Jorge Martin Takes Spanish Moto3 Pole, as Canet Struggles

Moto3 qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2018 World Championship, got underway in gorgeous sunshine on Saturday, and the drama was immediate, as Darryn Binder collided with Livio Loi on the exit of turn four in the opening minutes of the session. Binder was taken to the medical centre where he was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder and ruled unfit to continue in this weekend’s action. Hopefully the South African can return in Le Mans. Binder’s absence means tomorrow’s Moto3 race will be the first to be run with no Red Bull Ajo KTMs.

Brad Binder. Image courtesy of Redbull Content Pool

Finally, it was Jorge Martin who took pole position, which is unsurprising considering the championship leader’s prowess over one lap. He was keen to play down its importance, though, as he knows only too well – last year Martin went from pole to tenth in the race. But Jorge’s pace this weekend has been outstanding, and it would be a huge surprise if he wasn’t in the battle for the win at the end of the race tomorrow.

Philipp Oettl took second place with a lap done early in the session, which is quite typical of the German, who celebrated his 22nd birthday earlier in the week. The front row was rounded out by Fabio Di Giannantonio to give Gresini Racing a double front row start. Diggia, too, has had stunning pace all weekend and has looked supremely calm in the process. A first win for the Italian could be on the cards tomorrow.

Fourth place went to Niccolo Antonelli, ahead of Argentina winner Marco Bezzecchi in fifth, and Andrea Migno, on a big weekend for the Angel Nieto Team, to make it an all VR46 Rider Academy row two.

Alonso Lopez took by far, his best grid position of his Grand Prix career to date with seventh place, ahead of Enea Bastianini in eighth and the second Leopard Racing bike of Lorenzo Dalla Porta in ninth, whilst Tatsuki Suzuki heads up row four and rounds out the top ten qualifiers. Kaito Toba had his best qualifying of the season in eleventh place and Dennis Foggia put himself in a decent position for tomorrow in 12th.

Makar Yurchenko had a good qualifying – notably at the first track of the season the World Championship has visited this season that the Kazakh rider has visited in the past. Unfortunately, at his home Grand Prix, the same cannot be said for Aron Canet, who will go from fifteenth tomorrow. It will take an almighty comeback from the Spaniard to be able to beat his main title rival, Martin, in tomorrow’s race, but in Moto3 anything is possible.

Jakub Kornfeil was sixteenth, ahead of  disappointing rides by both John McPhee in seventeenth and Marcos Ramirez in eighteenth. Ai Ogura will be disappointed, too, to have ended the session down in nineteenth place, after spending much of it within the top ten. The Japanese wildcard has shown promise this weekend, but will need to make a good first lap if he is to fight at the front in tomorrow’s race. Gabriel Rodrigo had a big crash in turn four, and could only manage twentieth, but ahead of an extremely disappointing Tony Arbolino – the Italian set an unofficial lap record at Jerez in pre-season and has looked decently quick in free practice, but was unable to convert that into a good qualifying result, and will have to fight well tomorrow to make a good result.

At one point there was half a sign that Nicolo Bulega’s fortunes might be turning, but it turned out to be another qualifying outside the top twenty for the Italian – 22nd fastest in the end for ‘Bulegas’. Whatever issues Bulega is having at the moment, they need to be sorted quickly, because he is currently drifting further and further away from the wonderful prospect he jumped onto the GP scene as back in 2016 – at this very track!

Ayumu Sasaki, another disappointment (there seem to be a lot of those today) in twenty-third, ahead of Albert Arenas, about whom a similar thing could be said, and equally so for 25th fastest Jaume Masia. Jeremy Alcoba will start 26th on his Grand Prix debut tomorrow, which is not what he would have expected after spending stints of the practice sessions near the top of the times. Yet more disappointment, as Adam Norrodin starts 27th, ahead of Livio Loi and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat.

From the perspective of many riders, today’s qualifying session has been a disappointment (I think I have written that word a record number of times for one article), but perhaps that shows just how competitive Moto3 is in 2018, more than anything else.

Featured image courtesy of Redbull Content pool

Kiyo Returns at Oulton, as Ray Looks to Return to the Top Step

This bank holiday weekend, the British Superbike Championship heads to Oulton Park for round three of the 2018 season, after a scintillating opening four races at Donington Park and the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

After the opening two rounds, it is Bradley Ray who is on top of the pile in the championship standings, and heads into round three knowing it is the circuit where he took his first BSB podium towards the end of last season. There are many rumours about Ray making a wildcard appearance at the World Superbike round at Donington at the end of May, and it will be important this weekend for Ray to put any World Championship ideas to the back of his mind if he is to fulfil his potential this weekend, and he will hope to get back to winning ways.

Shane Byrne at Donington park. Image courtesy of Ducati

Shane Byrne took his first win of the season at Brands a few weeks ago in race one of the second meeting of the year. It was an important one for Byrne, not just to get off the mark for this year, but also to beat Ray in a battle after the youngster did the double at Donington. The reigning champion only scored one win in Oulton last season from the five which were held. Considering the pace advantage he and Ray appeared to share over the rest of the field at round two, perhaps with the exception of James Ellison, it could come down to last-lap duals between the pair who are probably now the two favourites for the championship.

But, at this point it would be foolish to discount Leon Haslam. If there is one thing about the Derbyshire rider it is that he will fight until the very end, and perhaps that could be enough for him this season. It was certainly enough for him at Brands in race two, when he picked up his first win of the season in the pouring rain. Oulton is a little bit different, though. Brands Indy is the definition of a ‘scratcher’s circuit’, whereas Oulton Park requires more finesse and precision to get the most out of the track. Luckily for Leon, he can do that too, and he won three races at the Cheshire circuit last season.

The only other rider to win at Oulton Park last year was Dan Linfoot. Unfortunately for the Honda Racing rider, he is unable to ride this weekend due to injuries sustained in the crash he had at Brands Hatch in free practice. But, from the perspective of a nostalgic fan, it is not all bad, because replacing him this weekend will be the three-time British Superbike Champion, Ryuichi Kiyonari. Since his title challenge went up in smoke in 2014 in free practice for the final round at Brands Hatch, Kiyonari had a couple of dismal years in the British championship before moving back to Japan where he races the Moriwaki Honda, meaning he has experience of the new Fireblade since the beginning of 2017. Whether this will be enough for Kiyo to come back and get straight up to speed, maybe even challenge in the front, remains to be seen, and there is absolutely no doubt that the whole thing is a big shame for Dan Linfoot and a dramatic blow to his prospects of making the Showdown this season – but it is difficult to deny that it is good to see Kiyo back.

