Thirty years ago, on April 3rd 1988, the FIM World Superbike Championship roared into life at the Donington Park circuit as Italian rider Davide Tordozzi, astride a Bimota machine, claimed the first ever race win in the series. As with the passing of time, manufacturers have come and gone – Bimota being much lamented – and the circuit has changed too. Then the Superbikes diced on the shorter 1.98 mile ‘national’ confuguration. When the lights go out at 13:15 BST on Saturday for race 1, the gladiators will be on the famous 2.5 mile grand prix layout.
Equally, the attitude of the spectators has changed. Where there was intrigue in 1988, there is now expectation in 2018 as Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) seeks to claim the record for number of race wins in the series, this weekend.
The reigning triple world champion arrives at his home round with a healthy 47-point lead at the top of the standings, following his stunning double last time out at Imola. With its mix of medium and high speed corners, and lack of long straights, Donington Park is a circuit which plays to the strengths of both Rea and his ZX-10RR machine. Having equaled the great Carl Fogarty with 59 race wins, there could be no more fitting venue than here for the record to be broken.
Standing in his way is his team-mate, Tom Sykes. The Yorkshireman has an imperious record around the east midlands track, having recorded a current total of 9 victories. Furthermore, Sykes has not finished outside of a podium position in any of the last 12 races to be held here. The British round of the 2018 season could not have arrived at a more needed time for the Kawasaki man. After the opening five rounds Sykes finds himself in third place in the standings, but a daunting 72 points adrift of Rea. Donington Park is Sykes’ fortress. Nobody can boast as strong a record around this place as he can. Be assured, he will going out all guns blazing to get back into the championship fight, this weekend.
Aruba.it Ducati will be desperate to bounce back after failing to win either of their home races last time out. Despite podium finishes for both Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri, the powers that be in the Ducati Corse department declared the Italian round a disaster, and arranged an ’emergency test’ at the Mugello circuit for the team last week. There is no doubt that the team are now at a crossroads in terms of the development of their machines. Ducati have not been shy of making it known that from 2019 they will field their new V4 Panigale model. As such, the question is now being asked up and down the paddock: how long will the team persist with the 1199 v-twin Panigale, or will they begin to focus their full attention on developing next year’s challenger? With Davies being the closest championship contender, sitting in second place on 162 points, the message from the top brass in Bologna could not be more clear – podiums are not good enough, we’re here to win.
One team who would be satisfied by scoring a podium finish or two this weekend would be the Pata-Yamaha outfit. Michael van der Mark will be desperate to make up for his error last time out at Imola, crashing out in race 2 when he was well set for a good points haul. The Dutch rider has enjoyed a solid start to the season, finding himself in sixth place in the championship with 113 points. Additionally he finds himself leading his team-mate, Alex Lowes (92 points). The Brit had a difficult weekend at Imola, losing a considerable amount of track time during Friday practice, due to a serious mechanical fault with his R1 machine. As a consequence, he was left scrapping across the two races for minor points. Donington is a circuit which the 27-year old has consistently gone well at throughout his British and World Superbike careers. This includes securing Pata-Yamaha’s first podium finish here last year. A repeat performance would relaunch the Lincolnshire man’s campaign.
The battle between the independent riders will be as fierce as always. Whilst it is now a given formality to expect the likes of Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati), Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing Kawasaki) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pucetti Kawasaki) to mix it with the established factory front runners, a new name was catapulted to our attention last time out: Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati Junior Team). Whilst his talent was clear during his time in the Superstock 1000 class last season, nobody expected the 22-year old from Rimini to adapt to life in Superbikes quite so quickly. Unlike the rest of the field, Rinaldi is only competing in the European rounds of the season – a decision made by Ducati to ease his transition into the top class. At Imola he became one of the youngest riders to ever lead a World Superbike race, to underline his potential.
As we’re at Donington this week, there are a number of British wildcard entrants competing this weekend. The most prolific of these being current British Superbike championship leader, Leon Haslam (Pucetti Kawasaki). Having stormed to a podium finish in race 1 last year at this venue, Haslam was always going to return. He also made an appearance a fortnight ago in Italy, manage to secure decent points in both races. At the track where he’s completed more laps than anyone can count, the home crowd will be expecting big things from their local hero. He has the talent and the bike to cause a big upset to the favourites. Joining him will be Mason Law (WD40-Kawasaki) and the young sensation Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki). For Ray, it is a big opportunity to draw the attention of the bosses of the world championship teams. Its no secret that he sees his long term career on the world stage – whether that be in Superbikes or Grand Prix racing. Having secured an emphatic brace of victories here back in April in BSB, he should be competitive from the start this weekend.
World Superbike Race 1: Saturday 26th May – 1315 BST
World Superbike Race 2: Sunday 27th May – 1300 BST
Drama arrived in the Moto2 class for the 2018 French Grand Prix even before the race had started: Xavi Vierge failed to make it out of pit lane before it closed due to a fuel pump problem. He had qualified second on the grid, but would now have to start from thirty-fifth and last.
But, either way, it was the pole sitter, Francesco Bagnaia who took the early lead, making a good start and taking a sweeping line through turn two to leave him out of range of his rivals when they got to turn three. Alex Marquez moved into second place off the start, as he looked to overcome Bagnaia for the first time in 2018.
From there, the pair moved clear of the pack. Many of the ingredients for a classic Moto2 duel were present: they were on equal bikes, with well-matched pace, there was the championship leader looking to further his dominance in the class and one of his rivals looking to take back precious points in the title chase. However, it never materialised. The gap fluctuated, Marquez stealing a tenth here, Bagnaia taking one or two back there, but ultimately Marquez was never able to get close enough to challenge the Italian for the victory, despite Bagnaia struggling with tyres towards the end. With two laps to go, Marquez backed the pace right off, dropped three seconds back and consolidated his second place, leaving Bagnaia free to take his third victory from the opening five races.
It has been a good opening to the season for Pecco, the three wins being enough to put him at the top of the championship by twenty-five points, one race win. But it seems that not many people expected it. There were many people offering sceptical views of Pramac Ducati’s pre-2018 signing of Bagnaia for the 2019 MotoGP season, but it is fair to say that the five-times Grand Prix winner has proven those doubts wrong in the first part of this season – now he just needs to continue like this, and he will be eager to especially in the immediate future, as Mugello is next up, his home race.
The second place of Alex Marquez helped to support the idea that he could be Bagnaia’s closest challenger for the championship this season. The Spaniard has finished in the top five in all but one race and probably would have won in Qatar had he not had the problem with the rear brake. He has been the most consistent rider, pace-wise this season, but is at the minute being let down in the standings by his crash in Jerez. However, things like this usually even themselves out during the season so, although he is thirty-one points back in the championship at the moment, there is still a long way to go for Marquez to make that ground back up. With the way his brother is going in MotoGP, should Alex take the intermediate class crown this year, it could be a full repeat of 2014 with the pair winning their respective championships.
Time is all that was ever going to stand between Joan Mir and most things in racing, and the same can be said for his first Moto2 podium, which he took with finesse and grace as he recovered from a bad start which he claims cost him a shot at the victory. It is easy to believe the reigning Moto3 World Champion in this, too, since he was able to match or better the pace of the leading pair once he got some clear track. The first podium is well deserved, and the first win cannot be too far away and his performances are only strengthening rumours of a move to MotoGP with HRC in 2019 to replace Dani Pedrosa.
