Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) rode yet another flawless race earlier today in Germany to take the win and extend his championship points lead to 34. Considered by many to be his main competition for the title this year, Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia suffered another DNF after he crashed just three laps into the race while in second place behind Quartararo. Bagnaia is now 91 points behind Quartararo, and has a mountain to climb to catch the defending champ this year.
Finishing second and third today were Johann Zarco and Jack Miller, both aboard Ducatis. Miller recently announced that he is moving to the KTM Factory Team next year.
For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
For those that miss MM’s presence, Bagnaia is providing the needed crashes.
MM didn’t win 6 championships by crashing out of races.
No, but he hasn’t won that 7th championship to tie Rossi because he crashes out of races.
That was really a perfect race from Fabio, well judged and good tyre management in the searing heat. 2nd was a lonely but worthy effort, and Jack rode a fine race to get third. Yeah it was attritional, but that’s racing sometimes. I didn’t find it boring at all.
Curious to see how Jack goes on a KTM……
i thought that fabio’s fork tops were speakers, they were so big. the other thing that shoulder-cam revealed was how lightly fab grips the bars.
How times have changed. I’d rather watch WSBK these days as the racing is much better.
Not sure why, but I’ve always had a tough time getting into WSBK. Maybe I need to give it another try. I hope their streaming platform is much improved from several years ago.
There have been some hair-raising battles this year and last year too. I have had no issues with the streaming subscription.
Odd results page. One third of the starters never finished. No Rins listed at all. Only Honda to finish was dead last and over twenty seconds adift from the next finisher. A German in Germany no less.
If Honda continues to get poor results, you can expect to hear noise from them. Expect a rule change that Honda figures will favor them. You just KNOW they are bummed about Q signing with Yamaha. Hondas path to victory has long been about buying the fast guy.
Was a weird race. Super hot, low grip. Several guys fell, a couple DNF’d due to injury (pol) and mechanical issue (Maverick). Rins didn’t qualify or start due to the broken wrist he suffered last race.
Honda’s feathers got ruffled when the rule change that brought the spec ecu were instated and made threats to leave. Dorna basically told them to pound sand. I think in GP their influence has dwindled. Ducati has taken their place. Moto2 is proving that motorcycle brands don’t matter very much to the spectators anymore.
I agree with Dave. The days where Honda can influence rule changes are over. There was a period when there were bikes on the grid due to Honda making CRT bikes available, but now Ducati fills the grid with machines that teams can actually be competitive with. If anything, the spec ECU rule change Dave mentioned favored Ducati since they were already using that ECU hardware and software.
Honda can still throw money at riders. They say Joan Mir is signed despite no formal announcement yet. I’m a bit skeptical that Mir is the right rider to salvage the ship, but some of the experts that can lose more knowledge about racing after a few shots of tequila that I could ever know say his riding style is very similar to Marquez and should suit the Honda.
Man, things have been shaken up over the past few years. It used to Spain, Spain, Spain in the rider’s column, and Japan, Japan, Japan in the constructors’…. Now it’s double French; and a sea of Italy…..
Nice poetic closing Stuki.
What? but what about all the Dorna/Spanish conspiracy theories?