Marc Marquez (Honda) continued his spectacular championship defense by taking his third win in a row from pole position. Marquez is the first rider to open the year in this fashion since Giacomo Agostini won the first three races in the Premier class from pole position back in 1971.
Marquez was followed home by his teammate Dani Pedrosa, with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) finishing third. Lorenzo jumped out front and led most of the race before being passed by the Repsol Honda teammates.
Marquez continues to increase his points lead over Pedrosa. For additional details, results and points visit the official MotoGP site.
Everyone is in agreement that it seems Marc tires don’t go away as much everyone else.I was looking at the replay of the race and the other races and noticed something different in his riding style compared to other, check out when they have that lean angle graphic on marc and another rider and notice the he is hardly ever on the center portion of the tire, compared to other. I wonder if that helps him spread the wear through more of his tires.Just a thought.
The center is the only part of the tire they never wear out. If Marc spends more time at lean then he’s achieving good tire wear some other way.
The reason his tires don’t go away is because he builds up a big lead, then cruises. That’s why Pedrosa closed in on him toward the end of Argentina. He was coasting.
With all the electronics and micro system management I guess is my point, I just don’t find it fun anymore. I want to see power wheelies tire spin and all the exciting stuff I used to see. Moto GP has taken a back seat and I have been watching dirtbike stuff mostly because imho the rider not the bike get you a win.
Moto2. watch Moto2.
When Rossi was dominating like this in the past, was it at least a bit more entertaining? Watching MM prey on the Yamaha only made it semi-entertaining until he passed and then it was over in about 2 turns.
I’m only bummed my DVR didn’t record BeIN Sport this weekend. The SBK races sounded a bit more interesting.
Lots of people have their heroes. If Rossi’s at the top of someone’s list then having him out in front most races is fine by them. If it’s someone else, or a team they don’t particularly care for, then the racing’s a drag.
Good point. Is MM anyone’s hero? Rossi was absolutely dripping with charisma, JL at least tries to be entertaining when dominating and Stoner was just a beauty to watch ride. But Marquez? He just comes across as… I don’t know. Fill in the blank for yourself but I’m not getting a lot of positive personality with the kid.
I wouldn’t go as far to say he’s my hero, but I can say from my experience with him at Laguna that he’s a nice guy to approach on the paddock. When I read about the legions in Argentina that wouldn’t leave him alone, I thought it was pretty cool to approach him on his scooter or on his way to the garage and he stops for everyone for pictures and signatures. A really good personality.
What I expect will make him a hero is how he rides. He got a terrible start and knifed through the pack and up to Lorenzo with a confidence that doesn’t appear in any other rider today.
I have to wonder if Stoner thinks about coming back when he sees this kid ride?
Anyone that attains a ride in MotoGP is a hero in my book. All these guys have serious talent riding a motorcycle. If you can watch the pack go into the first turn alone with out being in awe, much less the slides and passes and overtakes and out-brakes, you are watching the wrong sport.
🙂
Some friends and I have been debating this after the race and would like some community feedback: why is MM just that much faster?
Is it technique, is it bike, is it something else?
I mean Lorenzo, Pedro, Rossi etc, are no slouches, they’ve won plenty of championships & are extremely fast; so HOW is MM just that much faster on new track or on old tracks?
It is the combination. Marquez is faster than everyone, and he is on the best bike.
re: “he is on the best bike.”
full stop. $5 million give or take. show me someone who thinks other…? and i’ll show you someone desperate to believe in Superman.
Is his bike faster than Pedrosas?
Pedrosa had the fastest Lap during the race, so their bikes are the same spec just set up to suit the individual rider. MM riding style is different, to JLo and Pedrosa’s. MM has a more agresive riding style (a bit like Stoner) and slides the bike more than the others prob due to his dirt track expereince.
It is possible we are witnessing the birth of the next Rossi. Sheer natural talent.
“It is possible we are witnessing the birth of the next Rossi. Sheer natural talent. ”
The last time anyone TQ’d and won three races consecutively was 43 years ago. Still, there have been things about Rossi that will be extremely difficult to replicate/top.
Rossi won on 500’s as well as 990’s (can’t do that anymore..)
Rossi won 9 (!) titles.
Rossi left the dominant Honda and became dominant on the Yamaha (I don’t see Marquez trying that trick..)
I think Eddie Lawson did the switching bikes trick in golden years of the 2T 500s and it was mighty impressinve then – as was Rossis switch many years later.
