Category: Crew On Two

Brno qualifying was just like any other for Moto3, at least it was for thirty-seven minutes. Everyone went out, set some laps at a reasonable pace, and then came in. Then they waited, and they waited, looked at the clock, waited some more, and finally went out with just under three minutes to go. With a 2’08 lap time, they were up against it to get round in time to set a final qualifying attempt, and sure enough, most didn’t.

However, Jakub Kornfeil did, and set his first ever Grand Prix pole in his home race. He was helped on his way by John McPhee for half the lap, but passed the Scot at turn eleven, towing him up the hill and to the line. In turn McPhee went second, as the two of them fooled the field to snatch the front two places on the grid. With many of the favoured riders starting further back tomorrow, they both have a big chance to grab a podium, or maybe even a win.
Marcos Ramirez completes tomorrow’s front row, and for once he took third without the necessity for penalties for his rivals.

Philipp Oettl took fourth place on the grid, whilst Fabio Di Giannantonio – who held provisional pole for most of the session – was fifth ahead of Aron Canet who was the first rider to miss the chequered flag on his last run.

Row three is fronted by Gabriel Rodrigo, ahead of Nakarin Atiratphuvapat who had his best performance of 2018, and Niccolo Antonelli who has seemingly seen something of a return to form after the break, although the confirmation of that is still pending.

It was a self-proclaimed disaster for Enea Bastianini, who was tenth and needs a good race here to get his championship challenge back on track, although he hasn’t looked so brilliant this weekend. Jaume Masia and Kazuki Masaki – who has had a stellar weekend, topping FP2 – join Bastianini on row four.

Thirteenth fastest was Dennis Foggia – his best performance since the paddock arrived in Europe back in May – ahead of championship hopeful but Czech GP struggler Marco Bezzecchi and Albert Arenas who suffered a crash at the end of the session but was okay. Speaking for Bezzecchi, a good start is essential for his race tomorrow, even more so as his main title rival Jorge Martin, is out of the weekend with a broken radius. Like all the other championship hopefuls, Bezzecchi must make the most of Martin’s absence this weekend.

Tony Arbolino was sixteenth, ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Nicolo Bulega, who has looked much better than eighteenth this weekend. Darryn Binder was nineteenth, with Kaito Toba rounding out the top twenty and Adam Norrodin rounding out row seven.

Twenty-second fastest was Andrea Migno, then came Stefano Nepa, Vicente Perez, Alonso Lopez and Filip Salac who was superb in FP3 in the morning but could not translate that to qualifying.

Tatsuki Suzuki and Ayumu Sasaki did not set a qualifying lap as they crashed on the first lap out of the pits and both missed the flag at the end. Sasaki also had a trip to the medical centre and looked in pain at the end of the session. Hopefully he will be okay for tomorrow, and able to mount a comeback from the back of the grid.

As previously mentioned, Jorge Martin is absent this weekend. The championship leader suffered a nasty high side in FP1 at turn ten, and suffered a broken radius bone. That has put him out of this weekend, and also made him a doubt for next weekend in Austria. Hopefully the Spaniard will make a decent enough recovery over the next days to be able to turn up and be at least semi-competitive in Spielberg but right now it is difficult to say.

Sachsenring was… eventful for the Moto2 class. It all started on lap two when Mattia Pasini’s crash left Francesco Bagnaia with nowhere to go but the grass. The crash of Pasini was then proceeded by a plethora of falls, including a potentially fatal one for the championship contention of Lorenzo Baldassarri.

Bagnaia was able to recover his position to finish twelfth, passing Alex Marquez in the final corner. But with Miguel Oliveira only qualifying seventeenth and with Bagnaia’s stellar pace across the weekend, Sachsenring was another opportunity for the Italian to extend his championship advantage, but with bad luck the chance went abegging. Nonetheless Pecco made a good recovery, and maintained his position at the top of the standings going into the summer break. Now the championship has returned after the holidays, it will be important for Bagnaia to continue in the vein of Sachsenring because, although the result was bad, he was fast over the whole weekend like all the races so far.

For Oliveira, though, the area to work on is obvious: qualifying. Saturday afternoons have been apocalyptic for the Portuguese rider so far this year, costing him a shot at the victory on multiple occasions and whilst he is still right there in the championship fight, it is only a matter of time until a poor qualifying really catches him out and leaves him either on the floor or with a bad result. In fact, it nearly happened in Germany, as the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider was cutting through the field and lost the rear in a pretty big way on the exit of the final corner, pushing hard to try to lose as little time as possible. He was lucky it only cost him a few positions, and he got lucky with the effect Pasini’s crash had on Bagnaia, too, but this is racing and perhaps this good luck will help him (in a small way) on his way to a first World Championship.

