sure how that fits into the conversation? Perhaps the comment was meant for another thread?
“Those bumps gave me the Willie’s watching at home, cant imagine what it would be like riding over them at those speeds”
Yeah, if you were a club racer on bumpy tracks (like I used to be) that sorta stuff on TV is what makes it a good show, so to speak. There’s some bump sets that no steering damper can control.
The negative lesson I recall like that was at Pacific Raceway, south of Seattle. The “straight” had a kink right towards the end. Could hit it at 145/150 on my ZX7. Went wide to pass a Yamaha and had the “click click” of triple clamps hitting the frame stops. Will never forget that sound. Can blow your hands off the bars. Survived that and never passed wide there again.
So yeah, seeing those little wiggles of 93 at full chat makes for an interesting show! Racing (or passing) through that takes some ‘nards.