The only bike out there that can consistently hang with MM’s once the flag drops is Pedroza’s, and Marc is clearly faster than Dani. He’s more aggressive and mentally stronger, too.
He simply needs to be faster than his teammate, and he is. That’s it, in a nutshell.
He is also being fueled by youth, desire, enthusiasm and success.
As young as Dani is, he should still be fueled by all those same things. He simply has never exhibited the kind of coming-in-second-is-not-an-option fire of so many of the true greats. Marquez clearly possesses this trait, in spades. Like Wayne Rainey, Mick Doohan, Kevin Schwantz, or even Matt Mladin in the AMA series, Marquez burns with the desire to dominate every practice session, every qualifying round, and definitely every race. Dani is too easily contented with deferring to left-brain pragmatism. MM is pure right-brain passion.
The one thing that has also been squarely in MM’s corner is ungodly good fortune. He easily could have received numerous championship-killing injuries as a result of his myriad tumbles, and he barely ever suffered worse than a scratch.
Hey, often times dumb luck favors the brave.
Oh I agree, Dani is a superbly talented motorcycle racer only lacking killer instinct. He has had an illustrious career as a GP motorcycle racer for the last 13 years, but unless young MM wads it up, I’m afraid Dani will never wear the MotoGP crown. Shame. He deserves it. For non believers Google him and read the Wikipedia report. He has topped some of the all time greats in just about every category…except the most important one.
Re: “He simply has never exhibited the kind of coming-in-second-is-not-an-option fire of so many of the true greats. ”
I think “Coming back to the pits on foot” is not an option in today’s Moto GP. Dani has a VERY high success rate for podium finishes and is worth whatever Honda is paying him. He’s just had the misfortune that there’s always been another more talented rider in the field, a sting he’s feeling just a little more than the other dozen guys sharing the same fate.
I don’t agree. Of course, it is impossible to know. No one can get in his head. But I’ve seen plenty of inspired rides from Pedrosa … and a few resulting crashes. IMHO, he simply is not as fast as Marquez. No one is.
I think it is the combo of rider and bike. To me, he and Lorenzo are on a different level than the others, and the Honda is clearly faster and easier on the tires than the Yamaha this season. I just wish we could see the two of them go head to head on the same bike, be it the Honda or the Yamaha, and then we would have a very interesting racing series.
Pedrosa is a top rider, on essentially the same bike, and he’s not even getting a sniff of Marquez. Yamaha has traditionally worked their magic with handling and Honda with horsepower, but this season Honda also seems to have the better handling bike.
Rossi has changed his position on the bike as a direct result of Marquez’ speed. What Rossi has done is lean off the bike more than he has ever done in his career. This is because Marquez can carry more corner speed than anyone else. Marquez gets his elbow down so frequently because he is further off the center of the bike than his competitors, and can keep the tires from rolling off their edges at higher speeds than the competition.
You can read Sunday’s race a number of ways. I’m really pleased to see Lorenzo shrug off the mental problems and ride a good, clean race.
It is just a feeling but I think Yamaha is really struggling with the lower fuel allotment. They seem to be in conservation mode in the later part of a race. A few laps of really good dicing and the Yamies seem to drop off. I could be wrong, it might be tires or something else. It looked like Marc and Dani were just waiting for the Yamahas to slowdown before they smoked past.
Regardless of who it is, normal service has returned to MotoGP. One bike/ rider is dominant and everybody else is trying to get a good finish behind them. F1 is, again, making MotoGP look like a sleep aid.
Goose
Pedro had the speed to beat Marquez – too bad he got caught up in the 3 lap Nascar race at the beginning – enjoyed watching that.
Hopefully Pedro can give Marquez a run this year…..
re: “Hopefully Pedro can give Marquez a run this year”
unfortunately, that’s no longer in his job description. his billet’s been downgraded to “defender 6”, to “wingman”.
Ps: it’s good work if you can find it…?
He’s the last guy I’d want being my wingman. Just ask Nicky Hayden about that. He crashes Hayden out and nearly costs him a championship, then Honda rewards him by tailoring the new bike to his smaller body, and leaves their defending champ (Hayden) out in the cold.
Geez some people will just never let this go. A racing incident in Pedrosa’s rookie year which had no bearing on the outcome of the season whatsoever, 8 years ago. Let it go, already.
