Lorenzo does the moonshot (photo courtesy of mcnews.com.au)
The short story from Aragon last weekend is that Marc Marquez won, Dovi added to his points and Lorenzo binned it, but there is, of course, much more to it than that. I didn’t get to see any of the action live as I was away for the weekend and my various devices were pretty low on charge due to my solar problem, so I watched all three races on Monday when I got home. A number of things stood out, most notably being that it is now apparent that the power advantage that Ducati has enjoyed all year has now been negated by clever electronic fiddling at Honda. On the nearly kilometre long back straight at Aragon, Dovizioso was unable to shake Marquez off for the whole of its length and, when Marquez chose to pull the pin, Dovi had no answer for the power of the Honda. That said, the Ducati is still a better package as it is only superior riding by Marquez that is enabling him to win the races against Dovi and be leading the championship.
Jorge Lorenzo must have spent too much time as Rossi’s team-mate at Yamaha because it seems he has learned how to blame others for his misfortunes. His crash was wholly his fault and, blaming someone else for it makes him look foolish in the extreme. I’ve always maintained that riders should be compelled to keep their helmets on and their visors down in the pits as well and let their riding do the talking. My dad used to say that it is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Other talking points, an excellent performance by Suzuki proving, amongst other things that you DON’T need a V4 engine to be competitive (see my comment above) and an improved showing from Aprilia. Of course the main talking point is just how far Yamaha have fallen from being the dominant force we have known them to be for so long. And already Rossi is saying that he hates the 2019 bike even before the 2018 season is over. At the start of the season we were used to seeing the blue bikes struggling but now the malaise seems to have spread to the satellite team as well with Zaroc MIA as well. Time for a clean sweep of the technical staff at Yamaha methinks.
Jorge Martin continues to be the standout in Moto3. A 1+ second advantage from the standing start and a 2+ second advantage at the end of the second lap (the first flying one) and the rest of the pack struggled for the rest of the race to see where he went.
At least Moto2 provided some close racing. though Binder was the surprise winner at the end by over a second. Bagnia, MotoGp bound in 2019, still holds a handy lead and (apart from his recent unforced errors) looks set to leave the class as the winner.
There are no real surprises in the minor class silly season and there are still a few places to fill, so it’s worth hanging around.
Marquez goes to Thailand with a 72 point lead and it will take a herculean performance by Dovi or a monumental collapse by Marquez to stop him clinching his 5th MotoGp title and his third in a row. As it stands, he could clinch it on Honda’s home track at Motegi in just a few week’s time. It’s going to be torrid as the season draws to a close. And I reckon Marc’s dance routines at the end of the race are pretty funny despite what the commentators say (certainly superior to the old Lorenzo Land tripe from a few years ago)
Till next time.