Marcel Schrotter took his best finish of the season with an “under the radar” fourth position. But it was his teammate, Xavi Vierge, who took the honour for “ride of the day”, not just in Moto2, but across all three classes. He started thirty-fifth, but within just a couple of laps he was into the points, and well on his way to the top ten. A couple of massive, clean lunges up the inside at the turn 3-4 chicane later and he was deep into the top ten, chasing down Schrotter having just passed Miguel Oliveira. However, his charge was halted by worn tyres, no doubt stressed more than everyone else’s by the charge through the pack he had just conducted. He faced some more pressure from Oliveira’s tyre-friendly KTM at the end but he held on for fifth. The shame is, that he could have won had he started where he qualified.
Sixth place for Miguel Oliveira was not what he would have hoped for coming into the French Grand Prix weekend, but it did show a significant improvement from the previous year’s Le Mans result. It was also enough for Miguel to move into second in the championship, his consistency proving vital in the first part of this season, where the KTM has seemed to struggle compared to the end of last year. What is notable, on this front, is that both the KTM MotoGP and Moto3 bikes have shown significant improvement in the first portion of this season, and perhaps the resources required to make those gains in the lightweight and premier classes have taken away from the intermediate class effort from the Austrian marque. With that said, expect the KTM development train to stop at the Moto2 shed reasonably soon. Anyway, Mugello is next and Oliveira took his, and Portugal’s first Grand Prix win at the Italian track back in 2015 for Red Bull KTM Ajo, so maybe his championship fight back will start there.
If Marcel Schrotter’s ride to fourth place was “under the radar”, Romano Fenati’s seventh place was positively subterranean, made so by Mir’s podium. It’s a shame, really, but it looks like Fenati is finally starting to get on top of his rear tyre wear issues which have been a problem, as they so often are for Moto2 rookies, so far this season. It is a good way for him to go to his home Grand Prix.
Fabio Quartararo managed to take his best Moto2 result since Qatar 2017 with eighth place at his home GP. Whether this is a fluke, or he can build on it remains to be seen, but Fabio is still sitting in the hole dug out for him by his 2015 ankle-break in Misano and it would be nice to see him escape it.
Ninth place went to Brad Binder, who is still having a mysteriously difficult season so far. His race was hampered by Lorenzo Baldassarri’s crash, which he and teammate Oliveira both had to go wide at turn four to miss. But whilst Oliveira recovered to sixth, Binder didn’t, and in the end finished six seconds behind his teammate.
1.8 seconds behind Binder was Stefano Manzi, who had by far his best result since Silverstone last year with tenth place. It was a surprise because Manzi hadn’t looked to be getting on with the Suter at all, but this race might just give him the confidence he needs to push on and aim for bigger and better things.
Hector Barbera took his best Moto2 result with eleventh place, ahead of Andrea Locatelli who did the same as Barbera – encouraging progress for Loka. Sam Lowes was a disappointment as he finished thirteenth, and he will look to get back on track in Mugello, a track he adores. Simone Corsi finished fourteenth and Khairul Idham Pawi, somewhat surprisingly but also promisingly, rounded out the points.
16th place went to Bo Bendsneyder who also got a time penalty, without which he still wouldn’t have finished in the points. Steven Odendaal was seventeenth, ahead of the remounted Mattia Pasini who crashed at Garage Vert early on but continued to eighteenth (a frustrating throwback to the beginning of last year from Paso). Joe Roberts and Jules Danilo, in his home race, rounded out the top twenty.
Twenty first went to the second disappointing British rider of the weekend; Danny Kent, who finished 2.3 seconds ahead of Moto2 new-boy and Finnish Supersport (kind of) superstar, Niki Tuuli. Lukas Tulovic, still replacing Domi Aegerter, was twenty third, ahead of wildcard Corentin Perolari, Tetsuta Nagashima, Xavi Cardelus and the twenty seventh and the final rider to take the chequered flag; Cedric Tangre.
Federico Fuligni, Hector Garzo, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Iker Lecuona, Jorge Navarro, Eric Granado and Isaac Vinales were the retirements. Luca Marini also retired for pain in his shoulder. He was never planning to race, but completed two laps so that he could get use six-place grid penalty from Jerez so that it wouldn’t have to be applied in Mugello.
A fairly dull French Grand Prix resulted in the confirmation of what we already knew: Bagnaia is the strongest, Marquez is just a little bit away, Oliveira is waiting and Mir is scarily fast. Mugello awaits, and after only Italian winners in the intermediate class so far in 2018, you would be hard pressed to find someone betting against a tricolore being hoisted above the top step of the Moto2 Italian Grand Prix rostrum in less than two weeks’ time.
In 2016, Dorna’s vision was realised, where unified ECU software regulations were implemented in the MotoGP World Championship. The regulations had the desired effect, closing up the pack and making the field more competitive than ever before. The last two seasons, 2016 and 2017, have been incredible. Ten different race winners in 2016, followed by a final round championship decider in 2017 spoiled us MotoGP fans, but this year we are paying the price.
Marc Marquez on the 2015 Honda RC213V at Valencia. Image courtesy of hondanews.eu
But that is not anyone’s fault. Whilst Marc Marquez won the last two World Championships, he did not dominate them – at least not in terms of pace. There was no big speed or pace advantage that the Spaniard enjoyed for most of the season, like 2014 for example. But, in 2018, that has changed, because for the first time since that ridiculous 2014 season, Honda have built a motorcycle that does not have a major disadvantage. In fact, it is possible to say that, this season, the Honda is the best bike on the grid. Since 2015, the RC213V struggled with acceleration, initially because the engine was purely too aggressive, but then, when the unified software was introduced, it was marrying that motor with the Magneti Marelli ECU which proved the downfall of HRC. A big change came for 2017, though, when Honda switched from a ‘screamer’ to a ‘big bang’ engine, moving in line with the rest of the grid. The comparative smoothness of the big bang compared to the old screamer engine, which Honda was able to use in the past because their in-house electronics system was so sophisticated, meant that it was much more controllable for the ECU, which negated much of their disadvantage in acceleration from the past two seasons, but it was still apparent. One year on, and the acceleration deficit has almost entirely disappeared. Aside from Austin, where Cal Crutchlow complained about acceleration, and Jerez when Dani Pedrosa had similar issues, ‘acceleration’ has not been a prominent word in the 2018 vocabulary of the factory Honda riders. That has led to one thing: Marc Marquez domination.
From the moment Qatar ended, it was clear that the Spaniard was going to be hard to beat this season, and his pace in Argentina and Texas was simply frightening. But the two continental American rounds were somewhat insignificant, because Marquez is always fast at those two circuits. But, Qatar remained a worrying event for the rest of the field; Marquez had not been on the podium in Qatar since he won back in 2014, so to be less than one tenth of a second off the victory was something of a warning shot from the reigning champion to his rivals. That was born out in Jerez, where he took a commanding victory at a circuit where, again he hadn’t won since 2014. Le Mans became something of a final hope for the championship, especially with the non-score of Andrea Dovizioso in Jerez. Le Mans was another circuit where Marquez had not won since 2014 – he had struggled a lot post 2015. It was the chance for his rivals to hit back.