Whilst Oliveira was able to close the gap in the championship, his teammate, 2016 Moto3 World Champion Brad Binder, was able to take his first victory of his Moto2 career in commanding fashion. There is not much to say about Binder’s race in Sachsenring, because it was pretty faultless lights-to-flag, but the journey he has been on to get there, since his broken arm in the end of 2016, has been monumental. In a sense, the victory was a surprising one, because Binder has not been in the best form this season, almost in an opposite way to Oliveira, as he has been going okay in qualifying – generally – but struggling after a few laps in the races. Hopefully for Brad, this German GP win will open the proverbial floodgates, and he can build some momentum on the back of this milestone.

Joan Mir was second in Germany, his third podium of his debut Moto2 season, putting more security on his fourth position in the championship standings. He lies fifty-three points behind in the standings, probably too far to challenge for the title, and has a factory Suzuki MotoGP contract in his pocket. But that does not make it any less important for the Spaniard to grab at least one victory in the second half of this season – to go to a factory MotoGP in the rookie year, a win in Moto2 is important for the confidence. Also, with no win, the media have something to criticise, and when something goes wrong, they will point to his lack of a Moto2 win. A win is almost essential for Mir before the end of the year, and perhaps this weekend will be the one for him to take it.

The third place on the German podium, two weeks ago, was taken by Luca Marini. Of course, whilst it was the best result of his career, it was not anything fantastic, primarily because Valentino Rossi, Marini’s maternal half-brother, finished second in the MotoGP race. But, seriously, Marini’s podium was both well-deserved and long in the making, a shoulder injury holding him back for much of the season to date. Like Binder, Marini’s first podium has the potential to be the catalyst for more top threes – even in the immediate aftermath of the race Marini mentioned several times about the importance in building the foundation with the lower steps before you reach the top. He has certainly done that, coming from the European Moto2 Championship in 2016 to essentially fight for last for one year, before a year of mixed results in 2017 led into this year which has so far culminated in his first Grand Prix podium. There is more to come from Luca Marini, and a good result in the Czech GP last year means that there will be strong hopes in the orange side od the Sky VR46 garage that more will arrive this weekend.

A crash in free practice for Alex Marquez in Germany curtailed his entire weekend, as he crossed the line in thirteenth. He is thirty-five points off the championship lead which, in Moto2, is not an impossible deficit, but if he is to overcome it, he will need to start reducing it this weekend.

Before today, no Moto2 bike had lapped the Sachsenring in under 1’24. Now four riders have, led by Mattia Pasini who looks back on form after his post-Mugello depression. The veteran Italian has looked strong all weekend and in a field more closely packed than it is possible to remember, came out on top in qualifying with an early lap to give him pole position.

Nearly two tenths back of Pasini – yes, two tenths – was Luca Marini, who took his best career qualifying and second consecutive front row with second place. Marini was unable to convert his front row in Assen to anything special, but unlike Assen the Italian has had decent pace all weekend, and could challenge for the podium tomorrow.

Joining Pasini and Marini on the front row tomorrow is Francesco Bagnaia, the World Championship leader, who started off the weekend testing parts for Kalex which left him one second off the pace and down in 26th place. It turned around from there, though, and Bagnaia soon found his rhythm, as was able to make it an all-Italian front row, and tomorrow will be aiming to take consecutive victories for the first time in his career.

Sam Lowes was the final rider to dip below 1’24, with a 1’23.971 to give him fourth on the grid. Gearing changes – made for the race at Assen – to give the engine an easier time cost Lowes a better result than ninth, so on a weekend when he has been amongst the top times for its entirety, he will be hoping to maximise his potential tomorrow and take his first podium since Aragon 2016.

Lorenzo Baldassarri has floated about this weekend, sometimes outside the top ten, sometimes challenging the front runners, but in qualifying managed to pull it all together to take fifth on the grid from where he will be aiming to make up for the disappointment of Assen’s puncture.

The final spot on the second row goes to Xavi Vierge, who has also been there or thereabouts all weekend.

Alex Marquez suffered a big crash today in FP3, but still managed to take seventh on the grid for tomorrow’s German Moto2 Grand Prix, ahead of teammate Joan Mir and home hero Marcel Schrotter.

The top ten is rounded out by Brad Binder, who heads up row four and is joined on it by Romano Fenati – who was about the only person to improve their lap time in the final part of the session – and Danny Kent who has been strong this weekend despite the Speed Up historically not suiting Sachsenring.

