Category: MotoGP

Yamaha’s independent rider Johann Zarco will launch from Pole for the Malasyan MotoGP race after Honda’s Marc Marquez received a penalty from the Stewards of 6 grid positions after impeding Andrea Iannone from Suzuki on the track.

So it’ll be an independent rider, Zarco from the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team who will have the privilege of starting the race from the first spot of the grid, followed by Valentino Rossi from the official Yamaha Movistar Team and Iannone will ride the Suzuki Team bike from 3rd.

The second row will be filled with Ducati bikes with the official Team leading with Andre Dovizioso 4th, followed by Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci.

The title race is over with Marquez claiming it last race at Valencia but the fight for second remains open.

In what was nothing but a totally exciting race, Marc Marquez won his 5th MotoGP title becoming the youngest and joining a very short list of elite riders Rossi, Doohan and Agostini. His main rival, the Italian Andrea Dovizioso launched at the start and held the lead brilliantly in his Ducati until his front tire gave up two laps from the checkered flag and he crashed out of the race and the title fight as well. Marquez put a lot of pressure from the start and he and Cal Crutchlow were the only ones that could keep up with the rhythm Dovi was imposing with Crutchlow fading out in the end as the two title contenders went into that extra gear of their own.

After Dovi´s fall, Marquez had his way clear to the win, Crutchlow barely held on to the 2nd position with Alex Rins in the Suzuki setting very fast pace in the second half of the race in a determined charge to the front. Andrea Iannone, the other Suzuki rider moved along with his team mate past Valentino Rossi but couldn´t match his team mate´s pace and crashed out as well, leaving Rossi with the 4th place of the race. Alvaro Bautista finished 5th, followed by Zarco, Viñales, Pedrosa, Petrucci and Syahrin.

Next stop is Phillip Island..

Perhaps I can’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t say it was, but in recent MotoGP history it must have been… Marquez took pole at Assen, he seemed to have the pace to out run the competition but a super fast starting Lorenzo jumped from 8th to first by the first corner and managed to hold on for several laps, perhaps way more than what anyone could have predicted. That triggered a series of over taking maneuvers from everybody behind with riders going up and down the position standings lap after lap and with some of the wildest saves we could have imagined possible.

 

Lorenzo for one, lost the front while followed by Rossi at no less than 195km/h and not only the Yamaha hit the back of the Ducati pretty hard, somehow Loreny managed to stay on the Ducati and keep leading for more laps!!! That was surreal to watch.

Marquez stayed second most of the time but not without his good share of luck as well, a very focused Alex Rins put his Suzuki on the inside of the Honda and both riders touched with Marquez loosing it… Did I say he lost it? No, in the surreal MotoGP world he didn’t, he not only held on, he payed back the maneuver to Rins after a couple of laps and went on to win this fantastic fairy tale race. Rossi led the race for a moment, Viñales came from the back, joined the party and led the race for a brief moment as well, Doviziosso led the race as well so it was a race worth watching from the start to finish.

Battles developed everywhere, we could say all bike brands shined at one or another point of the track and race, some took advantage of the cornering speed, some gained momentum on the straights, some under braking and some under acceleration.

Next round is at the Sachsenring in Germany on July 15th. For the Dutch TT results click here.  For the current Championship standings here.

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Yamaha newcomer, Maverick Viñales, rode to victory after a very intense race where conditions triggered uncertainty throughout the weekend, forcing the qualifying session to be cancelled and the starting positions for the race be determined according to Free Practice 3 times. The race itself had to be delayed after rain hit the track causing even more uncertainty over grip levels and which tire to pick or to call it in a more adequate way, which tire to gamble on…