Marc Marquez ahead of Valetino Rossi. MotoGP 2018: Round Five – Le Mans, France
However, from Friday it became clear that it would not be the same as the past for Marquez, finishing FP2 on Friday in second place, just 0.168 seconds of Andrea Dovizioso despite setting his fastest time of the session on the hard rear tyre. And, whilst Dovi showed promising long run pace in FP4 on Saturday, the pace of Marquez on the hard rear tyre in warm up on Sunday morning was worrying ahead of the race. But, as you might expect, with the hard rear tyre Marquez suffered with temperature in the early laps of the race, and dropped a few positions at the start. As soon as he passed Danilo Petrucci, though, for fifth place, he jumped straight onto the back of the leading trio of Jorge Lorenzo, Johann Zarco and Dovizioso. Dovi knew the score, and he moved past Zarco and Lorenzo quickly, but just as quickly, he folded the front at La Chapelle; Dovi just got in there, too hot trying to make as much of a gap as he could before Marquez got through Zarco and Lorenzo behind. Unfortunately for Dovi, it was too much and it has probably ended his championship chances. But Marquez quickly got through Zarco and Lorenzo, helped by a crash for the Frenchman[Zarco], but by this point Danilo Petrucci had caught the leaders with Valentino Rossi in tow. Petrux was soon past Lorenzo, partly because he was after Marquez but also because he wanted to put a little bit more of his authority on the second 2019 factory Ducati contract. Rossi moved through on Lorenzo too, a lap later, and still had his sights set on Petrucci, though he knew Marquez was too far. That was the end of the action at the front.
From there on, Marquez kept Petrucci at a safe distance, Petrucci managed the gap to Rossi until the Yamaha rider had a couple of bad laps which cost him some time, after which Petrucci let Marquez go completely to conserve his second place. But the most important, of course, was the win of Marquez. The race had a real 2014 feel to it, with an explosive start after which Marc had to recover, and then a dull second half where the highlight was a, now, relatively routine save for the number 93 at turn three. This is worrying. We have had three years where Marquez has either not won the championship, or not won it with ease but 2018 seems different. Now Honda have sorted out the RCV, the reigning champion is reminding us of the reality, and in devastating fashion.
Already thirty six points clear of Maverick Vinales, the championship fight is over. You could say that this is a negative perspective to have, but, be honest, can you see anyone being able to claw back the deficit they already have? Vinales is 36 points back, and he just finished seventh; Zarco is 37 back and on a satellite bike; Rossi is 38 points adrift but bad results await the Italian in the next races and Andrea Dovizioso, who was the main threat to Marquez coming into this season is already nearly two wins back in the standings. Now, you can say that good tracks are coming for Ducati, but even if Dovi wins many races in the remaining part of the year, realistically he is going to need Marc to make mistakes, and in races Marc does not make mistakes, generally. So, essentially, without a major anomaly, Marquez has the championship won.
The next question is: can anyone beat him in the remainder of the season? Maybe Danilo Petrucci could. He finished second yesterday, with an outstanding ride. It is debatable how much Marquez was pushing after he extended his lead, but nevertheless, Petrucci kept Marquez within reasonable range for the majority of the race, which, as was proved in Jerez and Austin, is not an easy task. Furthermore, Petrucci took the points neither Dovi nor Lorenzo could pick up for Ducati. When the pressure has been put on Danilo, when contract season has arrived, Petrux has turned up, and he is making it difficult for Ducati to let him go. Mugello is next, and it was third place for Petrucci last year and after this result, he will be full of confidence that he can take the top step this time round.
The third place of Rossi came as a surprise. He lucked into fifth two weeks ago in Jerez, and it was a similar case this weekend. However, unlike in Jerez, it was individual mistakes that gave Rossi the podium in Le Mans. It has to be said that he deserved the podium, the weekend had gone in a similar vein to Jerez, although not as extreme, for the Movistar Yamaha team. They were fast in the cool temperatures of the morning, but in the afternoon they struggled. This was highlighted on Saturday, when they were first and third in FP3 in the morning, but only managed eighth and ninth on the grid. Modifications made in warm up on Sunday morning proved a success for the number 46 and they gave him the grip and acceleration gains required to allow him to fight. But the problems for Yamaha are not over, not nearly, and Rossi was under no illusion about the struggles he and the Movistar Yamaha team are going to face in the next races, but he will hope the test in Barcelona this week will help them continue the progress.
Maverick Vinales will be hoping for progress, too, after his seventh place in Le Mans. He is second in the championship after the French Grand Prix, but nobody really knows how. The Spaniard has finished fifth, fifth, second, seventh and seventh, so his current standing is a surprise to everyone. The problem in Le Mans was the same as usual for Maverick: a poor qualifying followed by a poor start and average pace on a full tank limiting the damage he could do at the end of the race to nothing. The frustration is that at the end of the race he is always fast, he and his team just need to find a way to make him comfortable on a full fuel load, and that has to be their focus in Barcelona for the test. The fourth place of Jack Miller in France was the result of a stunning ride. He ended the race just six seconds behind Marquez, one second behind Rossi and, importantly, two positions and four seconds ahead of Lorenzo on the factory bike. As Petrucci, Miller is making it difficult for Ducati to turn him away from the factory seat for next year. Furthermore, Miller reckoned that with an extra lap or two he could have passed Rossi for the final podium spot. Unfortunately, Jack made a couple of mistakes and they ultimately cost him, but for sure he will be wishing the organisers did not shorten the race by one lap for this year. Dani Pedrosa took fifth place in France. He put a move on Jorge Lorenzo for that fifth position which was very similar to the one which he tried in Jerez, which resulted in him colliding with Lorenzo and high siding. This time it was more successful for the number 26, though, and he made the move as clean as you like. He will be hoping for improvements in the future, but right now Dani just needs to find some consistency after a disrupted start to the season.
Jorge Lorenzo, at Le Mans whilst leading the race. Image courtesy of Ducati
There was no positivity for Jorge Lorenzo, though. He started the race well, leading nine laps, but after he was passed, he collapsed, falling to sixth by the end of the race. Lorenzo blamed ergonomics of the Ducati GP18, saying that the fuel tank doesn’t offer him sufficient support in braking, which leaves him too tired by the end of the race. Being beaten by both Pramac rider won’t help his chances of staying in Ducati in 2019, but with his favourite track up next, Mugello, he could redeem himself at the Italian Grand Prix.
Cal Crutchlow MotoGP 2018: Round Five – Le Mans, France – Image courtesy of Hondapronews
Cal Crutchlow spent the night in hospital on Saturday after his high side in Q1 at Garage Vert. He had blood in his lungs, and several other internal injuries, but just six hours after he was discharged from hospital he was on the grid and he finished eighth, just two seconds from last year’s winner, Vinales. Before Mugello it will be important for Cal to recover, especially for a circuit which is so physical, with many changes of direction. Ninth place went to Aleix Espargaro, who will have just been happy to finish after such a difficult start to the season. It was a good finish, too, ahead of Alex Rins on the factory Suzuki who rounded out the top ten, and the finish was just as important for Alex as Aleix, as the number 42 had also only had one finish from the opening four races. The pair will hope that from now they can build some consistency into their seasons, although there is nothing to lose for either of them, as they both have contracts for next year to stay put in their respective teams.
Pol Espargaro. Image courtesy of Philip Platzer/KTM
Pol Espargaro took KTM’s best finish of the season in eleventh place, and the result showed the progress KTM have made since Le Mans last year, as their race time was 20 seconds faster than 12 months ago. Hafizh Syahrin took twelfth place as he returned to more regular form after a difficult Jerez where he suffered with injury. Thirteenth went to Franco Morbidelli, who was running
as high as ninth before his tyre let go. The final result is not what he will have been after, but the weekend shows continued progress for the reigning Moto2 World Champion. Bradley Smith and Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the points, and fifteenth will be a welcome result for Taka, after an injury sustained on Friday. Andrea Iannone’s slim Suzuki chances for 2019 perhaps went up in smoke on Sunday when he crashed at La Chapelle on lap one. The next lap Iannone was joined on the side lines on the next lap by Alvaro Bautista, who felt he had the potential for a top ten, and then Dovizioso two laps later. Zarco fell with 19 laps to go, and the final fallers came on lap ten when Scott Redding and Tito Rabat fell.
