MotoGP Japan

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk Hello and welcome to Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 743, I'm Jim McDowell with me, staying up late in the UK, Richard Jallett. Richard, I love the Iron Maiden t-shirt.

Yeah, sorry folks, I know you can't see Richard, but he has his Iron Maiden t-shirt on. So I like the t-shirt, Rich, very nice. The most fashionable music choice probably in 2023, but born and bred Maiden fan. So yeah, thanks for the compliment on t-shirt. I went to see them live in July this year and they were awesome.

Still got it. Yeah, they're really good. Still got it? I've seen Def Leppard a couple of times here recently in the last couple of years, they've had places nearby and it's like, you don't sound the same anymore and you turn the music up because you can't sing anymore. Yeah, the voices start to get a bit reedy as the years go on.

But I was surprised by Bruce Dickinson actually, this has nothing to do with motorbike racing, but I've always thought that rock and heavy music kind of sits pretty nicely alongside motorsport and bike racing in particular. So yeah, recommend Iron Maiden on their future past tour at the minute. So if you get a chance to see them do, because you probably won't get many more chances and they were bloody good. Well, that's good. I'm glad it was good.

Glad it was good. I think one of the best ones I've seen recently is I saw ZZ Top about two years ago and it was refreshing that they simply came out, they played about a 45 minute set without saying a word in between. It was just one song right after the other and then they said, hey, we're going to slow it down, play some funk and they played another 45 minutes and then they kind of went off stage came back and did two songs at the end. And yeah, that was really great. I really loved it.

And that was before Dusty passed on. So yeah, it was really good. Anyway, we're not here to talk about music podcasts or we have sidetracked everybody for this one. We're here to talk about the racing that happened in the Mobility Ring Motegi, which they call it now, which I found interesting. Well, let's start this show off, Rich.

I didn't talk to you about this pre show, but I noticed something interesting between India and Motegi. I noticed that at the Indian round, they would have their little green emblem and they would said they said sustainability is two wheels. And I didn't really catch it because I'm kind of used to it saying sustainability, 40% fuels in 2024 and 70% sustainable fuel by 2020 or 100% by 2027. I noticed that was back in Japan. The conspiracy theorist in me says this, the Indian rate, the Indian GP was sponsored by an oil company, i.e.

oil India. And Motegi was not. Yes. I think you've hit the nail on the head there, to be honest. We're chasing money here, are we not?

I think so. Yeah, they didn't exactly didn't sit quite right next to each other, did they, those two competing aims? Yeah, I don't care. I don't care which side of this you want to be on. I really don't.

I don't give a crap one way or the other. But I do find inconsistencies very irritating to me. I don't know if it's just my engineering background or what it is, but things like that bug me for whatever reason. Yeah, we better not go down this route at all. But to say that there's a lot of virtue signaling in just about every corner of the media is something of an understatement, isn't it?

And it's convenient to forget about some of those things that quickly gets swept under the carpet. But anyway, anyway, all right. Not in Japan, not in Japan. No, not in Japan. We showed up in Japan five days on from the India GP and things started out with Moto three qualifying in their first session.

Kelso, Forosato, Rossi, Ogden, they are all in there. I only say this because Helgardo, who's had trouble qualifying and getting himself directly to Q2 for the past four or five races, we've talked about this, had made it through directly to the Q2 session, which was nice. Kelso, he was going to have a three place penalty in the race along with Colin Vier and Diego Moreira for having an incorrect hand position. Now, this is a little awkward, but apparently they had taken their left hand off of the was holding on to the triple clamps to make themselves as aerodynamic as possible so that they could have a higher top speed or less drag. However you want to look at it that way.

It reminded me of how we used to run dirt track, like the big mild dirt tracks. We had a third hand grip and it was bolted to the triple, the fork next to the triple tree and you would hang on to it there. Some people would hang on to the underside of the handlebar. I liked it. I thought it was like super cool old school dirt track, which I liked, but that is apparently a violation of the MotoGP rule book, which states that you must have during the race, you must have both hands firmly attached to the handlebars, which then I'm like listening to that warning and going, okay, what if you pull a tear off off?

I get the intent of the rule and the intent of the rule is that they don't want you changing your aerodynamics, but it is just one of those things. Anyway, that's how it went down. Feroli had a big crash in there, but Rossi, Kelso, Prosado and Rueda would get out of the Q1 session and go to the Q2 session. In the Q2 session, there was really, we're always expecting these sort of like last lap, last second changes of things. It really didn't pan out that way.

We did have Rossi having a high side that was pretty vicious, but Masi would take the pole followed by Anshu, Bertelli, Nepa, Ortola and Helgardo. So that's how your front six would start up for the race. The race was ran with a nice hole shot by Helgardo, followed by, sorry, Anshu. I got my KTMs confused there. Anshu had the great hole shot.

He was out front followed by Helgardo from the Tech 3 team, Nepa, Masi, Ortola and Sasaki. Masi did get by Nepa to move up a spot. Anshu was leading. He was doing a great job of leading, but you kind of, I kind of thought one or two things. He was either going to eventually be caught in past just because of the nature of the circuit or he was going to crash trying to maintain, I guess I thought three things, crash because he was riding so hard to stay out in front of everybody because his well talked about weight disadvantage that he has, or he was going to burn the tires off of his bike.

Take your pick. It was going to be the question of where was that going to be going to happen. It was a little spread out at the beginning. Anshu had a little gap on Helgardo, Helgardo on Masi, Sasaki, then pushing Masi. But the little farther down in the group, I think it was sort of in that seven, eight, nine, the Munoz, Marrera, Yamanaka and David Alonso was a great battle for positions that was there.

By the end of the 12th lap, Anshu was leading, Sasaki had gotten past Masi and Helgardo. Helgardo had went to the back of the four rider group that had broken away and Masi was running third in there. They had a huge gap over everybody else, which I thought was interesting. We generally don't see that, but it is a stop go circuit, which was a premium on breaking and breaking stability and picking your line. So it was possible that they were going to run away and nobody else is going to catch them.

