Racing from Assen

Welcome to MotoBot, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 735. I'm Jim McDowell with me as always from the UK, Richard Jowett. Rich, did you enjoy our little hiatus that we somehow worked through? Well, I did, Jim, although it's been quite a busy time with work.

I've been to a couple of concerts. I went to see M83 in London. I went to see Iron Maiden at Nottingham Arena last week, which was fantastic. And bought a couple of motorcycle events as well in that period of time. So, yeah, it's been good.

But sorry that we've been absent for a couple of weeks, but we'll do our best to catch up now. Yeah, definitely. We know that it's been a while. I was out for the July 4 holiday here in the States. Enjoyed that very much.

Enjoyed all the fireworks. I, as you work, is hectic as well. But we're here. So we're going to be talking about Assen. That's where we left off.

We didn't even give you a race review. So here comes a race review for that. So that's what we're going to talk about. First thing first, I think we've got like a couple of quick or a few news items that we're going to talk about here. Let's there was some breaking news that happened at the beginning of the weekend in Assen, and that was about tires.

And it was the fact that Moto2 and Moto3 will race on Pirelli's next year. Pirelli has signed a tender to be the sole supplier for those two classes, replacing Dunlop, which I never saw coming because there wasn't even like a whisper of this. I was out there. And quite honestly, when I had when I heard it and I had what apps you you were like, is it April Fool's somewhere? And I don't know it.

Yeah, exactly. I was shocked. I don't know about you. Your your thoughts on it for me. This is going to be pretty crazy.

I see a benefit to this because I think most of the national series ride Pirelli. World Superbike is obviously on Pirelli. Everybody in World Super Sport is on Pirelli. British Superbikes is Pirelli, correct? Yes.

Yes. The US is Dunlop. MotoAmerica is Dunlop. That is for sure. I'm not too sure about some of the Asian Talent Cups, the CV, exactly where they sit with their tire selection.

But it definitely seems like going to Pirelli is going to give a leg up to some of the Brits that are going to want to try to get into the paddock, whether it be on a Moto3 bike or a Moto2 bike, because they just have that sort of experience with it. I don't know. Is it a good thing? Bad thing? I don't know.

Your thought? I really don't have. I'm like, well, yeah, they're different. Yeah, I don't really have an opinion. I mean, I think the general consensus from the well, from the riders that you hear that switch from one tire to another is that the Pirellis are obviously very, very different to particularly the Michelins and like way off the scale compared to the old days of the Bridgestones, let's say much sort of kind of softer construction and so on.

I'm not a tire technologist. I'm, you know, I don't really know. But that is a big change. And it's a significant change because, you know, Pirelli now has a very dominant position as a supplier to many of the sort of foremost categories in motorcycle racing, doesn't it? Apart from the top tier of Moto GP.

So I'd be interested to know what Michelin think about all this. I mean, obviously, we don't have any contacts there, but yeah, interesting development. Anyway, and I certainly took me by surprise and I thought it was a joke when you WhatsApp me, I must say. Yeah, I'm surprised to my own personal experience. I came from Dunlaps Racing and Club to a spec that spec class that to a series that ran a spec tire, which was Pirelli.

And that was, wow, I never really could grab hold of what was wrong. But only. A few years after after it all kind of washed out and I had been married and all that, did I really understand what the difference was? And wow, if we would have done this or had changed this, we would probably have been OK, but they there. This is not a they're a bad tire comment from me.

Please understand, people. They are phenomenal tires. They really are. They just are a completely different construction. The carcass is very soft.

It's sort of you know, you ever watch old super bike front facing cameras that they have down low on the forks that tire flattens big time. The Michelin's flatten on the front of a Moto GP bike as well. As you said, which was Michelin think of all this, I don't really know. I don't think Michelin cares. They've got a contract for X number more years.

I don't know exactly what that is, but. I think it remains to be seen what happens. Let's just get into next year because it's going to throw big wild card into everybody because all the setups that they've had have are going to be out the window. They are going to be 100 percent say this. They are going to be radically different setups required to race a Moto to a Moto three bike at the front on a Pirelli compared to what they know of the Dunlaps.

And that's you know, it is a major curve ball that might favour certain riders in terms of feel and all these kind of intangible grey areas that we talk about a lot. So it could create quite a competitive shakeup of the order. I mean, we obviously we don't know. And for people that remain in say Moto two next year or Moto three next year, it'll be interesting to chart who kind of does better or worse. I mean, we would never know if that's tire related entirely.

But yeah, it's a big change anyway. So it'll be interesting to see how that one goes. Yep. So it goes there. The second piece of Moto GP news that we want to talk about, if you have been following, if you follow Simon Patterson on Twitter or just kind of in general, some of the motor sports people on Twitter, there were a lot of pictures that came out.

I don't know if it was today or this morning or late last night, depending on what time zone you're all in. But Simon Patterson had a week had a retweet of a picture of the FIM delegation who does the track inspections for the track that is in India. It's the old Formula One track that used to be on the circuit. And I'm going to say the early 2000s. Time frame.

Well, so the one picture was of the of the main grandstand, which looked as though it has about to rust apart and fall on top of itself. I would not want to sit in that grandstand personally, just giving from the picture. It looks like once they sort of stopped having F1 there. And I really sorry, I don't know exactly when F1 stopped there. But it looks like no one has done anything to maintain or take care of that track, aside for maybe some club racing that's going on, because the track seemed to be fairly well.

You know, it wasn't like there was grass and weeds running through it. But it did seem like from the one picture, few pictures I saw, there were there's a few cracks and stuff that need to be sealed stuff of that nature, which over time is going to happen to any surface. But my bet is we're not going there. They're going to say you guys can't get all of you what you need done in time. And we're going to take that one off the schedule, too, I think.

Yeah, I think it's probably what you call a triumph of hope over expectation at this stage. I mean, I don't want to get too geopolitical about this, but I think some of the issues are well founded around. It's all buried very last minute. You know, there are certain obviously in terms of the track changes that were required to get up to the standard that's required from a safety perspective. But I mean, as you said, Jim, just looking at some of the spectator facilities, they don't look very good.

So. I think if I was a betting man, I'd probably put a reasonable about a coin on the fact that that is likely to get shelved at the 11th hour, which is a great shame, because obviously MotoGP, although we can talk about and we have talked about where it goes in the world and whether, you know, they're really motorcycle relevant markets some of the time, but India clearly is. But I think just. Yeah, it's a bit of a horror show, that one at the minute. And I'd be surprised if that race goes ahead.

It it wax of reminds. Sorry, it reminds me of the track in South Korea that they built for Formula One. And they I think they maybe really raised their two, maybe three years. I remember the team saying like the last time they were there, it looked as though no one had cleaned out the refrigerator since the last time they'd been there. It's like, wow, OK, that's pretty crazy.

But then I'm thinking, like, don't you guys clean up your own messes? I think that's irrelevant. But the problem in some of these places is that, you know, you get like a a local kind of political situation that really wants to promote that kind of development. And so an event happens for a period of time, for a number of years. And then things change.

And then the facilities fall into, you know, disrepair or disrepute. Well, you want to what you want to say. I mean, in the case of the South Korea track with Formula One, I mean, it was absolutely in the middle of nowhere, I think, that particular place. And so, you know, it wasn't a long term viable thing. Now, I'm not sure about the track in India, but certainly once Formula One departed after being there for two or three years, I think that's probably right, Jim.

Probably it's fallen into quite a poor state. And whilst India is definitely a target market for a race to take place, it requires a heavy investment, you know, and there's a lot of politics around that, particularly in the country. I'm treading carefully here, but India is, you know, has a great deal of wealth, but not everywhere, you know. So it's probably tricky to get that place up to the spec that it needs to be at. And I think it will probably fall by the wayside this year.

But I mean, who knows? Maybe they'll come back next year. Right. Yeah, possibly. But I mean, it's a bit, yeah, a bit tenuous at the minute.

