Saturday’s 10 lap Sprint race at Silverstone saw a hard-charging Alex Marquez (Ducati) take an early lead and reach the checkered flag first ahead of second place Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati), who had started from pole position, and third place Maverick Vinales (Aprilia). The race was run on a wet track.
Sunday’s main event started on a dry surface and championship points leader Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) led most of the race … seemingly controlling the pace from the front. With just a few laps remaining, rain began to fall on parts of the track, but most of the riders stayed out on their slicks.
A relatively large group entered the last couple of laps near the front with Bagnaia trying to hold onto the lead. On the final lap, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) made a daring pass on Bagnaia and took the win with Bagnaia finishing second and Brad Binder (KTM) third.
With Bezzecchi crashing out on Sunday, Bagnaia increased his championship points lead. Racing continues in two weeks at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Wow! I just read that Yamaha is worried that Honda may try to poach Quartararo. Once upon a time being poached by Honda was a good thing. Now days, well, not so much. If I were Fabs, I would rather the poaching came from any direction but Honda.
Some guys have all the luck. But not Fabs. He should tell Honda that he would happily ride a 1000cc active radical combustion two stroke. Or pound sand.
still has to weigh 135 kg.
Ahem…..3 Aprilias in the top 5.
The series enters a pressure cooker now. Both heat and pressure! A lot of very fast guys returning from injuries on very fast equipment too.
From another cycle rag “The second half of the season must have the riders and crews quaking in their Vans. 12 rounds, 24 races in 18 weeks. Four weekends in September – back-to-backs in Catalunya and Misano, a week off, then another twofer in India and Japan. October and November will separate the men from the boys. On a planet that is literally on fire, six rounds – 12 races – in seven weeks, in autoclaves. Mandalika. Buriram. Sepang. Losail.”
one slip up, in the sprints, in practice, in warm up or an actual race….it can change any and every thing.
The voices in my tin foil hat tell me that Honda and Yamaha are losing interest in the series. I refuse to believe given the history and experience of these two companies that they would continue to have ever worsening results over time. They both look like rookie teams in these races.
Gotta like the British weather for serving up perfect British sunshine for the main event. Taxing as it was for the riders, I think that they may eventually favor it over the sweltering furnaces that await them in the coming weeks. Train well guys.
I agree that Yamaha and Honda are losing interest, but that’s a relative term. To be sure, they are no longer maniacally obsessed with winning at all costs. Their main goal used to be quite simple: beat their Japanese archrival. Now that that’s no longer the key to winning, it does seem that their ardor has cooled rather a lot.
Have they lost sufficient interest to cede the sport completely to the Europeans?
Not yet. At least I don’t think so, and I definitely hope not, for once Honda drops out, MotoGP is no more. If Honda drops out, this gives Yamaha permission to do so as well, and the opposite is likely also true.
One sure indicator of Honda’s continuing interest in MotoGP will be the degree to which they pursue Pedro Acosta. The Honda with which I and most of us here grew up would move heaven and earth to sign that guy to a factory Repsol ride, thus keeping him from riding for their opponents. Signing someone like Johann Zarco to ride the satellite bike while continuing to soldier on hopelessly with Nakagami, Mir, and a thoroughly beaten down Marc Marquez is an obvious raising of the white flag. Along with a thoroughly redesigned new bike, Honda has to inject new blood and new hope into that program, in the form of a fiery new YOUNG Marc Marquez.
If they don’t, and if things continue for Yamaha and Honda as they have these past couple of seasons, then, yes, I could see them pulling a Kawasaki/Suzuki in the not too distant future, leaving the premier world championship to become the Euro Cup. That’s already what it is, in fact, if not in name, but it likely won’t take too much more of what’s going on now before Japan, Inc. makes it official.
Japan Inc is no longer at sport bike war. Gone is the day when 600cc sportbikes are top sellers. Winning road races isn’t all that important anymore.
Ducati fancies itself as the two wheeled Ferrari builder. So they are all in. Aprilia seems to sell a lot of sportbikes if my trip to the dealer is any indication. Most of what the local Aprilia dealer had on the floor were sportbikes. KTM is “ready to race”. So they’re out racing. Even though they farmed their sportbike out to Kramer. But that is a bike that a lot of influential riders are spending a good sized chunk of their own money on. KTM has an attitude. They turned off road events into a sea of orange a long time ago. So much so that now they sell bikes in two other colors just to make it look less like a cup race. They went after motocross and won. Paris Dakar? Yup! Now they’re coming after road racing. Ignore them at your peril. They might be slow and methodical. But they get there. When they feel that their program is mature. Some guy like Pedro Acosta will suddenly wind up on a KTM. And once again another part of the motorcycle racing world will wonder what’s coming out of the water fountains at the little factory in Austria.