Just as soon as I had gotten that written down, rich up, Masi went by Sasaki and then Sasaki by Anshu and everybody kind of shuffled all around again. But at that point, Masi takes lead. Masi would then go on to score a victory for Honda at their home track. But the race was really trying to be what was going to happen next. As Masi is sliding away to get to that victory, we have a good battle that's between Sasaki and Anshu and Holgardo.

They are battling out and still Anshu throws it down at turn nine. So what I thought was going to happen, one of the things I thought could have happened did happen. Anshu crashed the bike, which that happens. NEPA and Ortola, they were trying to hunt down Holgardo and Sasaki. It was a two and a half second lap, but they were having their own little ding dong battle between the teammates.

So they didn't really put any worry on Holgardo or Sasaki. But when it came down to it at the end, they sort of rode home with Masi winning, Sasaki being second, Holgardo, NEPA just missing out on his first podium. He was close. Then Ortola, Munoz and Alonso. Now the last corner was pretty good between Sasaki and Holgardo because they go through victory corner and Holgardo just gets the back end of that KTM beyond the curb.

And there's a, I want to call it, it's hard to tell on TV, call it a four, five inch difference in height from the curb to the painted area. Holgardo had the back end over that and he did amazing to actually stay on the bike and keep going. The more interesting thing is Sasaki never flinches and never closes the throttle at all where Holgardo had to close it for that split second. And that is the difference between Sasaki being in second and Holgardo being in third. It was a pretty calm race by the Moto3 standards, although I will give the last lap credit because it did give you that drama that we usually look for.

But a great ride by Masi, a great ride by Holgardo to be upfront considering he hasn't been on podium. And I don't know, again, there's what four to five races that were going on. For you, Rich, what did you think of this Moto3 event? Well, like you said, Jim, it was a little bit underwhelming by usual Moto3 standards, but it is very much, I think, a result of the fact that it is, as you've already used the term, stop start, isn't it? So it kind of encourages gaps to form and then they're very hard to close down.

I mean, I think the big takeaway for me was that Onchu, as is his usual way, was being very aggressive, necessarily so. And that really did cost Sasaki because by the time Onchu kind of threw himself up the road, Sasaki must have been at least a second, probably a little bit more down the road from Masi, who had just had it pinned the whole race and was just metronomically consistent, wasn't he? So that kind of, in a way, that robbed us of the great lead up the front, I think. And then, as you say, it was really about who was going to finish second. Would it be Holgardo or Sasaki?

And yeah, we had that last corner thing, which, irritatingly, although I can kind of forgive him, I suppose, the race direction kind of missed because they had like the big overhead shot of that final corner. And you saw the back end of Holgardo's bike really step out and twitch as it, as you say, as it jumped off that curb almost. And you just knew that Sasaki was going to get him. But they were busy watching Masi waving to himself as he went across the line with nobody around him. And then suddenly you just saw the two other bikes go through very, very quickly.

And you saw that Sasaki had just probably by what, a hundredth maybe. Yeah, it was not very much. It wasn't much in it. But so that was really the only big excitement of the race, wasn't it? And they did kind of start to show what was going on a bit further down the order.

So, as you mentioned, Jim, you had Marrera, Munoz, Alonso, I mean, a quality pack duking it out for the slightly lower places. But yeah, overall, not the most exciting race of the day in this, which is unusual for us to say, or certainly unusual for me to say that, because I'm normally the biggest advocate of Moto3. Yeah, for reference, it's about the gap is about six hundreds of a second between Sasaki in rough numbers. So that's there. Now, the interesting thing to me was what happened in the championship now.

That is where we really get to see what happened with with Masi taking the victory. He is on one hundred and ninety nine points. Sasaki having finished second is on one hundred and ninety three. It's a six point lead for Masi, who if his run of form continues and we're I think we're going to tracks that how do I say this sort of nullify the advantage KTM has in the acceleration. There's every chance that Masi will be world champion on this as much as that shocks me, because I think you and I both agreed to sort of halfway through the year.

We were almost ready to say Hologardo had one hand firmly on that championship, but it doesn't appear to be now because Hologardo has slipped to third in this championship. He's on one hundred and ninety, obviously, then one nine points behind. It is a three rider race to this championship. Now, I do believe since David Alonso is fourth, that he is the wild card in this mix because it depends on if he's at the front, if he's going to be winning races. The question then becomes how much does everybody else want to race him?

Yeah, because he's a tough little nut. He is. So he is thirty nine points behind as of right now. Anshu has done himself no favors whatsoever with his crash and he is now fifth. He is fifty two points behind.

His championship is now gone. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Alonso has an outside shot at thirty nine points. There's enough races left, but we never know what happens in Moto three.

I think we're constantly surprised by what happens in this class. So I am not going to go out on the stage. Masi has this. But for now, Masi is in the driver's seats when it comes to the points in this championship. He's been riding great.

He's in form and on a that's all run a momentum, isn't he? So unless he starts kind of inexplicably chucking up the road, which he has been apt to do in the past, but he's looked and he did do that in Silverstone. But by and large, although he was quite quiet in the first part of the season, we weren't really talking about him too much. He's always been close by in the points in terms of the second or third position, at least. Although Holgado, as you say, Jim did have quite a big lead at one stage.

But Masi certainly looks like the guy that they've all got to beat now, as far as I can tell. One piece of news that I picked up and we haven't really talked about news because there isn't anything kind of headline, but they did mention, I don't know if you heard this, Jim, that Sasaki is now confirmed to go up to Moto two next year in the the master camp. I think I think that's the sort of the bright yellow bikes, isn't it? Master Yamaha VR46 affiliated squad. He's going to be a teammate to Gonzalez, right?

Is it Gonzalez in that? Yeah, Gonzalez. Yeah. I know Kota Nozani, one of the Japanese riders is in that team. He came across from World Superbike unusually and hasn't really shown too much form and has been injured for the last few races, I think.

So I would imagine that perhaps Kota Nozani might be the one that makes way for Sasaki there. He's definitely said that. So I'm guessing that is accurate. I'm sure people will point out if I've got that wrong, but I'm sure that's what I heard. So yeah, a lot of quality riders leaving Moto three at the end of this season.

Yeah, well, there's always change in Moto three. The one constant of is change. And you bring in a fresh crop of young hungry rookies and it does mix up the racing and spices the situation up. So you know, fair play. These are what you know, I think that you have to.