That's for sure. And it's not going to help in matters any that it was India got a notorious reputation for being very difficult to move equipment in and out through customs. MotoGP is not going to want to play that game. And that's what killed the Formula One race there. That is pretty huge.

Huge taxes involved. And that's what stopped that one dead in its tracks. Sorry for the pun, but yeah, that was the case. Yeah. Right.

So those are the two things that I had for News Rich. I know you said you had a couple items you'd like to discuss. So please floor is yours. Yes. So sorry, everybody.

A little bit kind of scattergun on this, but I just wanted to go through a few things because we've been off for a couple of weeks. So I went to Donington Park. What was it now? Two weeks ago as of tomorrow for the World Superbike ran. Hopefully some people might have seen some of the social media stuff that I put out in terms of pictures.

I was to chat to Danilo Petrucci, Domy Agata, Loris Baz, Charles Davis, Garrett Gerloff. Probably missing somebody off the list there. Brad Ray, BSP champion, he's in World Superbike. So I'm busy editing that one up at the moment. So that will follow in a few days after this show goes out.

So hopefully that's something for people to look forward to. Huge thanks to Dawna, who are really starting to stand behind MotoPod now and give us some proper, you know, real good support. We've had to push a little bit for that, but, you know, they've stepped up and they're helping us out on that one. If anybody has seen the pictures that I sent out from Donston, they might have noticed some nice new branded gear for MotoPod. So we've got a, let's say, a show sponsor on board.

We're going to tease this out and reveal this a bit more as the months go on, probably over the off season, because there's quite a bit to put in place. But we're working with a company called Road Skin. You can go and find their website. We'll obviously start to put the details out. So they very kindly have co-branded some gear for us so that we can start to publicise the show.

So I just wanted to mention that and we will reveal more about that, particularly with regards to long term subscribers, financial supporters of the show, patrons and PayPal subscribers to the show. We want to do something for you guys and girls. And we also want to get more people to come on board to support the show a little bit or as much as they can financially, because obviously that helps us to do more. So with that in mind, I'm happy to say that I've been invited next week on Tuesday to Silverstone to sit down with Stuart Pringle as part of the Silverstone MotoGP pre-launch event. Ironically, I'm not going to Silverstone MotoGP this year because I'm actually going to be on holiday in Spain because we had an offer because I couldn't refuse.

But I am going to the pre-launch event. So I'll get to sit down with Stuart Pringle. As I say, he's the managing director of Silverstone Circuit. So if any of the particularly the UK listeners have got any questions, that they would like me to ask him, because I'm going to have a opportunity to sit down probably for, I think, about 15 or 20 minutes with Stuart, hopefully to do a quick interview with him. Again, you know, we've got to ask questions that are reasonable, not too contentious, because, you know, he's the managing director of Silverstone.

I've got a few things I want to ask him about the event and how it's run and, you know, what the future holds for Silverstone and so on. But if people have got a few questions, send them in on feedback and I'll be there next Tuesday to talk to him about that. What else? I've also managed to get some accreditation to go to the MotoGP round as a media accredited person at the Qatar round in when is it the end of November, 19th of November. So we're going to do some planning around that.

We'll talk about it a bit more on the show so that people have a bit of an opportunity to perhaps fire in some questions. And I'll tell you a little bit more about what I'm trying to do as part of that event. But again, thanks to Dawna, because they're now on board with us. Although we're a relatively small podcast in terms of numbers, it's true. And obviously, we're trying to grow that.

And the more subscribers we can get, the more financial contributors, the more we can do. So that will be coming and we'll talk about that a bit more. What else, Jim? Golly, it's been busy. Well, Superbikes, a little bit of news that's doing the rounds.

This one might get a few people animated. Barney, Spark, Ducati team, as I think I mentioned last show of maybe a couple of shows ago, looking to run two bikes next year. And one of the names that's now front and center to take that second seat is no other than Andrea Iannone, who will be coming off the end of his four year ban. Interested to know what people think about that. I won't reveal my thoughts just at the moment, but I mean, does that what do you think, Jim?

Because he's obviously he's been off the radar for quite a while for obvious reasons. Well, refresh my memory. What was he banned for? Was it was it substance abuse? Yeah, like an illegal diet thing.

It was a diet. It wasn't a performance enhancing drug of some. He said was regular for his diet or something. OK, yes, I remember this. Now, yes.

OK, it went to the court of arbitration. They found against him and the ban was actually increased in its length. Wow. So that's why he's been off the off the radar for quite a while. But so that four year period is due to and I don't I don't know exactly what the date is, but he would be eligible to compete again, certainly in terms of 2024.

So he's being quite closely linked to one or two rides in Superbike and the Barney Spark Ducati alongside Dinero Petruccio, who's in the team this year, but might not be next year. But so, yeah, that's one of the rumors doing the rounds at the moment. So I'll say this. Look at how hard it's been for Marquez to get back. And part of that's bike development.

I fully get that whole scenario. But four years, just how far tires have marched on, just how far bikes have marched on, just how far forward, you know, look at how the style and Moto GP has changed. In four years, look at how much has changed, you know, like from the standpoint of Johnny Ray and how he sort of I don't want to say revolutionized World Superbike, but revitalized it definitely to some extent with his Kawasaki. Now look at where they are in that, you know, that four year time frame worth, you know, any being out. That's a tough road to hoe right there.

And I wish him the best. I always thought he was he's talented, right? I think he might deserve to be riding on a world stage somewhere, but I think it's going to be a lot harder than what he thinks it's going to be. Yeah, I mean, an Italian going on to an Italian bike, you know, which is obviously the the pick of the field. At the moment, the World Superbike.

I don't know the ins and outs of precisely because it obviously was some years ago. This all transpired in terms of what he did. Obviously, you know, it was a bit of a circus at the time when this is all going on and it kind of went to court for appeal and et cetera, et cetera. So let's say he didn't come out of it from a PR point of view exactly covered in glory. Yeah, he wasn't unscathed, but that way.

And he wasn't necessarily the most popular person during his time in MotoGP. Let's remember, I mean, if you remember, he took out Tavizioza in Argentina, which effectively lost him the works Ducati ride at that stage. And then he went to a brilliant and that's when all of this substance stuff came up, whether it was innocent, whether he was guilty. Who knows? We don't know.

And we're not going to get into the mire on that one. But he's been away for a long time. So that's one of the rooms doing the mil. So that'll be interesting to see what else I want to say just very quickly. I went to Snatterton BSB this weekend, just gone.

Roasting hot in the UK this last weekend. OK, so define roasting hot. Well, when I arrived there on Saturday morning, it was I'm talking degrees Celsius. You'll have to do the quick conversion in your head, but it was 28.5 degrees Celsius and it was really humid as well. So it was hot for here.

Normal day in Ohio here. OK, all right. I was sweating like 83 degrees. OK, that was hot here. Let me tell you.

So anyway, quick snapshot of the weekend. Tommy Bridewell on the beer monster, Ducati did the treble. He's never even done. He's never even done a double race win before. And he's never won at Snatterton in all of his BSB career, which is long.

So, you know, he's really fast track. Like it's like a couple of chicanes. No. Well, it's a track that used to be. I mean, it's one of the old classic British World War II airfield tracks.

But they kind of put a loop in a few years ago. So it's now called the Snatterton 300 track. So it kind of goes back and forth on itself a little bit. But yeah, I mean, they hit 180 down the back straight. So they're not hanging around, that's for sure.

And Tommy had to really fight for the wins as well. They were three great races, two in particular were absolutely spectacularly good right down to the last lap. So I'm going to go. I can't go to Brands Hatch, which is the next round, because it's around the time I go on holiday to Spain. But when I get back, I'm planning to spend a full weekend at Thruxton, which is my local track for BSB just up the road from here.

So I'm going to try and spend a little bit of time talking to some of the BSB riders again. So we'll try and get a decent chat with Tommy, because they are doing really well. And all but motorsport for BSB, you know, proficionados. They are really resurgent this year after a couple of really kind of disastrous years by their standards. So Paul Bird, who runs that team, said he'll have a chat with me as well.

