No sooner has the MotoGp season for 2013 come to a close than the 2014 season has started with a two day test at Valencia that has a few (though not many) ramifications for the following season. To the victors go the spoils, of course with Maverick Vinales taking a thrilling win over arch-rival Alex Rins (and the other arch rival, Louis Salom eliminating himself in an unforced error) to take the Moto3 crown by the slimmest of margins. Vinales rode clever, something that he hasn’t really done in the latter half of the season and was there when he needed to be when the last corner arrived. His last lap looked anything but impressive but, somehow, he gathered himself and the bike together and dragged raced Rins to the line.
In the big race, Marc Marquez also rode clever, staying out of the very physical encounter between Lorenzo and Pedrosa and eventually allowing Pedrosa to slip back into second place, cruising to 3rd place and the title to rapturous applause from the partisan crowd.
In case you have been living under a rock for the last week, here is the list of his achievements this year.
Oh, and he also won the BMW car for setting the most pole positions in the season. (9)
It was no surprise, then, to see that the new champion and his Honda team-mate weren’t on show in the morning when the traditional end of season Monday test session began. Apparently he and Pedrosa surfaced about lunch time! and got down to business. (Pedrosa, incidentally, underwent another shoulder surgery yesterday which apparently went well). To non-one’s surprise, the end of the two day session saw MM93 (should that now be MM1 ?) on top again.
The other big news of the weekend was the sacking of Jeremy Burgess by Valentino Rossi. I’m not going to say too much about this in case I offend anyone, but, suffice it to say, I thought that it was a classless and cowardly thing to do and that it is symptomatic of Rossi’s new obsession with blaming everyone else but himself for his lack of performance.
I’m heading up to the Sydney Motorcycle and Scooter show at Darling Harbour tomorrow. I am hoping against hope that Honda will have a new VFR on display!