It's a hockey term. I love hockey in the winter. So I think fast enough to keep my attention as a sport is that you have to play your way onto the team. You have to take a veteran spot. There are only the roster for hockey team is standard is 20.

They dress 23 a night and they only carry like a like 28 total. So you have to take something from a you know, there might be 50 players in campus. You have to earn a spot and you have to take it from a veteran. And that's what these younger guys on the Moto three bucks are doing. They're taking it from the guys in Moto two that if you're not performing, there is always going to be somebody who's going to be ready to take your spot.

Well, a good case in point, Jim, I don't know what he's doing next year. I certainly can't believe he'll be hanging around in the Leopard squad would be Tatsuki Suzuki who crashed in this race, I believe. I did not. Did I have that in mind? I did not have it in my notes that he crashed.

I mean, Masashi is up to Moto two, I think, in the next year. So quite where Suzuki goes, but I can't remember his name off the top of my head. I'll have to look it up and mention it next time out. But one of the kind of real hot shoes coming up through either rookies or the junior Moto three, he's coming into the Leopard squad, I think next year. So yeah, I can't remember the last name.

We'll obviously be talking about him as time goes on. So yeah, as you say, the only constants change and they always find new fast guys, don't they? That was Moto three, wasn't it? One of the most spectacular Moto three races. So we will move to the Moto two race in Moto two qualifying in the first two P one session.

Bowman Snyder Dixon, that hurt a little bit. Then Goulvara Arenas Lopez and Darren Bender. Now on the way out, Lopez did stall his bike and pit out. He was, however, restarted and was able to take take course in that. And which was good because he Lopez Bender, Bandiguerba and Dixon barely he he was close to whether he would actually make it or not do make it to the big dance and proceed onward there.

Now, in the second qualifying session, nobody was on the track until about three, three and a half minutes had elapsed. I mean, track time is a precious thing. And everyone was sitting around. It's kind of the first time this year in Moto two that I can remember guys sitting around. Now, I've seen Moto three guys sit around a little bit because especially the tracks with the draft because everybody's got to go out together and whatnot.

But this is I thought that was just kind of odd for Motegi. It just didn't seem to sit right. I didn't see it because it really very, very, very early in the hours of the morning here. Plus, I was getting up to head off to Donington. So I didn't really get to see the qualifying or even the Moto GP sprint.

But was the track a little bit damp from some was that part of the reason why they were hanging around? To me, the tracks were dry the entire time until we got to Sunday. There was overnight rain Saturday to Sunday and then rain again. There may have been a small shower, but it was we were not talking about puddles or anything like that. We're simply talking.

I mean, it did look like underneath the one tunnel, there was a little bit of damp surface. But I think that the moisture and clouds, they do tend to collect there. But it was nothing that was like, oh, well, we got to have rains or anything like that. So interesting. It was interesting.

So like 12 minutes, nobody was on the track. Van de Gerberg, he went down to turn one. And then after that, it was simply the team in the Metsu Asia team. There was their weekend and Chantra led Agura to a 1-2 for the team. So Chantra winds up with a pole.

Agomi Town hero Agura second. Dixon makes a great recovery to be third on the grid. Chantra starting on the fourth row, Dixon bumping late to pushing back, then Salach and Lopez. And then we knew that going into the race, Lopez is going to receive to the double long lap penalty or would have to go through the long lap twice for his indiscretions that happened in India at the start of that one and banging people off the road. So I got a question because again, sorry, Joe Boddie, but I just missed some of the coverage over the weekend.

This is for the Dixon clash in the race in India. Yes, I believe so. Well, I thought that they had ruled no further action during that race. Okay, so maybe it isn't the Dixon one. It was for other indiscretions that were there.

I think there was another bumping coming into that didn't involve Dixon that was at the start. If I remember correctly, I just wrote down he had two long laps from India. I did not denote the exact reason as to why. Okay, well, maybe people can enlighten us on that one, perhaps through the socials or drop us an email. But they could.

Yes. I was kind of curious about what he had been penalized for in India, given that we because we spoke about the clash with Dixon. And I think you thought it was more Lopez. I kind of felt it was a bit more racing incident. I know I'm absolutely certain during the race, you know, the message comes up that incident being reviewed by the stewards.

And I'm sure it was a judge to have been a racing incident and no further action to be taken. So that was retrospectively challenged by the Aspar team. I don't know. I'm kind of curious to know about that. I'm almost 100% sure that he that he got that for what happened on the start and the Moto 2 race.

Because I made the point, if you remember, in both of the starts in India, Lopez did what Lopez tends to do and he absolutely gunned it. But he didn't touch anybody. I mean, he caused a few people to take avoiding action, but that's not terribly unusual off on a race start. So, yeah, I'm a little bit unsure as to what the long laps are, particularly a double long lap. I mean, that was quite a harsh penalty, wasn't it?

Yeah, it is. Just trying to look quick here, look, see like why he had it. No, I don't see. I can't find it. I don't see it right now.

I'll talk. But there's somebody out there will write into us, Motopod at motopod.com. Motopod at motopodcast.com. You can find Richard at Richard Jal at Twitter, Instagram, well, X, whatever it is on Moto RGV or Moto. Yeah, Moto RGV.

Sorry. And on Instagram and Twitter. So there X. Yeah. So put us out of our misery.

Let us know. Yeah, just please. Please do. So we did qualifying. We need to go to the race.

Yeah, Moto 2 race. Chantra got the whole shot, followed by Dixon, who made a great start. Acosta made a bold outside move around turn one that did not work. At one point, I think Acosta might have been close to second place, but that folded like a wet noodle as they ran around. So it turned into being Chantra, Dixon, Lopez, Igera, Lopez, Salach, Acosta at that point.

And then Arbolino was down on 11 because we're kind of watching where Arbolino is because it's a race between Acosta and Arbolino. So I was watching to see where Arbolino was during the race. Arbolino started in 11. Lopez would get by Dixon, Acosta would get by Salach and then Acosta would go by Lowe's as well. So he would put a march on very quickly to get things at the beginning of the race.