So hopefully we'll have some, you know, good chats with a few people when we go to Thruxton. So I think, Jim, that was all my kind of scattergun stuff to talk about. But people check out the Road Skin website, please go and have a look at the. So they basically make motorcycle riding gear and various apparel. And we'll try and come up with some promo codes for listeners and subscribers to the show if you want to buy some of their gear.

And we will start to put some ads in. That's the way we're going, because the listeners have told us in the past, Jim, haven't they, that, you know, if we want to grow the show, we need to get some commercial sponsors on board. That means a couple of ads in the show. That's a price that's worth paying. And, you know, all of this stuff costs a lot of money.

I mean, I've heard about you, Jim, but I spent hundreds of pounds this year going to rounds and stuff driving around. Fuel isn't cheap. Events aren't cheap. And it all comes out of our pockets at the minute. So, you know, if we can get a few more pounds and dollars and euros in the pot, it does help to allow us to increase, you know, the coverage of the show.

So onwards and upwards. Exactly. All right. So let's get back to Aspen and talk about what went on there. So we'll start, as always, with Moto F3.

Of interesting notes here, the first qualifying session, Artigas, Marrera, Anshu and Holgardo and Ortella are all in P1. Qualifying one. Sorry, I think I said P1, like QP1. That's what I meant to say. It was like, who's going to be the odd man out?

Because somebody's not somebody that quartet's not going through, right? They're you know, who is going to get in there? Or about halfway through, Ortella's bike started smoking. It was, you know, basically it was leaking some sort of oil that was there. They rushed it into the pits.

They weren't able to. It looks like they were able to affect some repair. I think it might have been maybe like some oil filter that was leaking, something of that nature that they were able to sort of get to make a change there. It was pretty crazy, but it was it was at the end of that one. When it all came all said and done here that it was that.

No, that's not what I was thinking of. Sorry. So as it came through, it was all crazy at the end, but it was Furwaka, Adrian Fernandez, Anchu and Toba who actually went through for a Sato, I should say, who went through that was well, I didn't expect that to happen at all for those guys. I mean, really the only the big hitter was, you know, we had no Artigas, no, no Holgardo and no Marrera. And I wouldn't have thought that those guys would have had a problem getting out of Q1.

It goes to show how technical Assen actually is with the speed carrying your carrying your momentum, things like that. We get to QP2 with five minutes to go. Anchu was on top, which was good. He was followed by Nippa and Sala and Kelso, Sasaki and Toba. Sasaki would go to the pole, but then you had Masayana turn eight.

Now, at the very, very end, everybody seemed to get by with just enough time on the clock to get one more flying lap at this. So it went crazy at that point because they could, right? There was, you know, everybody had that last lap to get through there, but it wound up with David Munoz on top, followed by Kelso, followed by Ricardo Rossi, Sasaki, then Anchu and Nippa. That was your top six. Absolutely fitting for them to be that way.

And what was it really in my mind, a really great qualifying session to see in Moto3. Anything else from qualifying, Rich, that I missed that you may want to add for the listeners? Well, just really the head scratcher that was Hulgado. Yeah. But we'll come back to that, I think, you know, in a minute.

That we can. We get to Sunday and we have a 20 lap affair in the race. So it starts with Munoz, Kelso and Rossi out front, Sasaki and Anchu, and Hulgado went down on the very first lap. It was a very simple crash. It was as if he just had no feel or confidence to me, looked like to me, in the front end of the bike, washed it out, laid it down, picked it back up and was dead last as the entire pack had run by.

Now, maybe he got caught out on the cold tire a little bit there. I'm not sure. But Ortola was 12th, had made his way to 12th and he had a long lap penalty that he had to take. And he took that long lap penalty, Zarco style, if you like, right? He just chucked that puppy in there to lose the minimum amount of time.

And then early on, Watley and Adrian Fernandez came together and they were both down at turn three. And it looked like Watley touched the back of Fernandez there. I think he misjudged his braking. Maybe got sucked in the draft. I don't think he locked the front and let off from the angles that we had.

I couldn't see that. But those two guys were out from there. After this, it becomes an insane, watch it through your fingers kind of a race, Moto three, because of the speed that everybody's going at. It is incredible. Munoz led for quite a while.

At one point, Anchi went by like four people going through the Ram's Hook to get to the final chicane. They were four and sometimes five wide going through there. It was three wide through the Ram's Hook a lot of times, which that is a very fast corner, even on a Moto three bike that's still in the 120s, roughly. That is flying. And these guys were literally millimeters apart.

And there was a lot of touching. There was a lot of rubbing going there. I've got to say, Jim, I just can't believe there weren't crashes during this race. You're talking through the notes and I've got some notes. But it's pointless trying to write notes on a race like that.

It is. It's just a fantastic watch to keep track. Just watch it. I mean, just stunning. It was some great racing through the pack.

Now, Nepa did try to break the pack. He did give it his best shot. He was unable to do that as thereby there. By lap 10, a man who had started way down and Zarkoad his way through the long lap penalty was second. Hortola had got to the front.

It was crazy. I mean, they were all just drafting each other. I was impressed by Anciu. Anciu was like that. It seemed like he had understood that the race is not won in the first 15 laps.

The race is won in the last five. And all I need to do is make sure that I'm near the front and everything's going to be okay. And I was like, wow, he's kind of, you know, Anciu has sort of been the magic ingredient for this kid. And it's been like, hey, all you got to do, ride your thing, stay cool, and then get going at the end and see what happens. Fanati even had made his way with those unusual lines that Fanati runs at, at any racetrack with the wide sweeping lines.

He had made his way into P5. He would be in the top three. He'd lead a little bit here and there. But there were 10 bikes that were separated by one second in Moto3. And that's crazy.

That just shows you just how tight this all was. Five to go, Sasaki was at the front, but he went way wide at the chicane. It was total craziness between with five laps to go to the end. It was an insane race. You have to see, if you haven't seen it, you have to, you have to watch it.

It was just incredible. Munoz would go way wide and he would drop from first to six. That was at the first turn. Masiya and Anciu and Ortolo were there. Masiya was then trying to pull away on this one.

And eventually Masiya would win the race. He would be ahead of Sasaki and Anciu. That was your podium. Ortolo would be fourth. Munoz fifth.

Rureda was sixth. Weier, the Dutch kid, was seventh, which I thought was a great ride from him. It was never really mentioned in the group pack very much by the people that were commentating, but he did finish in seventh, which I thought was a great ride. Then Kelso with a strong ride for ninth. And then tenth was Nepa, who again had led for so much of it.

But it seemed like he did all the donkey work, yet he couldn't make it pay. And that is what was in my mind the best race of the weekend right there. Done. Dustin. Yeah.

I mean, it was a great weekend, but the Moto3 race was stellar and just stunning performances really. I think I wrote down at some points there were like 17 bikes in the lead group. As you say, Jim, three, four, five abreast going into the final chicane. Just stellar performances everywhere you look, really. I mean, Fennaty was actually quite unlucky.

He got punted very, very wide, I think on the last lap. I think Anciu did it, didn't he? Yeah. I mean, it was kind of controlled chaos, I'm happy to say. But it was a great weekend.

I mean, it was kind of controlled chaos, I'm happy to say. Because there weren't that many crashes. No, there wasn't. In terms of standout performances, I mean, you've mentioned in seventh. I mean, seventh, you say, OK, well, but Colin Vier, I thought, you know, home run rookie in the class, outstanding.

Masiya, who's been a little bit AWOL really most of this year, it seems to me. Although he's not, I mean, second in the standings, but you haven't really spoken about him a great deal, have we? I think he just got figured it out. I think it's taken him a while to figure the Honda out. He's spent a lot of years on a KTM and they are very different.

Whether it's also perhaps partly to do with the fact that Aston's a very fast track, very fast and flowing. I think, you know, the KTM, I think maybe punches off the slow turns, perhaps a little bit better. That's a good observation. I'll go with that. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I'm just speculating.

