Half-yearly reports

One of the things that I don’t miss now that I am not teaching full-time any more, is filling out student reports. Back in the bad old days they were all done by hand and, with my dreadful hand-writing, I was often faced with tedious re-writes as my supervisors felt that the end result wasn’t fit to send home to parents. As well as that, there was also the difficulty of editing. One small typo while you were writing usually meant that the whole report would have to be re-written, a tedious and annoying process.

Then along came computers and software that would enable you to do most, and eventually all, of the report at the keyboard. However, the early attempts were cludgy, frustrating and often prone to not saving your night’s work even though you had asked them to do so. Thankfully, those days are now past and the last time I did reports (T4 2009) I found that the software was good, the work you did was safe and the end result was impressive.

Having said that, however, I still enjoy not having to do reports any more. Today, though, I am going to do a report card only it will be on the Grands Prix classes. Now that the season is at its half-way stage and the “summer break” has started, it is time to review the first half of the season and see how the students are travelling. I’ll do it class by class and just stick to Grands Prix. Sadly, since I do not get to see the WSBK races any more, I will have to confine myself to just the MotoGp classes.

Moto3.

A+  Louis Salom. In a category where he didn’t really figure in the early betting, Salom has burst from the pack to be leading the Moto3 class handsomely. He has shown excellent race-craft and is earning the admiration of not only the commentators but his fellow competitors as well.

A  Maverick Vinales. Maverick was the expected favourite for 2013 but has had his colours lowered on a number of occasions this year. He is on one of the best bikes and has the speed but his race tactics are letting him down. He isn’t out of it yet, but he will need to lift his game in the second half of the season.

A  Alex Rins. Part of a strong, two-bike team, Rins is maturing rapidly and is benefitting from having a fast and competitive team mate. He should get stronger as the season progresses.

B+  Jonas Folger. Jonas had a good first half of the season but started to fade in the last few races, not really keeping pace with the KTM’s at the top of the pack. Inconsistency doesn’t win championships and I feel that he will probably wear the “best of the rest” tag for the rest of the season.

B  Alex Marquez. Acknowledged by commentators and by his more famous brother as being even faster than Marc, Alex has shown flashes of that brilliance but has yet to put it together in a row. There is plenty of time for him but he needs a strong second half of the season to attract the right sort of attention.

B  Miguel Olivera. The Portugese rider has shown patches of brilliance this season so far but does tend to get “swamped” when the last lap flurry begins. With more experience he will finish higher up more consistently. He really needs to be on a KTM.

B  Jack Miller. The first of the Honda-engined pack that extends back to 9th place in the title chase. Miller is plainly as fast as the leading pack but is limited by the fact that there is no development taking place on the Honda engine, Honda refusing to get into a “prototype” war with KTM. Miller should attract a KTM ride next season, then watch him fly.

C+  Brad Binder. The South African has impressed but is not as consistent as he needs to be. He is also limited by using the Honda engine.

C  Alexis Masbou Another rider who is struggling with the Honda but, experienced as he is, he should be doing more with it.

C  Efren Vazquez. The Mahindra rider is very experienced and has shown patches of form but is also struggling with consistency.

Moto2

A+  Scott Redding. Leaving aside the pro-British hype evident in the commentary that we get on TV, Redding has done an excellent job so far this season and deserves to be atop the standings. Given that he is comfortably ahead of his vastly more experienced team mate on an identical bike, it’s hard not to like what he has achieved so far this season. He has had his lead whittled away a little in the last couple of races but is still looking good.

B+  Pol Espargaro . The pre-season favourite in just about everyone’s books has not delivered so far. He has closed the gap a little just before the break but he is struggling to win races consistsntly and that is what he will have to do to unseat Redding.

B  Tito Rabat. Experienced and fast but not consistent. tends to fade a little when the last 5 lap craziness sets in.

C+  Dominique Aegerter.  Always a good starter but gets swamped late in the race. A journeyman rather than a potential champion.

C  Mika Kallio. The Finn must be starting to think it’s time to wind up his career. Hugely experienced with many wins under his belt, but is struggling to match the pace of his team mate and hasn’t recorded a win for a long time.

MotoGp

A+  Marc Marquez. Running out of superlatives for the rookie. Has benefitted from injuries to Pedrosa and Lorenzo but goes to the break with a deserved lead in the championship. Could easily win the title in his maiden year but will face a revitalised Lorenzo and Pedrosa once racing starts again. Given what he has achieved so far and how he has handled the pressure, the sky is the limit for the likeable Spaniard.

A  Dani Pedrosa. Starting out the season injury-free for the first time in a long while, it was all looking good for Dani till his crash in Germany. Even though it was clear that his biggest competition was going to be his team mate he didn’t seem that fazed and raced brilliantly. However, the accident has surely dented his confidence and will have brought back unwanted memories of riding while injured in previous seasons. Dani is very much a “confidence” rider and we will have to wait and see how much the accident has dented that.

A  Jorge Lorenzo. Superman paid the penalty for coming back too soon after injury and it has seriously dented his title chase. The Yamaha is the faster bike for most circuits but the next few races after the break are all “point and squirt” tracks which better suit the Honda. He can still win, of course, but once another rider who is riding well gets a more than one race win gap in points it always makes it harder.

A  Valentino Rossi. His return to Yamaha has not been quite the honeymoon he hoped it would be. In his absence, the bike has been tuned and set for Lorenzo and Vale has found himself on another bike that he can’t trust, in a similar vein to the last two years at Ducati. Another rider, faced with this situation, would be languishing far further down the points table than he is but he IS Rossi and he is where he is because there is still enough of the great left for him to overcome the bike issues and score points when it counts. Can he win more races? Yes, of course he can. Can he win the title? No, I don’t think so.

A  Cal Crutchlow. Apart from the stellar Marquez, CC35 has been the revelation of the season. Great riding on a satellite bike which is only marginally lower spec than the factory machines regardless of how much people bleat about him “needing” a factory bike. He is crashing a lot which doesn’t help, but he is mainly crashing in practice rather than the races which DOES help. However, riding injured is always hard and he can’t keep doing that and get away with it forever.

B  Stefan Bradl. There is an old saying that one swallow does not a summer make and it would be crazy to read too much into Stefan’s performance at Laguna Seca regardless of how impressive it was. He has an almost factory-spec bike and will need to deliver many more rides like last weekend’s effort if he wants to retain the seat at LCR next season.

C  Andrea Dovizioso. I always maintained that Dovi’s move to Ducati was the worst thing that he could have done and I still stand by that. Fighting over 6th place with an equally frustrated team mate and finishing 30+ seconds from the leader consistently is a recipe for career destruction. While it is encouraging to see him occupying 7th place in the championship, the fact is that he is 80 points behind the leader.

C-  Alvaro Bautista.  Another rider who should be doing better than he is given the quality of the machinery he is running. There are plenty of hopefuls who would do better on the Honda than Alvaro. He must lift his game in the second half of the season or he will be gone.

D  Nicky Hayden. Going through the motions. Passed his MotoGp use-by date years ago.

B+ Aleix Espargaro. 10th place on the table and first CRT rider, an excellent performance.

So, let’s see how the second half of the season pans out.