But in all honesty, this race is a old school moto to just walk away. Chantra simply cannot be touched. He was some half a second faster than his teammate through almost every lap. And any time Igera did try to challenge or close the gap, Chantra simply just turned the wick right back up again. Now, that's not to say Chantra did not have his problems during the race.

There was a point somewhere in there that Chantra was leading by a good 2.1 seconds. He sort of backed it down a little bit, I think. And that gave Agura some hope that he was going to get there. But no, the next lap Chantra simply pulled it right back out again. I think Agura may have got to within just under a second of Chantra for the entire 19 laps this race.

It was a dominating ride by Chantra. It was a beautiful ride by him. Never really put a wheel wrong. One small mistake will forgive him for that one. 19 laps on a Moto2 bike at Motegi cannot be easy mentally nor physically.

And Igera also had was starting to look like the Igera that we know. The samurai of slide, if you will, sort of came back. He was definitely backing that Moto2 bike in at most points. He did try his best to get past or get up to Chantra, although Chantra simply just had the speed for the weekend. So Igera would be in second.

So again, the Honda Indomitsu team Asia would score a 1-2, take their 1-2 from qualifying and go 1-2 in the race. Very happy, very happy for them. A lot. Acosta would go by, would get by Dixon. And that would be where he would, far as he would go.

Acosta had nothing for the team Indomitsu guys at all, nor did he have to have anything for them because he could simply ride onto the podium. He had a 39 point lead, I think, coming into the weekend and Chantra and Igera are not in this championship at all. So if you look at it from that perspective, Acosta then simply rode home with really no other options. He didn't need to go any faster that he needed to. Joe Roberts did go into the gravel.

He did get back on. Lowes crashed at turn 14. Another crash by Lowes. The mystery continues. Now, you've said it Rich and I fully agree with you.

On his day, if it's going his way, if he's in the right mental space, if he woke up on the correct side of the bed, he is unbeatable. Untouchable, definitely one of the best riders in the world. Yet somehow the consistency of it never seems to shine through. Now, whether it's just injuries or something like that, I don't know. Is it the pressure of the Moto GP Palak?

I doubt it. I am interested to see what Lowes does in Super World Superbike next year because I think that's his brother's there. Yeah. And I think maybe that might be the difference where he's got a friendly face and someone to talk to. Don't know, but I'm going to be interested to see how that goes.

I mean, crashing out of reasonable positions has always been kind of Sam Lowes' problem in Moto 2 from what I can recall. I mean, it sounds terribly critical and I don't really mean it in that way. You've only got to look at the results over the years, really. And the compliment to him is, as you've just said, Jim, is that on his day, he's absolutely top draw, but he does crash a lot. Whether it's because he knows these are the last few races in the Grand Prix championship, I don't know.

But you can't really say that because as we've said, his Moto 2 career has been littered with these unfortunate crashes, really. But I mean, I'd be very fascinated to see how he gets on in World Superbikes next year. I'm trying to think, yeah, was he a BSB rider? I'm going back so far, I can hardly remember. Yeah, I believe Lowes did come through BSB.

I would need to refresh my memory as to whether he rode a Superbike. I mean, obviously he was a SuperSport rider for sure. And then he went World SuperSport, won the championship there, and that's when he came across to Moto 2. So it'd be interesting to see how that adaptation to the big bike in the World Superbikes goes because he's been on the mid-weight formula for many, many years. So that's quite a big change for him.

And he's sort of not at the end of his career by any means, but he's been around for quite a while. Yeah, he is on the back nine. Yeah, getting ready for the 19th watering hole. So going to be interested next year. Hopefully we'll get to have a chat with him at some point.

Yeah, that'd be great. That would be great. To finish up, just some standout things that happened in this. Garcia had a very nice ride going. Garcia did not qualify very well.

He was no pun intended coming to grips with that bike at this track. He got himself to sixth and then promptly lost the front end at turn three. Having been showering in repraise last week. Yes, apparently we definitely need to watch who we praise because those people tend to not do well or crash or something happens to them as it goes along. But to wind it out, again, Chantra Aguru Akasa, that's your podium.

Dixon would ride home to fourth, followed by Solache Gomez. Not finishing in fifth, he finished in sixth. Because he seems to be Mr. Fifth place because he's always in fifth place as it goes along. And then we need to think about where Arbolino was.

Now, Arbolino was struggling. He was in the top. He was in the top six. You know, he started in 11th. He never really mounted any kind of a charge.

He wound up finishing the race in 11th, although he was very close to being out of the points during the middle stages of the race. He was down in that flirting with 13, 14, 15. He did rally a little bit at the end to take that to try to keep Akasa honest in this championship. And since we're there with the championship, we'll look at it. Akasa now with that podium is on 252 points.

He has a 50 point lead exactly over Arbolino. So Akasa could crash out of two races and it would end if and if Arbolino were to win both of them, they would then be tied. I'm not sure what's going on with Arbolino, who looks so great. And so awesome at the beginning of the year. But it does.

And I really thought that Tony had it together. Now, he did lose in Kota the third round of the season to a masterful ride by Akasa. He got stalked. He got jinxed. He got bit.

He got bit and Akasa won the race. But then Tony did go back and seemed to shake off that little bit and had a very good opening European start to the season. I realized we started in Porta Milo, but when they came back after the first couple of flyaways, he seemed to right the ship and he was right there with him. But and he had won, I think, in Le Mans. Acosta had fallen off at Le Mans and didn't score any points.

And Arbolino had a fairly healthy lead. I don't remember how much it was, but we were thinking, Oh, Acosta's got work to do. He's going to have to start to string together wins here if he's going to take this championship. He Acosta did. And Arbolino had faltered.

I would love to know what happened or what is happening where they can't get that bike to work for him. They seem to be struggling, at least to my eye, with rear grip that they cannot get for Tony. You watch everybody else come off the corner and he simply cannot drive out of a corner like everybody else can. He certainly cannot come out of a corner like Acosta can. Now he can hold his own with some other people, but it's very fascinating there.

Dixon is now in third place, but he's 93 points behind. I do not think Jake can make a run at this championship. I would love for Jake to have a championship and win some races. But we've we've talked about what we think is wrong with Jake, and we'll leave it there after that at Tarrant-Connet. Alonso Lopez and then Chantre with his wind vaults up to six, which is good to see.

