Round 2 of the 2022 MotoGP championship was held earlier today at the new track Mandalika Circuit. After dry weather most of the weekend, the skies opened just prior to the MotoGP main event. The weather caused the organizers to shorten the race to 20 laps (from 27).
Despite the wet track, riders found good traction and posted reasonably quick lap times during an entertaining race. KTM’s Miguel Olivera took the lead early and paced himself to a comfortable win over second place Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and third place Johann Zarco (Ducati).
Six-time MotoGP champ Marc Marquez had a huge high-side crash during warm-up earlier today, and suffered a concussion that prevented him from participating in the race. He was flown to the hospital for tests. After his release from the hospital, he was quoted saying “The crash in the warm-up this morning was very violent, perhaps one of the hardest I’ve ever had. I went to the hospital and, even if they didn’t find any serious problems, it was decided not to race. Of course, it’s a pity, but also the best decision.”
Winner of the first round Enea Bastianini (Ducati) finished 11th today, but still holds a slim championship points lead. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
Marc was diagnosed with diplopia again… it’s starting to sound like he should retire, at some point the damage will be too much.
They are champions born to fight but another 2 championships vs enjoying life seeing normally?
Fortune favors the brave. Interesting to see riders improve lap times during the race as they figured out the grip. Enea and Binder Jr. come to mind.
The venue is spectacular. The Honda’s rear was moving around quite a bit looking for traction. Marc’s launch reminded me of JLo’s, at China’s GP. Just as impressive was my ability to stay awake for all the races.
MM rendition of a rag doll aside the race was outright boring, wet weather conditions are the great equalizer. I agree with others observations that perhaps the MM brain trust should consider another occupation while he still has brains, how many of these violent crashes can he endure.
You’re saying that the only thing you found interesting about this (great) race was watching the greatest rider of this generation going to the hospital with a possibly career ending concussion?
That’s really what you’re going with?
Don’t take it so seriously. Obsolete engine technology made rideable by a host of electronics. The last real rider retired last year. The entire series is totally irrelevant in the real world. It’s just an entertainment series for street bikers.
Just a few short months ago people were eager for this MM guy to regain his throne to be properly hero worshiped. Now it’s retirement time for Bobo. Fickle bunch.
Traumatic brain injury is no joke. If this ends his career it will probably also affect him negatively for the rest of his life (read about CTE), but I’m glad you’re “entertained”.
I’m not entertained. I don’t watch four stroke races unless they are dirt track events. The last dirt track race I attended was in Wisconsin. Nicky Haden was racing the event and I lived near by at the time.
I do check out clips of controversial items discussed here and elsewhere due to my interest in racing in general.
GP and road racing in general lost me as a customer when they decided to cater to street bikers instead on motorcycle enthusiasts as they did in the past. I have not attended or watched a road racing event since 2002, the year of infamy. Before that time my motorcycle bucket list included riding Europe and attending a GP race there. Since that time I lived in Europe and rode there extensively. I lived a short ride from a number of road racing events but had no interest supporting them with my entry fee.
The only events that I have attended in person that I was not competing in the last decade or more are observed trials events. They allow competitors to ride anything they want. People show up on two stroke and four stroke bikes in a wide variety of displacements and the best man or woman wins.
I don’t have a television. How people can deal with all those commercials is beyond me.
Miguel Oliviera was just amazing. As I watched him ride away from Miller I wondered if he was aware that he was riding a wet track. 250hp bikes wheelyiing in the wet? The wet grip was just amazing. Quartararo was also spectacular in that he recovered from what must’ve been a morale crushing 1st 3rd of the race. He was celebrating at the end but I bet when the adrenaline wore off he and the team will agree that the result was too hard fought and he’ll continue to need more from that Yamaha.
The battle in the mid-field was pretty epic too. I wish the footage I saw showed more of that.
I also agree with Provologna, Marquez wasn’t in the race. He should not even be mentioned in this article, let alone be named in the headline. If his story is so worthy of a headline (it is), it should be a separate article but this does a disservice to Oliviera, the one who earned that headline.