Marc Marquez. Image courtesy of Honda pro racing
A race which started with a stunning double overtake from Johann Zarco in turn three and turned into a fairly dull affair has potentially decided the championship. There are still fourteen races to go, but the worrying thing is that they could all follow the same path. The 2018 MotoGP field is perhaps the most competitive in years, but it is at risk of producing one of the most predictable seasons. Maybe something will change when the paddock arrives in the home of the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello in two weeks time.
Coming into MotoGP qualifying, there had been 67 crashes across all three classes over the course of the French Grand Prix weekend, and surely the number was only going to increase during the most high-pressured fifteen minutes of the weekend.
And indeed it did. Alvaro Bautista was the first to fall in Q1, followed by Karel Abraham and then a giant high side for Cal Crutchlow before Pol Espargaro crashed as well. In Q2, it was Aleix Espargaro who was the first and only who crashed at turn two. Well, he lost the front at turn one, let go of the bike at turn two, and the bike came to a halt on the outside of turn three. It could have been a lot worse for Aleix, but he returned to pit lane in time to get out on his second bike.
However, it could not have been much worse for Cal Crutchlow. He crashed in FP3, then again in FP4, before the monster high-side at Garage Vert on his final Q1 lap. He cracked the throttle, and the electronics did not save him, it almost looked a bit like Dani Pedrosa’s Aragon 2013 crash when he came out of turn 12 with, to his surprise, no traction control. Cal came crashing down on his back, on the right side, and was then collected by the bike too, for good measure. It had been a messy day for Cal upto that point anyway, and he had been quite animated on Friday at times, too, but it was difficult to foresee his day ending in that way. He went to hospital for check-ups, where it seems to have been discovered that he has suffered no broken bones, but heavy bruising has occurred. He did not go unconscious after the incident, which means that he could theoretically race tomorrow, and it is difficult to ever discount Cal Crutchlow from fighting to race. Either way, it could have been a lot worse for Cal, and it is good to know that his injuries are not too serious.
In fairness, it was a surprise to see Crutchlow in Q1 in the first place, after the start to the season he has had, winning in Argentina, and pole in Jerez being the highlights of an opening four rounds that got many people wondering (again) whether he would replace Dani Pedrosa in Repsol Honda.
But the Q1 session was very close, and it was to be expected: Dani Pedrosa, Alex Rins, Danilo Petrucci, as well as Crutchlow all being riders who had a decent shot at getting through to Q2. In the end it was Pedrosa and Petrucci.
So that left Q2, and it was a battle between Petrucci, Johann Zarco and Marc Marquez, it seemed, for pole. Finally, it was Zarco who took it, the home rider putting in a stunning 1’31.185 to take both pole and the outright Le Mans Bugatti Circuit lap record – the home hero in sublime form to delight the patriotic French crowd. Apparently, there was a “royal wedding” today in Britain, but I think the real prince of today has been Johann Zarco. I mean, he didn’t have to get the homeless scurried away for his moment of brilliance, and it is probably fair to say that he brought more joy to the crowd today in that one moment than any prince will in a lifetime. Today, Zarco was great, unstoppable, and it is difficult to imagine that he will be much different tomorrow, and in this moment I think it is important to point out what Johann Zarco is: different, and is he afraid to be different? No. He embraces his quirks, he is comfortable with them, and it shows in his performances. He is someone people should look to for inspiration and he should be celebrated for his quirky success – it’s his success because it’s success done his way, and that deserves a lot more celebration than two rich people getting married. I wish people like him got what they deserve.
Marc Marquez pipped to pole by Zarco. Image courtesy of RedBull content pool
People like him might include Marc Marquez, although he should be celebrated simply for being the best at what he does, and for being outstanding entertainment. Marc Marquez is the personification of why people like motorcycle racing, or motorsport in general, because you just do not know what will happen. Sometimes this is bad, sometimes it is remarkably great, but today it fell somewhere in the middle. He crashed in FP3, but as he has done on so many occasions, he just got back on, and rode round some more. Two corners after a crash, he has his elbow on the deck again – the man is truly biblical. But it was the second fastest time for the reigning World Champion today. It will be difficult to keep him there tomorrow, and that very sentence when spoken on the French GP weekend is a worrying thought for the rest of the season.
After making a step in FP4 and advancing to Q2 from Q1, Danilo Petrucci qualified as top Ducati in third place, making stronger his case to replace Jorge Lorenzo next season in the factory team. Can Petrucci win tomorrow? Maybe not, but he can make it very difficult for the people who can.
Andrea Iannone. Image courtesy of Suzuki racing
Andrea Iannone will start tomorrow’s race from the front of row two. He has out-paced his teammate, Alex Rins, at both of the previous two races, and has out-performed the Spaniard in France, too. He wants that second Suzuki seat for next season, and he is going about it in a good way – a third successive podium tomorrow would only help his chances.
The #04 Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso put in a late lap to move from tenth on the grid to fifth. It was an important lap for Dovi because he needs to win tomorrow to start taking points out of Marquez, if he wants to fight for the championship. Whilst the one lap pace for Dovi was not so fantastic, the race pace looks good, and he seems to be one of the few riders who has free reign when it comes to tyre selection; soft, medium, hard – on the rear they all work. It will be a question of temperature tomorrow for Dovizioso when it comes to tyre choice, but it looks like he will be able to fight for the win no matter what the situation.
It is the third GP18 of Jorge Lorenzo which will line up at the back of the second row tomorrow in sixth place. The Spaniard will be aiming to climb onto the podium, both to make up for what he missed in Jerez, and also to combat Petrucci and Iannone. Lorenzo could win tomorrow, but will he? Well, probably not. He may have the pace to stay with the leaders but Lorenzo’s silky smooth riding style and apparent inability to maintain a rhythm after he has been passed means it will be difficult for him to maintain the fight tomorrow, especially with a fired up home hero like Johann Zarco in the mix. Even if Lorenzo gets out front, there is little to stop the Frenchman sending a torpedo into the bow of Lorenzo’s Duc if it came down to a last lap scrap, and history would suggest that he would have little with which to respond.
Jack Miller goes off of seventh place tomorrow, as he impressed once more on the GP17 Ducati. The Aussie out-qualified both factory Yamaha riders, both of whom start alongside him on row three tomorrow.
Maverick Vinales is the lead of the two Movistar bikes in eighth. He has been quick all weekend but Yamaha’s newest weakness; qualifying, once more reared its softly-sprung head in today’s Q2. It seems that, when it gets hot, even if the M1 can keep hold of the tyres over a race distance, it cannot make one lap with good speed. Vinales complained in Thailand that the bike, this year, has become too smooth. This was somewhat backed up in Jerez when Valentino Rossi, who was ninth in quali, complained that the tyres on both the front and rear were too soft, which implies there is too much weight transfer going on for the tyres to handle. The smoothness, or potential over-softness, of the 2018 M1 is unhelpful for qualifying because it means that it is difficult for the rider to feel the grip of the new tyre underneath them, because still the bike is moving too much, and this is heightened by high temperatures and low-grip conditions. If the rider cannot feel the difference of a new tyre, then they cannot make the expected difference with a new tyre. This puts the pair in a difficult spot for tomorrow, as they seem to have good race pace, but a poor first lap could ruin that, and a poor first lap is entirely possible from the third row.