So that's your top six in the points for Moto2. Rich, a non-stellar race in Moto2. Do you have anything to enlighten us and make us? On my notes, I put all the last thing I wrote was boring last 10 laps, because I basically didn't write anything down in the last 10 laps. There was just nothing really much to write about.

So it sounds really harsh and it is an all right race, but it's just not much going on, really. I suppose the big takeaway really would be that that is a good result for Chantre. It'll take a lot of confidence from that performance, because I think although I didn't see any of the practice sessions and stuff, I think he was pretty much unheaded all weekend long. He was number one all week. No one was even close.

It was a masterful, masterful ride. Yeah. But an absolutely great weekend for the for the team as well. I mean, with Agurra doing what he did. Yeah.

The only other thing I was going to say, Jim, just talking about the championship occurs to me, Dixon might still have designs on second in the championship. I mean, he's still a good few points behind Arbolino, but given their relative form at the moment, as you say, Arbolino really struggling to sort of top ten it and Dixon, who will always have the odd crash. I mean, that's just the nature of the way Jake goes about things, I think. But, you know, it was a solid fourth again. So he might start to pull in Arbolino a little bit.

Yeah. And that's good. Something to watch for in the next race. A cost is gone. I mean, unless something terrible befalls him injury wise, I just don't think anybody's got a prayer.

No. Yeah. Since we're talking about Acosta, there still is no announcement of where he's riding a Moto GP bike next year. And even Acosta himself, yeah, even Acosta himself has said, I don't know exactly where I'm going to be next year. I'm paraphrasing.

I don't think he exactly said that. But that's interesting to me. Like, oh, I just wonder, having got themselves into this. Well, we always use the word pickle. Yeah, pickle.

And it's a proper proper tricky one. I'm not quite sure what the word is. Sticky wicked. I don't want to sort of say anything rude, but clearly KJM have backed themselves into a terrible corner with contracts here. And now it's not to say that a contract can't be bought out, but it's not the easiest thing.

It's easy to say. But it's quite another thing to make it happen. And they want to come out of this with some kind of reputation intact as well, because they don't, as we've said many, many times, they don't have good recent form on that particular front. So it might just be that they're selling to Acosta that will pay you anything. Just name your number and just to defend that number one plate and most if one more year and then you've got the pick of the bikes.

Yeah. And it might be appealing to Acosta. I mean, to be a double Moto two champion, that that would be not bad to have on your resume before you go up. He's very, very young. He's got all the time in the world, really.

So he's still 19. If I have the date correct, I think, yeah, that sounds about right. I don't think he turns 20 until early next year. Like I think his birthday is early on or it's very late. I can't.

It's like either very late in the year or it's early next year. But Marquez was 20 when he won as a rookie his Moto GP title. So is there the only the only thing that that confuses me in this in case you're rightly KTM has a contract pickle that is going to cause problems. But Mike, the wonderment to me is if they go, well, not that they go, they are going to be on Pirelli's next year, which is a very different tire and a very soft tire and a very squishy tire. And I'm getting the sense that the Michelin front is similar, not the same, maybe not as much, but is in that vein.

Is this one of these things whereby staying, you get a bit more confidence on a tire in a class that you can sort of work your way around in and not have that pressure that you would have if you were up a level? I don't know. I'm speculating. I mean, who cares if if if they want to make him the highest paid Moto2 rider in history, good on KTM. But there are maybe some advantages that we don't see to being in the classic in next year.

Yeah. There's also, again, throwing a wild conspiracy out there. And I've just been a bit tongue in cheek, I suppose. But there's still a Cressini ride up for grabs as well. And if KTM can't put the cost on a bike, he might be saying to them, well, I'm going to Moto GP.

And if it's without you, that's where I'm headed. I mean, who knows? Yeah, who knows? But I think it's what's going on. I think his contract is with KTM.

But if they contractually obliged to provide him with a bike and they can't, then he must have some sort of a let there. There may be an escape somewhere that KTM is going to use on this. But I mean, this is one of those things where I'm kind of mad at Dorna. Dorna is like, oh, no, we got two slots left and we're saving them for a factory. Excuse me, people.

Where is that other factory? I don't think it's I don't think BMW is if anybody was going to go to be BMW. Yeah, that's my take. Yeah. I don't see BMW wanting anything to do with Moto GP.

Well, not until the new regulations come in. Precisely. So they're not coming anytime soon. Right. So why not let them have a Husqvarna?

Let OK, if you don't want two of them on there, how about one Husqvarna ran out of whose ever pit box? It doesn't matter. And put a cost on it. Like, I think as fans, we would like to see him. No one's going to want to see him just dominate next year's moto, too.

Now, Arbolino is still there as well. So, hey, there's the potential we're going to see a great championship battle. But there's also the possibility that cost just dominates again and just like, OK, look, I should have been here. People with that, you know, your actions speak louder than your words concept. I don't see what happened.

One bike that's a Husqvarna. I don't see how that causes a problem. And again, there's a mouthwatering concept to me. If you put two Husqvarna on there, Marquez could break his contract and be on a KTM clone. And what kind of fun would that be?

Because I, you know, as much as I rate Martín and Benyaya, and I think those guys are absolutely amazing riders. Wouldn't the would the racing be better if Marquez was on a bike that was competitive and Acosta was on a bike? That we know to be competitive. I think that's better entertainment. I'll use that word.

I'll use entertainment loosely here. Yeah, but I'm not running the show, so it doesn't matter. But I just I don't I mean, you have someone who's willing, willing to put two more bikes on your grid and you tell them, no, I just don't I don't get it. I don't the issue. I think Jim, inevitably, these things are always the devil's in the detail.

And there's a lot of nuance around why Dornar are saying no, or saying that they can't. And I know a big part of it. So I've spoken to I know who it would have been when I went to that Silverstone pre Grand Prix event. There were a number of well-connected journos. And this kind of came up a bit.