It’s amazing how two or more people can watch the same video and yet come away with polar opposite opinions. MM wasn’t the only guy struggling in qualifying, many off course ventures . Unfortunately everyone focuses on one guy, who needs to consider life beyond Moto GP. I had heard many years back Honda is the hardest team to ride for based on HRC belief that the motorcycle wins the race and any failure is on the rider.
The thing that impressed me most was the traction was so much more predictable on a wet track, which obviously points to the grip issue was surface related. Residual contamination from the asphalt or track temperature just too high for consistent traction. Either way the qualifying sessions were awful and the wet racing was outstanding.
A look at the results seems to indicate that HRC is on to something. Check out the Suzuki and the first two Honda finishes. They seem to show that those bikes go about that fast at that venue on that day.
I would suggest that the electronics package is a major factor. At some tracks all the bikes end up in a pretty small window. Mistakes slow you down, but you can only go so fast unless you do something unforeseen by the programmers. Perhaps this MM guy found some way around the software for a while. Those antics don’t seem to be working anymore.
The grip issue is Michelin-related. How one of the biggest and best tire companies in the world can’t provide tires that work outside a tiny optimum window is beyond me.
Bring back more tire manufacturers and we’d see the problem solved pretty quickly.
Although I believe multiple tire manufacturers is a great idea simply because the competition would have a end result of better tires even for the street, I don’t believe this is the problem here. This track in the dry was unique and one section seemed to collect the majority of the riders. Cement dust had been applied to the surface in this section which resulted in a improved traction. Excessive heat must have caused tarmac oils to be pushed to the surface. Again the wet lap times were closer than expected to dry conditions, perhaps the rain had washed away the contamination and or the wet surface temperatures was much lower than dry.
The benefit of having one manufacturer make them is that then they’ll be the same for everyone. If some don’t get along with them as well as others then that’s where their work should be focused. GP racing is closer than it’s ever been. There’s nothing wrong with the tires.
I really enjoyed the brief interview with Miguel Olivera following his win. His comments were informative (following behind wet-weather expert Jack Miller for the first 5 laps to learn his lines before concluding he could ride faster and deciding to pass him), emotional (telling how he wanted to bring home a trophy to his new daughter, his first child), and humorous / appreciative (thanking the hotel worker who was so encouraging, and dedicating his victory to him, by name.) A class act, and my new favorite rider.
Ditto all. Miguel’s comments and attitude so refreshing and encouraging.
This is purely subjective: I always found MM’s comments canned and contrived, an almost total lack of candor. Very much the polar opposite of today’s winner MO.
I am always against headlines like the one of this article. I personally find it just plain wrong from every potential view to omit the winner’s name in favor of whomever did not win; the fact that MM did not even race makes this error even worse. If the title of any contest article is not the winner the title is wrong, period, full stop. My 2c.
Lastly, I must presume the fact that Dorna forced MM to submit to a medical exam to confirm the obvious (concussion) was a legal formality only. Anyone with an IQ above room temp can view the video (@ Motogp the 2nd camera angle in the short clip of his practice crash) and know for certain the obvious, that MM was knocked unconscious by the 2nd or 3rd time his head hit the track/runoff. The way his head slaps around 360 degrees it looks like it’s barely attached to his shoulders. He was out for a good solid 2S. Only knocked out once but I won’t soon forget it (well, waking up from it!)
I wonder what MM’s family have to say to him about his current and future health vs. his current profession. Would pictures of Wayne Rainey help their case?
I also think of MM sycophants who predicted with so much glee and certainty that their superhero would soon own every record. Maybe he still will, but the odds seem to decline over time. It’s been over 2 years now since his worst case of hubris, the first race of 2020. Does anyone still predict he’ll ever own the paddock again like he did so many prior seasons? You don’t heal @ 29 like you do at 19, and he wasn’t high-siding like this 10 years ago.