Dani Pedrosa will line up tenth tomorrow, but has struggled this weekend and so might find it difficult to make progress. Tito Rabat and Aleix Espargaro were 11th and 12th.
If Cal Crutchlow starts tomorrow he will line up 13th, ahead of Hafuzh Syahrin and Alex Rins, who needs a good race tomorrow and most importantly a finish, because he only has one of those so far this season. [Update Cal has been cleared to race].
Franco Morbidelli will start 16th, ahead of the KTMs of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro. It’s strange that, since Pol signed for KTM, Bradley has stepped up a lot. Either way, he will struggle to find a GP ride for next year, and World Superbike aren’t exactly struggling for Brits, or ex-Grand Prix riders. Smith is in a hole and the next races are going to be crucial if he is going to dig himself out of it.
Takaaki Nakagami will start nineteenth for LCR Honda, perhaps their only starter tomorrow, ahead of Alvaro Bautista and Tom Luthi who complete row seven. Row eight is comprised of the eternally damned qualifier, Scott Redding, Xavier Simeon and Karel Abraham.
Qualifying for the 2018 French Moto2 Grand Prix was decided fairly early on. Well, pole was, at least. Pecco Bagnaia, the championship leader, set the eventual pole time early on in the session to take his first ever Moto2 pole position ahead of tomorrow’s race, in which he will hope to take his fourth podium of the season, and third win from the opening five races.
Lorenzo Baldassarri . Image courtesy of Honda pro racing
But it will not be easy, with Xavi Vierge and going with him off the front row. Vierge is looking for his first Grand Prix win, and is fresh from pushing Bagnaia all the way in Jerez for the final podium position. Whilst for Baldassarri, he is coming from a dominant win in Spain, where he waltzed away from the pack to take his and Pons HP40’s first win since 2016. Balda does not have the same pace advantage as he has in Le Mans, but he proved there that he can hang on to a tyre extremely well, and that could prove important in what could be the hottest temperatures of the weekend.
Joan Mir was third for much of the session, before Baldassarri displaced him at the end. His pace in Jerez was masked by a stomach bug. It is not a difficult conclusion to arrive at that Mir could have fought for the podium in Spain had it not been for his illness, and this weekend he is proving that. Remember, also, that Mir ran away with the 2017 Moto3 race in Le Mans, so a first Moto2 podium, maybe victory, is definitely on the cards for tomorrow. Such a result would only strengthen rumours of a move to MotoGP with Honda next season.
Marcel Schrotter and Alex Marquez will join Mir on the second row, and tomorrow’s race will be crucial for Marquez, whose championship hopes took a blow in Jerez when he crashed out of podium contention. He will be hoping to make up for that tomorrow.
Sam Lowes was the top KTM rider in qualifying, despite a crash, attained seventh place, ahead of the factory KTM of Brad Binder and the Kalex of Simone Corsi who join him on the third row. KTMs in seventh and eighth suggests that they have not found solutions to the issues they faced in Le Mans last year, and tomorrow looks like it could be a bit of a struggle for them.
Even more so, with Miguel Oliveira in tenth. The Portuguese will need another strong comeback ride tomorrow if he is not to concede too much ground in the championship. Mattia Pasini, another disappointing qualifier, will start with Oliveira alongside Romano Fenati on row four.
Hector Barbera had his best qualifying of the season in thirteenth place, ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Navarro in fourteenth and fifteenth places respectively.
Andrea Locatelli, Joe Roberts and Khairul Idham Pawi make up row six; Isaac Vinales, Iker Lecuona and Bo Bendsneyder row seven; Tetsuta Nagashima, Stefano Manzi and the inured Luca Marini were 22nd, 23rd and 24th, but Marini’s 6-place grid drop for tomorrow for his crash with Navarro in Spain means he will start 30th.
That means Lukas Tulovic will start from the back of row eight, and Steven Odendaal will head up row nine from Hector Garzo and Jules Danilo. Federico Fuligni and the replacement for Zulfahmi Khairrudin, Niki Tuuli, will start alongside Marini on row ten.
Danny Kent will start 31st, ahead of wildcards Corentin Perolari and Xavi Cardelus on row eleven, whilst the final two places of the 35-bike grid will be taken by Eric Granado and Cedric Tangre.
Moto3 qualifying got underway in atypically warm conditions in Le Mans for the fourth round of the 2018 World Championship, but as had been the case across all three classes over the course of the weekend, it was crashes aplenty.
Avoiding falling was the rider who finally set pole position, Jorge Martin. The Spaniard is still carrying an injury this weekend, and perhaps not had the pace you might expect from him, but that did not stop him taking yet another pole position. With the way the first section of corners work at Le Mans, and with the number of Moto3 bikes entering them on lap one tomorrow, being on the front row is key to keep out of trouble, which is precisely what Martin will be hoping to do tomorrow considering his injury, and his championship ambitions – he can’t afford another DNF after Jerez.
It was a surprise in second place, with the Czech veteran, Jakub Kornfeil, setting the time fast enough for the middle spot in the front row. Row one was rounded out by the number 33 of Enea Bastianini, who had a monster high side in the early stages of the session at Musée, but got himself and the bike back in relatively good states, and his front row start tomorrow is just reward for his efforts. He will be hoping for his first win of 2018 tomorrow.
Marcos Ramirez built on his podium at home in Jerez two weeks ago to take fourth on the grid, and it looks like perhaps the Spaniard is beginning to return to form after his difficult start to the season. Fifth place on the grid tomorrow will be filled by Albert Arenas, who is sporting a Mike Wazowski helmet design on his HJC, who sponsor the French Grand Prix hence the one-off designs for their riders this weekend. Championship leader, Marco Bezzecchi, was another who crashed, but managed to recover to take sixth place, as he looks for his fourth successive podium in sunday’s race.
Row three will be headed up by Niccolo Antonelli, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio who has been tipped by his teammate Jorge Martin to be the Spaniard’s main challenger for the world title. Andrea Migno will be off the back of the third row.
Aron Canet set the tenth fastest time, but his part in the major crash at Jerez, combined with his incident with Makar Yurchenko, got him a back-of-the grid start for this race, so his qualifying position was irrelevant today.
So, it will be Lorenzo Dalla Porta who will stat tenth tomorrow, ahead of Philipp Oettl (also sporting a Mike Wazowski helmet) and Darryn Binder. Tony Arbolino will head up row five, in front of Tatsuki Suzuki and Nicolo Bulega, who seems to have made a step forward this weekend, building on progress which was apparently made at the private Aragon test last week.
Alonso Lopez – image courtesy of Honda Pro racing.
Kazuki Masaki, last year’s Red Bull Rookies Champion, will start sixteenth, ahead of Alonso Lopez and Makar Yurchenko; whilst Jaume Masia will front row seven in nineteenth, ahead of Livio Loi and Dennis Foggia. Gabriel Rodrigo will start 22nd, ahead of Nakarin Atiratphuvapat. John McPhee set the 25th fastest time (he had a crash at the end which cost him a chance at a final attempt), which would have been good enough for 24th after Canet’s penalty, but John himself got a penalty for causing the crash on lap one at Jerez two weeks ago, which took out three other riders. That 6-place penalty would have put him last, but Canet’s penalty means the Scot will start second-last, in 27th. With penalities added this means Ayumu Sasaki will start from the back of row eight in 24th. Kaito Toba will start 25th, Adam Norrodin 26th, and then finally the two penalised riders, McPhee and Canet.