Honda signed Pedrosa and designing a bike around him because because he had more potential in the future than Hayden. Any business/ corporation would have done the same thing given the circumstances. His payback to Honda has been to keep a ton of points out of Yamaha’s hands. All one has to do is take a unbiased look at the statistics.
How many championships does Pedrosa have? If not for his reckless riding style (the same thing that nearly cost his teammate the title) he may have won a couple. He’s calmed down some, but now more talented riders have overtaken him.
Excuse me for thinking Honda should have given their defending champ a shot at a repeat. Honda took a big gamble on Pedrosa and it didn’t pan out.
Tim, sorry you hate the man so much, it must be tough for you to see him on the podium every race, or at least nearly every race (I think he has been on the podium in about 85% of the races he has been in). Dani has 3 World Championships but none in MotoGP (the first thing the Pedrosa haters love to bring up). Dani is hardly a reckless rider. Marquez is a reckless rider, Simonchelli was a reckless rider. Reckless is often another term for aggressive. I wish Dani were more aggressive, more reckless if you will. BTW Dani was put out of the championship last year by being rammed by his own Honda team mate Marquez, receiving a broken collarbone in the process.
In 2006 Dani was 21 years old (same age as Marquez is now)was the multi-time 250cc World Champion (and single time 125 World Champion) who had just moved into MotoGP. It was his rookie year. Still he had won 2 races against the best in the world on the big bikes (same number as won by Hayden that season btw)and was trying to win for his new sponsor. He did not purposely take out Hayden, he wasn’t trying to sabotage Hayden, it was a racing incident,the same type of incident which takes out riders every single race. Cram a dozen type A personality athletes on 250 HP machines in one corner and things are bound to go south sometimes. It’s RACING. The incident also took himself out of the race. Do you think that’s what he wanted? He was rookie of the year that year beating out Stoner. In 13 seasons he has only finished worse than 3rd three times, his rookie 125 season (8th), his rookie MotoGP season (5th) and in 2011 (4th).
You don’t have to be excused for thinking Honda should have given Hayden another shot, but that was not the decision Honda made. Blame Honda, don’t blame Pedrosa.
Excellent post.
While I agree that Honda royally and inexplicably screwed Nicky—their move was literally without precedent—by demoting a defending MotoGP champion to afterthought-status within his own team, the blame for that decision clearly lies with HRC and Repsol, not with Pedroza.
Okay, it was mainly Alberto Puig and Repsol. Nicky’s problem was his passport. Were Nicky Spanish rather than American, I don’t think an objective person can harbor any doubt that the Repsol Honda team would have given their defending champion the full #1 rider treatment in 2007.
Actually Nicky raced for Honda in 2007 and 2008.
In 2007 in defense of his title while on a factory Honda he had 1 pole and 3 podiums no wins, placing 8 th in the championship. Pedrosa also riding for Honda had 5 poles, 8 podiums and 2 wins finishing 2 nd in the championship
In 2008 Hayden riding for Honda had no poles, no wins 2 podiums finishing 6 th in the championship, while Pedrosa had 2 wins, 11 podiums and 2 poles finishing 3 rd in the championship
While its true the Hondas in 2007 and 2008 suited P edrosa more than Hayden is true, that was not Pedrosas fault. The factories were forced to downsize the motors. The smaller machines with less horsepower needed to carry more cornering speed than the 1000s, and that suited the riding style more of Pedrosa who was coming off successfully winning two 250 cc World Championships on bikes that required carrying lots of corner speed, rather than the square it off and shoot it forward style that was Haydens preferred riding style. The bikes also suited Pedrosas body size better, than Haydens.
Given their records over the 2007 and 2008 seasons, and by the rules Honda was forced to live by with the smaller less powerful motors, Honda made the proper choice of giving the ride to Pedrosa.
It had nothing to do with Nationality, and the constant rumor that Hayden was not allowed to defend his title with Honda is just false. He did. Hayden just defended it poorly.
I’m well aware that Nicky continued to race for Honda in ’07 and ’08. The thing you’re failing to acknowledge is that HRC essentially demoted Nicky to support rider-status in ’07, focusing the bike’s development and even its physical dimensions on the smurfy Spaniard. Any other defending champion would have seen that same development centered around his needs, not his teammate’s. Nicky straight-up outperformed Dani in ’06, so there was no reason for Honda to pull the unprecedented move of promoting an unproven teammate above the defending champ.
And if you think this wasn’t the direct result of Repsol’s preference for their Spanish poster boy, well, I know you know better than that.