And one of the issues is that because it would have to be, to all intents and purposes, presented as a customer team or a non works team, Dornar have to fund it. And I think Dornar have some financial issues as a lingering after effect. I have Covid because I lost a hell of a lot of revenue. And let's be honest, despite the fact that some of the racing is very, very good. It's not necessarily reflected in the TV audience figures, and it certainly isn't reflected in a lot of the thumbs on seats figures at the events themselves.

So there's a bit of a I mean, we haven't really seen a huge amount yet of the influence of this Dan Rosamondo, the new guy that's come in, the American chap who came in from the NFL to sort of lead the commercial. Sorry, NBA. Thank you. So we haven't really got to see in any great detail what he's going to bring to try and help grow the sport. Obviously, they have the disaster of the Amazon Prime TV show that just kind of landed flat.

And that, I think you can't underestimate how much damage that did, really, because it was a real disappointment that in a number of different ways, especially Mark Marquez has his own show that was, I'm not saying brilliant, but was way better than the Prime show. Yeah, it was. And that's bearing in mind the fact that it was completely and utterly under the control of the Marquez brothers. You know, so it was very one sided in the way it was telling its tale. It was still quite captivating the ones that I watched, but it wasn't kind of warped and all as, you know, the unlimited series tried to be and just didn't quite achieve it, did it?

So I think Dornar got some I'm not saying they're in financial trouble. I don't think that's the case at all. But they would have to I mean, for them to support as they do the other non-work centuries, I think you're talking kind of like probably 10 million euros or something a year. I mean, it's a big chunk of cash and they're probably saying, well, we we're not prepared to do that. And the rules are rules.

So there might be certain things KTM might say, well, we'll fund it. And but it might just be that they can't, you know, it's a little bit like which way do you get back into the pit lane? We'll talk about this in a minute. But yeah, we'll talk about that. There's a rule, you know, and if you break the rule, you can say the rule's stupid, but the rule is the rule.

If the rule is stupid, then you should change it. So, yes, it's a head scratcher. It really is. And the Acosta thing is is beguiling really in terms of what is going to happen and when are we going to find out? Because, you know, the weeks keep ticking by, don't they?

And none the wiser. But you have to imagine there's all sorts going on still behind the scenes. And I find it very hard to believe that Acosta would settle for another year in Moto 2 because if you win the championship, which, let's be honest, let's say is almost certainly going to happen, you were going to want to go out. But there aren't many bikes left, are there? Well, there's one at the moment as things presently stand with contracts in place.

There is one bike available, which brings us to Moto GP very nicely because the rumor of Mark Marquez being on that one seat, i.e. the Grusini bike, is not going away. It keeps on lingering out there. I, I'm over this and I am starting to lose my fanboyism with Marquez and just feeling like I should just dedicate my fanboyism to Acosta. But I, I'm like, God, dude, I mean, you all, I'm going to I'm going to make an announcement at Motegi.

If what were you going to tell you either had two choices? You're going to say, yeah, I'm staying with these guys because I have a contract or B, I'm breaking my contract and I'm going to Grusini. Well, if you said that, that would be a serious black mark against you because you did it at Honda's home race on their home track. They would not look favorable upon that. If you think Rossi's pissed because he doesn't get his motorcycle.

Yeah, the same thing is going to happen to Marquez. So, I mean, to your point, Rich, with let's kind of twine these two things together. KTM could put two bikes on the grid. OK, well, it's a quasi satellite team. Well, OK, I get that the rules are the rules.

But if Mark Marquez was to run his own team, if you don't think Marquez couldn't find enough backing to put behind that, that Dorna wouldn't have to pay the money. And then I get rules are rules. But still, it seems even if KTM did not have the money to do it, right, even if they did not and they had enough money to put bikes on the grid. Fine. Marquez could find the money if he wanted if he really wanted to.

There's enough people he could find that would definitely put him there. His name is almost as big as Rossi's, right? Look, Rossi is never going to have a problem finding somebody to put their name on that motorcycle for his team to exist. I think Marquez has that same pull and that same draw. Now, I mean, because they he could very easily, very easily.

And I don't know how contracts are written, but he could very easily pull reps all over to that side. And it would be a orange bike with a different shade of blue. Oh, yeah. All of those things, I'm sure, are all possible. Would naturally happen very easily.

But the problem is, is all the politics of the other teams. I mean, it strikes me without going down too far down the Formula One analogy. But you've got this kind of weird situation in Formula One where they're trying to bring Andretti and all the other teams to say, well, no, because how can you guarantee that that team being there will generate enough income to cover what we will lose by him taking a share of what we already get? And so this is where all the problem is. It's in the back room kind of politics, the big contracts, the financial agreements.

And people basically saying, well, no, because that's going to end up costing us money. And I don't suppose KTM want to start subsidising the satellite Ducati squad for losses of revenue, potentially. You know, this is the problem. It gets so hard to unpick everyone is little one or requirement or obligation or whatever the word you want to use is. I think that's probably where this keeps kind of just hitting the blocks.

Now, if you come in as a manufacturer, I guess you are obligated to swell the fund of money, not take from it and certainly not take out a donors pot. So I just don't. Well, it's not going to happen. I mean, the extra two bites aren't happening, are they? No, they're not.

So we still we land back where we started. Yeah, exactly. Where's Mark is going? Where's the cost to go? Right.

I agree. You know, hey, let's put the politics, the speculation and conspiracy theories aside. Let's just talk about racing. So we get into the first qualifying session for MotoGP. Marquez is in there.

So is Quattrorara. So is Olivera and Mir. I don't think we are surprised by any bit of that. But what I what I am somewhat surprised is the statistic I will throw out. There is not one Japanese motorcycle that went directly to Q2.

This shows you the state of play in MotoGP at Honda's track in Japan. Not one Japanese motorcycle got to Q2 directly. And that is a huge, huge thing. My take on it from what I kind of read post was of the two factories. Yamaha were in the biggest trouble or having the worst weekend.

I mean, are there certainly we saw in India, but you can't really take that because it's a new track to everybody. But are there one or two little sort of green shoots of hopeful progress emerging at Honda? They had a little management shuffle, didn't they? One of the kind of technical leads has been shuffled off back to an office. Yeah, get a base.