Probably the biggest thing to watch durring the race will be the speed at which Canet can come through the pack. If he keeps it clean, considering the closeness of the times this weekend, it is not impossible for the Spaniard to make the podium.
The Moto3 World Championship rolls into Le Mans this weekend for round five of the 2018 season, off the back of a dramatic fourth round two weeks ago in Jerez, which saw a new winner in the shape of Philipp Oettl as well as a pileup courtesy of Aron Canet.
It was Oettl who stole the headlines, though; as his win brought him and his father, Peter, into the same group as Stefan and Helmut Bradl, Graziano and Valentino Rossi and more, as a father-son pairing to have both won a Grand Prix. It was clearly particularly special for Peter, whose celebrations after the race were quite spectacular and who has run the team for which Philipp rides since he began in the World Championship back in 2013. We saw Brad Binder claim his first Grand Prix win in Jerez back in 2016, and go on to win the championship in the same year, will we see the same for Oettl?
There are 28 points between the German and the new; and first time championship leader, who is also riding a KTM this season. That is Marco Bezzecchi, the latest surprise from the VR46 Riders Academy, and what a start to the season he has had. A fall in the first race when he was battling for the podium now seems a long time ago; since then he has won in Argentina, finished third in Texas and then second in Spain. In two out of four races this season he has been the top KTM (Argentina, Texas) and Oettl is the closest KTM rider to him in the championship. In many respects, Bezzecchi is this season what Francesco Bagnaia was to Mahindra back in 2016 – the only differences lie in Bez’s apparent ability to fight for this year’s Moto3 World Championship title, and the KTM’s allowance for him to do so, although there is little doubt that the KTM is disadvantaged compared to the Honda. But three podiums in the last three races show that, whilst the Bezzecchi-KTM partnership might not be the outright fastest one out there. It is, at the moment, the most consistent, and consistency wins championships: Alzamora in 125cc, 1998, Hayden in MotoGP, 2006, Vinales in Moto3, 2013, are all prime examples. The KTM has always been strong on the brakes, with good stability, and such a trait is a helpful one at Le Mans with many stop-start sections, so maybe this weekend Bezzecchi will be able to get onto the podium once more, and maybe Oettl can join him there.
Furthermore, the weather in Le Mans is, certainly, uncertain. Whilst the forecast has been showing, for the most part, a completely dry weekend with decent temperatures, is would not be unlike Le Mans to throw some rain into the equation this weekend, and we know from last year as well as Argentina that Bezzecchi excels in low-grip and rain conditions – maybe the French weather will present an opportunity for the Italian.
Jorge Martin at Le Mans 2017 . Image courtesy of Redbull Content pool
Jorge Martin comes into this weekend lying second in the championship, but also injured, after the aforementioned Canet-caused mayhem in Spain. It is a wrist injury for Martin, but he is hoping to be fit for this weekend, and really it would be a surprise if he was not able to compete, but there is always the chance that, like Leon Camier at Imola last weekend, he is unable. It was a crash for Martin in Le Mans last year, with six laps to go, and it was the same the year before when he crashed on the final lap. So, perhaps not a great circuit for Martin, and with the injury he is carrying, this weekend could present an opportunity for his championship rivals to make an advantage to the Spaniard.
One such rival could be the person who caused Jorge’s injury, Aron Canet, who lies fifteen points off the lead, in the World Championship and seven from Martin. Canet fought for the podium in 2016, his rookie year, but nearly took his teammate out in the penultimate corner, trying to pass for third. As it was, they both stayed on, but considering that, in combination with Argentina FP1 and Jerez two weeks ago, a reputation is building for Canet, and not one he would like. Hopefully, this weekend his speed will be the main talking point, not his potential danger to the rest of the field.
Canet did take a podium last year, though, although a long way behind the victor, Joan Mir. The other rider on the podium, in third place, was Fabio Di Giannantonio, who will be coming into this weekend looking to make up for the missed opportunity in Spain, where he had the pace to win the race all weekend, but was unable to use it on Sunday, and ended up down the order in seventh place after he was caught in the second group due to a mistake in Dry Sack in the mid-portion of the race.
Enea Bastianini has a crucial round this weekend, too, after a 50% crash rate in the first four races. Admittedly, his second DNF of the season was entirely not his fault, as he was caught up in the incident with Canet, but the crash in Qatar looks like it is really hurting the Italian at this moment, as he is thirty points away from the top spot in the standings. Even if he could not challenge Martin or Canet in Qatar, he would have taken sixteen points for sure, which would put him just fourteen points off at this point in the season. At the end of the year we always look at the ‘ifs and buts’, and this seems like a particularly popular one for people to speak about with respect to the Moto3 class in November. But there are many races to go, and perhaps this will be the one where “La Bestia” turns his season around.
After four rounds of the 2018 Moto2 World Championship, it is Francesco Bagnaia who is leading the standings. It has not been a perfect start to the number 42’s season, a ninth place in Argentina definitely proving something of a blot on the copy book at the moment, as well as providing reason to doubt his championship credentials. But two wins in Qatar and Texas, as well as a third-place last time out in Spain, have proven enough, so far to be able to land Pecco the top spot in the championship at this stage. Le Mans has proved fruitful for Bagnaia in the past too; he scored his second Moto2 podium there last year with a second place, just 1.7 seconds off winner and eventual champion Franco Morbidelli, and he took third place in the 2016 Moto3 race on the Mahindra behind the KTMs of Romano Fenati and Brad Binder. With that in mind, the championship leader could be tough to beat this weekend, but as ever in Moto2, and especially this weekend, there is no shortage of riders who will fancy their chances this weekend.
None fit that description more, perhaps, than Bagnaia’s flatmate, and fellow VR46 Academy rider, Lorenzo Baldassarri. The Pons HP40 rider won the last race at Jerez in convincing fashion, with superior pace across the whole weekend that he put to use in the race on Sunday to win by nearly three seconds. It was his second win of his career, and an important one, because he had been knocking on the door of a victory in the first two races, but struggled a bit more in Austin. The victory took him back to second in the championship standings, nine points behind Bagnaia – so the Italian is firmly in the hunt. But it has been two crashes in the last two years for Balda in Le Mans, and he will need to change that if he wants to remain in the championship fight which, this year, seems tighter than ever in the intermediate class.
Miguel Oliveira at Le Mans 2017 – Image courtesy of Redbull Content pool
Miguel Oliveira announced in Jerez that he will be moving to MotoGP in 2019 with the Tech3 KTM team – a smart move by all accounts. However, the announcement seemed to disrupt the Portuguese’s rhythm on Saturday in Spain, when he qualified fourteenth. Clearly frustrated by the poor result, he fought back viciously in the race, to come back to the top positions in five laps, and end up finishing a fairly comfortable second. However, Jerez proved that, at least in the case of Baldassarri and the Pons team, it is possible for the Kalex chassis to keep hold of the rear Dunlop just as well, if not better, than the KTM, and this was an area which was thought to be a particular strong point of the Austrian chassis. The loss of this advantage could prove pivotal in the title battle, and furthermore the Le Mans layout proved a difficult one for the KTMs last year: Ricky Cardus (who was replacing Brad Binder) finished thirteenth and Oliveira could only manage seventeenth. It is possible that the high grip surface (which was new for last year) disadvantaged the KTMs with their soft-on-tyres chassis, and if that is the case then this year it should not be as bad since the surface has lost a little bit of grip since last year. Either way, the KTM teams will have last year’s data to work with to solve any issues, which should help them if they encounter similar issues. If they struggle like last year, it could be a critical weekend for the Kalex riders to make an advantage to the likes of Oliveira and Binder.