VLJ, like I said somewhere..MotoGP was changing and going to the 800’s. The 800s had less horsepower than the 1000’s and required to carry more cornering speed to get around the track faster. You had one rider whose style was to square the corner and shoot down the following straight, and another rider, fresh off winning two World Championships on 250s which required faster cornering speeds. Moving forward in MotoGP meant having a rider whose riding style matched that of the bike, not the other way around.
In testing in 2007 on the 800, Nicky requested that they turn off most of the electronic aids because they did not fit his style of riding. Another problem for Honda. Electronics were going to be a big part of the future.How can you have a factory rider that wants them disabled?
To start the 2008 season Honda gave the first and only pneumatic valve engined bike to Nicky, not to Pedrosa. Hardly support rider treatment.
They gave Nicky a shot.
Not an equal shot, however. And the 800/smaller size argument doesn’t fly. Valentino Rossi is taller than Nicky, and he won a championship on the 800. Despite Honda’s best efforts to cater to his every whim, Dani never did.
You stick with your champion. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it remains to this day. You ride that horse until he proves he can’t win anymore. Nicky wasn’t given that opportunity, alone among defending Moto GP champions.
Re: “smaller less powerful motors,”
Until returning to 1000cc, all of the highest trap speed records in MotoGP were held by 800cc bikes. They were ultimately faster than the 990’s they replaced.
“Valentino Rossi is taller than Nicky, and he won a championship on the 800”.
He says completely ignoring the riding style argument, or the electronics point,(or the fact that he just didn’t produce in 2007 or 2008…. or the fact that Nicky did not exactly have a dominating year the year he won the Championship..2 wins is not exactly dominating)
When you are spending YOUR multi millions it would be interesting to see what your choices would be. Corporations have to make decisions, sometimes tough ones, because their bottom line is on the line. Honda is Japanese, they don’t view this the same way American fans view it.
It’s easy for you to say Honda would have been better off with Nicky as their number one rider, it’s impossible for me to make that same claim, and apparently Honda felt they would be better off in the direction they went, or they wouldn’t have gone that way.
Honda doesn’t care if someone is American or Spanish or Italian or British or Australian, or any other nationality… they want to win, and they will sign the person they think is most likely to do that for them (even if it ends up they don’t).
Pedros contract is up this year. Will be interesting to see if Honda keeps him, or if he goes to Suzuki like has been rumored.
BTW Kenny Roberts Jr is credited with having the worst title defense in MotoGP, He won the title in 2000, then in his defending year 2001, he had no poles, no wins and I think 1 podium. At least Nicky had 1 pole and 3 podiums in 2007.
Honda may not care as to rider nationalities, but their primary corporate sponsor, Spanish oil giant Repsol, certainly cares. Or did you miss the little trick they pulled to change the rules so that their next favored Spanish son, Mark Marquez, could bypass the “rookie rule”? And, as you said, it’s all about the corporate bottom line. That being the case, the Spanish company stepped in and, in a move wholly without precedent in world championship motorcycle racing, demoted a defending champion in favor of the very teammate he’d just beaten.
This simply does not happen if Nicky is Spanish and Dani is American. Not a chance in hell. None. Zero.
How then do you explain Stoner’s stint with Honda? He’s Australian..not Spanish?
How does the Stoner/Pedroza situation compare in any way to Nicky/Pedroza? Dani wasn’t the defending champion when Stoner, a recent Moto GP champion, arrived. By the time Stoner donned Repsol Honda leathers it was clear that Dani wasn’t on his level. Conversely, when Dani was made the #1 Repsol rider in ’07, he hadn’t proven anything yet. Meanwhile, Nicky was the defending world champion, riding for the same team.
Apples and asparagus.
nevermind, I’m done. Thanks for the exchange
No, sorry. Pedrosa had a good day but he did not have the speed to beat Marquez. No one does.
What makes you think that Dani had the speed to beat Marc? You do realize that Marc was just cruising around and could have gone quite a bit quicker if there had been any pressure put on him.
Doubt Marquez was cruising around or could have gone much faster..he does have a special talent fueled by desire
Pedro set the fastest lap time of the race. He’s still awfully fast.
Rossi had flashes of old Rossi and flashes of the new Rossi which of late has been good for 4 th.