Row five is fronted by Augusto Fernandez who continues to improve and impress on the Stihl HP40 Pons Kalex. He is joined on the fifth row by Isaac Vinales and perennial poor qualifier Miguel Oliveira who will need a first lap sent by some sort of deity if he is to avoid losing more points to Bagnaia in the championship tomorrow.

It’s not easy to pass in Sachsenring and although Oliveira has possessed solid race pace this weekend, it’s difficult to use that if you have fourteen riders in front of you who, in reality, aren’t all that much slower. Furthermore, if there is a first turn on the calendar that invites a lap one pile-up, it’s turn one at Sachsenring – partly because it is so tight and partly because from turn one you have to wait, really until turn twelve to be able to pass again. Whichever way you look at it, Oliveira has a proper job on tomorrow.

The sixth row is headed up by Jorge Navarro who has had a quieter weekend than normal this weekend, and is ahead of Andrea Locatelli who has looked better than seventeenth this weekend, and Fabio Quartararo, the Catalan winner blighted by inconsistency this weekend as his name has become linked to the Petronas Yamaha team for next year.

Simone Corsi will start from the head of the seventh row, ahead of Remy Gardner who will round out the top twenty – a surprise after the Australian’s superb FP3 form – and Bo Bendsneyder.

Row eight will consist of Steven Odendaal, Dominique Aegerter – who started the weekend by topping FP1 – and finally Khairul Idham Pawi.

Iker Lecuona will be disappointed with 25th place, but either way he will be joined on the ninth row by Tetsuta Nagashima and Eric Granado.

Jules Danilo, Joe Roberts and Stefano Manzi make up the tenth row, Manzi incurring a three-place penalty for taking out Federico Fuligni in FP2 yesterday.

The eleventh and final row will only have tow riders on it, and they are the aforementioned Fuligni and the wildcard Xavi Cardelus.

Niki Tuuli has deemed himself unable to continue riding this weekend due to the finger injury he sustained in Assen two weeks ago.

Who else but Jorge Martin? Yes, the 2018 Moto3 World Championship leader took yet another pole position, his sixth of the season and fourteenth of his career. That said, it hasn’t been the usual dominance from Martin this weekend, despite admitting that he enjoys the Sachsenring a lot. That said, it is tough to bet against the Spaniard for the race win tomorrow, as he seeks to extend his two-point championship lead.

Lining up alongside the Gresini Honda on tomorrow’s grid are Marcos Ramirez and Enea Bastianini. Ramirez finished on the podium in Germany last year, and so will harbour hopes of enjoying a good result tomorrow. Meanwhile, Bastianini is coming off the back of his second consecutive podium, and, lying just twenty-one points off the championship lead, will be looking to close the deficit he currently suffers to Martin.

Jaume Masia completed what was a very positive day for the Bester Capital Dubai team, by taking fourth on the grid – his best qualifying of the season. Aron Canet, who like Bastianini will be aiming to reduce his gap to the top of the championship tomorrow, starts between Masia and Tony Arbolino on the second row of the grid.

Marco Bezzecchi qualified seventh. His pace has not been anything fantastic this weekend, but Bezzecchi has a tendency to race better than he practices so we will see what he can do tomorrow. John McPhee and Ayumu Sasaki join the Argentine GP winner on the third row of the grid.

Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the top ten in qualifying, and will start from the head of the fourth row tomorrow. Alongside him will be Albert Arenas and Gabriel Rodrigo.

Despite being incredibly fast at times, Philipp Oettl could only manage thirteenth place on the grid for his home Grand Prix, and alongside him on the fifth row of the grid will be Darryn Binder’s impressive replacement Raul Fernandez, and Tatsuki Suzuki.

Niccolo Antonelli will start from sixteenth tomorrow, alongside Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Adam Norrodin on the sixth row of the grid.

The wildcard, Ai Ogura, has been severely impressive this weekend, which makes nineteenth sound quite bad, but ultimately he was only eight tenths away from Martin’s pole time; and starting alongside Alonso Lopez and Jakub Kornfeil on row seven means he is in some good company.

Kazuki Masaki starts from twenty-second tomorrow, ahead of a disappointing Nicolo Bulega who has looked faster than row eight this weekend, but with such a difficult qualifying has probably ruined what could be his best chance of getting on the podium this season. Kaito Toba joins Masaki and Bulega on the eighth row.

It has been an awful weekend for Andrea Migno, as it has for Dennis Foggia. They both start from row nine, in 25th and 27th respectively. In between them is the wildcard Luca Grunwald who has not disgraced himself whatsoever this weekend, although being 26th on the grid in his home Grand Prix perhaps says a bit about the quality of the SSP300 field, in the standings of which he lies second.