So there's whether that means that Penn, you know, elevates a little bit or they bring somebody else in elsewhere in HRC. Who knows? But there are changes going on there. And I think Mir didn't have such a good weekend as he had in India, for sure. But I don't think he was throwing himself out the road particularly either.

Yeah. Which is progress, progress from his point of view. So it wasn't all bad for Honda, but I mean, they are miles off still. And it's only Marquez that's kind of keeping them anywhere close to competitive. And just to kind of add one thing to this, we know that Michelin's contract to supply tires to MotoGP runs to the end of 2026.

Coincidentally, that is when Pirelli's contract ends for Moto3 and Moto2. I think a lot of people are looking at this saying that Pirelli is basically going to be the tire, a la World Superbike in MotoGP. They're going to be from top to bottom Pirelli. Honda then essentially has 24 to figure it out, 25 to get Marquez's title if he stays, because they're going to be probably back in the same boat with the new tires that Pirelli brings, because when they switched to Michelin's, it was a difficult road for them to. That's when Marquez started the complaining.

The bike doesn't have the grip on the back. The bike doesn't accelerate. All those things happen sort of in that transitional switch away from from it. And that's when Marquez lost the front, kept losing the front all the time with the Michelin's and wound up having his crash at Haaretz. That broke his humerus.

So there is a time crunch, I think, that Honda is going to have to face. Anyway, we said we don't work on conspiracy theories and politics. We went right back down that road again. Sorry, folks. But out of the first session, Marquez and Raul Fernandez on the Aprilia got through.

Raul had a sneaky good weekend. We are seeing the glimpses of what we thought he may have been, Kevin given his time in Moto 2, because it was him and Remy Gardner who had that knockdown, drag out battle for the Moto 2 World Championship. Anyway, we went on to QP2. Bizecki had a very nasty low side at turn 12. It looked as though, which is the turn right after you come out of the tunnel, right?

You have the heartbreaking turn 11. You go back underneath the oval and you make this left turn. Well, you've been on the right side of the tire for a fair amount of time. And you now want to go back the other way. It looked like it just wasn't.

It was like Bizecki's outlapper first lap through. It wasn't the warmest of days. It was it was a mild 70 some degree Fahrenheit. It was 24, 25 Celsius. So it looked like he basically just did not have the tire hot enough.

Tossed it in, lost it. And it was a major tumble. Bizecki went into that thing backwards and tumbled himself over. And so he really didn't get a chance to sort of brace himself or be able to know when he was going to hit the gravel trap. And it was it was a really nasty tumble.

It was great to see Bizecki get up, walk away. His Ducati was definitely secondhand. That is for sure. After that one. But Jorge Martin, with his qualifying magic, would take the pole.

Benyaya would be second. Miller on the new carbon fiber framed chassis would be third. Bizecki would get Bizecki got back out on the other bike, I think, and was able to turn in a time turn in a fourth place ride. Then it was Bender, DG Antonia and Mark Marquez having having showing some glimmer of hope for Honda by qualifying on the front two reds, which is far better than where Yamaha and Quattraro were at that point. So we went to the sprint that afternoon as a 12 lap race.

Martin got a very nice whole shot. And then he went to work just laying down the great laps that Martin can do. And basically, Martin sort of rode off into the sunset and beat everybody. Now, there was a little bit that was going on in here. You know, there was a there was a good race in there with with Bender and because he Bender now comes from like nowhere and winds up like in two laps, having gone to second place.

He had a good start. But, you know, he's got the carbon fiber frame. He's got edge grip. And he was making it. He was making it work.

And, you know, Martin Bender and Miller all had about four tenths on Benjaya, Mark Marquez and Zarko early on in that race. Martin just again, as I said, just kept easing away on it. Bender had a good one and a half seconds on Miller. But then Bender got a track limits warning. We kind of noticed that with the KTMs, those guys are on the edge with it.

They're always there. Bender seems to be a little more edgy, if you will, than Miller is on all that. So just had a warning. But, you know, you're halfway through and you got to ride the rest of the race pretty much on eggshells so that you don't have a problem going through it. Bizecki was who was there.

He had gotten by Zarko. Marquez was fading. The bike doesn't have the grip on the back end. And he does if he does have it, he seems to lose it by a certain amount of time. Now, Marquez and Bizecki were both wide at the tunnel turn.

That allowed Zarko to go by both of them. Aleis retired with a mechanical issue of some kind. I do not know what it was. It seemed to appear as though the bike was running. But is was it another transmission issue where it was stuck in gear or not?

We did not know. Was it an electrical failure of some kind? Do not know. But he retired. The Benyaya Miller battle was pretty awesome.

Those guys kind of really went after each other. There was a lot of, you know, Benyaya was trying to figure out a way around Miller without falling off and without crashing. And you were correct, Rich, from last week. Benyaya did crash in turn 12 last year and did not score points in this race. And he did go to Sepang and did crash there.

But I think they had Thailand in between like last year. So you were correct in that. But again, it wound up with Martine winning. Bender would be second and there was three point eight seconds to Benyaya, who did eventually get by Miller. They did.

I think he did get him at turn 11. Hard breaking zone was able to take Miller to the edge of the track, if you will, to protect his position. And then Sarko and Bezecki. So Benyaya was now only eight points ahead of Jorge Martín at this point in time after the sprint. We'll move from the sprint directly to the race on Sunday.

And the big threat was there's rain coming. Rain had been predicted all weekend here. There was rain overnight from Saturday into Sunday morning. It did not affect the Moto3 or Moto2 race. The track was dry.

Now, there was a dry line under the tunnels and there were tiny, I'll call them damp patches, maybe a little very damp patch underneath it there. But it was not going to be a problem. The thing was that, you know, again, I guess we'll talk about that after the race, because I think we're going to have to talk about the race and then talk about the rules and everything else that they have associated with this. That becomes the problem. Now, I think when the guys went out for it's the siting lap to get out of the pits and get back to the to the to their grid positions or to take the bikes to the grid position.

You know, so everybody was running like the shortest possible distance you could possibly take around the track. And they were all tucked in behind the bubble because Matej is such a thirsty track for fuel that they were doing everything they could to not that. I mean, I think Simon Kreyfart quiped that Aprilia needs to make sure they take the eco mode out of out of a luscious bike. Yes, I have last year. Yeah, because I had it last year.