A 3mph blow to the head can be fatal, hence the countless stories of mutual combat where someone does hard prison time for hitting someone, the victim’s head hits something hard, DRT: dead right there.
Maybe he doesn’t give a rat’s behind, but something tells me it kills MM to be 1 trophy behind the Italian pink elephant who left the MotoGP paddock.
Other readers here actually complain when Dirck’s headlines give away the results, as if every other news article in the history of ever doesn’t do the same thing.
In any case, his headline here says Marc missed the race, which is a news-worthy bit of info, and the large picture above the headline very clearly shows Miquel Oliveira lofting the winner’s trophy from the top step of the podium. Between the headline and that picture, I think you can figure out the winner.
It isn’t MD’s or any other media outlet’s job to conceal the results of the race, exactly the opposite. The complaints should be ignored. They can avoid the site until they learn the result the way they’d prefer.
I just shared one opinion, based on an arguable view that everything Re. the outcome of a professional individual sport is of less universal interest than the winner. Anyone who wants to avoid discovering the race winner: I respectfully suggest staying off the net!
I like that saying: “There’s exceptions to every rule, including this one.” IMO an exception is if something so extraordinary happened during the race, like a terrorist attack for instance (God forbid,) a natural disaster with loss of life, etc. In such case the ID of the winner is arguably of less importance and less memorable than the extraordinary event that occurred.
MM’s penchant to crash since the first race of 2020 is not that newsworthy IMO. I’d say 1 or 2 rookies finishing IFO seasoned vet Vinales is more newsworthy than MM’s concussion and missing the race.
Dam, didn’t MM finish in the top 4 two weeks ago? Those new tires really did a # on the Honda’s, no?
Different tires for Mandalika. They caught a lot of teams off guard.
Didn’t you watch qualifying and the race?
Anyway, no, a couple of rookies finishing ahead of notoriously-bad-in-the-wet Maverick is nowhere near as newsworthy as eight-time world champion Marc Marquez having one of the worst highsides in recent memory, forcing him out of the race before it even started. The guy is still attempting a two-year comeback from multiple career-threatening injuries, including this offseason’s very worrying bout of diplopia, and now he’s hit with another concussion?
That’s mighty big news.
Rookies finishing well down the order in a wet race, ahead of a non-competitive Maverick on his still unfamiliar Aprilia?
Not so much.
In fact, outside of the KTM garage, there is likely no one in the paddock who would rate Oliveira’s victory on a new track in a sketchy, shortened wet race to be as newsworthy as Marc’s situation. He’s the perpetual elephant in the room. He’s the one guy who, if he could ever return to his former self, might render all these other machinations moot, and everyone knows it.
First time in five years or so that my motogp.com subscription service failed. It showed all the practice sessions, qualifying, and the Moto3 and Moto2 races just fine, but for some reason my feed for the MotoGP race wouldn’t come in. It kept buffering, and when it wasn’t buffering it was was very slow, segmented, oversized, and blurry. Ended up having to watch the race on Youtube.
Marc struggled with rear grip all weekend. That final crash during warmups was his fourth of the weekend, IIRC. Every time he let off the gas, his rear tire broke loose. Pol complained of the same thing. Nakagami was MIA, and I don’t think I heard Alex’s name mentioned once during the entire weekend.
That tire was a nightmare for the Hondas.
If I’m Julian, Marc’s dad, I really want my boy to retire. I know it’s a pipe dream. Marc won’t give up. He’s a born racer, but…damn.
One of these days, he might not get up and zombie stumble away. That day feels like it’s getting closer and closer. I do not want to see that day.
Apparently the fix is to change the language (upper right) from EN to ES and then like magic it’s viewable.
A day later, the race now comes through nice and clear on motogp.com. As I mentioned, that was the first time I ever had a problem with their feed. Hopefully it was the last time. If not, I’ll try switching to ES, although I really don’t want to watch the race in Spanish.
