Round 2 of the 2024 MotoGP championship visited Portugal this weekend, and Jorge Martin (Ducati) came away the big winner.
On Saturday, Martin finished third behind Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and Marc Marquez (Ducati) in the Sprint race.
In the main GP (which pays double points vs. the Sprint), Martin took the win ahead of second place Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and third place rookie Pedro Acosta (GASGAS).
Sunday’s race contained plenty of drama. Young Acosta (19 years old) showed great speed and race craft passing Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) on his way to third place. After being passed, Bagnaia and Marquez crashed together while battling over fifth place. Also, after running in second place for most of the race, Vinales saw his gearbox fail on the last lap.
Going into Round 3 at Austin, Texas in three weeks, Martin has an 18 point lead in the championship over Brad Binder (KTM). More importantly, perhaps, Martin is already 23 points ahead of title rival Bagnaia.
For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here.
For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
What an amazing track! Great racing action this weekend.
The newer aerial shots they can get of the drops look amazing. Must be heart in throat going over those rolls with that kind of speed/power.
It was not clear to me what garage the Pierer group was sitting in. I would assume KTM factory but they may be moving into the Tech 3 paddock with Acosta shortly. Kid is electric.
one of fast freddie’s mechanics once said that races could be won w/ a 70% bike and a 100% rider. but not the other way around. pedro acosta appears to be such a rider. and his gasgas appears to be around 95-6%. it also appears that the weight of his bike matters little. he won only his second moto 3 race from the pitlane in ’21, moto2 last year, and also appears to have simply turned traction/wheelie/slide control down to zero.
In the modern era we’re seeing that 100% riders usually can’t win on 90% bikes. Despite this, the margins are tighter than they’ve ever been.
Because of this you mean?
That’s because they are all riding with the same electronics package. It is both a rider aid and a limit. It might make a better TV show. But it provides a pretty artificial measure of the individual racers by changing what they are being measured at to some extent. Shut all the nennies off and the races would look very different and the bike tuners would be scrambling. Those slow Hondas might suddenly be very fast. Other bikes might turn into instant crash machines.
That they’re using the same ECU is of no consequence beyond a measure to control costs. They are in complete control of its settings and use it to maximize the performance of their individual bikes. The “nannies” are set to the preferences of the riders/teams. IF you watched, you’d notice those black stripes at the exits of all the turns and that high-side crashes still occur. Remove traction controls and the results will be the same, the racing will just be slower and more dangerous.
You mean Freddie Spencer on Honda. Besides. Mick Doohan was better.
I must admit that I chased down a highlight video just so I could throw MM under the bus for riding like MM. But it looked to me like a garden variety racing incident. If anything, Bags could have given MM a little helmet room and finished the race rather than wallow in some Portuguese kitty litter.
Nice gift for KTM though. Three bikes in the top five. Not too shabby.
Try a full race Mick. If you forget everything but the racing you just see amazing riders on special machines. Hard not to appreciate that.
Acosta is the story of the day, he will have a good impact in his first season. Shame about the dnf’s, the last lap might have been even better.
Looked like Pecco MM’d MM. Smooth move Exlax. That lockup and highside of poor Maverick was nutzo! Last lap and his Priller gives up.
He did not kick him. Smooth
One’s interpretation of that crash depends a little bit on which rider one favors. LOL.
I fully respect both riders abilities and accomplishments but trying to occupy the same space as another rider is contradictory to physics.
My bias: I was tempted to think that it was just another time MM turned into a rider to his inside.
But after watching a few replays, I’m with you. Skilled riders simply trying to occupy the same “logical” space, which isn’t logical. 😉