No, I'm thinking about it a little bit more. But I mean, he was great. Sasaki, you know, he keeps finishing second, doesn't he? Do you get the feeling with him? He just perhaps wants to or needs to get his elbows out a bit more on the last few laps of a race.

I don't know. I mean, you can stealthily get your way to a championship. Of that, there's no doubt. But he's what, 26 points behind. He needs to start winning a few races, really, because although Hulcar, they weren't completely off the rails this weekend, which we perhaps want to talk about a little bit.

Sasaki, yeah, he's close, but not quite. Not quite there, is he, at the minute? No, no, I don't know. I mean, a lot of the Japanese riders, they all seem to not go elbows out as a general, as an overlapping general statement, right? The guys, the Japanese who have been good or closer to the front and have won races were guys that came to Europe early on in their careers.

The one that sticks out of my head is Kia Rio, right? And that was like in pretty superbike, in some world superbike as well. He was an elbows out kind of guy, in my mind. Yeah, he was. Although Sasaki is European based.

I think he lives in Italy. I mean, he speaks impeccable English. That's true. I mean, really impeccable English, you know, because for Japanese to speak English is obviously very, very hard for good reasons. And he's, so I'm not sure if that's it.

I just wonder if he just needs to be a bit more aggressive. I don't know. They're all very, they all seem like they're, all the Japanese are like very polite. Yeah, I think that's the origin. Politely, which it's a cultural thing.

I think there's nothing wrong with that. I admire that culture and the respect that they give elders and, you know, all these other things that they have. I respect that and respect it immensely. I've worked for Japanese companies and have dealt with Japanese and I find all of them to be remarkable people. And every one of them that I've ever met, I've considered a close friend to this day, even though I don't work for those companies anymore.

So I just, it's just, they're always just so polite and whatnot. I just wonder if that's just a little bit that kind of is hard to break. Yeah, I mean, I think, as you say, I think that's a good word, actually. He's quite polite, which is a compliment actually, in the way he goes about it. Because, you know, you don't want people that go skittling everybody around.

Oh, no, no. Clearly, that is not what we want and it's not going to do them any good either. But you do kind of get the feeling with, or I get the feeling with Sasaki that he just needs to go on a bit of a tear now. Or if he does, no one's going to stop him. He's devastatingly fast.

You know, if he could just, yeah, perhaps getting the elbows out is the wrong way of putting it, but just be a little bit more forceful and those, because he's always there in the last lap this year. You know, he's right at the front, but he tends to get a bit kind of duffed up once, you know, the chips are down. And if he could get that bit sorted out, I think he, you know, as I say, he could go on a bit of a tear and get himself closer to the front, because he's not that far behind. He's only what, one race win plus a point behind in the points standings. So, but, Jim, just to mention again on the Onshu thing, we've been waxing lyrical about Dennis Onshu and the fact that, yes, I'm sure I'm convinced that the Akihiko influence is starting to make itself felt now.

But we've said for the last couple of years, and last year in particular, a few times, that he was starting to mature in terms of his mentality and is just sort of kind of containing his emotions a little bit. And, you know, you can see he's starting to become the package. And I said it last show and I'll keep on saying it all through the year, I expect. I really hope he gets up into the IO squad in Moto2 next year, because I think with Akihiko behind him, I could see him being devastatingly good in Moto2. So that was a great ride.

Well, I mean, that is the curveball, isn't it? Yeah. But that's for everybody. Yes. So who knows.

It's an equal playing field at that point. But, you know, what we see with that Turkish contingent is that they can, you know, they can really push things to the maximum. You know, Fian and Sofwaoglu, Toprak, you know, the others in and around that thing, his brother, Kanoncu, they are all kind of like they can ride right on the edge. So if there's a little advantage that comes from that change of tires, he's the sort of guy that I would see to be able to exploit that for sure. So let's look at the points as they headed into the summer break.

It didn't matter to whatever happened to Elgardo. He was always going to leave with the championship lead. There was no way around that. But he had the worst possible weekend considering he got the big goose egg for points. Mossia did the most damage by making himself by moving to second place in the standings.

He's only 16 points behind Elgardo. And that is not a lot in Moto3 considering you could be fifth one week and Mossia be two and you've got a, you know, a seven point swing. So there's a lot of racing left. Sasaki then is now at 99 points. He's 26 behind the leader.

So he's one race win and a point behind as you stated Rich. Ortolla has slid now to 94 points. Then Anshu is at 94 as well. They're even. Those guys are all still in it.

But it's looking at this point, it's a battle between Elgardo, Mossia, Sasaki. And I think Ortolla and Anshu are outside looking in unless they can get on a heater. When they get on a heater, it's all different at that point. Between Ortolla and Anshu, I'd say Anshu would be the guy that probably will progress as we go into the second phase of the season. It's probably not quite the second phase.

It's such a big season. But Ortolla's had his, you know, he's shone a light on himself and he will be a guy to watch going forward. But so Jim, what, Elgardo, what do you think happened at Assen? Because I mean, it was a horror show from Friday all the way through. So pressure or just chase and setter or what?

I think it was just set up. I just think there are times I can speak from experience at this one, not so much from road racing, but from doing dirt track, that we had a few weeks that we were on pretty much on a heater, had about three, four wins and showed up at another track that by all looks, it was the same thing that we had previously, same pea gravel slick half mile that roams around here in the Midwest and couldn't make anything work. So try moving, you know, suspension and things around to accommodate, change gearing, things of that nature. Nothing can, nothing helps. And you tie yourself in a knot trying to figure out how to get better.

In which case you now commit the cardinal sin of changing several things at one time. So you don't know what the effect is of the change that you've put into the bike and you work yourself into a knot deeper into a hole and you're not able to get yourself back out of it. And at some point, your crew chief has to look at you and go, we've tried A, B, C, D, E, F. Let's go back to what the bike was last week and we know we were good there and let's try that. And you have to go back to that basic.

And I don't think they went back to the basic until like that morning warmup. And I think he felt the pressure to come from his starting grid spot, which is way down, to get to the front to kind of be close to not have, to keep the damage in the championship point lead at bay, right? And I think he just lost, didn't have enough heat on the one side of the tire, lost the front and crashed it. So I think he'll be back. I think he'll be fine next, you know, when we get back from this, it's kind of the worst time to do it when you get five weeks to sit and think about it.

Because the longer you have to sit and stew on something, the worse you can be the next time you're out because you're thinking about it the whole time. You really have to stop. And that's one of the things, there's that mental toughness that's involved in racing a motorcycle. And for me, I had to, it's like, okay, let's think about what happened on Sunday night. Let's think about what happened on Monday.

But, and then let's talk about it on Tuesday, so that we're not making, we've got time Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, Thursday, to be ready to go racing Friday night or Saturday night or wherever the next one was. And you have to push that out of your mind and go, this isn't there. And you get to find a positive that you're looking for. Like it might be you're going to the next track for us could have been, we were going Frankfurt, Indiana. Ooh, I love that track because it's clay and it's fast and it grooves up and you've got to get yourself psyched back up again for that part of it.

So he's, Hogarto's, I don't know, is he 18? At most maybe. Something like, he's a teenager, right? He'll shrug it off and be fine. But I do think they just simply didn't come off the truck fast.

They struggle with trying to do it. They lost their way and they didn't go back. To their baseline setup again until, you know, Sunday morning warmup or whatever. And then he just had a lot of, he just let the pressure get on him that I got to score points and tossed it away. It's a learning thing.

So yeah, that's my guess. It's a reminder, Jim, that these are very, very young. Yes, mostly. There's a few girls in there as well. I don't know if you're listening to the Dawn of Feed like I was, but on the grid, Pervé, Poncheral were saying, look, we've said to Dennis, sorry, Danny, he's had a bad weekend.

This is about scoring some decent points today. And then he bins it on the first lap. So I mean, these guys are operating at the highest level under the highest pressure. And the worst possible timing really for him, as you said, Jim's going into this long break before Silverstone. So it will be fascinating to see how he gathers himself, he and the team, and come back strong at Silverstone.

