Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) won his third straight MotoGP race earlier today in Austria. Bagnaia is the first Ducati rider to win three in a row since Casey Stoner, and the first Italian rider to do so since Valentino Rossi.
After a great ride that saw him less than 1/2 a second from Bagnaia at the flag, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) came home second, with Jack Miller (Ducati) third.
Quartararo extended his lead in the championship to 32 points over Aleix Espargaró (Aprilla), who could only manage 6th place today. The riders will race again in two weeks at Misano. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
I remember a Brit mag called Performance Bikes that was so fun to read. Rating bikes on how they perform after a pint or two (I don’t condone drinking and riding) and general tomfoolery was crazy. Even the credits at the beginning were offensive.
I remember that mag too. They printed a piece about a few guys that would bait police chases on a Honda CBR XX Blackbird. Got pulled over in their escape van unrelated to their shenanigans while hot bike was pinging in the back and the officer’s radio was still busy with chatter about the chase. I think they also printed a piece about a vigilante group that baited motorcycle thieves with sportbikes parked in high-theft areas and beat them silly.
And this has what to do with MotoGP?
They are talking about a magazine that was around when spot bikes were popular. MotoGP came around and changed all that.
Rest in peace sport bikes. Odd that they still fund the very thing that killed such a lucrative market. Habit I guess.
MotoGP has absolutely nothing to do with the sales decline of sport bikes. Like you’ve said over and over, you don’t watch it so you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Bagnaia rode superbly and deserved the win. Seems to be a nice young man too. Miller rode really well, Ducati is going to miss him next year. Quatararo rode above his pay grade, at a track he wasnt expected to do well at. I’m starting to become a believer that he’s the real deal.
Poor Mir can’t catch a break. He’s having a rough year.
Miller has proven to be a solid rider. It would be a tall order, but I hope he does something remarkable on the KTM.
another chicane at a track that has already had the fast bits taken away. even mark donohue would say “fail”.
Best two rides of the day were Fabio’s, and Sasaki’s in Moto 3. The guy had to serve two long-lap penalties, which punted him from the lead to eighteenth place after losing six seconds, yet he somehow managed to rip through the field and be back in the lead only a small handful of laps later. He never put a wheel wrong the rest of the race, capturing the victory despite constant pressure from a hard-charging swarm of banzai maniacs.
It was very Pedro Acosta-esque.
Also of note, although likely apropos of nothing, was the fact that for the first time in modern history Asian riders captured the top two spots on the podium in both Moto 3 and Moto 2, with Japanese riders winning both races, including first and second place in Moto 3.
I agree. Sasaki was on fire. They have some very tight point races in Moto2 and Moto3 right now. Quartararo’s race was superb. Aleix might be right… If Yamaha does improve the bike in a meaningful way next year, Quartararo might be really hard to beat.
Gardener is scrappy. He crashed nine seconds into the race and took nearly two minutes to remount. He finished a lap down. But he finished.
It also looks like there was a bit of a battle for sixth place.
I see that there were some riders on bikes made by a company named Honda. Are they new to MotoGP?
Quite the change of fortune for Honda for sure. I’m sure you’ve heard that we’ll have another “manufacturer” participating next year. GasGas/KTM. Looks like the European manufacturers will bag some championships soon. Damn that pesky Yamaha dude though.
Quartararo is pretty amazing. To finish where he did in a sea of Ducatis was pretty impressive. He kept that Yamaha on the ragged edge for the entirety of the race.
As for the scrappy Remy Gardener; KTM is giving him the boot, and it looks like he will be without a MotoGP ride for 2023.
FQ said he was exhausted from the race, “every lap like qualifying”. He did mention that it was difficult to race the Ducatis on power, the difference didn’t seem too great on screen, only that maybe he didn’t have many options to move to pass. The pass he did make was pretty amazing (watch the slow-mo of Martin coming off of that corner just after it happened..) though I’m sure he’d rather they be easier.
Yeah, the main issue with a power deficit when the tracks favor power is the risk a rider has to take on the brakes, carrying corner speed, and then getting back on the gas. Like you mentioned, every lap is like a qualifying lap (proving to me that Quartararo is something special), and every overtake is pretty risky whereas the Ducati just has to stay close to him (no easy feat it would seem) until a long enough straight comes along to make a risk-free pass.
Actually I had not heard of the GasGas thing. I guess it’s a smart move by KTM. GasGas is traditionally Spanish and MotoGP has a very Spanish bias. All my trials bikes were GasGas, though I must say that I had my problems with every one of them. KTM didn’t buy Bultaco. So GasGas is what they got.
It’s sad that BMW didn’t join the Frey. But it is a family owned company and going up against VW/Ducati kind of a fools errand. VW might not have the rider, but most people would agree that they have the bike. Producing a piece of equipment like that is not easy or cheap.
FYI my sister in law gave me a Classic Dirt Bike magazine today. It’s a UK rag that is absolutely salt of the earth. I think she got it at Barnes and Noble.
She knows nothing about motorcycles. But she nailed it. If you don’t enjoy a copy, you aren’t you and I’m not me.