In the break between rounds two and three, James Ellison went over to America to see his family. Of course, after this season it will be the States where Ellison will live, as he seeks to spend more time with his two kids and Texan wife, and in turn that means that this will be his last season in BSB, as has been discussed previously this year. But, just because Ellison is packing his bags, that does not mean that his luck has changed. In the years since his comeback to BSB after a one-year stint during 2012, in the MotoGP’s CRT class with PBM, Ellison has had appalling luck. His second race back, in 2013 at Brands Indy, Ellison failed to make the start of the race because his visor had come lose from his helmet, and he could not get it reattached, so he had to start from pitlane. In 2014, he ran over oil at Thruxton, which kept him out of action. Last year, whilst leading at Brands Indy in race one, he crashed at Druids – now, that might not be bad luck but it definitely was such that he was unable to start race two because the bike was still bent. Now, in 2018, he had a ‘duff’ tyre in race one at Brands Indy, which cost him the chance to score any points, let alone fight for the win, and then he had to start from the back of the grid in race two because he missed the closing of pitlane. As for a lot of people, Oulton Park is Ellison’s favourite track, and he will be hoping that his luck will change this weekend, and he can get his Showdown hunt back on track.

Another Yamaha rider desiring for a turnaround is Josh Brookes. After a miserable opening two rounds, where the Aussie struggled for rear grip and had a best finish of fifth place in the pouring rain of race two at Brands Indy. Brookes claimed to have made big progress with the McAMS Yamaha R1 at the test at Oulton Park last Thursday. Hopefully for Josh, and any hopes he has of making the Showdown, the step he made will transfer into the weekend and translate into good results, and perhaps his first podium of the season.

This round of BSB marks the last before the break as the roads season gets properly into full swing ahead of the Isle of Man TT, which starts at the end of the month. With this in mind, everyone will be looking to go away from Oulton with a good feeling, and a good position in the championship, hoping to come back strong for the six rounds which lead up to the beginning of the Showdown.

Martin and Canet Bring Moto3 Championship Fight to Home Soil

After three fly-away races to open the season, the 2018 Moto3 World Championship heads to Europe, Spain, and the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, which sits on one of the three points of the “sherry triangle”, which any European wine named and labelled as sherry must come from, as per European law. In fact, jerez translates to sherry, so I guess you could call Jerez the sherry capital of the world. Furthermore, turn six, “Dry Sack”, the hairpin at the end of the main straight and the main overtaking spot on the track, is named after a vineyard which lies just behind the run-off area on its outside. But, for this weekend Jerez is not the sherry capital of the world, or anything to do with wine – because Grand Prix motorcycles have arrived, and for three days there won’t be a corner to turn or a street to walk without something to tell you that MotoGP is in town.

Ángel Nieto Roldán (25 January 1947 – 3 August 2017) . Image courtesy of Nationaal Archief

This weekend will be a special one, though, as it will be the first Spanish Grand Prix to be held since the tragic death of Angel Nieto last year and, whilst there have been Grands Prix in Spain in that time, none have been the “Spanish Grand Prix”, and that is important, considering Spanish politics. Furthermore, since the 12+1-times World Champion’s passing, the circuit in Jerez has had a rebranding, so it is now named after the grandfather of Spanish motorcycle racing – the “Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto” is the track which will be lit up this weekend, and firstly by Moto3, which seems correct considering Nieto’s expertise on the smaller capacity bikes. And with that in mind, how much of a fairy-tale would it be for either Andrea Migno or Albert Arenas to pick up a podium or even a win, riding for the Angel Nieto Team? Considering Migno’s pace in the last race at COTA, where he finished fourth, and that Jerez was the circuit where Arenas picked up his first Moto3 Junior World Championship victory back in 2015, perhaps such a story is not so difficult to imagine.

Jorge Martin, image courtesy of Redbull Contentpool

Perhaps it is equally as fitting that a pair of Spaniards head the lightweight class World Championship coming into this weekend, with Jorge Martin ahead of Aron Canet in the standings by seven points. Moreover, there are positive omens for the pair coming into this weekend, with it being the track where last year Martin took his second pole position of the 2017 season, and that at which Canet became a Grand Prix winner. The 2017 race was not as smooth for Martin, who struggled to a lowly ninth place, and that is certainly something he will want to rectify for this season’s race, with the world title at stake for the Gresini Racing rider this year.

As mentioned, though, it was a victory for Canet the last time Moto3 raced in Jerez, and after a disappointing result last time out, the number 44 will very much be looking to bounce back well and reclaim the championship lead he lost after Austin.

The surprise package of 2018 so far has been Marco Bezzecchi, who has made the most of the KTM machinery underneath him for this season with the PruestelGP team to land his first GP win in Argentina, and now lie third in the championship, just twelve points off the lead. Austin was a very important race for Bezzecchi, who took the opportunity to prove that he can be fast in the dry, as well as the mixed conditions which proved so fruitful in Termas. But Jerez is a circuit where the group can be quite big for the whole race, so it will be yet another test for the number twelve, who now needs to prove he can fight at the head of the front group for the full race distance.

Dennis Foggia put in a good performance in Austin, although perhaps he did not get the result that he would have hoped for. But now, with the Championship’s return to Europe, we will be able to judge Foggia on tracks he knows, starting this weekend with Jerez. In addition to this, he is one of the few riders on the grid who have raced on Jerez’s fresh surface, which is new for this year, but was raced on in 2017 by the CEV Repsol championships, which is the umbrella under which the Moto3 Junior World Championship (of which Foggia is champion) sits. With that in mind, there could be an early advantage for the rookie, as well as for the likes of Jaume Masia, Kazuki Masaki, Alonso Lopez and Makar Yurchenko, fellow graduates from last year’s JWC. In fact, it was Lopez who won the first of the two races held in Jerez last year for the Junior World Championship, when he beat Foggia (2nd) and Masaki (3rd) to the line.

The second race last year was won by Ai Ogura, who was then a graduate from the Asia Talent Cup, which he nearly won, but narrowly lost out to in the final round when Somkiat Chantra was crowned the 2016 champion. This year, Ogura is wildcarding in Jerez for his debut Grand Prix appearance. Since his time in the ATC, he has stood out to me, I remember watching the Sepang round in 2016 and seeing how late he was on the brakes into turn one and turn four, and being quite impressed. He is definitely one that people should be keeping an eye on this weekend, like Foggia in Aragon last year. Ogura is coming into this weekend on decent form, too, as he took his first podium of the 2018 Moto3 Junior World Championship last weekend in Valencia, with a third place on the Asia Talent Team Honda.

There will be one other wildcard rider, Jeremy Alcoba, in the Estrella Galicia Junior Team. Alcoba was once the teammate of Jaume Masia before Masia was unceremoniously booted out of the Monlau programme. Since then the pair have gone their separate ways, and Alcoba has seen himself beaten to the ride Enea Bastianini vacated at the end of 2017 by one of his teammates from last year, Alonso Lopez. In addition, Alcoba had to sit back and watch his teammate, Sergio Garcia, romp to victory in the first Moto3 in Valencia last weekend. This is Jeremy’s opportunity to rekindle his chances with Monlau and Emilio Alzamora.

The return to Europe is often the point at which the championship starts to really take shape, and this season will likely be no different. This weekend we will begin to get an idea of who truly can fight for the World Championship.