The final row consists of Livio Loi’s replacement, Vicente Perez, Nakarin Atriatphuvapat and Stefano Nepa.

The 2018 German Moto3 Grand Prix could well be the final lightweight class GP to be held at the Sachsenring, as the tight, eastern German circuit looks set to be replaced by the Nurburgring from 2019 onwards, although how long that will be for is yet to be seen – currently the promoters have a contract with Dorna until 2021. Many issues surround the Sachsenring, not least that part of it is owned privately, and part of it is owned by the ADAC; primarily the circuit is a road safety facility, not a race track. Another is one similar to Brands Hatch, as there are many nearby residents who are not the biggest fans of the noise created in the track, no doubt especially on MotoGP weekend. But this merely begs the question: why, if you like peace and quiet, would you decide to live in close proximity to something which, by definition, creates a lot of noise? Anyway, for the Sachsenring, the end of its time on the MotoGP calendar seems to be coming, and just two years after the circuit was completely resurfaced.

Moto3 is about the only GP category which actually fits Sachsenring, the tight, twisty layout lending itself handsomely to the lightweight, nimble, 250cc, four stroke, single cylinder machines.

Last year, the German track was best mastered by Joan Mir, who took the victory from Romano Fenati and Marcos Ramirez, all three fighting until the final corner for the victory. Of course, 2018 Moto2 graduates, Fenati and Mir, will not be on the Moto3 podium, and with the current form of Marcos Ramirez, it is unlikely that any of last year’s top three will be returning to the German lightweight class podium.

It’s also predictable – on the surface, before a wheel has turned in the weekend – that no KTM will be able to match the leading Hondas this weekend. This is because of the characteristics of the KTM compared to the Honda – the Austrian bike having a strong engine but suffering quite significantly in the corners and the NSF250 having a seemingly far superior cornering performance and with little deficiency in the motor department. Theoretically, the Japanese machine should excel on such an awkward circuit with such a small percentage on the lap with full throttle. That said, Marco Bezzecchi has not been averse to a surprise or two this season.

In his first year at the front – his second in Grand Prix racing – Bezzecchi has been superbly consistent (he has finished on the podium in each of the races he has finished) and infectiously calm, and those two qualities pulled him a nineteen-point championship lead going into the previous round at Assen. However, a crash on the final lap for the Italian, and a win for the fastest man on a Moto3 bike in 2018, Jorge Martin, saw Bezzecchi’s championship advantage transform into a deficit and he now lies two points behind the Spaniard. A response will be important for Bezzecchi this weekend, and the unpredictable German weather could bring him into victory contention, like it did in Argentina.

As for Martin, his points lead comes as little surprise. His speed this year has been rarely matched, bad luck being the largest factor in preventing the number 88 from steaming away with this championship. Of course, a crash out of the lead in Barcelona did little for his championship too, but had he taken the fifty points he likely would have from the two races he was taken out of earlier in the season – Jerez and Le Mans – his position would be a lot more secure. Maybe the recapturing of the title lead will lead to greater consistency from the Spaniard, although for the sake of his rivals, and the championship battle, hopefully that will not be the case.

Nicolo Bulega enjoyed his strongest race of 2017 in Sachsenring last year, and in 2016 it was the first race where he showed his ability in the wet, when he was one of the fastest riders on the track before he made a common mistake in the monsoon conditions that day. The recent form of Bulega has been promising; fighting for the win in Montmelo before being taken out, and scoring his first front row and first points of the season in Assen last time out. After a shocking start to the season, it seems like Nicolo Bulega is back, and this weekend could provide a good opportunity for him to score a second career podium.

The recent form of

and Aron Canet has also been promising. Both still within reach of the championship lead, and coming back into podium-contending/race-winning form their title chances are not over. You might have expected them to be further back in the championship considering their respectively inconsistent starts to the season, but the similar inconsistency of Martin and Bezzecchi have kept them within reach.

Last year this race was a difficult one for Canet, dropping through the pack after qualifying on the front row, before crashing out of the race at turn twelve. In the case of Bastianini, he was sixth, over thirteen seconds off the win.

In wildcard/replacement news, Darryn Binder has been ruled out of this weekend after a training crash last week. He will be replaced by Moto3 Junior World Championship points leader, Raul Fernandez, who will be racing his second GP of 2018 after wildcarding in Barcelona earlier in the season.