My apologies to the powers that be if I can’t drop a plug.
Saturday sprint races coming for next season in MotoGP.
I’ll be curious what opinions are about this here. I think it’s stupid personally…if it counted toward the grid like Q -> Sprint -> Final (which I think is how F1 does it) I’d be more amenable to the idea.
A few months back, MotoGP.com sent viewers a survey that asked questions about things like this.
I’m guessing there was a favorable response.
Myself, since it’s a done deal, I’m curious to see what it’s like.
I like the idea. All they’re really doing is replacing P3 with a half-duration/half-points sprint race, making Saturday action at the track a whole lot more important and interesting.
As it’s currently constituted, Saturdays see the all-important P3, which determines the entrants to Q1 and Q2, then it’s P4, then it’s Q1 and Q2. It’s rather stupid for P3 to determine Q1 and Q2, since P3 is held in the morning. MotoGP doesn’t hold their races in the morning, they hold them at 2:00 p.m. local time, so why set up a morning session with colder track temperatures as the final yardstick for admission into Q2? Quite often P3 is ruined by colder and/or wetter conditions, leaving the previous day’s P2 session to determine which riders will be forced to go through Q1.
The 2023 season will see the longer, more race-time relevant P2 session on Friday determining who moves straight into Q2. No more waking up on Saturday and looking out your window, knowing the weather that day will likely determine your fate.
Bottom line, which would you rather watch on Saturday, another practice session in the morning, or a points-paying sprint race in the afternoon?
That’s a no-brainer to me.
The only downside I see here is that there will probably be more crashes in the sprint races than in the current P3, which could lead to more injuries and fewer healthy riders on the grid for the full-points-paying race on Sunday.
Here’s one thing I know for certain. I was strongly considering not renewing my motogp.com subscription for next season. Following the announcement of this new Saturday sprint-race format, however, I’m all in on renewing. I feel that I will be getting more entertainment next season, more bang for my buck, so I’m going to remain on board.
I personally like the idea. Qualifying window established in FP2 on Day 1. Qualifying and racing on Day 2. Race on Day 3. That’s a win for the spectators.
A short, points-grabbing sprint race where tire conservation doesn’t matter would be pretty exciting. Contrary to some concerns about safety, I doubt we’ll see more crashing with that than we do in the current FP1 – FP3. Only time will tell though.
I think MotoGP needs to figure out how to reduce the frequency of crashes for this to work. Right now they crash a lot, this will increase the frequency of crashes. I think the sprint format will make it worse because riders will have less time to make up for mistakes that cost points.
This will also require changes to engine and tire allotment, which add costs. Reducing costs has been key to the revival of the class.
I question the spectator value for Saturday but I expect they’ve done their homework on that.
Since only the first 9 finishers get points, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of guys back off. If you aren’t fighting for the top 10, why take the risk? If you get punted off the track, why take the risk to make up an impossible amount of time? I’d like to see some data on it, but it seems that most crashes tend to happen as they are hot lapping through FP2 and FP3. With qualifying decided by the end of FP2, I’m not so sure the crash count will be all that much different during the sprint as it would during FP3. Of course the ones most at risk of crashing will almost certainly be the championship contenders, and that is admittedly something that needs to be scrutinized.
I’ve heard that they do not intend to change the tire or engine allocations as the sprint race would actually be easier on the engines than the “pre-qualifying” that goes on in a full FP3 and that engine run time is actually reduced overall with FP4 eliminated. Same for the tires – total laps don’t change much, and they won’t be changing tires three times as they do during a full FP3.
I found it surprising that the riders found out about the sprint races from the media rather than Dorna. Seems like they should have been part of the discussion.
Interesting info on the track time changes. Hadn’t seen that in the materials I’ve read about this. Thanks for that.
Jeremy, P4, i.e., the race set-up practice session that doesn’t count towards qualifying, isn’t going to be eliminated or moved. Only the current P3 will be eliminated, replaced by the sprint race. The current P4 will be relabeled as P3.
Friday schedule: P1, then P2, to determine the entrants to Q1 and Q2 on Saturday. The new P1 and P2 sessions will be lengthier than the current P1 and P2.
Saturday schedule: P3 (formerly P4), which will be lengthier than the current P4, then Q1 and Q2, with the sprint race concluding the day.
Sunday schedule: No change.
Thanks for the clarification VLJ.
More crashes, fewer contenders finishing seasons, no improvement in the quality of the show. There aren’t enough seats on the MotoGP grid for all the up and coming talent. Better to add a class (Moto1?) to make a better show than this.
Set the sprint grid reverse of qualifying, then you’ll see some passing/overtaking action!
Sprints seem really risky for points-leading contenders, all the risks for half the points.
And no more money as a few riders have mentioned
On the other hand, it makes riders that tend to lead for a good portion of a race but ultimately fade (Zarco and Miller for example) championship threats as they can pick up some good points on Saturday as well as Sunday since they still typically finish pretty high in the order on Sunday.
I don’t know… It’s an interesting development, and I don’t think we’ll really know whether it works or not until we see it happen. I’m personally excited to see how it turns out.