Enea Bastianini (Ducati) re-took the MotoGP championship points lead with a win at COTA earlier today (his second of the year). Bastianini overtook Jack Miller (Ducati) with just a few laps remaining and pulled away while Miller finished third after being passed by Alex Rins (Suzuki).
Former champ Marc Marquez (Honda), who has dominated at this track in the past, had a horrible start and had to work his way up from the back of the pack to finish an impressive 6th at the checkered flag.
The series will next race at Portimao in two weeks time. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
True drama during the race with Marc blowing the start and his claw back to 6th. He mentions post race that the Honda was throwing codes at the start and then throughout the race. Apparently the Honda’s performance was not impacted as the bike entered turn 1 as it was still throwing alerts but was rideable. Marquez’s typical riding style returned, as he almost took out a few riders here and there. It was no shock to see Miller getting passed by Enea late in the race. I was hoping Jack would pull a gap and find an answer to his late race tire woes. When he was passed by Rin’s and had no answer it was a bit crushing. Still you got to love the guys bravado and popularity. Suzuki has the formula for saving tires which is probably due to being down on raw bhp, which makes them great at the end of races and able to keep a pace while others are dropping off. If they could get a bit more power out of the engine for qualifying and holding onto the draft of the Ducati’s they would be serious contenders. Hats off to Fabio for riding the wheels off his M1. There were no other Yamaha’s in the top 10. Next Yamaha rider was Andrea Dovizioso (remember him?) who was 23 seconds behind Quartararo.
I don’t think HP has much effect on tire life at this level. They’re all more powerful than the tires can manage, even with electronic aids. I recall Rossi struggling with tire wear and drive off of turns with the Yamaha while also being down on power at the time.
Bastaini and Rins/Suzuki have both been known for tire managment + late race speed. I thought Miller rode a fantastic race. His gambit was lead and drop the challengers and only two were able to reach him in the end so he was very close.
Are the Suzuki guys really solid riders? Or are they on really solid bikes? People talk about Ducati a lot. But those two Suzuki guys are never hard to find.
Funny how traditionally it was always about Honda and Yamaha. You would never know that by looking at the recent results.
It’s both, really. The bike has steadily improved and Rins seems to have cured himself of his somewhat frequent crashing of the past two years, too.
It’s a lot more fun to watch, now that we don’t already know who will win.
Both are correct. Mir was the 2020 World Champion an Rins often outrides him, but falls off more often than Mir. They are both very talented MotoGP pilots. The Suzuki’s are probably the best handling bikes on the track. Like everyone but the Ducati’s, they just need more motor. Suzuki relatively speaking is a small competitor in MotoGP with only 2 bikes and no satellite teams. For what they have invested they do really well.
livio suppo is the real deal also.
The Suzukis seem pretty good powerwise this year. They can hang on to a Ducati on the straights while tucked into the slipstream which wasn’t something they could do last year and something the Yamaha still can’t do. The Suzuki can still get passed by the Ducatis on a long straight, but they are close enough into the following turn that the game is still on. On some of the shorter straights in many of the European tracks, the Ducatis may actually need a slipstream to finish the pass on the Suzukis.
The Honda seems pretty close to the Ducati with respect to power.
As well, the Suzukis seem to have maintained their ability to manage tire consumption, despite the new power. A VERY neat trick!
“more motor” – and Suzuki did a better job at this than Yamaha. Down but not as ridiculously so. Yamaha is basically lost….
Yup – Rins and Mir are 2 and 4 in the championship with better bikes under them. Last year Mir was third on a slow machine, and won in 2020. Both these guys are very very good. I would like to see Mir win to quiet the “he won 2020 cuz” people. We’ll see, but he and Rins will be in the mix all year. The real wildcard is MM – if he starts winning consistently again, it is a whole different ball of wax.
Mir won 2020 cuz. I don’t think he quite has what it takes to win in 2022.