Fifteen points separate Mattia Pasini from the top of the championship. The Italian veteran has a sniff at this title, and when Paso senses the door ajar, he requires no invitation to charge through it. Not only that, but Le Mans is the round before Mugello; Pasini’s home race and a special one for him. He will be looking to head to Mugello in good form, to hope to fight for the victory like last year.
Le Mans is one of Marini’s favourite circuits, and last year he scored his best ever qualifying position with fourth. He made a bad start, though, and was trying to come back through the field when he fell trying to pass Pasini at the first part of Les Esses Bleu. Last race in Jerez, Marini crashed into Jorge Navarro on lap one at Dry Sack, and as such he will start 6 places lower than his qualifying position this weekend. To add to the number 10’s woes, he has suffered a dislocated shoulder in the run up to this weekend, so it will be a tough one for the Italian, but he could spring a surprise.
The likes of Xavi Vierge, Alex Marquez and Joan Mir should all be competitive this weekend. Vierge was in the fight for the podium in Jerez but just ran out of time to launch an attack on Bagnaia at the end. Marquez, in Spain was the only rider who, over the course of the weekend could match Baldassarri’s pace, but a strange crash in the race prevented him from challenging for the podium. Joan Mir would likely to have been in that podium fight as well, if he was not feeling ill with a stomach bug. The Swiss Innovative Investors KTMs of Sam Lowes and Iker Lecuona could be there too, if the KTM has a better time of it this year in France than it did last. And with all of those considerations, it is fair to say the French Moto2 Grand Prix is shaping up to be an exciting affair, and perhaps we will see the first non-Italian intermediate class win of 2018.
Estoril 2010. That was the first time I saw Kenan Sofuoglu race, in the Portuguese Moto2 Grand Prix, as a wildcard. He rode a Suter, which then was quite a competitive chassis, and for much of the race he was leading by what you might call a ‘country mile’. He then ran into some problems with his brake lever, though, and finally finished fifth. But it was an alarming debut in Grand Prix racing by the, then, two-times World Supersport Champion. I remember watching the race, I was at my dad’s house, and I remember him telling me how Sofuoglu was a dominant rider in WSS, but I didn’t really know what that meant, I had never seen a Superbike race, let alone Supersport. It’s fair to say that I had two ideas about World Supersport when I tuned in for the Aragon round, in the middle of the 2012 season (yes, it took me that long). In my head, there was the option that Sofuoglu would be light-years ahead of the pack, or that everyone else would be as stunningly fast as Sofuoglu. As it went, there was a battle at the front in the early laps, and for me the race sort of ends at that point, I don’t remember much else, because of what happened at the end of the straight on lap eight. Sofuoglu was slipstreaming fellow Kawasaki rider, Fabien Foret, popped out of the slipstream and threw his body at the Frenchman in an aggressive manner which I had not seen before. It is this aggression which makes Kenan one of the most controversial figures in racing.
Immediately, my head is telling me to make the comparison with Marc Marquez, that both have proven themselves to be both absurdly fast, extremely successful and yet also potentially dangerous on the race track. I guess the comparison would be valid. Marquez proved in Argentina this year that with the correct circumstances he can be dangerous, as Kenan did in Aragon. But, in reality, they are not so similar at all. Marquez’ aggression comes purely from his ambition to win everything, every corner, every lap, every session, but Kenan’s aggression comes from his background, which gives him similar ambitions as Marc.
Kenan was not born into money, or a nation which has a strong support system for young motorcycle racing talent, like Spain. Kenan hails from Turkey, a country on the border of Europe and Asia, and the instability of its continental allegiance is born out in politics too – not so long ago the country’s government was the subject of a(n) (unsuccessful) military coup. Kenan had to make his mark in racing early on, one bad race and his career could be done – there was no second chance for him. As such, he forged his career from outstanding aggression, and the aggression that helped him to the World Supersport Championship crown in 2007 for Hannspree Ten Kate Honda stayed with him throughout his career, because he always had something to fight for. That 2007 title put him on an unparalleled level in Turkey, the kind of fame that David Beckham might be accustomed to in Britain. Sofuoglu was Turkey’s idol and he knew it, so did the government, who took a vested interest in Kenan’s career.
In 2008, Sofuoglu made the move up to World Superbike, but it was ill-fated, with a best position of ninth and a final championship standing of eighteenth. But it was not a winless season for the Turk, who made a wildcard appearance in the final race of the season in World Supersport where he was victorious.
A move back to World Supersport in 2009 followed, but he was beaten to the championship by Cal Crutchlow – it was third that year for Sofuoglu, with Eugene Laverty taking second in the championship.
But the three wins he took that year helped set him up for championship number two in 2010, when he continued in WSS and took another three wins to beat Laverty to the championship by eleven points. That was a remarkable year for Sofuoglu, as he did not finish off the podium all season, and had that aforementioned wildcard in Moto2 in Estoril, too. Of course, that set up the opportunity to move to Moto2 full time in 2011 – the hope being that the familiarity in engine characteristics compared to what he had been riding in WSS would help Kenan make a smooth transition, or at least smoother than his attempted move to WSBK. It did not work, though, as Kenan scored only 59 points and finished a lowly seventeenth in the standings.
Back to World Supersport, then, for 2012, where he had that controversial moment with Fabien Foret, as well as one in Magny-Cours with Dan Linfoot at the Adelaide hairpin, but still came out of the season with World Championship number three.
2013 would not be the same, though. Sam Lowes had left Bogdanka PTR Honda and joined Yakhnich Yamaha over the winter, and had been blisteringly fast in testing. Sofuoglu would take the first win of the season in Phillip Island, but the pair would battle strongly for the entire season. My biggest memory of that season is the battle they had in Turkey, visited for the sole reason that Kenan Sofuoglu would bring in the crowds. It was a stunning fight Lowes and Sofuoglu shared, and somewhat fittingly it was Sofuoglu who won his only ever home race in a World Championship. Looking back now, that victory was extremely important. It was not enough, though, for the championship – Lowes took that in Magny-Cours.
The next year, 2014, would be worse for Sofuoglu. The Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki he was riding had numerous issues throughout the year, most notably when Sofuoglu was leading convincingly at Imola on the 20th anniversary weekend of Ayrton Senna’s death at the same track. Sofuoglu retired and that allowed the Pata Honda of Lorenzo Zanetti to take the victory, sporting a Senna replica helmet design. Just one win and two other podiums that season were of course nowhere near enough for the number 54 to stop Michael van der Mark clinching the championship.
So, onto 2015, and after some successful rounds at the end of 2014 with Puccetti Kawasaki (Mahi went bust before the end of the 2014 season, which also didn’t help) Sofuoglu signed for the Italian team full-time for 2015, and fought against Jules Cluzel for the championship, and successfully so, in part thanks to the Frenchman’s crash at the Sito Pons corner at Jerez in free practice for the penultimate round of the season, which broke his leg, leaving him on the side lines for the rest of the season. But the biggest thing to take away from Sofuoglu’s 2015 season is his superhuman mental strength and emotional toughness, as he spent part of the season travelling back and forth between Turkey and the races as his newly-born son, Hamza, was in intensive care. Hamza sadly passed away in July of that year, but Kenan continued to race, in the memory of his son, and the title at the end of the season was precisely why – after what had happened to him and his family there was no way that Kenan was going to let 2015 go by without having something to dedicate to his son.