Granted ‘cruising around’ was very much an over simplification by me. There was no reason for Marc to win by 10+ seconds. He had everyone covered all weekend long. And by 1 second in some of the sessions. He could have passed Lorenzo any time he wanted and pulled away. Once past Jorge, he pulled away without much difficulty settling on a 2.5 second or so lead. Dani didn’t really make up much of that gap once he too got past Jorge.
Dani is fast. Marc is faster. Marc had nothing to gain by setting fast lap.
I agree that Rossi looked pretty good. I wonder where he could have finished if he hadn’t made a couple of mistakes and if Bradl hadn’t pushed him wide.
Actually, Chris is right. Marquez was basically on cruise control for the past two races. In fact, that was so much the case in Austin, he had a mental lapse in the last corner and nearly through it away. In Argentina he came from about seventh, passed everyone (easily) and then put it on cruise control again. Pedrosa closed on him at the end simply because Marquez allowed it.
* threw.
In Argentina Marquez came back from 6th, Pedrosa came back from 7th place, to finish 1st and second respectively. Nobody was cruising, they were pushing it for all they were worth. Pedrosa didn’t have enough laps left to overcome Marquez at the end (even if he could have)and Lorenzo said he was tired and after the two Honda riders passed him he decided to settle for third.
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Would have loved to see what Rossi could have done had Bradl not screwed up and ridden him off the track. Rossi had the consistent pace to race with Lorenzo and, probably, Pedroza. Coming from so far back, obviously he wasn’t going to catch Marquez.
This has been a constant theme with Rossi for a few seasons now, though. His decent-but-not-front-row qualifying positions keep landing him in hot water once the early-race carnage ensues. He needs to be among the leaders with clear track ahead right from the start if he’s to hang with Marquez and the others.
Rossi made plenty of mistakes all on his own, to to blame Bradl for his final position shows selective memory.
Despite Rossi’s mistakes he remained in solid position for a podium. He was clearly faster than the group with which he was contending. Once Bradl punted him off track, however, the gap to third grew too large to claw it all back.
So his own mistakes add up to zero seconds lost, whilst the Bradl incident cost him the podium? Like I said, selective. Rossi is keen to attribute blame, but it’s a pass he would have went for ten times out of ten.
No, his own mistakes didn’t add up to zero seconds lost, but he’d already made up those lost seconds. He was firmly back in contention. Once Bradly screwed up—and yes, Bradl made a clear error that forced Rossi off the track—Rossi was hopelessly out of contention.
In Austin, it was just Pedrosa and Marquez out in front the whole time with no one to bother them, and Marquez increased the distance between them with each lap.
You know what really amazes me about Marquez is he never says anything about braking problems, tire wear, choosing the wrong tire, electronics problems, chatter, nothing, while most if not all the other riders are complaining about this ill or that ill befalling them. The kid complains about nothing, he just goes out there and rides the bike. Very well I might add.
Could be because Marquez has nothing to complain about. Guys at this level have a hard time accepting the possibility that they could be the main reason they are not winning. If they aren’t braking as hard as Marquez, they have a braking problem. If they are eating tires trying to keep up with him, they have a tire problem. Everyone of those guys out there probably believes 100% that they could beat Marquez if they only had a Respol Honda designed for them. If they believed otherwise, they wouldn’t have made it to MotoGP. If Marquez starts losing, perhaps he’ll start complaining.
Good point Jeremy
To start the 2008 season Honda gave the first and only pneumatic valve engined bike to Nicky, not to Pedrosa. Hardly support rider treatment.
That was supposed to be a reply to VLJ above
The Doctor is still in
The Doctor is out…
The Dr. finished right behind his teammate Lorenzo and for a time was fighting for the lead………..before Marquez pulled the plug. 8^ 0
re: “The Doctor is out…”
…yet is the only Yamaha rider (out of 6) who’s legitimately IN striking distance.
Too bad Crutchlow isn’t still on a Yamaha……….
Yes for race fans, but not for Cal. Till proven otherwise we must presume Cal left Yamaha for “greener” pastures with Ducati.
In Race 1 Rossi finished .3 S (IIRC) behind winner Marquez. If Rossi had pressed harder I suspect Marquez had spark to overcome whatever he encountered.
Once I raced someone known for speed and daring on a faster bike (street-legal Yamaha 500cc 2-stroke GP). I just happened to be familiar with the course and practiced it earlier that day. After passing him so fast I surprised even myself, I slowed to let him poke a wheel up, after which I applied full after burn and disappeared. It was no contest but I briefly made it seem like one. It was mean and I regret it.