I can’t see him overcoming an in-form Quartararo or an end-of last season Bagnaia but neither of those guys have shown up this year. Mir could do it the way he did in 2020, by staying off the ground and consistently scoring high finishes and points. It’s a long season but that has to be his his path if he’s going to do it.
If things stay as they are, he’ll need some help from Rins, who seems to have figured out how to push hard without crashing this year.
An on point Fabio is a tough adversary for anyone on the grid, for sure. I would not put Rins’s chances as likely, but I can see Rins bringing the fight to Fabio. There will be some tracks in Europe that will still favor the Yamaha, but the Suzuki will potentially go well at those too and have a power advantage. Rins is faster than Mir, I think. He pushes more and crashes more historically, but he has the potential to alleviate that. He might have a bike this year that he can’t outride so easily. The problem for the Suzukis and Yamahas is that there are five very good riders on Ducatis mugging people during qualifying.
Marquez is still the wildcard I’m my mind. If he puts up a good show in Portugal and Jerez, things might get pretty interesting.
I don’t usually look forward to the race in Austin because COTA has a tendency to be a boring, processional race. Well what a treat this was.
Great rides by so many riders. Marquez coming from last place at turn 1 to 6th by the end of the race was impressive. Provolonga will be happy to see Marc kept his hubris in check and was satisfied with overtaking only 80% of the grid and didn’t continue the charge in an attempt to run down Bagnaia. I’m not sure if it was an electrical gremlin that botched Marc’s start or if he somehow accidentally engaged the the pitlane speed limiter as postulated by the commentators, but he most likely would have won that race by 10 seconds had he gotten off the line. Sucks for him, but a good treat for the viewers.
Rins was also spectacular in that race. I actually like his chances for the championship. He could be the dark horse this year.
Miller also ran a great race, and of course props to Enea who put on a masterclass performance.
Geezalou those Ducati’s are fast. Bastianini rode incredibly well, as did Miller and Rins.
Marquez looked like his vision and arm were not a problem, he didn’t bin himself or anyone else (although he came close once) but coming from 22nd in the first turn to 6th at the end was an astounding ride.
Poor Quatararo, what is wrong with Yamaha by not giving this guy more motor? Yamaha is going to probably lose him next year. Riding his brains out every weekend and it appears he doesn’t stand a chance unless it’s raining.
Rain, or it’s the right type of track, such as Jerez. It can’t be a horsepower track, with lots of long straights and hard braking zones. It needs to be a flowing track that places a premium on sustained cornering speeds.
There simply aren’t enough of those tracks on the calendar to make this feasible, especially when there are now eight Ducatis with which to contend, and the Suzukis and Aprilias are also significantly faster than the Yamaha.
I don’t think Yamaha can pay the guy enough to keep him. The other teams know how fast Fabio is, how competitive he is. They know he’s the difference maker. Those other teams are going to be willing to pay him as much as Yamaha will, while also giving him a better chance at winning.
I can’t see him still being a Yamaha rider next year. They had their chance this past offseason to give him a more competitive bike, and they chose to stand pat. Losing the title this year and Fabio next year is the price they’re going to pay for resting on their laurels.
The only place really to go is Ducati and there’s just one Ducati above him in the championship. While it’s not secret that the Yamaha is down on power, not all of his issues have been about power, either. He should improve from here and I think it’s unlikely that the Ducatis will get any stronger.
If they pay him enough and give concrete assurances that power will be competitive (in-person dyno pulls) then I could see him staying.
The Suzukis are passing the ducs on the straights – maybe they have more coming out of the turn, and a long straight would be tough – but the power is there. Also, there seems to be variation amongst the ducs in terms of top speed.
Yeah, Fabio clearly has something special, but he just doesn’t have a special bike this year. Yamaha’s pride might cost them a lot. At least there are a number of tracks in the Euro rounds that mitigate the disadvantage of the Yamaha. The problem is the Suzuki’s seem to rival the Yamaha for corner speed, probably best them in braking, and then can pass them on the straights. So Fabio might still be risking a lot on the brakes and the edge of the tire to podium. He has a hard job this year