Featured image courtesy of RedBull Contentpool

Bagnaia Heads the Moto2 Pack as the World Championship Arrives in Europe

Three races down in the 2018 Moto2 World Championship, and it is Francesco Bagnaia who leads the pack as the paddock arrives in Jerez for the first European round of the season. A win in the opening round of the season in Qatar, where he won a last-lap battle with his flatmate Lorenzo Baldassarri, saw Pecco take the immediate lead in the championship, but a ninth place in Argentina meant that he had to bounce back well in Austin. He did that – winning the race comfortably in the end after Alex Marquez led the early laps. Thinking to Jerez, it is the place where Bagnaia took his first Grand Prix podium back in 2016 on the Aspar Mahindra, and again last year he took his first Moto2 podium at the Spanish track. With that in mind, it could take a particularly special performance to beat the number 42 this weekend, but there are plenty lining up to do just that.

Firstly, Alex Marquez. The Spaniard has had the pace to at least be on the podium in all three of the opening fly-away races. In Qatar he somewhat fulfilled that, although an overheating rear brake cost him a chance to fight for the win in the season opener. Argentina went a different way for the Marc VDS rider, though, as he made a mistake in the closing stages of the race when trying to pass Baldassarri for fourth place, and that cost him a chance at the Argentine podium – fifth in the end for the 2014 Moto3 World Champion. Last time out, in Austin, Marquez was the pre-race favourite, and early on it looked as though he was going to take his first win of the year, but it was not meant to be as Bagnaia’s tyre conservation proved superior, and Marquez was left to fight off the late charge of Miguel Oliveira for second place. But Marquez won this race last year, and you could argue that it was only so because his teammate and eventual World Champion Franco Morbidelli crashed out in the early part of the race, but equally it is possible to say that it was the pace of Marquez early on that brought the mistake out of Morbidelli, handing Marquez a comfortable victory. Will it be quite as simple for the home favourite this year? Probably not. The KTMs are stronger and in bigger numbers this year, and there are a number of Kalex riders who look strong at this early phase of the season. But do not discount Marquez, he will be there.

Brad Binder & Miguel Oliveira. Image courtesy of Redbull contentpool

But perhaps this weekend will finally be the coming of the KTMs. Qatar never materialised for the Austrian marque, the two ‘factory’ riders, Oliveira and Brad Binder, had average qualifying performances, and even more average first laps, and Sam Lowes on the Swiss Innovative Investors KTM had a false neutral issue, which eventually caused him to crash midway through the race at the final corner. Argentina should have been Miguel Oliveira’s win, but the determination of Mattia Pasini proved enough to deny the Portuguese, who took his first 2018 podium in the end with third place. Once more, Austin should have seen the Portuguese flag lifted above the top spot on the rostrum, but another poor qualifying for both Oliveira and Binder, coupled with average-at-best opening laps for the pair, and a bizarre crash early on for front-running Sam Lowes meant that once again there was nothing that anyone on a KTM could do about the win. But, finally, in Austin we saw the KTMs excel where we expected, late in the race, with supreme tyre management. Oliveira’s pace once he got some open asphalt in front of him was only matched by Joan Mir when he too cleared the train that had formed from third place down to about twelfth or thirteenth. With that in mind, and with the nature of Jerez, even with the new surface, the KTM riders will once again be in with a good chance to take the victory.

Jerez is a good circuit for some of the KTM riders, too, with Brad Binder picking up his first Grand Prix win back in 2016 when he started from last, and Sam Lowes dominated the Moto2 race the same year when he was riding the Gresini Kalex. Also, it is the first race of the season to be held at a race track known by Iker Lecuona, who has shown good progress so far this season on the #27 SII KTM (he is Sam Lowes’ teammate), and yet he had not been to any of the three tracks the World Championship has so far visited in 2018. Could a first Grand Prix podium be on the cards for the young Spaniard?

Mattia Pasini has already claimed one win this season, and started it much better than one year ago. In 2017, the opening races of the season for Paso were a demonstration in how to throw away good positions in the middle of races, but in 2018 he finished fourth in Qatar, first in Argentina and seventh after a tyre choice mistake in Austin. Pasini took until Jerez last year to turn his sharp-end pace into a sharp-end result, when he finished fourth, just beaten by Oliveira at the end of the race as the KTM rider came through with, you guessed it, better rear tyre life. Pasini has no option but to eye the championship this season, and will be aiming for the win this weekend – as we saw in Argentina (and Mugello last year), when Paso can win, he is very difficult to deny.

It would also be a mistake to discount Joan Mir this weekend. He had the pace for his first podium in Moto2 in Texas, but he got caught up in an incident with Domi Aegerter on the first lap which cost him the chance ultimately. Maybe at his home race, Mir can do as Bagnaia last year, and claim his first intermediate class rostrum.

Two riders will not be in attendance this weekend: Domi Aegerter and Remy Gardner, both of whom injured themselves in training crashed – a broken hip for Domi and a pair of broken legs and an ankle for Gardner will keep the pair out for Jerez and maybe also Le Mans (in fact that is almost a certainty for Remy). Gardner will be replaced by Hector Garzo this weekend, who replaced Xavi Vierge last year in Germany, and qualified on the front row, although he crashed out of the race and has so far been out-performed (at least out-paced) by his teammate in the CEV Moto2 European Championship, Lucas Tulovic, but it is a big opportunity for Garzo on a circuit he knows. But it will be Tulovic who replaces Aegerter at Kiefer Racing, which is an opportunity similar to that of Garzo – a big one on a track he knows.

Normally, this would be the point in the season where we really start to see who can compete for the championship, because everyone knows Jerez, and also because it shares similarities with almost every other track on the calendar. However, this weekend is perhaps a little bit different for the Moto2 class, because the field is so competitive. But that just means that we should be in for a classic Moto2 battle, right?

Featured image courtesy of Redbull Contentpool

Sykes Ends Rea’s Assen Winning Streak with Dominant Race Two Performance

Tom Sykes finished fourth in the first race of the Dutch World Superbike round, and as such started the second race from pole position on the #66 Kawasaki and alongside Xavi Fores on the Barni Racing Ducati and the factory 1199 Panigale of Marco Melandri. Row two had Loris Baz in fourth, Leandro Mercado in fifth and Jordi Torres lining up sixth. The third row was of course the podium finishers from Saturday’s race in reverse order, with Chaz Davies going off seventh, Michael van der Mark from eighth and Jonathan Rea starting ninth.

Sykes made a great start from pole, but still had to out-brake the Barni Ducati of Fores around the outside at turn one. He did so successfully, and after being fastest by 0.6 seconds in warm-up on Sunday morning it was an ominous sign for the opposition.

Both Van der Mark and Rea made it past Marco Melandri at the final chicane at the end of the first lap, with the Italian on the outside of the three, and having little choice but to cut the second part of the chicane. He importantly did not gain time, though, and actually lost two further positions to Mercado and Alex Lowes down the pit straight.

Marco Melandri. Image courtesy of ducati.com

Melandri then proceeded to run wide at turn one at the beginning of lap two, which allowed Baz, Torres and then Davies through, and that finalised what had been an awful two minutes for the Italian, who had dropped from third on the grid to tenth in one lap. Meanwhile, Sykes was steaming away at the front, and had already extended his gap to over one second from Fores.

The first lap had not been so good for Davies, who ran wide at the first turn which dropped him quite far back, and his progress only started midway through lap two when he passed Torres for eighth at the Ruskenhoek, and then Baz at Stekenvaal. Perhaps having a bad first lap does not sound so bad, but when the two others who started from row three are third and fourth, and the leader already has about five seconds on you, it can ruin your race, and it took him until the end of the third lap for the Welshman to move past Mercado into sixth.