And I'll be watching very closely to see how he does that weekend. Because, you know, we've seen people crumble under this sort of situation in the past. I'm not suggesting for one moment that Danny Elgardo will because he's top draw. He's just had a bad weekend and then compounded it by not doing what he should have done, which was just run a steady race and maybe got a top 10 ish. Result just to bolster his points because as it is, he went from 41 point lead and that's now reduced to 16.

So that's a big psychological weight on his shoulders to carry through what five weeks now? He'd be kicking himself every day about it, I'm sure. But, oh, of course, you know, tough champions and good champions overcome these sorts of things. So, yeah, interesting to see how he moves forward. Yep.

Let's move forward to Moto2. Looking at qualifying the first round. Nothing really spectacular. Garcia did have a crash in the QP1 section, but he had a time that was good enough to get by. So Balthasar, Koba, Vietti and Garcia all get through first qualifying to get a Q2.

With Q2 halfway along, Ayagura was in front followed by Dixon, Chantra, Acosta, Vietti and Arbolino. Dixon was so, so good on used tires that he just got, Dixon just kept going faster and faster and faster on those tires. It was amazing how fast he was on a worn set of tires. But Vietti was down at turn four. They had yellow flags.

That spoiled a lot of people's laps, but with two minutes to play, Canet would be down at turn one, which allowed Lopez to get to pole. Dixon kind of got screwed by the last yellow flag. So Dixon would be second on the grid. Ayagura would fall to third on the grid. Then it was Outagura, Lowe's and Acosta, Acosta victim of that yellow flag as well, not being able to go faster.

Arbolino having quite miserly time by qualifying in 10th. The two title protagonists are starting sixth and 10th from the grid. So that was close. Plus it's like you're thinking, wow, that winds up being an absolutely spectacular setup for a race, right? Because the people that you want to see battling are now going to be basically out there for that.

So on Sunday, Garcia was going to get a double long lap for irresponsible riding in the Q1 session. Again, I don't want to even get into penalties. I'm over this. Well, hold that thought, Jim, because we're going to have to get into them in a minute, although we're not going to go into it too much. But I know.

I know. Goulvaro was getting a three grid penalty for irresponsible riding, which again, why is one a grid penalty and the other guy gets to double long laps? Again, this makes no sense. Sorry guys, rant. I've stepped on the soap box.

If it's irresponsible riding, how can the outcome of irresponsible riding be different? I don't know, Jim. I don't know. You simply willy nilly decide, oh, well, you're going to get two long laps, but you got to start three grid places back. Quite honestly, I think I'd rather take the three grid places and not do the double long lap.

Yeah. They're not equivalent. They are not equivalent. I don't care what the, because now to me, what you're doing is you're looking at the crime and you're saying, well, you know what? You just committed, you committed arson and you committed armed robbery.

So we're only going to give you three grid spots for lighting stuff on fire. But because you robbed a bank with a gun, we're going to give you two long laps. It's insanity people. Enough is enough. Moving on.

So the race would start. Lopez had a great start. Iagura, Dixon, Arenas, Acosta kind of stayed in sixth. Lopez was going, he was really going pretty quick. Then Outagur gets a long lap penalty for a shortcut of the chicane, which that was a bit...

Yeah. Okay. The idea here, again, is that if you shortcut the chicane and gain position, then you need to give it back. Well, it's not just because you ran wide, you suddenly got to get a long lap because you ran wide. Again, I get it.

You can say there's a hard limit, you're not allowed to give over it. But when you're kind of shoved there, I don't know. Anyway. Well, the other thing, Jim, I don't know if it was Outagur, this afflicted somebody else during the weekend, but there's this kind of bizarre thing in my mind. And I can't really put myself in the mind of the racer because I don't do it.

But what you're supposed to lose, is it a second? Yeah. They determine, yeah. If you made a mistake, you're supposed to drop a second. How the hell does a rider know if they've lost a second?

No idea. So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't really. I just think that's such a subjectively weird measurement. Which is impossible for the person that's afflicted by the penalty to be able to judge. It's just stupid.

Yeah, because the whole didn't drop enough time thing happens near the end of this race. I'm conflating it was something else, but we've seen this a few times because we saw with somebody as well where they, it was what it was been doing a MotoGP, either the sprint or the main race, and he didn't drop a second. It's like, well, he's just been off track. He's picked up crap on his tires. Plus he's interrupted his rhythm of the race.

Surely that's penalty enough. Anyway, okay, moving on. Eventually, Acosta would join the front three and make it a four rider battle for the front. And it was like game on at that point. Dixon got by Lopez finally and Aguero was aggressive by Lopez.

I mean, you were like, well, do you get a penalty for that? I mean, it was like, hey, this is crazy. He even got by and basically that aggressiveness allowed Acosta to also get by Lopez. So Aguero kind of just bumped Lopez out of the way to the point where Acosta was even able to slide by. Well, I guess because he didn't run off the track and you didn't fall off, it's not a penalty.

Again, this is so subjective here. This is so terrible. Of course, Dixon was out front, but he went wide at five. So Aguero was able to go by and Acosta were able to go by. Dixon was pretty much on pace.

He had it under control and this happened. I'm like, oh my gosh, come on, Jake, you have got to pull this back together again. You are so good here. You're so good all weekend. That was a mental mistake.

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be harping on Jake, but that was mental. You simply botched it out front and you botched it. Take a slightly different view. You're allowed to take that different take.

I think what happened was Jake got out front and within a lap or so, wasn't it, he made that little mistake at Distrubing because he was pushing hard to make a gap. So, okay, that can happen. Nobody is going to criticise him for, I mean, he didn't crash. I mean, that's the main thing. I mean, these guys, I always say to people when they ask me about racing, it's not about going around the track fast.

It's about not crashing whilst going fast because I mean, they're virtually crashing on every corner, right? You're riding at the absolute limit of adhesion. Absolute limit. Every second. He very nearly took the front into Distrubing and he didn't lose it, but he did go wide.

Now, at that point, the Jake Dixon of last season and certainly seasons before, I think would have mentally crumbled probably and would have not regained his composure. But we're talking about, and yes, I'm biased because I'm British and I really, really, really like Jake Dixon. And he hasn't, you know, again, he's one of these riders that you just, you know, it's all there because he was brilliant in British super bikes. So he has class on a big bike. So he took that very unusual step of stepping down to the middleweight class in a category that he'd never raced before in terms of prototype motor too.

So I have the utmost respect for Jake for doing that because that is a, you know, a strange career move. You could say the same thing about some loads and a few others, of course, as well. But we're talking about Jake Dixon. Anyway, so at that point, I was thinking, well, okay, one or two things happens now. Jake crumbles and he's admitted in the past that he's been guilty of that sort of thing.

Or he, you know, he just knuckles down and he galvanizes himself and he says to himself, yeah, I can still win this race. Because as you said, Jim, he was like on fire all through the practice sessions and was unlucky in qualifying not to get the pole because of the yellow flag. So I think he knew that he had the speed, but he just had to overcome. So anyway, that was my take. So I'm just calling it a mental mistake because of this one fact.

You were so good on used tires that you didn't have to push at that moment. All you had to do was ride your race and you would have pulled away by, you know, half a tenth every lap. That's where I'm coming from with that one. Just I want to clarify why I'm seeing it the way that I'm calling it. Can I just interject as well?

Don't forget that although they don't do it now, post COVID, they haven't gone back. But for a number of years, and certainly when Jake was in BSB, the liter bikes, the super bikes raced at Assen as part of the British Superbike Championship. So he knows Assen really well and he likes the track. I don't know that it is his favorite track, but it will be right up there. So he went into the weekend expecting to be, you know, a real contender.

So there was a lot of mental pressure that he would have put on himself. That's kind of my point. Almost at the same time later, later around the lap, Acosta almost goes down to chicane. So he saves it Mark Marquez style. That was big.

Yeah, that was huge because that was, whoa, championship implications here people. If he tosses that bike, I don't know about this one. Now, Agurra would then lead by like 1.1 seconds ahead of Dixon and Acosta. For reference, Arbolino is seventh. So he's four places behind Acosta.