The big surprise of the race was not the grip level, it was the pace of French rider Johann Zarco that took the lead with a fast start and kept it for 6 laps until he fell off the race on lap 6 when he came barely off the line under braking. Conditions were anything but easy, the racing line was very narrow and a few riders abandoned due to falls, including Cal Crutchlow who fell once and rejoined and fell again being the first victim of a changing track. The fight at the front was intense, Viñales seemed unable to keep the pace of Zarco, Marc Marquez in the Honda, Andrea Iannone in the Suzuki and Andrea Dovizioso in the Ducati, at least in the first laps when these riders kept the fight for the second position. Zarco fell on lap 6, Dovizioso made his way past these riders to take the lead and held it until lap 14 when a resurgent Viñales came back to the fight, Iannone had a similar fall, loosing the front of his bike after a strong showing when fighting for the lead, Marquez could not keep the pace after Viñales found his and passed him after the mid point of the race along with Valentino Rossi who joined the fight.

The second surprise of the race, I would say, was Aleix Espargaró, the Spaniard riding the Aprilia officially for the first time in MotoGP, coming from 15th on the grid he took on a steady but aggressive pace passing several riders and fighting it out in the end with Dani Pedrosa in the other Repsol Honda receiving the checkered flag in P6. The fight in the front meanwhile was extraordinary, Dovizioso simply did not want to finish 2nd place again in Qatar, he wanted the win and even though the Ducati had more high end speed, the Yamaha looked better on certain other corners, not many, Viñales tried a couple of times, he overtook the Ducati but was overtaken again, very entertaining fight and finally Viñales managed to make the pass and pull out enough ground for it to be impossible for Dovizioso to grab the position back again in the last lap (20th).  Rossi completed the podium, happy to have been able to keep his new team mate´s pace in the race, after a not so good testing and practicing. 4th was for Marquez, who lost pace in the end and couldn´t keep up with the fight for the win, 5th was for his team mate Pedrosa and 6th for the impressive Espargaró in the Aprilia.

Weather had its influence in what was a very delightful race to watch, let´s see what happens in Argentina, for the 2nd of the Championship in a couple of weeks.  Full results, click here.

Andrea Dovizioso achieved an important pole for tomorrow´s race at Malayisia after overcoming difficult conditions on a wet track. The fight was on since the first qualifying where Cal Crutchlow set the pace followed by Loris Baz who had a fall and could only watch as the other riders tried hard to beat his time and advance to the second qualifying with Crutchlow but it was just enough. The second qualifying was similar to the first where the riders tried hard to find the pace to achieve a good starting position for tomorrow and the fastest was Dovizioso with the Ducati that has shown great pace in several races with wet weather. Valentino Rossi took second place with his team mate Jorge Lorenzo in third who somehow finally seemed to overcome all the difficulties he has had with the rain tires this season. Recently crowned champion Marc Marquez had to overcome sickness and missed Free Practice 2 to save energies for today, he qualified 4th and expects to be feeling better for tomorrow´s race. Crutchlow managed to qualify 5th just ahead of Iannone who returns to this grand prix after a back injury. If the conditions continue like this, the race will certainly be interesting where the fight is now for the 2nd place between the Yamaha team mates and Marquez has absolutely nothing to loose… Suzuki riders will be wishing for a dry race where they showed great pace…

Full results click here.

Suzuki’s Maverick Viñales beat the 2 minute mark to set a 1:59.947 very close to the best lap of the Circuit set by absent Dani Pedrosa in 2015 of 1:59.053. It was only FP3 though, so times will still drop in a certainly exciting qualifying session later today as the competition is pretty close, 8 riders within a second, 14 within 2 seconds and all within 3 seconds in the 5.543 km track (3.46 miles). After his accident in practice in Phillip Island, Dani Pedrosa will be substituted by Hiroshi Ahoyama in the second Honda, Nicky Hayden did a good job in Australia even if the result did not reflect. Another rider who had problems was Ducati’s Andrea Iannone but he finally returned this weekend from his back injury absence and had absolutely no difficulties in finding his pace back.

For full results click here.