By lap four the race was starting to take shape, and Xavi Fores’ stay in second position looked severely more limited once he left De Strubben, as Rea had moved past Van der Mark. Sykes was still steaming away at the front, but there was still a question mark about the duration of Sykes’ rear tyre, but we could only find out the importance of the rear tyre in the fortunes of Sykes until the end.

With 16 laps to go, Rea and Van der Mark had caught Fores, and with fifteen to go they had passed Fores – Rea’s move was a stunner, around the outside of Hoge Heide. Now we would see whether they had the pace to catch Sykes for the lead. In the first laps, there were no gains from the Kawasaki-Yamaha pair in second and third, and the gap remained at around 3.5 seconds, and by lap nine it had started to extend, out to almost four seconds.

Furthermore, it looked like Rea was trying a reasonable amount more than Sykes to make the lap time – it looked much more difficult for the Northern Irishman than for his teammate – and he was still losing time to Sykes.

From there, not much changed. Sykes continued to extend the lead over Rea behind, but the order between the front runners remained unchanged in the final twelve laps, apart from Van der Mark passing Rea when the reigning World Champion made a mistake at the chicane with ten laps to go, and a crash for the second Pata Yamaha at the final chicane with nine to go. The British rider got back on to finish fourteenth, but it was not a pair of results that he would have hoped for after starting race one from pole. Rea then passed Van der Mark back at De Strubben and, although he could not drop the Dutchman, he was able keep the home rider at bay until the flag.

The victory of Sykes was remarkable, a return to his World Championship year for the 2013 World Superbike Champion. He got to turn one first, and that was the last anyone saw of him. This performance and result was just what Sykes needed after such a disappointing opening few races, in which he had failed to make the podium on all but one occasion – the first race of the season at Phillip Island. Imola is next up, a good circuit for the Briton, and one where he has a lot of support, typically – a pair of performances akin to the one he put in for Assen race two could throw him back into championship contention.

The win for Sykes also ended Rea’s 100% record at the Dutch circuit since he moved to Kawasaki. The Northern Irishman’s second place, though, was enough to extend his gap in the World Championship to over one race win for the first time in 2018, which could be crucial with Imola next up – Ducati’s back garden and, as mentioned, a good circuit for Sykes.

Xavi Fores behind Marco Melandri. Image Courtesy of Ducati

Michael van der Mark was not particularly content with his third place, saying he simply did not have the grip from the Pirelli tyres to go after Rea and Sykes. Still, his second podium of his home WorldSBK round and third of the 2018 season represents a positive weekend for the Dutch rider and, combined with the potential shown by Alex Lowes, shows the progress made in recent races by Pata Yamaha.

Xavi Fores was the first of the Ducati riders over the line on a difficult day for the Italian marque. It was a decent ride from Fores but he will be disappointed as Assen is the first round of the season at which he has not managed to take a podium.

The second Ducati was Chaz Davies in fifth place. There were changes to the bike made in warm-up, but they cost him side grip in the beginning of the race, and a “strange vibration on the rear” that they still need to determine the cause of. Without the vibration he may have been able to fight for the podium, but dropping eighteen points across the two races was presumably not what the number seven had in mind for this weekend, and he will be hoping to bounce back in Imola, where he did the double back in 2016.

Jordi Torres took yet another good result for MV with sixth place, and ahead of Marco Melandri, who suffered yet again with the Panigale this weekend. Whilst he knows the pace in the bike is there, and that is also evidenced by the results of Fores and Davies, Melandri admits that he, the team and Ducati are still working to resolve the instability issues which have been plaguing the Italian since the start of the season. He is looking forward to a private test at Brno, saying it will be “very important” and that “the solution is within reach” as he hopes to be able to make better results in Imola.

Loris Baz took eighth place on the Althea BMW, ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Lorenzo Savadori who rounded out the top ten.

Eleventh place went to Davide Giugliano (replacing Eugene Laverty) on the second Aprilia, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi who “thought [he] could do better” but a problem at the start limited him to twelfth place. PJ Jacobsen on the sole Honda was thirteenth, ahead of Alex Lowes in fourteenth after his crash, and Ondrej Jezek who was the final points scorer.

Yonny Hernandez was the final rider over the line in sixteenth, whilst Leandro Mercado and Roman Ramos were the only retirements.

From here, the 2018 Superbike World Championship heads to Imola for round five. It is the true home round of Ducati, so they will be particularly focussed to recover from their subpar performances in Holland, and close down the gap to Jonathan Rea in the championship. But, for now, the man of the moment is Tom Sykes, who barely put a foot wrong in Assen race two, and looked back to his title-winning self.

Bagnaia Back to Winning Ways in Austin

Ahead of the third round of the 2018 Moto2 World Championship, Alex Marquez was on pole, sharing the front row with the KTM of Sam Lowes and Mattia Pasini. Francesco Bagnaia headed up row two, as he looked to bounce back after a disappointing Argentinian round. Joan Mir was fifth on the grid, with Luca Marini sixth. Xavi Vierge, Marcel Schrotter and Fabio Quartararo were on row three. It had been a poor qualifying for the ‘factory’ KTMs, as the Red Bull Ajo bikes of Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder were down in twelfth and sixteenth – in fact they were the lowest-placed KTMs on the grid ahead of the eighteen-lap race.

Francesco Bagnaia. Image Courtesy hondaproracing.com

By far the favourite for the race win, it was Alex Marquez who made the holeshot and took the early lead. Sam Lowes had a poor getaway, and dropped back to fifth in the initial stages, with Pasini, Bagnaia and Vierge finding their way past the British rider early on.

Notably, Pasini had chosen the harder option rear tyre, whereas everyone else had gone with the softer option. This was clearly not working for him at the start but the hope for him was that after six or seven laps it might start to come in, and he could start to make his way back through the pack. But he could not hold back Bagnaia, who passed him on the first lap before pointing his crosshairs at the leader, Marquez, and began closing down the near-one-second gap that Marquez had created.

It took Bagnaia a few laps, but eventually he caught Marquez and with ten to go; the gap was essentially nothing. He waited a few laps, perhaps managing the tyre, but Bagnaia finally made his move with nine to go at turn eleven, but he ran wide, allowing Alex back through.

Whilst Pecco was waiting to try again, Oliveira passed Vierge for third with eight to go, but surely the five or six second gap that had appeared between Bagnaia in second and Vierge in third was too much for the Portuguese rider to close down with the limited time remaining in the race.

The next move from Bagnaia came at turn one with six laps to go, but there was a sublime response from the Spaniard at turn three just a few seconds later. Once more, Bagnaia came back, this time at turn eleven when Marquez ran wide. The #73 came back through with the slipstream down the main straight, but the Sky Racing Team VR46 Kalex moved back through on the brakes for turn twelve. After hanging on through the ‘go-kart’ section of the track, Pecco now had a chance to hold the lead, but Alex was not dropped yet.
By this point, with five laps to go, Oliveira was now with far superior pace compared to the front two, lapping nearly one second faster than the leaders. The only person who could match his pace in the final laps was Joan Mir, which is perhaps very telling.

