Jack Miller (Ducati) took pole position earlier today during qualifying for tomorrow’s Misano MotoGP. Ducatis filled the front row with Enea Bastianini lining up second and Marco Bezzecchi third.
Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) actually qualified second quickest, but was moved to fifth on the grid due to a penalty assessed against him during practice. The other contenders for this year’s championship, including Fabio Quartaro (Yamaha) and Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) qualified eighth and ninth, respectively.
For full results of today’s qualifying, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site. Stay tuned for MD’s race report tomorrow.
Mick, quit pretending that you don’t watch every race, just as you always have done. You know full well why certain riders received penalties, placing them a few spots further back on the grid. You also know how much faster the current crop of bikes are than any previous iteration, as lap times don’t lie, so your sundial quips are pointless.
Bottom line, your “I don’t watch diesels, yet I know everything that happened every race weekend” act has grown stale. It’s well past time that you reinvent your online persona. If you want a new crusade about which to gripe, which you absolutely know you do, since it’s the manna upon which you subsist, focus on those things that truly do diminish the quality of the racing: the increasing proliferation of aero bits, and, especially, the overabundance of electronic rider aids.
“ the increasing proliferation of aero bits, and, especially, the overabundance of electronic rider aids.”
But those things have objectively improved the quality of racing. It’s closer than it’s ever been and faster than it’s ever been throughout it’s entire history. The racing has literally never been better.
No, the racing isn’t better, it’s just closer. Because less rider skill is required, and so many riders are riding the same dominant red bike, the field is bunching up more. Passing is becoming increasingly difficult, reducing the spectacle, the entertainment value. Getting a good launch is now less about skill and bravery and waiting until you see God before braking, and more about which manufacturer has come up with the best holeshot device. The same holds true regarding corner exits and acceleration. Who has the best anti-wheelie/squat device? Whose corner-by-corner engine mapping is programmed the best? Superiority in your aero package determines not only your top speed advantage but also braking advantages, while also making it more difficult to ride in groups and/or slipstream.
Having eight Ducati riders out there isn’t helping matters, especially when all eight have managed front-row starts this season, and the majority of them have garnered podiums. MotoGP is becoming a very expensive Italian club race, with the competitive equality between those superior bikes ensuring that most of the field is incapable of separation.
Simply put, the capabilities of the bikes represent too much of the equation now. The balance regarding the importance of rider skill vs bike superiority is now severely off kilter, and it’s making for a lot of relatively boring races.
All one needs to do is watch any Moto3 race, or most Moto2 races. Much closer racing, but it’s real racing, with pass after pass after pass. The outcomes are in doubt until the very end, all throughout the field. Compare this to the processional snooze that has become most MotoGP races, and the root cause of that stark difference is obvious. It’s the bikes. They’re removed too much of the rider skill and race craft from the equation.
Closer racing is better. That is not debatable. Passing is hard? When the racers and their equipment is this closely matched, you bet it’s hard! But it’s way harder when the guy behind is more than a second away from the guy in front. How can a race where the top-10 finish within 10-15 seconds of each other be “boring”?
“Simply put, the capabilities of the bikes represent too much of the equation now.”
That has almost always been the case. Now there are more bikes with the capability to deliver an able rider to the front than there has ever been. Rider skill has not been removed. There are now more excellent riders on capable machinery than there was before. If the bikes were easy to ride this fast there wouldn’t be so many crashes, would there?
Comparing Moto2 and Moto3 to MotoGP is like comparing College football vs. Pros. When everyone is good, exciting trick plays don’t work. I think you’re remembering MotoGP through rose colored glasses. Honda used to supply half of the grid and for a couple of decades there were never more than 3 riders who ever had a chance to win in a given year (because the bikes were so hard to ride?). The sport almost died over it. We don’t need to go back to that.
Maybe you could be reminded that through the qualifying format the weather can change.
Oh yeah, you haven’t watched GP in 20 years, when it was still an indoor sport. 😉
So three guys get better grid posotions than six other guys with faster qualifying times because weather.
That makes perfect four stroke sense. If it clouds up the sundial is harder to read and the primatives get nervous and have trouble understanding the results. Gotcha.
How is this going to work when they finally go to steam powered bikes and start using something more basic than a sundial to time with? When they get to yabba dabba doo balance bikes with rock wheel/tires this should really get interesting. Where on earth are they going to get a pterodactyl for the aerial shots?
By then I suppose the rubes paying the subscription will be sending them so much money that they’ll be able to hire a two stroke guy to build them a time machine.
What’s going on? Are they handing out penalties like condoms now? Marquez is going to have to rethink his return.
Look are the lineup. Everyone in the forth row qualified slower than everyone in the fifth and sixth row.
Strange things are afoot in Four Strokeistan. One would think that those primatives could at least read a stopwatch. Maybe they use a sundial. I don’t know. Maybe a sundial doesn’t have enough moving parts, so it scares them. Lord knows most of them can’t figure out a razor.
Whatever, these guys stopped making any sense twenty years ago. Off to the loony bin with the lot of them.