A Kramer is nothing more than a very overpriced track conversion, similar to what people have been doing to, Ninja 500r’s, SV650’s and MT07’s in their garages.
Sport bikes are no longer fully-faired GP look alikes. They’ve been displaced by “naked” bikes. Same ride, slightly different look.
The 20 lap was a very nice race and all the lads were swell. I was impressed with Silverstone being so big that part of the track was wet at the same time part was dry. Has to be a mind twister to navigate both at speed, quick like a bunny, lap after lap.
sorry can’t stop myself…. “very nice race” with “swell lads” that were “quick like a bunny”….
????
You’re a Minnesote. Surely quick like a bunny is a familiar term.
What is your preferred spelling of the word biffy?
How many “o”s are in a 20 foot boat?
How far can you navigate a “crick” in a canoe before it to becomes a creek?
The time it takes for someone to launch a boat is inversely proportional to what?
What is your favorite grade of wild rice?
Ginger or Mary Ann?
Mary Ann, and Daisy Dukes.
Pretty sure that had it remained dry Maverick would have nabbed his maiden victory for Aprilia. He had already overtaken Aleix and was pulling away, gaining quickly on Pecco. At that point in the race, he was simply much faster than everyone else.
Plus it was Silverstone, his favorite track, the one circuit where he actually has won and is always a threat to win.
But then the sprinkles came, and his bottle emptied. That guy simply has no heart for it. He is completely risk averse. The moment it started to drizzle, he fell right back, and you knew who would be coming, as they’re always the hardest chargers in mixed/wet conditions: Oliveira and Binder, along with Miller and Aleix, and pre-zombification Marc Marquez.
Nice win for Aleix. Heady points haul for Pecco.
Absent a major injury that keeps him out of multiple races, this championship is already decided. Yes, I know what happened last year, but that was a single underpowered Yamaha against a horde of faster Euro bikes. This is different. Pecco is on the best bike, and he’s the most consistent points scorer of the eight Ducati riders. All he has to do is out-point the mercurial Bez, and the up-and-down Jorge Martin.
Who else poses a threat?
Binder?
Yeah, this one is over. The rest of the season, starting with the Ducati/Pecco favorite Red Bull Ring, will be a slow bleed heading to its inevitable conclusion.
pre-zombification Marc Marquez … to cruise around to test, and not race, makes me think Marquez may never come back to his former level. He’s changed.
Both the Honda and Yamaha, seem to be lost, in finding what is missing, that could make them competitive again. Reading as much is available, I do think that Ducati learned how and what the aero package did, and it complemented their speed. Bez’s crash, simply because he lost his aero downforce, coming up from behind Pecco, seems to reinforce the idea, there is a lot pushing the front traction, and its the aero. In the pocket behind a Ducati, you dont have any. That, only points to there is more going on, with their aero, than Honda Yamaha aero. Pecco has the trophy in his pocket, I think. I dont think there is anything wrong with Honda Yamaha, they are just missing whatever the Ducati has. for years, they played second fiddle, not anymore.
Maybe he is ill yet
i believe you are correct in that MM has changed. i hope MM changes further and realizes it’s high time that he sails off into the sunset to enjoy a great retirement before he is killed or maimed or does as such to a fellow rider.
i also believe that the Japanese bikes haven’t changed (enough). Suzuki recognized it couldn’t compete and bowed out. I hope Honda and Yamaha follow suit and soon. Get those incompetently slow bikes and their frustrated, angry, depressed, pilots off the track and out of the way of the competent bikes.
Would you have said that of Ducati, for the last 10 years it was uncompetitive?
no because it’s not true. stoner and dovi rode the ducati very well. rossi and hayden… well…not so much.
MM has undoubtably been too-injured enough to be what he was, ever. He was one in a million, till he got too broken, literally.
That’s a good assessment. Watching the race I wondered even if Pecco phoned it in a little bit. His main rival was out, conditions were getting sketchy.
As consistent as he is, I still think this would all look a lot different if Marquez and Quatararo were on competitive machinery. Pecco still crashes and has off days at a rate unlike the historical norm for championship winners.
Was also interesting to see Bez address the tire rule enforcement change pertaining to his crash (not a factor..).