The stewards then decide that Acosta has a long lap penalty because he did not lose enough time out of the chicane. There we go. That was total BS. The idea of giving you a time penalty is if you gain an advantage by going off of the track. If I were to pass you because I ran over the curbs and outside of the limit of the track, because I was able to carry more corner speed, I have gained an unfair advantage because you have maintained yourself inside of the limits of the track.

So you're supposed to then when you make a mistake in the chicane, you have to then lose one second. That was what was determined by the stewards. Oh, come on man. Acosta just saves this thing off his elbow and I mean by a whisker and he's supposed to rally to the point where, okay, I got to lose a second in your mind. And to which the kid did let off that they deemed it not enough.

Well, how much is enough? Again, your point, how does anybody know on the bike? Now, if you have a radio, then you can figure that out. But we don't and I don't want radios because I don't want people being told how to race or what's happening or what's coming up because I think that detracts from the sport. Because I think there's a lot of radio racing in Formula One and I think that's what's unappealing about it.

Side stepping that, Dixon now comes on. He's coming, he is charging hard, got his head down, he's got the fast slap. Now, the question is like, did Acosta have his front in the green when he ran the long lap penalty? Because Acosta goes to the long lap penalty. Matt Burt and I always forget the other guy's name.

Lewis Sotheby. Lewis Sotheby, thank you. They're discussing, did Acosta actually enter the long lap penalty with his front tire inside on the green? Now, from the camera angle that they showed us, I'm going to have to go, yep, sure looked like it to me. But again, we don't have all the camera angles that the stewards do.

So it's like, oh, if he's going to have to go do this long lap again, how much farther back is Acosta going to drop? Meanwhile, we got to go back to the front because Dixon has now gone by Agura at turn one with an aggressive pass that I thought was brilliant by Jake. For all the crap I just gave Jake, I will give the man props because that pass was beautifully executed on a guy, i.e. Agura, who is tough to pass and a guy who was riding very well. So I props to Jake for that one going in there.

So then we got Arbolino having a track limits problem and the stewards would decide that Acosta did not have a problem going through his long lap and that it was no further action was going to be taken, which meant that the race ended with Jake Dixon, tears in his eyes, I'm pretty sure as he finally gets that first win, which I was ecstatic for. I was happy for you too Rich to be quite honest. Agura with a great ride to be second considering the injury that Agura has had to come back. Acosta clinging on with his fingernails to go third with Audegur fourth, Kinet fifth, Alonso sixth, and Arbolino seventh. So four places between them.

It was a good day for Acosta from a championship standpoint or out wise, but it was a better day for the Brits. Tell us your feelings. Did you have the flag out, Rich? Did you have the anthem queued up? Were you ready?

Well, I mean, my sort of take on this is that the wind's been coming for quite a while from Jake Dixon. Crucially, he qualified well and he made a very good start. In Moto 2, that is so important. Having said all of that, he still had to work bloody hard to get the win. But I just want to back up a little bit because I've been sort of biting my lip a little bit.

I mean, the whole Acosta at the chicane thing when he lost the front. I just have to say, I mean, this is a classic example and I'm not going to rant on because people start switching off, but this is a classic example of where, yeah, you can go to the letter of the law, but there are two or the letter of the rule, let's say. But this is where there are too many rules because any sane pragmatic person will say, well, losing the front like he did, then going over the chicane. Okay, he didn't go into the gravel, but- It was close. If he didn't hit the gravel, it was done.

But it was close and obviously that's going to have a repercussion in terms of your race rhythm and all sorts of other things. So, I mean, just the very fact of what happened penalized Acosta. Yeah, he inflicted it upon himself, but that's not the point. He still lost a lot of time as a result of that. So the fact that he strayed into the green as a sort of secondary aspect of losing the front, yeah, he broke the rule.

But at that point you say, well, the rule is stupid because you shouldn't penalize somebody on top of the penalty that they've already had. So that's my take on that one. Did you hit the nail on the head, Rich? In terms of the long lap, okay, we can all argue as a he did cross the green or not. I mean, certainly from the way I looked at it, it looked absolutely stonewall that he didn't stay within the track boundary.

But I mean, I'm not going to swear. Go ahead. FFS. If they've got track lineation sensors everywhere else, why the hell don't they have them in the long lap? I agree.

Now, to me, the conspiracy part of me says, well, the stewards now went, you know what, we kind of screwed up making him go to the long lap because obviously he had inflicted his own penalty upon himself. We're going to like kind of maybe wash the slate clean here by allowing him to sort of skate by on something that's very close. I just think it's it's ludicrous, Rich. The whole situation is stupid. We're into sort of Monty Python from a British perspective, levels of kind of absurd human that in the area that you want to police somebody's penalty, that you don't have the same sensors that cause the penalty in the first place.

I mean, that is when there is clearly in the rules, a penalty for not taking the penalty correctly. So I mean, it's just it's a joke. It is it's becoming a joke. Farcical, really. I mean, for a sport that's trying to promote itself and make itself appealing to people, to have all this nonsense going on, it's just it's so well, I don't even know what the word is.

It just frustrates me because we've got such a great sport, such a great spectacle, and it just gets interrupted by this nonsense. You know, I mean, you shouldn't have even had a penalty in my view. And then for him to clearly infringe the penalty and not get a penalty for that, it's just like really come on. Here's the part that I don't understand for me. Spencer is a former racer and he should understand what happened and he should be able to look at this objectively and go, guys, that's not a penalty.

He's inflicted damage to himself. We're going to let this go and not inflict that penalty. I don't understand how you can't have. I don't know who else is part of that group. I know Spencer is one of them and I don't know if the other guys are ex-riders or not.

I mean, literally, I think I could sit next to Freddie and have a better conversation about what is or isn't a penalty as regard to the rulebook. I understand there's like an iron fist kind of thing and you can't let these guys have an inch to take a mile. I get it, but there's always objectionable stuff. And now people and the same thing, this isn't isolated to our sport. It's in the form of the one.

If you saw the Austrian Grand Prix, people were up in arms about the penalties that were being thrown out for people running wide on the last couple of turns. And the people who bemoaned the most was the Lewis Hamilton followers, right? Because it affected Lewis. Well, nothing gets done until it affects Lewis, it seems like in Formula One, right? So you got all this controversy.

And again, it was like five hours after the race was done, they took to figure the penalties out. I mean, I don't want that, but I just want something called fair and just. The guys now have no idea what is or isn't a penalty, what is or isn't aggressive riding, what is or isn't limits to track limits or track limits violations. I'll figure the words out here in a minute, folks. But it's stupid.

I want consistency, but you've got to be able to look at a set of rules and go, that was not a penalty because there's already been a penalty inflicted. And I'll leave it there. Yeah. I mean, let's not go on about this because obviously we'll go on forever. Careful.

And there are multiple nuances to this whole argument because, you know, some of these tracks are shared by car races and bike races. And so some solutions you might say would work for a bike or a car won't necessarily translate the other way. And, you know, these circuits have to operate and survive with all different sorts of formats. So, yeah, we all understand that. I just think again, I'm a broken record.

There are just fundamentally too many rules. So at this point, I'm not even really going to start carp into much at Freddie and the other stewards, because I mean, they're just applying the rules, but the rules are stupid. You know, there should be some either less rules or some leeway around the rules, I think is the point. So let's leave it at that. But the move that Dixon made on Aguirre, I saw it and I thought, oh, bloody hell, he's going to get a penalty for that.

And that might lose in the race. And I thought, please God, don't let him lose the race for that move because yeah, it was tough. And he did chop Aguirre, but he was in front of him. So, thankfully, thank goodness they didn't, you know, I was just waiting for the part for me. Oh, you know, Jake Dixon's now in second place because he's been given a five second penalty for reckless riding or something.

I was like, oh my God, there'll be literally there'll be a riot if that happens because there's a whole British people in the crowd at Asson. That's a mecca for the Brits to get, you know, as well as for the Dutch, obviously, you know, a lot of Brits go to Asson and when I've been there myself and it's a great place to go. But bloody hell, if he'd been demoted to second, that would have been tricky. I organization would agree. So thankfully that didn't happen.