An apparent mistake on lap fourteen from Bagnaia allowed Marquez to come back to him, but the next four laps from the Italian were just what was needed to hold on, and take the win. It was an important win, too, for Bagnaia, after his poor performance in Argentina: where he finished only ninth. It was a win which made him the first double winner of 2018 in Moto2, and also meant that there is still an Italian domination in the intermediate class thanks to Pasini’s victory two weeks ago. In addition, first place in COTA allowed last year’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ to return to the top of the championship, and this time with a ten-point lead which, with the incredible depth of field in Moto2 this season, could be about as big as anyone gets all season.

Alex Marquez held on well for second. For sure, he would have expected to win, but finally he did not have the endurance in the softer tyre that Bagnaia or Oliveira did. Fortunately for Marquez, he did manage to build a large gap whilst the likes of Vierge and Pasini were running at the front and not allowing Oliveira to show his ultimate pace. Perhaps the biggest positive for Marquez after this race is that, despite the difficulties he faced in the final laps, he did not make a mistake and throw it all away as he might have done in the past, and that could be crucial looking forward with respect to the championship.

Miguel Oliveira – image courtesy of RedBull content Pool

Fourth place went to Miguel Oliveira who will be ruing his poor qualifying. Without that, he could have won – he was the only rider who could run the mid-to-low elevens at the end of the race, with the possible exception of Joan Mir, and if he had started at the front we wouldn’t have seen so much of him on the TV.

Joan Mir had another stunning ride for fourth place. He will be disappointed as his fifth-placed qualifying was his best in Moto2, and it gave him his best opportunity so far for a top result. However, an incident with Dominique Aegerter at turn one on the first lap shoved him to the back of the pack, and meant that he had to fight from the lower reaches of the top twenty to salvage his race. And salvage it he did, with sublime passes on riders, who are no mugs: riders with far superior experience to him. His fourth place probably did not match what he deserved. Furthermore, his pace in the end of the race was only matched by Oliveira, on the KTM which is famed for its gentle treatment to the tyres, and realistically if everything was ‘how it should have been’, if you like, Mir should have been fighting with Oliveira for the win in COTA, and it would be hard to bet against the Spaniard in such a fight. Either way, it was a brilliant performance from the 2017 Moto3 World Champion, and surely he is only going to get faster when the championship heads to Europe in just a couple of weeks.

Iker Lecuona took by far his best Grand Prix result with a fifth place for the eighteen-year-old. Like Mir, you would expect him to get stronger in Europe – he had never been to Austin before this weekend. Lecuona was followed in by Brad Binder, who, like his teammate, had to recover from a poor qualifying and finished sixth after quite a wild race for the South African with quite a few moments. Pasini was seventh, and suffered with his choice of the harder rear tyre. He might have had an advantage in the end of the race, but never had the free track to use it thanks to how tight the pack was behind the leaders. Eighth place went to Jorge Navarro, who beat home Domi Aegerter and Lorenzo Baldassarri who was tenth.

Isaac Vinales was eleventh, ahead of Simone Corsi who is seemingly really struggling in the Tasca Racing team. Luca Marini was thirteenth – and seemed quite good in the beginning of the race but could not keep up the pace towards the end, perhaps due to a shoulder that he dislocated at the MotoRanch last week. Andrea Locatelli was fourteenth and Fabio Quartararo rounded out the points in fifteenth.

Sixteenth went to Romano Fenati who is still looking for his first Moto2 points. Remy Gardner was seventeenth, ahead of Hector Barbera who is still struggling to adapt to Moto2 after eight seasons in MotoGP. The Japanese Tetsuta Nagashima was nineteenth, Bo Bendsneyder rounded out the top twenty, ahead of Steven Odendaal on the leading NTS chassis. Eric Granado was the only Suter to finish, and did so down in 22nd, ahead of sole home hero Joe Roberts.

Sam Lowes had an early crash at turn eighteen but got back on and finished 24th. Khairul Idham Pawi finished 25th, ahead of Jules Danilo, Zulfahmi Khairrudin and Federico Fuligni who was the 28th and final finisher.
There were four retirements: Xavi Vierge, Stefano Manzi, Marcel Schotter and Danny Kent.

Next, the Moto2 World Championship goes back to Europe, and to Jerez, the circuit where Bagnaia took his first Moto2 World Championship podium last season. With that in mind, is anyone going to be able to stop the current championship leader when the paddock arrives in Spain?

Moto3 Texas: Martín Takes Second Win of 2018, Foggia Shines

Jorge Martin was sat on his tenth career pole position ahead of the 2018 Moto3 Grand Prix of the Americas, and alongside him on the front row were Aron Canet and John McPhee. Tatsuki Suzuki, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini made up row two, whilst row three was a Japanese sandwich made with Italian bread with Dennis Foggia and Marco Bezzecchi lined up either side of Ayumu Sasaki for the seventeen-lap race which lay ahead.

It was a good start for Martin, who was one of two riders to run the harder rear tyre, the other being Bastianini. But, as is typical for Austin, there was a pileup at turn one, with Adam Norrodin, Kaito Toba, Kazuki Masaki and Jaume Masia all coming to blows.

Martin was away well, though, ad that was a worry for the opposition because the Spaniard had looked to have supreme pace all weekend. But Di Giannantonio had found his way into second position as the field made its way through the snake, and was turning on the magnets trying to catch his teammate ahead. In behind the Italian was Aron Canet, the rookie Dennis Foggia, Suzuki, Sasaki, Bastianini and Bezzecchi with a small gap behind the Italian back to Phillip Oettl.

Over the next laps, there was the usual early sparring that you get in Moto3, and a modestly-sized, for Moto3, front group of about twelve riders. There were surprises, though, as the likes of Foggia took a stint at the front – people who might not have been expected to be fighting right at the very front before the race. Foggia spent a lot of time in the early laps in the front four in the beginning of the race, which made his swift demise in the final seven or so laps all the more confusing. But it was a strong race for the Moto3 Junior World Champion, who should have even more confidence when the paddock heads back to Europe.

With ten laps to go, the race began to take shape, as the two Gresini bikes, led by the #21 of Di Giannantonio had found their way to the front with Bezzecchi in tow. Despite their best efforts, they could not escape the pack behind thanks to the series of long straights at COTA and the importance of slipstream in the lightweight class.

But what was missing was Aron Canet, who was struggling, battling with the likes of Andrea Migno for seventh, and not making any headway. It was a confusing situation, because he had been quite strong all through the weekend, but now was seemingly unable to put himself in a position from which he might be able to challenge in the last laps.

With seven laps to go the front group had definitely split. There was now a front group of five, with Bezzecchi, Martin, Diggia, Bastianini and Oettl; and then behind there was Livio Loi who had come from way back on the grid in 26th place to now be trying to bridge the gap between the front group and the chasers, and he was bringing Migno and Jakub Kornfeil with him.

With five to go the front group of five had almost become a sixteen-wheeler thanks to Migno, but more importantly Jorge Martin, with that harder rear tyre, had hit the front. Bastianini had seen the danger, but he was back in sixth place when it arrived. The Beast made quick work of Oettl and Bezzecchi, but already Martin was creating the gap. Enea made the move on Di Giannantonio with four laps to go at turn seven in the middle of the esses, but already the gap had grown to nearly a second.