2016 saw a more dominant season from Kenan, at least on paper. There was no consistent challenger to the four-time World Champion. Cluzel was the only rider who could consistently match Kenan for pace round-to-round but Jules’ MV proved too unreliable for him to mount a serious challenge for the championship.
Without doubt the seasons after 2015 for Kenan were fuelled by the memory of his son, from which he took great strength – everything after that was for Hamza, and for that Kenan Sofuoglu deserves great respect. 2017 was no different. An injury in preseason saw Kenan miss Phillip Island and Thailand, coming back in Aragon – still injured but just about okay to ride. He wanted the championship still, that’s why he was back, but Federico Caricasulo (unintentionally) took him out at turn one in Aragon. The first race Kenan finished in 2017, he won. That was Assen, which began a run of four victories in a row. It was second in Germany, before he won again in Portimao, but another crash in Magny-Cours, just as he had taken the lead away from Lucas Mahias in the championship, took him out of the French and Spanish rounds. He was back in Qatar, but unfortunately for Kenan he was unable to take the title away from Mahias. It was second again for Sofuoglu in 2017, which is anyway remarkable considering how it started, and that season probably represents the best of any the strength and determination of Sofuoglu – he did not know when to quit.
That changed this year. A tyre failure in free practice at Australia in Stoner Curve left the now five-time World Champion both injured and shaken up. He missed the first four rounds though injury and rumours of a premature retirement were circling. Press conference was called, then cancelled in Assen, before in the weeks leading up to Imola, one of Kenan’s most prolific circuits, it was announced that Kenan would be making his final appearance at the Italian round of the 2018 World Supersport Championship. He qualified third on the grid, but he did not start there. Before the weekend, Sofuoglu had promised both his mother and the Turkish president that he would not start the race in Imola. He pulled in at the end of the warm-up lap, and that was that – the end of a remarkable career that will be remembered for so much more than its on track performances and antics.
Kenan Sofuoglu scored podiums in 85 of his 126 World Supersport races, and 43 of those were victories. In between his stints in Grand Prix and WSBK, Sofuoglu exerted pure dominance on one of the most competitive classes in the world. But that is only half the story. His World Championship in 2007 was the first for a Turkish rider, and as of 16/05/2018 he is the only rider from Turkey to have a World Championship crown. But that will change, thanks to Kenan. Not only has the 33-year-old inspired a generation of Turkish youngsters to go racing, but, as Valentino Rossi in Italy, Sofuoglu is providing the support to the riders he deems talented enough to deserve it in order to smooth their path into the World Championship, so they don’t have to face the difficulties he did as a Turkish rider in the world of motorcycling. Already, Toprak Razgatlioglu, the first of Kenan’s youngsters to come through, is in the World Superbike Championship with Puccetti Kawasaki, who Kenan will continue to help after his retirement. Further than that, the Oncu brothers, Deniz and Can, are also under Kenan’s wing. Last year, they competed in both the Asia Talent Cup and the Red Bull Rookies MotoGP Cup, Deniz winning the ATC and Can winning the Rookies Cup. This year they are remaining in the Rookies Cup, but racing for Red Bull KTM Ajo in the Moto3 Junior World Championship too. In this, Kenan is ensuring his legacy is never lost in the abyss of motorcycle racing history, whilst at the same time building on the foundations he has laid for Turkish motorcycle racing.
As he goes off to pursue a political career, in combination with his commitments to Toprak and the Oncu brothers, as well as any other riders who he takes on, Kenan Sofuoglu leaves the legacy of the greatest 600 rider of all time (and before someone points out that he couldn’t do it on the big bikes, at which point did Angel Nieto prove himself to be a big bike specialist?), a rider whose aggression on occasion overpowered his immense talent, and a rider whose will to win is almost unparalleled. But, most importantly, Kenan Sofuoglu leaves behind twelve years which demonstrate how to overcome difficult moments, how to find strength from vulnerability, and how to be a great person, in every sense. Easy-going (off-track, to which I can testify), a nice guy, and a giant person, Kenan Sofuoglu is them all.
With Kenan, the racing only tells half the story, if that. Thank you, Kenan, not just for the memories, or the incredible battles, or for the numbers, but also for being an example both as a racer and as a man.
Jonathan Rea and the Kawasaki Racing Team cranked up the pressure on their championship rivals with a blistering performance, leaving all and sundry reeling in their wake.
The timing at this point in the season and the venue only made the victory sweeter for the Japanese factory team, at the spectacular Autodromo Enzo Ferrari di Imola, in the Bologna region of Italy – Ducati’s home round.
Having qualified on pole position for the sixteenth time in his career, Rea made the perfect launch from the grid as the lights went out, and never looked back. As so often is the case with the 3x world champion, once he’d found his rhythm it was impossible for anyone to close the gap. Even Tom Sykes (KRT) on identical machinery could offer no answer to the pace and consistency of the Northern Irishman. Such was the performance of the Kawasaki ZX-10RR machines, Sykes was able to establish his own commanding lead in second place over the chasing riders behind.
The factory Aruba.it Ducati team will be wondering how their rivals had so comprehensively outperformed them. On a track which their lead rider, Chaz Davies, had secured victory in the four previous races to be held at the circuit. Unlike messrs Rea and Sykes, Davies suffered a poor race start – wheel spinning off the line and becoming engulfed in the mid-pack shenanigans on the run down to the Tamburello chicane. P4 was the best Davies could ultimately manage, but due to the quirky reverse grid format for Race 2, it does mean he will start from pole position tomorrow.
Instead of challenging KRT for honours, the Ducati riders were left to fight amongst themselves for the final place on the podium. Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati) emerged victorious from the in-house fight to claim the final spot on the podium, though not before he had fended off another strong challenge from Spanish rider Xavi Fores on the independent Barni-Racing Ducati. Fores eventually finished in P5 behind the two factory riders, but it was another display which showcased the breakthrough season the 32-year old is having. Behind him came young Italian protege, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati Junior Team), much to the delight of the home crowd. Despite only entering his third round of the season, Rinaldi has adjusted to life from Superstock racing. Although he faded in the final laps due to tyre wear, his result in P7 (with a fastest lap of 1″47.536) underline his potential.
It was a testing day for the Pata Yamaha outfit with both riders, Michael Van der Mark (P6) and Alex Lowes (P10), unable to hold pace with their front running rivals. The latter in particular had been on the back foot since Friday, after an engine issue forced him to sit out the entirely of the first practice session. Lowes spent the race fighting with the two Pucetti Kawasaki bikes of Toprak Razgatlioglu (P11) and wildcard entrant Leon Haslam (P9).
One team who suffered a complete disaster was Red Bull Honda. Having attempted to ride during Friday morning practice, Leon Camier ruled himself out, still suffering with injuries sustained at Aragon last month. His replacement, flown in from British Superbikes, was Jason O’Halloran. with just one practice session to his name, the amiable Aussie out-qualified American teammate Jake Gagne. However that was to be as good as it got as, early in the race O’Halloran crashed out at the fast Villeneuve chicane and had to be transported to hospital. Gagne (P16), struggling with the front end feeling of the bike throughout the weekend so far, failed to finish in the points.