So yeah, anyway, let's look at the points. So the points, this now causes a big shakeup and that doesn't really cause a big shakeup, but it moves around a little bit because Arbolino still leads on 148 points, but Acosta, thanks to being able to finish third and be on the podium. Now he finishes third. Remember Arbolino finishes seven. So Arbolino got nine points, Acosta got seven point or got 16 points.

So you're talking about having a swing of quite a few points in between that. Right. So you're talking basically like seven points difference. So now it is an eight point difference that Acosta has to Arbolino game on for this championship people. Now it still could be a blowout because you never know when Acosta is going to get on with another tear and win three or four of these in a row, but the same thing could be said for Arbolino.

He could easily win three or four of these in a row, but Jake is now third in the championship. Really that's just spectacular. And that leaves with all the rumors of him being what on a Moto GP team that's kind of came up, hasn't it? There's something about that. Yeah, we don't have too much tangents.

I mean, obviously as you and I were talking before we started recording Jim, no news on Acosta yet. And probably we'll hear something at the Silverstone weekend on that front because what was it the 30th of June? I think the 30th of June. Yep. That's long since passed.

Now there is talk that Dixon might make it up to Moto GP. And I think there's quite a bit of pressure from Dorna as well to have a Brit in the top class. Where he might land? I don't know. I mean, let's not get too deep in the weeds on this one, but the sensible money at the moment.

Is Aspar having a team? Well, the news that's emerged that I've been hearing, you know, I'm not tapped in obviously, but in terms of just reading the press and listening to various other podcasts and stuff is that Alex Rins might have a get out clause on the Honda contract that he's got and he might end up on the other Yamaha next to Fabio Quattraro. That would make a lot of sense for both parties to be honest, but Dixon's been linked to the Yamaha ride as well. So it's all a bit up in the air at the minute and silly season is kind of ground to a bit of a shuddering halt because of this long break, but it will certainly kick off again once Silverstone comes around. It will not get going strong until we know where Acosta's going.

Yes, I agree. Then it will go crazy. And Jim, I should just also add that one of the things I have heard is that Dawn, well, assuming this to be correct, but Dawn have pushed back quite hard on the notion of the vacant two slots on the grid because they don't want to fund it. Which seems slightly odd to me, but the thing that I heard was that they're quite happy with 20 bucks on the grid and they think that's enough, maybe even too many. Now, whether that's just, whether they're just hedging their bets a little bit in case somebody else drops out because of the economic circumstances, I don't know.

But for me, that's like, well, wouldn't you want a fuller grid than a smaller grid? But you had CRTs and you had 24 bucks on the grid. Yeah. Eight rows of three. I don't know.

Curious one, but I mean, very, very speculative, isn't it, at the minute? But it is. Let's see. Silverstone will be interesting in terms of news. I agree.

Lots of stuff going on in there. Let's move to MotoGP and get through that and we'll get out of this one. So QP1, we had Zarco, Fabio, DG Antonio, Marc Marquez, Morbidelli and Olivero were all there. Marquez was down on the run and ran into Bastionini. Now, this is a classic one, right?

Bastionini is slow on the outside. Marc is falling in because he wants to tow because he can't do it on his own. And neither of those two guys are paying attention to Marquez just plows into the back of Bastionini. I'm sorry. I'm a Marc Marquez fan.

I cannot even defend that in any way, shape or form, nor will I try to. Yeah, silly. Nuff said it was silly. It was dumb. It was definitely, I believe, Marc's fault and I will leave it there.

But Zarco and Olivero go through to the second qualifying session. Second qualifying session, Martín was down at turn five. He lost the rear. It seemed like he had a cold tire issue. Like he just didn't have any grip.

He turned the throttle on and Auto went from underneath of him. It was Bezaki versus Benyaia for the pole. Quattroro actually jumped into first place on the dying seconds, but you still had Bezaki and everybody else come flying around. Bezaki did take the pole position. He did it ahead of Benyaia.

Marini would finish third. Quattroro showing that they got something figured out with Yamaha because he was fourth, which was an amazing qualifying session. I don't know if that was just all balls or just the fact that the Yamaha is a great handling bike, which allowed Quattroro and it's not stop start. And we talked about earlier, we had that flow. So maybe Quattroro was able to use the flow, get out by himself.

It was going to be a very different story when race time comes. Because I think we all know that if the Yamaha is in a crowd, it doesn't allow Quattroro to ride to the strength of the Yamaha, which is its corner speed and handling. So come the race, that was going to be interesting. Bender would be fifth. Alés would be sixth.

So there's your top two rows out of qualifying. Well, that gets us to then the sprint and what's going on in this sprint race. Benyaya starts off with the weed, then he's followed by Bender and Bizecki. Quattroro was right there. Bizecki would go by Bender, then Bizecki would go by Benyaya.

DG Antonio was down with 10 to go. Martín caught up to the front group with nine to go. Bizecki pulled out nine tenths of a second with seven laps to go, followed by Benyaya, Bender, Quattroro, Martín, and Alésio Spargro. Nothing really changes at all except as we go to the line in the sprint, it's Bizecki ahead of Benyaya, followed by Quattroro, who got that because of a penalty ensued by Bender that was given to him for track limits, I believe. On the last lap.

Yes, they gave him a long lap penalty, which was given to him on the last lap, so he didn't take the last lap penalty. Stewart's deemed that that's roughly three seconds, so that pushed Bender down from his podium position to a fifth place position as Alésio Spargro would move to fourth. Now, you've got to have an advocate and a calculator for all this, guys. So, I don't know. Again, here we are with penalties, and I think we've ranted enough about that, Rich.

Don't worry. Bender can make up for it on the Sunday. Yeah, Bender will make it up on the start, right? He's a Sunday man as it begins anyway. So, we get to the Sunday action race day.

We find out that Marc Marquez is unfit and will not race. Apparently, he's got some broken ribs, a cracked thumb still, basically. He's just basically just beaten up. I don't know if he decided or the doctors decided, but he decided, yeah, this is it. I'm going away for five weeks.

He's in a dark place because if you read some of the tweets he has, like, I need to get away. I've got to get myself healthily focused on me, decide what I'm going to do and all this. I don't think this marriage is... I think he's headed to the court to file papers for divorce, quite honestly. But, I mean, he might stick around for the money.

I don't know what the guy is going to do. I just don't want to see this guy not be able to walk off of a racetrack. I'm getting really scared that we're going to see a rain rain-esque thing happen here. And I do not wish that upon anyone because he's just trying so hard to put a piece of equipment that is so bad anywhere near the front. And it's just...

I keep seeing shades of Vimla 93 with rainy. I just keep seeing that and I do not want to see that at all. Well, if you take a sort of gentler kind of perspective on it, from my point of view, not the biggest Mark Marquez friend in the world, as I've said many times on the show, but I definitely don't want to see him floundering around on a bike that, for whatever reason, Honda can't make work or Marquez can't make work. I'd rather he was able to go to a different team, a different bike, because if we lose another year, he's a year older and it's just another lost year of good competition really. And we know what a stellar talent he is and it would be great to see him get a chance on a different sort of bike.

Now, okay, we've discussed endlessly that certain teams might not want to take him, but if it was to transpire that Dorna were kind of blocking a potential route out of this, because for financial reasons or whatever, I think that would be a great shame and to the detriment of the sport and actually to the detriment of Mark Marquez's career, because I think he could actually do some surprising things if he was to jump on a bike that's more attuned to the current regulations, because we know that Honda have fallen behind for various reasons, many of which are perfectly valid and understandable. But I just think it'd be a shame to see him just crashing a lot or just checking out psychologically on the bike next year, unless Honda take a sudden upturn in form, but that doesn't seem likely. So, yeah, but just not racing on the Sunday was understandable and he is beating up. I mean, just look at the weekend he had at Saxonring. I mean, most people in their right mind would be off for the rest of the year, wouldn't they?