Over the next three laps, Bastianini showed that he had the pace to match Martin, but could go no faster. Martin finally took the win because he made the move at the right time, and Bastianini could not challenge him because he was not in the right place to react. It is this apparent lack of race craft which has hindered Enea in the past and, even though he is clearly one of the fastest riders this season, it could once again cost him the championship if he doesn’t address it.

Image courtesy of Redbull contentpool

Either way it was a stunning piece of timing for Martin to escape when he did, and he made perfect use of his hard rear tyre. As mentioned, he was not the absolute fastest rider on the track; other riders could match his pace. but he had the superior race craft and the superior intelligence to make the most of what pace he did have, and it is that which gave him such a comfortable win.

Enea Bastianini ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio. Moto3 2018: Round Three – Circuit of the Americas, America. Image courtesy of hondanews.eu

The second place for Enea Bastianini was the first of his season, and also his first in Texas. With that in mind, you would have to say his championship challenge has now started, typically for Enea a little later than everyone else. Jerez will be an important round for the Italian, because he needs really to beat Martin to close the gap in the championship, and also announce himself as a contender.

Third place went to the Argentinian GP winner, Marco Bezzecchi, who did not look so spectacular this weekend, and in fact many people discounted him, implying that Argentina was a one-off due to the conditions. But Bez proved them wrong in the race, with a strong pace throughout which was only matched by one other KTM rider in the shape of Philipp Oettl who we know from past performances likes the Texan track a lot. In a track which for a lot of the weekend he had struggled, Bezzecchi still found the podium, and this could be the sign that he might be able to fight for this championship.

The podium was won for Bezzecchi in the final corner, where Fabio Di Giannantonio dive-bombed him, as you might expect in the final corner of a race. In doing so, Diggia ran wide, and that cost him fourth to Andrea Migno on the exit. Migno had produced some stellar pace in the second half of the race, and fought hard at the end to achieve his best result of the season. Had Migno qualified better, he may well have been able to beat Bezzecchi to the final podium spot.

Finally, it seems Andrea is starting to click with the Angel Nieto Team, who have their home race up next in Jerez, at the circuit which has been named after the late Spanish motorcycling legend after whom Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez named his team between the 2017 and 2018 seasons. A good result at such a venue would not go uncelebrated, that is for sure.

Aron Canet. Round Three – Circuit of the Americas, America. Image courtesy of hondanews.eu

Di Giannantonio ended up fifth, but only after fighting for the lead for most of the race, that will come as a disappointment to the Italian. Sixth place went to Philipp Oettl who had by far his best result of the season and the same can be said for Jakub Kornfeil, the Czech rider finishing in seventh place. Aron Canet was disappointing in eighth, especially after the incredible pace he had in Austin last year, but the result evened out the championship a little bit, after Martin’s eleventh place in Argentina. Tatsuki Suzuki took ninth place, and in the end. Despite a promising pace towards the end of the race, Livio Loi could only manage tenth, but from third-last on the grid, that can be considered quite an achievement for the Reale Avintia Academy rider.

Ayumu Sasaki had a huge moment on the exit of the final corner early on in the race when he was in the leading group, but in the end could only muster the pace for eleventh place ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo, Darryn Binder – who was really quick when the circuit was slippery – and the KTM pairing of John McPhee, who had a difficult race from the front row and Albert Arenas who rounded out the points.

Dennis Foggia managed to somehow, lose 20 seconds in five laps, indicating either a destroyed tyre, maybe the rider running out of energy or just a lack of rhythm after he started to get overtaken. Whatever the case, the result does not represent in this case the performance of the rider because in this race Foggia could have been in the fight for the podium, and with five laps to go; he was. Maybe in Jerez, a track where he was quick at last season in the CEV, he will be in the fight until the end.

Four seconds behind Foggia, was fellow rookie and youngest rider in the paddock; Alonso Lopez. Who beat Lorenzo Dalla Porta to seventeenth after the Italian lost time by running on at turn twelve at the end of the main straight. Makar Yurchenko took nineteenth, ahead of a disappointing Tony Arbolino in twentieth on the Snipers Honda. Jaume Masia could not recover from his involvement in the first lap collision at turn one and finished 21st, ahead of the other riders who were involved and remounted Kazuki Masaki and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat, and also Niccolo Antonelli who ran into the back of Lopez at the end of the main straight on lap one.

There were four retirements: Marcos Ramirez and Nicolo Bulega, both of whom continue their horrendous starts to 2018. As well as Adam Norrodin and Kaito Toba.

After the first three fly-away races of 2018, the next six races in Europe, starting with Jerez in two weeks, offer an opportunity for the championship to settle, the cream to rise and the true championship contenders to show themselves as such.

Featured image courtesy of Redbull contentpool

Americas GP Review: Six in a row for the King of COTA

Marc Marquez returned to form this season with a crushing display at the Circuit of the Americas, to claim his sixth win in a row at the Texas venue.

It was a simply faultless ride from Marc Marquez and it will go some way to putting a controversial fortnight behind him. Having been demoted to fourth place on the grid after impeding Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) during qualifying, the defending world champion refocused on the task at hand. When the lights went out, Marquez launched off the line, and found himself at the front of the field with Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone. For the early laps the two exchanged positions and traded fastest laps as they pulled clear from the field. On Lap 4 Marquez overtook the Suzuki rider for the final time and never looked back. What followed was a relentless display of commitment, precision and speed. Lapping close to half a second quicker than anyone else could manage, the 4x MotoGP champion quickly established a gap that he could not lose. In the conventional sense we did not have a classic race as a result. We did however witness a classic demonstration of how to ride a 240bhp prototype machine to the very limit. Job done for Marquez. 25 points in the bag, and a timely reminder to his critics of the sheer talent and control he possesses.   

The race therefore became a battle for best of the rest. That honour went to the Movistar Yamaha factory team. Vinales (P2) looked competitive all weekend – a far cry from the situation at the season opener in Qatar just a month ago. It was also the Spaniard’s first podium finish of the year, and his first since last October at the Australian Grand Prix. The new found performance of the Yamaha M1 was backed up by Valentino Rossi (P4). To say it has been a difficult early season for the team would be an understatement. In Qatar they were experimenting with different setups to try and give their riders any kind of feel through the front tyre. In Argentina they had a nightmare. Rossi was taken out by Marquez and Vinales could not find any competitive setup. At COTA they were back to form. Although the lack of top end straight line speed prevented the riders from having any chance of sticking with Marquez, the numerous medium-speed long flowing corners played to the strengths of both the bike and the riders. Although Rossi bemoaned a degreading tyre as his reason for not being able to fight for a podium finish, he was quick to remind everyone that the next two tracks (Jerez and Le Mans) traditionally favour Yamaha. The highly satisfied looks from Vinales and his team in parc ferme confirmed this newfound optimism. A corner has been turned, and Yamaha will be back fighting for victories again soon.

