Well the final round of MotoGp had pretty much everything that you’d want. Granted the racing wasn’t as filled with overtaking as we would like but final rounds when the points are tight do tend to produce that sort of racing. But you’d have to be pretty hard to please not to be enthralled with the drama that unfolded in all the classes.
In Moto3 Jorge Martin finally got the monkey off his back and, after winning 8 pole positions during the season and not converting any of them into a win, he won from pole to the generaous (and releived) applause of just about everyone. Racing is never about “what ifs” but Joan Mir fans will be asking what would the result would have been if the World Champion hadn’t been into the gravel trap to avoid a fallen bike and had to rejoin in 19th place. His “burn from the stern” was reminiscent of some of MM93’s efforts in Moto2 a few years ago and he was closing on Martin when the laps ran out. Having said that, Mir would have been happier than anyone to see Martin take his maiden victory (doubly so since he won’t have to race against him next year 🙂 )
Moto2 saw another double podium for the KTM team with Olivera winning again over the new World Champion, Morbidelli, and Binder in 3rd. Morbidelli is another who is probably glad he is graduating as it’s looking very much like an orange year in Moto2 for 2018.
But, if you wanted drama, the MotoGp race had it in spades. Marquez got a rocket start while team-mate, Pedrosa flew through from down in the grid to shadow him in the early stages. Zarco got his usual flyer and was soon harrassing Marquez and looking like having his best chance to break his MotoGp “duck” with the factory bikes struggled again. Pedrosa played the perfect wingman, slowing down the two charging Ducatis of Lorenzo and Dovizioso who, by mid- race, appeared to have run out of puff (Valencia simply isn’t a Ducati track). Given that Dovi had to win and Marquez had to finish 12th or lower, the title was inexorably slipping away from the red rider.
Then the team issued the coded “move over and let Dovi pass” signal on Jorge’s dash followed by increasingly blatant messages on his pit board telling him to cede a place to his team mate. Regardless of what you opinion on the situation is, I despise team orders and evidently, so does Jorge. In his defence, his upping of the pace was dragging the both of them closer and it suddenly looked like a possibility when Marquez blew his braking into T1, ran off the track and into the gravel trap. Surely this was the end, but, no. In an example of one of his many miraculous saves this season, the kept the bike upright and rejoined in 5th.
Lorenzo then obeyed team orders in the most dramatic fashion by crashing out of 3rd. Red hopes were raised yet again though Dovi admitted afterwards that he didn’t have the pace to catch either of the leaders. It all became academic, though because Dovizioso shortly after crashed himself, putting the issue beyond doubt. In the mean time the battle up front was intense and Pedrosa had to perform an heroic pass on Zarco on the last lap to deprive the Frenchman of what would have been a well-deserved win. With both the Ducatis in the gravel, Marquez was back on the podium and that’s how it finished.
I won’t bore you with the stats but, suffice it to say that Marquez has further elevated himself into the ranks of the “greats” and, at 24 and seemingly still loving his racing, it seems likely that he will continue racing for quite some years to come and continue to break records.
As a matter of interest I couldn’t help but be reminded of the eerie parallels between Marquez’s race and that of Hiroshi Aoyama at the same track in 2009 when he ran off the track in the same corner while leading the last-ever 250cc Grand Prix and was able to keep the bike up and gain enough points to be crowned the last 250cc Champion.
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/motogp/2009/november/nov0809-aoyama-takes-250-championship/
Testing has already started withe the usual suspects up the front, and the usual carnage.
Well, that’s it for grand prix racing for 2017. Roll on 2018.