Marquez dominated on a mixed condition qualifying practice with a time of 1:30.189 with Crutchlow 2nd and Pol Espargaro 3rd.

Full results for MotoGP click this link:

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Luthi dominated in Moto2, full results here:

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Binder, already crowned Moto3 Champion, wants a home victory, the pressure is off and he keeps on pushing as hard as always (like Marquez), full results for Moto3 here:

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Crutchlow said he doesn’t specially like rain but his pace on wet tracks has proven he’s strong in the slippery conditions and Australia’s first two practices took place under these conditions. FP2 was red flagged and then suspended due to the strong rain that affected the track with few riders even venturing to set a lap time. Hector Barbera and Jack Miller followed suit but many riders considered the decision to halt the 2nd Practice was appropriate although some others said it came a bit late.  Jonas Folger led the way in Moto2’s only practice session since the second was canceled as a whole and Nicolo Bulega had the fastest time of the two sessions combined in Moto3.

Weather conditions are supposed to improve so the session’s schedule for Saturday practice was modified to give the riders of both MotoGP and Moto 2 more time. Times so far are not really significant since the track conditions will most likely improve.

Spaniard rider Dani Pedrosa fought his way from 8th on the grid to take the lead of the Misano Grand Prix in a dramatic series of solid passing maneuvers and pace. Initially he made his way to 6th position at the start of the race and then kept his cool behind Dovisiozo and Viñales while at the front of the race, poleman Lorenzo was beginning to take the heat from local hero Rossi. The Italian did make his move on his team mate and immediately pushed hard to try and make a difference to what Lorenzo could not respond.  Marquez battled it out to catch Lorenzo but could not really make a move and apparently tried to keep the rhythm hoping for the Yamaha’s Medium Option tires to give up.  Marquez chose the Hard option for the front and Medium Rear which did not pay off today while Pedrosa chose the Soft front and Medium rear which certainly gave him advantage in the third and tightest sector setting a new race lap record on the way to the line. Rossi had to settle for second place, he simply could not respond to Pedrosa’s lap times, third went to Lorenzo, Marquez faded away a bit in fourth place followed by Viñales in the Suzuki, Dovisiozo in 6th with the Ducati followed closely by Ducati’s test rider Michelle Pirro who came in to replace Andrea Iannone who had an accident in Friday Practice 1 and was ruled out due to a back injury. Cal Crutchlow finished 8th followed by Pol Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista completing the top 10.

Pedrosa played well to team mate Marquez’ favor by taking the lead of the race from Rossi, 43 points make his lead advantage in the Championship but if the Italian had won he would have taken 5 points more away. Pedrosa’s chances in the Championship regain momentum as well climbing to 4th in the standings 17 points behind Lorenzo as the riders head to Aragon for the next race.

The MotoGP Championship just got more interesting as Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi found the ultimate pace to control the race from start to finish on a track that traditionally has favored Yamaha but Spanish riders as well. Jorge Lorenzo’s turf was no more his this time around after he could not match Rossi’s pace and lost almost 3 seconds riding at his best to try and catch the Italian from the start.  Honda’s Dani Pedrosa made a very good start to run fourth and for a few laps 3rd as he passed his team mate Marc Marquez finishing 4th in the end followed by the Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales in the Suzukis. Marquez tried to put pressure on Lorenzo for second place but he too could not match the Yamaha and eventually ran a lonely race to finish 3rd which keeps him firm in the lead of the championship 17 points clear of Lorenzo in second.  Andrea Iannone finished 7th in his Ducati overcoming his poor qualifying that saw him start 11th while his team mate, Andrea Dovizioso fell victim of his bad luck again, when he had a technical issue and had to retire his bike….

Pol Espargaro, Eugene Laverty and Hector Barbera completed the top 10 as the pack heads to France for the Circuit of Le Mans race on May 8th, a circuit that Rossi is very familiar with and that could see him come closer to the lead if Lorenzo and Marquez aren’t able to respond.