So, I mean, fair play to him for turning up. I mean, it wasn't really worthwhile, was it? Nope. Of note, Binder is the only one of the top guys who starts on a soft rear. Everybody else is taking a medium, so that is of interest.

Binder, whole shot. By a mile, man, the guy is gone. Miller would go down at turn one. Benyaya would basically go by Binder. Zarco and Quattroraro are down together.

Quattroraro lost the front. Zarco was on the outside and they just go to the gravel. But there's no steward inquiry there. Quattroraro crashes, causes another rider to crash. Isn't that irresponsible riding?

Leaving it there. We'll leave it there. Vignales was on the move. He had got himself up to P5. The guy does go well at Assen.

The Perleus seemed to be looking pretty good. No sooner did he get there, he then folded the front end and tossed it away. The enigma that is Maverick Vignales has struck yet again. Oh, good grief. It's Benyaya.

It's Binder. It's Bezeki. Alash, Martín and Olivera. Bastianini goes down at turn five. Turn five was causing a lot of problems.

Props to the camera people having a drone that was inside the turn of five, which is a neat angle that I hadn't seen before. I've seen some other camera angles that have changed at tracks and I like that. I like to see things from different angles, which is kind of cool. Makes it fresh. Binder, of course, is on the soft rear.

With 10 to go, it's Benyaya. It's Binder. It's Bezeki. Alash Spargro, Martín and Alex Marquez. Bezeki is by Binder with nine to go.

DG Antonio goes down at turn five. Alex Marquez gets a long lap penalty for track limits. Shocking. Martín joins the battle for third. It's basically Binder, Alash Spargro.

Sorry, I couldn't get Alash out. Martín now battling for that third spot. Then at the end, Benyaya wins. It was a walk, really. Bezeki would finish second.

Alash would hang on in that battle for third. He gets by Binder basically because Binder has that soft tire and literally ran it out. He had nothing left. Martín would be fifth. No?

Did I miss it? Binder got the same penalty on the last lap, Jim. That's right. He did, didn't he? I thought you were right.

That's what relation is. You're right. It's in my notes. I just neglected it. Sorry.

Yeah, same thing. Long lap for, yeah. Sorry. I really did not. Yeah.

Binder does the same thing again to negate himself from being on a podium. Good for Alash though to be on the podium. I'd give Alash that one. Martín fifth, Alex Marquez sixth. There's how that works out.

Then that gets us to the championship standings in this one. This was not a great race by any stretch of the imagination. Would you agree with that one, Mr. Rich? Yeah.

Yes. I mean, despite all the protestations and the concerns, many of which are valid about rider behavior, but the sprints are proving to be kind of better than the feature races. They are. Yeah. There's no tire issue, right?

You can run a soft for the half the distance and run it hard and you can do that. Tires don't matter. Now tires do matter when you're in the race. What's my favorite phrase, Jim? I mean, the law of unintended consequences.

MotoGP has now created a slight problem for itself where the sprint is now the better race of the two. You kind of hear people say, well, can't we have two or three sprints over a weekend? No, no, no, no, no. Now we're going down the deadly world super bike route. Well, yeah, but that's good racing.

That's what will happen when you introduce a difference like this because the sprints are good because it is no holds barred, no worries about fuel ties, et cetera. So yeah, I mean, we've had a few cases now where the feature race or the GP, because we're not allowed to call the sprint GP, are we? That's right. Take all the race. It's kind of a little bit more managed, a bit more calm.

Whereas the sprint for us as spectators, maybe not for the riders as competitors is obviously a lot more frantic and you've got to get more done quicker. Yep. So this sprint I thought was boring only because you know, Benyanyi and Bizecki jotted off and nobody was in their same zip code, right? I'm not going to argue at all that the battle for third was a great race. Not going to argue that at all.

But if the sprint was intended us to have great racing, then great racing to me is battling for the lead. Yes, I agree. That's my definition of it and it's solely my own take. So that's where we are there. Anything else before we run down the points and get out of this one?

Just a few quick observations because we want to close this out. But Benyanyi is on a tear now. We had a couple of wobbles early in the season, but I think that's behind him now. So 35 points ahead. I mean, unless somebody really steps up, I think this is, you know, double championship back to back for Benyanyi.

Great rider on the last buck of the grid. Oh, yes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight on the final standings. He has to say counting through his list.

Takenakagami on a Honda. I mean, that is a credit worthy performance. Not setting the world on fire, but equally not throwing himself, you know, into the stratosphere and for sure, ranking some points. I mean, the other point is that this was an attritional race because there wasn't even a 15th place finisher. I mean, presumably somebody did get a point for finishing 15th.

But in terms of what I counted on the race results, it only went down to 14th with Folger in 14th place. So it was a bit of a funny race like that. And then the thing is, Brad Binder fell out of exactly the same penalty on exactly the same corner exactly the same point last lap of the race. And it was instant replay. That's for sure.

I mean, he looked pretty frustrated. But in fairness to Brad Binder, and I do like Brad Binder because he's a typical kind of way, he's not an Aussie, he's a South African, but very sort of similar mindsets those guys have. He's like, yeah, I screwed up twice in the same place. I've only got myself to blame, you know, so. But I mean, you're talking well, I was going to say millimeters, probably microns of infringement in terms of the track limits sensor.

But he did do it. And, you know, we can argue the wiser and the worse of the penalty. But yeah, to do the same thing twice on two consecutive days was a bit clumsy. And he paid a big heavy price because that was two podium finishes by the wayside. Yeah, sure.

For thought, I give you this. As good as Binder is doing on the KTM. It's a mouthwatering concept to see what Acosta slash Marquez would do on it. Sorry, just going to throw it out there and let that one sit. Just think about that one for a while.

We're going to get accused of being rampant fanboys of Marquez and Acosta at this rate, Jim. But yeah, since the Marquess and Prospect, because I mean, we need stellar talents like this on good bikes. And we haven't got that in a minute. Nope. So Benyanya leads the championship.

He is on 194 points. He's 35 clear of Martin on 159. But Zeki is one point behind Martin on 158. Binder's at 114. Oh, what would he have done had he grabbed those two podiums?

Then Zarco fourth, then Marini, then Miller, then Alexis Barguero. Quattro is the first Japanese bike in ninth. Everybody else is on a European bike. Anyway, that's the teeth. That is, oh yes, Rich has his hand up.

Sorry, I've just looked at my notes. Okay, the most egregious thing of the weekend. And I'm sorry, everybody. Sorry to all the listeners to keep going on about this. But at the same point that Binder infringed track limits on that last lap, Martin did the same thing.

But because there was a good, I don't know for example, exactly, but let's say eight to 10 second gap to the rider behind him, he didn't get any penalty at all for infringing the same track limit on the same corner as Binder on the last lap. I'm not going there. I have to say that because I wrote no penalty for Martin, exclamation mark, because he should have got a penalty. It wouldn't have affected his race finishing position if they'd applied the same, let's say three seconds. But he infringed the track limit in exactly the same.

In fact, I think Martin did it worse than Binder did in terms of how far over the kerb into the green he was. And yet he didn't get sanctioned by the stewards. I don't understand why. And I don't care that it wouldn't have changed his finishing position. But if you're going to hand a penalty to one person, you must hand the same penalty to somebody else that's done exactly the same thing.

Unless I'm wrong and people can call me out on this one if I've got that wrong. But everything I heard subsequent to the race was that that didn't make any sense whatsoever. So yeah, this is- I got nothing. I got nothing. With that, let's wrap this up.

Hey, if you guys want to call out Rich, you can do so. Email us at motopod at motopodcast.com. Hit Rich at Richard Joud on Twitter, Instagram. Remember to follow the official Motopod Instagram page and threads, which is the new thing that's out now. Be sure to follow both of those.

We're on threads. So I'm on threads, Twitter and Instagram, all at MotoRGV. I think next show we will be Donnington, all the World Superbike stuff from Rich, which is great that he's got all that. And with that, I will tell you all to ride safe. Cheers, everyone.

See you next time.