Additionally, Livio Loi has been dropped by the Reale Avintia Academy team, and will be replaced until the end of the season by Avintia’s CEV rider, Vicente Perez.

Also, Ai Ogura will make his third wildcard appearance of the season, again in the Asia Talent Team, after riding in Jerez and Assen already, and acquitting himself rather well, scoring a point in Jerez and taking 23rd on his first visit to Assen.

Finally, World Supersport 300 rider, Luca Grunwald, will be making a return to Grand Prix racing. The German rider has a total of 23 GP starts between 2011 and 2014, scoring all eight of his points in 2012 when he rode a Kalex KTM. He has scored one win this season in the SSP300 World Championship, which is also his only podium. Despite this, he is second in the championship and only sixteen points off Ana Carrasco at the top of the championship.

A win and a second place is apparently all it has taken for Fabio Quartararo to gain the interest of a MotoGP team. Supposedly, foetal Petronas Yamaha team are in talks with the French youngster with the aim of acquiring the double CEV Repsol Moto3 champion to pilot one of their YZR-M1s for the 2019 season. The past two races have been very impressive from Quartararo, and he does have one more Moto2 win than Ecstar Suzuki’s 2019 rookie, Joan Mir. However, should two races grant you a pathway to MotoGP? You would say probably not, but there is no doubting Quartararo’s talent and, if he gets the ride, there is every possibility that he can make it work for him.

Another Moto2 rider in the frame for a Petronas Yamaha ride for next year is Lorenzo Baldassarri. Since his win in Jerez, the tall Italian has been quite inconsistent, but saw a return to form two weeks ago in Assen, where he fought back from thirteenth on the grid to second place, and was closing down race leader and eventual winner Pecco Bagnaia before the rear Dunlop on the back of the Stihl HP40 Pons Kalex let go with just a few laps remaining. Balda re-joined after pitting for a tyre but was one lap down and didn’t score any points. It was a big shame for the number 7, and it probably took him out of championship contention. However, the season is long, and Lorenzo will be keeping that in mind this weekend as he looks to return to the podium to prove that he is capable of fighting for this title, as well as being a solid pick for the satellite Yamaha team for next season.

Last year’s Moto2 German GP was won by Franco Morbidelli, but only narrowly. It didn’t look as though it would be that way; when Tom Luthi crashed out of second place early in the race in turn twelve it seemed that Morbidelli would enjoy another comfortable win, but Miguel Oliveira saw to that. The Portuguese rider closed the Italian within a few laps and pressured the eventual 2017 Moto2 World Champion until the final corner, although was unable to make a move stick.

This is positive for Oliveira in respect to this weekend, when he will look to recover from his worst weekend of 2018 in Assen, where he finished sixth, five seconds from winner Bagnaia. At the heart of the issues in Assen was the KTM chassis’ lack of ability to make a fresh soft tyre work on low fuel, which severely compromised both Oliveira’s and Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Brad Binder’s respective races. In Assen, Oliveira qualified seventeenth, whilst Binder was twenty-first, and for the first time this season he was unable to make a full recovery in the first lap. Furthermore, Oliveira did not have the race pace of Bagnaia for the first time since Le Mans.

This weekend, it will be even more critical for Oliveira to qualify well than in Assen, because the high percentage of time at the Sachsenring that is spent on full lean angle makes it incredibly tough to overtake. If he is not there at the start it could be beyond him to recover and get to the front.

Francesco Bagnaia had no such problems in Assen. In fact, he had no problems at all in Assen. He took his second ever Moto2 pole, from which he took a lights-to-flag win with relative ease. Whilst it was Oliveira who finished second in Sachsenring last season, Bagnaia completed the podium with his third career Moto2 podium. Pecco towed up fellow Italians Simone Corsi and Mattia Pasini to the podium battle with him, but he stood his ground against his more experienced compatriots, and the pace he showed in last year’s race will fill the current championship leader with confidence as he looks to head into the pretty much non-existent summer break on a high.

Alex Marquez, teammate Joan Mir, Marcel Schrotter and Xavi Vierge should be up there this weekend too; the former two just because you’d expect it and the latter two because their recent pace has been quite electric, although a series three mistakes in five corners in Assen led to a crash for Vierge.

Especially Schrotter should be entertaining this weekend, as he looks to make up for a couple of missed opportunities for his maiden Moto2 podium in the last two races. Perhaps he will do as Pasini, and make his first Moto2 podium with a win in his home Grand Prix.

There is only one wildcard; Xavi Cardelus who, considering the action taken by Dorna over Jesko Raffin prior to this season, is perhaps quite lucky that he is still able to compete as a wildcard.