Rounding out the podium was an inspired Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar). Perhaps it was motivation having seen his teammate Alex Rins score a podium finish last time out in Argentina. Or perhaps is was the growing threat of losing his ride with the team in 2019 which spurred him on. Either way, the Italian produced a timely reminder of his ability to be a front running contender throughout the weekend. Fastest of everyone after Friday practice (the only man in six years to be quicker than Marquez at any point at this venue), and continued to defy belief by qualifying on the front row. When the race started, it was Iannone who got the holeshot from the line, and briefly led for the early laps before Marquez inevitably found a way by. A wearing front tyre conspired against the Suzuki rider’s ambitions for second place but he was not to be denied third place, holding pace with Vinales and pulling out a gap on Rossi over the closing laps. The celebrations in parc ferme were telling: Both team and rider expressed a mixture of jubilation and relief. Sunday April 22nd. The day the real Andrea Iannone stood up.  

It was a difficult, but by no means disastrous, weekend for the Ducati team. Andrea Dovizioso (P5) produced a solid ‘damage limitation’ ride. The team knew this weekend would be difficult as, aside from the long back straight, the rest of the 3.4 mile circuit does not play to any of the Desmosedici GP18’s strengths. We were therefore treated to the unusual sight of Dovizioso racing with the full aerodynamic fairing this weekend, to help the Ducati turn through the fast switchbacks in the first sector. Fifth place however was enough for Dovi to regain the lead in the Riders’ Championship following Cal Crutchlow’s non-scoring finish. Jorge Lorenzo (P11) however, had to endure another wretched Sunday. As has become somewhat a formality now, the triple premier class champion finished a long way adrift of his factory teammate. To add insult to injury, the Majorcan rider finished behind the likes of Tito Rabat (Avintia Reale Ducati) and Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) on older satellite machinery.    

Rabat (P8) finished the race as the second best Ducati rider. The former Moto2 champion has looked completely re-energised this season aboard the Desmosedici GP17, and secured his second top ten finish of the season. The Spaniard held off a late charge from Australian ace Miller (P9) in the closing laps. Miller had to dig deep to get a strong result, after a troubled qualifying session left starting on the grid down in 18th place. He kept out of trouble on the opening lap in the scrum up at turn 1, before quickly settling into his rhythm and picking off one rider after another. A particular highlight was his double overtake of teammate Danilo Petrucci and Aleix Espargaro (Team Aprilia Gresini) around the outside of turns 16-18. With rumours ever increasing that Lorenzo is going to leave the factory Ducati team at the end of the season, Jack Miller is certainly getting his audition in early to the Ducati Corse bosses.   

A word must be given to Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who produced the performance of the weekend. Two weeks ago he was launched from his bike on the opening lap in Argentina after contact with Johann Zarco (Monster Tech3 Yamaha). His right wrist was broken to such an extent that an operation was required to bolt the fragments of bone back into place. To make matters worse, the wrist in question operates both the throttle and front brake lever. During Friday practice, one of the Dorna camera crew captured images of Pedrosa’s hand. The evidence of surgery clearly visible along with a considerable amount of swelling – forcing the rider to wear a much larger glove. Additionally, perhaps most telling to the pain Pedrosa was in, every time he returned to the garage a bag of ice was immediately secured to his injured wrist. Having somehow managed to qualify in 10th place on the grid, few (if anyone) would have expected much from him over the 20 lap race distance on the calendar’s most demanding track. There is a reason why Pedrosa is nicknamed the ‘Little Samurai’. One can only imagine the increasing pain he was in as the laps ticked off. Nevertheless, Pedrosa found himself still running inside the top ten and battling with the likes of Dovizioso and Zarco in the closing stages of the race. Although the pain eventually forced him to abandon the fight and settle for P7, it was a truly heroic display from the Spaniard.

The 2018 MotoGP World Championship resumes at Jerez for the Spanish Grand Prix, May 4th-6th.

Rea Equals Fogarty with Dominant Assen Display

The first race of round four for the 2018 Superbike World Championship at Assen was set to be a fierce one, with the pace of the front runners looking quite close, and after Alex Lowes set his first WSBK pole position.

However, it did not quite turn out that way. Jonathan Rea took the lead early on and, despite being passed by Michael van der Mark replacing him at the front for a couple of laps, the win for Rea never looked in doubt. He may not have been able to break away from the pack, but he always looked like he would have the extra 2% to be able to fight back should someone have come past – honestly it looked like he was riding at 90% for most of the race to conserve the tyre. The win for Rea extended his lead in the championship to twenty points, put him level with Carl Fogarty’s record of 12 wins at Assen and closer to the four-time World Champion’s total win record.

Jonathan Rea, Michael van der Mark &  Chaz Davies. Image courtesy of Ducati media

Michael van der Mark took second. It looked like he just ran out of tyre at the end, but his position is positive, and a good result at his home race. He had a stretch leading the race, but was never able to make an impact. It can be said, though, for sure, that the Yamaha had incredible high speed stability, as all of both Lowes’ and van der Mark’s lap time came in sectors three and four – the run back to the chicane. Van der Mark made the most of that to achieve what he did, but the amount he was lacking in the first half of the lap absolutely cost him the race, because by the end of the race he was losing too much time to be able to be close enough into the chicane – he had too much time to make up when he arrived at the section where he had the advantage – so he could never make a move for the win. Perhaps the #60 side of the Pata Yamaha garage can make a change for tomorrow to be able to fight more for the victory – but the signs from the R1 are positive, it is coming.

The final spot on the podium was taken by Chaz Davies. There was a point in the race where it looked like Chaz could win – he was hounding Jonathan Rea at almost every corner, but ultimately he was not fast enough in the right areas, notably the final sector – with all the fast stuff – which is ultimately what cost him the position to van der Mark at the end and also what cost him the chance to have a go at Rea, because he couldn’t get close enough in the final chicane or turn one. There was a bit of a scare for Davies at the end as Tom Sykes was closing him down, but the second Kawasaki was not close enough in the final chicane for a move. Third is a decent result for Chaz, considering points to Rea is probably a little bit more than what he might have expected yesterday. But, for sure, Chaz needs to win tomorrow, and starting from the same row of the grid as Rea tomorrow (for race one, Chaz was only on row three) will certainly help.

Fourth place for Tom Sykes is the result of his best race since Phillip Island race one. It still looks like Tom is struggling to get on with the ZX10-RR of this season, with the new regulations implemented, but for nonce, today Sykes came back at the end of the race, rather than dropping further back. Sykes spent a lot of time on one tyre on Friday to prepare in the best way the race, and it definitely worked, as he came past Marco Melandri and Xavi Fores and nearly Davies too. Pole position tomorrow could be just what the Brit needs to take his first win – but he has to make the start.

Marco Melandri  and Chaz Davis. Image courtesy of Ducati media

Fifth place went to Xavi Fores, who looked like he ran out of tyres by the end of the race, but it was enough either way to beat Marco Melandri who, as expected, looked to be struggling over race distance with the stability of his bike. Maybe it is just me, or maybe it is just that Melandri is a physically smaller rider, but it looks like the Italian is running a larger fairing this weekend perhaps to combat the instability. If he is running one, and it is for that purpose, it doesn’t seem to be working much. Phillip Island showed that Melandri has the pace to win races, but until this high-speed headshaking issue is sorted out, Marco’s season is somewhat on hold.