Glad they fixed it. I’ve not had any problems until this so I’ll forgive them and assume it won’t happen again. By the way / just in case, the race isn’t in Spanish if you change it to ES. Same commentary, same on-screen graphics.
I didn’t watch the race until late last night, but I didn’t have any issues. I guess they must have fixed whatever was wrong.
I watched FP1,FP2,FP3,FP4 & Q1 & Q2,& THE WARM-UP, all weekend Marc has been struggling with front grip where he had quite a few hi-speed front end washout & also lack of rear grip and a number of times the rear end would slide out ,one incident his rear end was about 3′ above the bike but he managed to control the bike ,apparently Michelin brought in harder compound tyres to compensate for the high heat of the Mandalika circuit which would lead to rapid tyre degradation , for some reason the Hondas were having a harder time adapting to this harder compound .That’s why the Moto 2 & Moto GP races were shortened ,his hi-side in the warm-up which I saw live he was launched probably 15′ in the air ,the bike was totally destroyed he was very lucky to have walked away from that one with just a mild concussion,think his “all in or nothing everytime ” could be his worst enemy ,maybe after this one he will re-think his strategy.
Honestly though, if you aren’t “all in” in MotoGP, you aren’t competitive. You’re either all in, or you are retired I think.
Marc has a new bike that he had no input into the development of and almost no time testing it before the start of the season, so I get why he might be crashing a lot as he is a rider that learns how to ride a bike while constantly flirting with the limit. I still don’t think he is fully fit (and maybe never will be again?) which I’m sure also plays into that.
I wonder if he’s just a bit screwed with the new bike. It’s a bike that maybe all the riders can potentially ride fast but lacks the characteristics that a truly elite rider can leverage to be competitive everywhere. Time will tell I suppose.
This is turning out to be a crazy year.The complaints on the Michelin seem valid . No team or rider seems to be especially strong. I’m gonna go with Fabio with consistency . This looks like 2020 when the most consistent rider pulls through in the end.
Looking at the Marquez high side video any ideas as to the cause? Slick patch on the road, mechanical issue or what? Every angle from both the camera outside following the bike’s path and on the rider’s back provides no evidence.
the nut that holds the handlebars was loose… how many shots like that can a guy take before he decides it’s not worth it. he’s already taken a heluva bunch…
Nothing more complicated than the Honda struggled with the Michelin all weekend. Rear would kick out unexpectedly or front would wash. Marquez crashed 4 times IIRC.
The Honda is all new this year and reportedly has a different balance front-to-rear. Pol was fast at the Mandelika test, so the bike worked at that point. Michelin brought a completely new rear tire, and as RRocket said, the Honda never looked settled on the tires. I’m glad the bad old days of vicious high-sides is MOSTLY behind us. But the modern GP bikes occasionally highside off the throttle going into a turn, with vicious results. Usually it seems like it’s on cold tires, but MM’s RC213V tried to do that very same thing to him repeatedly this weekend, until it succeeded.
Looked like a good race, too bad the Videopass feed was janky. Moto3 and Moto2 were fine, but GP looked like it was stuck on some kind of 180 degree video setting, with a fisheye / zoomed-in aspect, a frame rate only a third to a half what it should have been, and a fuzzy, low resolution look. Almost impossible to follow any action, couldn’t even see the leaderboard, unless I grabbed the view with my mouse and moved it, then I could make out places 7 or 8 through 14 or 15 (but really couldn’t see anything on track then). Oh well, it’s been pretty reliable for me, if it’s just this one video out of 63 races (and a lot more vids if you include practice and qual) I’ll forgive them.
Apparently the fix is to change the language (upper right) from EN to ES and then like magic it’s viewable.
Thank you. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one trying to fix that! I spent an hour 20 trying to fix it to no avail. Finally figured out how to watch it on my Firestick.
Where’s the language button?
Assuming you’re using a browser on a PC or Mac, it’s at the upper right in the actual site, not in the feed, so you can’t be in full screen. It’ll show EN and have an arrow pointing down, click and change to ES.