Loris Baz was the ‘best of the rest’ in seventh place on the Althea BMW. The Frenchman’s dog died in the night, and so it was a nice result for him to be able to say goodbye with – even if it is not what he would really want, it is pretty much all he can get right now with the package he has.

Eighth place went to Leandro Mercado on the Orelac Kawasaki, his best ride of the season, ahead of Jordi Torres on the MV and the Puccetti Kawasaki of Toprak Razgatlioglu who rounded out the top ten. Roman Ramos was just outside of the top ten in eleventh, ahead of Alex Lowes who had some issues from about the mid-point of the race, but still managed to beat Davide Giugliano, PJ Jacobsen and Lorenzo Savadori who completed the points finishers. Sava actually crashed just after passing Baz for seventh place at De Strubben, which itself came after a disastrous start which dropped him way down the order from his grid position of fourth. Still, the pace shown by the Italian is positive after a difficult start to the season.

The final two finishers were Yonny Hernandez in sixteenth and Odrej Jezek in seventeenth. The only retirement was Rinaldi, who also had a grid penalty for irresponsible riding which occurred in an incident with Tom Sykes in qualifying. Both the Red Bull Hondas missed the race too, as Leon Camier is suffering with his injury from Aragon, and Jake Gagne is out for the weekend after he sustained injuries in his practice crash in the first of the fast right handers in FP2 – a bit of a miserable weekend for the Red Bull Honda team, in their home race, none of their bikes can race.

There is a lot of work to do for many of the riders tomorrow if they want to beat Jonathan Rea, and if they can’t it will be a historic day for the triple World Champion.

Featured image courtesy of Assen Circuit

Canet Back in Texas for Redemption

For round three of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship, the lightweight class paddock goes to the Circuit of the Americas after two rounds which were not exactly what you might expect from a Moto3 race. Firstly, Aron Canet and Jorge Martin stormed away in Qatar to fight for the race win between themselves, six seconds ahead of the third-place scrap. Then, last time out in Argentina, the field was spread out by the mixed conditions which saw Marco Bezzecchi take the first win of his career in the World Championship and Jorge Martin make a tyre choice error but recover to score points.

Starting with Bezzecchi, it was a stunning ride from the Italian in Argentina. He could have been on the podium in Qatar too, but a crash on the last lap meant he could only manage fourteenth. It’s fair to say he made up for that two weeks ago, when he took the victory in tricky conditions – the type of conditions we knew he could excel in from last season, when he was riding the CIP Mahindra and would often appear towards the top of the time sheets when grip was scarce. With the KTM package underneath him for this season, there was always the possibility that he could make the next step to be a rider who could contend for the podium or even the victory on a regular basis, and so far he has proven that. There were some who questioned whether Bezzecchi can go on to fight for the title – the fortunes of other KTM riders at the moment might suggest otherwise, but maybe Marco is the rider to extract the most from the RC250GP. It can be said that we will learn a lot about the credentials of the Italian this weekend in America, where last year on the Mahindra he finished 19th and 26 seconds off the win.

Aron Canet leading the pack. Image courtesy of hondaproracing.com

Where there are doubts about the championship credentials of Bezzecchi, there are none about those of Aron Canet. In between his two second places from the first two races this season, he even managed to evade the mace of Race Direction after the moment of madness with Makar Yurchenko in FP1 last time out. That sort of luck might just be what he needs to put his name on the World Championship trophy at the end of the season. Also, let’s not forget that Aron Canet was lightning fast in COTA last season. In the first running of the race, he was running away, just as the times through the weekend has suggested he might, but after the red flag for a Kaito Toba crash, Romano Fenati managed to pressure Canet into a mistake which turned out to be a huge high side for the Spaniard. If Canet can find that type of pace again this year, it could well be a battle for second.

In conjunction with his luck with Race Direction, there was more luck in the race for Canet, whose championship rival, Jorge Martin, decided late on to run slick tyres on the wet-but-drying track in Argentina. This cost Martin, who spent most of the race off the pace, and by the time he had an advantage, it was only enough to get him to eleventh. This might seem like a good damage limitation job from the Spaniard, but it is true that if he did not make the switch to slicks at the end of the warm-up lap, Marco Bezzecchi may still be winless.

Fabio Di Giannantonio of Gabriel Rodrigo .Image courtesy of Redbull contentpool

Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the podium in Argentina, and continued his decent start to the season after a sixth in Qatar. The Italian was on the podium in COTA last season, his tall frame for once coming in useful on a Moto3 bike in the fast changes of direction in the first two sectors. The same might be said for the likes of Nicolo Bulega, who finished fifth in COTA last season, but is yet to score a point in 2018, or Darryn Binder who is in a difficult moment with the KTM Ajo team.

After a crash in Qatar and a fourth place last time out, Enea Bastianini, despite being one of the fastest guys in both weekends so far, and throughout preseason testing, is only ninth in the championship, and still looking for his first podium of the season. It could come this weekend, as he tends to go fairly well at COTA, finishing fourth last year in a difficult season with Estrella Galicia Marc VDS, and has been in the top six at the Grand Prix of the Americas in all but one of his appearances there. Perhaps this is the weekend for La Bestia to get himself back into contention with Canet and Martin for the World Championship.

Dennis Foggia had a strong weekend in Argentina – much better than Qatar. He was in fourth or fifth place when he crashed, eyeing up the podium. It is positive to see a rider in just his second race as a full-time Grand Prix rider not being content with a top five in tricky conditions, but looking always for more. Of course, it didn’t do his championship much good, and he is still without a point in 2018, but Foggia kind of announced himself last time out, now he just needs to put it on paper.

That said, the Circuit of the Americas is a notoriously difficult track for rookies. The only rookie to win in COTA is, of course, Marc Marquez. The technical demand of the track is huge, with a stop into turn one which requires immense stiffness in the front suspension to be able to cope with the insane uphill gradient on approach, but then the many other big stops around the circuit, at turn twelve, thirteen and the final corner require softer springs so that there is enough weight transfer. This, in essence, means that the rider has to deal with the front forks bottoming slightly into turn one, so that they can have sufficient transfer in the other braking zones. In addition to that, there is the mass of direction changes between turn one and the main straight, all of which require something completely opposite: a nimble, agile bike which is quite unstable to be able to change direction as fast as possible. COTA is the ultimate in compromise, and for a rookie that is daunting.

On top of the demand of the track’s layout, there is the potential for rain this weekend, which could offer a surprise result similar to that of two weeks ago. Even if the rain does not arrive for the race, there could be a shortened race distance due to the shaving of the track to get rid of the bumps which the riders complained about so much last season, but in doing so a part of the surface has been exposed which is highly abrasive, which has the potential to tear up tyres. The effect might be less on a Moto3 bike compared to the top class, for example, but the potential is there for a shortened race, and adding the rain into that could create a difficult situation for the race organisers.

Between a variety of contenders, the potential for dominance from Canet, the abrasive track and the threat of rain, this weekend’s Moto3 Grand Prix of the Americas is looking as though it could be a particularly intense affair, but nonetheless exciting.

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