But while they were on the siting lap, people were putting on raincoats. The Pontius were coming out. The rain was starting to come down. These were very tricky, very, very tricky conditions that were going to be at the start. I thought maybe they might delay the start and we'll come to why they didn't at the end of this.

So we have to be sure we talk about that. They they agreed to start the race. And when they did, it was tricky conditions. Martin got the whole shot. Miller was right with him.

Then Benya and Binder. Now, the Zeki went into this turn first turn a little too hot. He then nerfed Maverick Vinales, who then nerfed who then their Zarko. Zarko would go into the gravel, keep the bike upright, re-enter the track and head on into the race. Vinales would be down in a very low speed crash.

He got to the gravel and just basically fell over, got the bike up and then was struggling to get it restarted and get back into the race. Now, as soon as the race started halfway through the lap, the white the white flag was displayed at the corners, enabling the riders to be able to come in and switch to their other bikes if they so desired. Almost everybody pit it immediately at the end of the first lap to get in there. It was again, I am not a fan of a flag to flag, sorry, flag to flag race, because this is what I hate. All those motorcycles are coming down that pit lane at the same time with a bunch of people standing there.

I get we're on a pit speed limiter and everything, but I just have that innate fear that somebody is going to get hit, run over, and you're going to have some sort of massive chaos when somebody pulls back out and T-bones somebody else. And I just don't I just don't like that. But the people who stayed out was Piero, Quattroraro, Stefan Brattle, Morbidelli and Crutchlow. The Yamas had nothing to lose. They were nowhere in this.

So if it did stop raining, perhaps maybe they were in the cat bird seat. But everybody else was there. Martin led out of the swap from motorcycle to motorcycle, followed by Alesh, Marc Marquez, Benyai and Miller. Then Martin went wide at three because I guess it was wet. It was slick, lack of concentration.

I'm not sure. But he went wide there. Still, we're talking three hours into the race. Piero has not switched bikes. It was it was wild because on the long back straightaway between turn 10 and 11, the bikes were starting to kick up a very fierce rooster tail, to which is like you got to get off the bike.

And again, they finally did tell him, hey, you've got to come in. So that finally then reset the race into an order that represent represented what we were seeing on the TV with Alesh. With Alesh now out front, having gone gotten by Martin, who had ran wide. Marquez, Benyai, Bezeki, Martin was then fourth, followed by Miller. Bender then has a crash and wadded it up and it was done.

Martin got by Benyai and then he got by Alesh as Barger. So normal service resumed at this point with Martin out front, followed by Alesh, followed by Benyai, Bezeki, Olivera and Marc Marquez, your top six. Miller had a very scary, scary, very scary moment. Can't speak right now. All with on lap 16, which was he locked the front going into turn 11, which is the downhill into the tunnel.

The front locked on him. Miller got off the brake, saved it, didn't go off track. It was amazing. It was really great. Say, but then Martin, Benyai, Bezeki and Olivera and Marquez continue on.

They run another two laps and it is bucking down. And Marquez has worked his way to third. Mind you, everybody's on reins right now. And the people who were on the soft Michelin rein were starting to go backwards as if they had used up the tire, perhaps maybe. And the people who were on the medium rain were now moving towards the front.

But it then turned and started bucking down on 13. When they came through at 13, Marquez had his left hand up and was waving that we the conditions were way too dangerous at this point, namely the section just before the high speed turn 12, that area underneath the bridge. I guess the drainage isn't as good as it could be or the amount of water coming down because of the rain was so heavy that it Marquez aquaplane through there. And I think Benyai did as well, because as the camera pulled back out for the main straightaway, then I had his left hand up as well as like, hey, we we have to actually stop this. And then bang on.

We got a red flag and wallah Zarko crashes at turn 12. I did not. They did not have a good replay of the crash. I did not see one. If they did replay it later on, I did not see it.

But I think he may have been caught out by the amount of water that was under the bridge in that area and a hydro plane himself off into the gravel trap. And that was a very, very secondhand Ducati. Now we have where all the craziness happens. The rule says and we'll start here with Zarko. The rule says you have five minutes from the time of the red flag to go back and to get yourself back to the pits, to be able to work on the bike and have an ability to restart the race.

That is what Zarko was trying to do. The marshals seem to think that Zarko's bike was too heavily damaged or didn't want it to go back on track or something. They had got him to where they put him behind the wall and the tire barrier, to which then Zarko simply pushed his bike from there in and back into the pits. And then that's where the controversy then starts in all of this, was we're trying to get ready to form back up for a restart. They did stop the race, right?

Was it about 15 minutes rich that they stopped? Oh, a little bit longer. Yes. OK. Yeah.

I didn't have a stopwatch on that one. I wasn't. I wasn't sure. But they wanted to open the pit lane back up at 1550 local time. So that would be 350 for those of us who don't follow a 24 hour clock.

So 10 minutes to four, they were going to start the race again. But we were hearing that Zarko was not going to be allowed to take part in the restart because he did not bring his motorcycle back through the beam to break the beam to enter the pit, to tell them that he was in the pit. That was the official word was that that was the problem, because you didn't bring your bike through that. You can't start the race now. I think we should talk a little bit about Olivera's situation as well, because I think all these are sort of intertwined.

Yeah. Yeah. So Marquez, as noted, had jumped his way back up the third. I did not realize I was trying to figure out how he got through Bizecki and through Olivera, because those guys were riding really well. And Marquez was going backwards.

Now, what happened was Olivera, the lap before, parked the bike. It seemed as though he was complaining of visibility problems. He felt unsafe. We're not going back out. Bravo, sir.

Stand up for what you believe in. I have no qualm with that. Whatever. You are actually my hero, sir. So I applaud Olivera for that decision that, hey, this is too dangerous.

I'm done. And he's had a lot of nasty injuries this year as well. So I fully agree with you. But who so who is the other person, Rich, who is involved in this pit, this restart finagling that goes on here? Because it was somebody else was was in this mix too.

And I have it was at Vinales as well. Yeah, he had got back out, but he was a lot. He was a lap down. OK, yes. So so Olivera has quit a lap before the red flag comes out.

So he quits on lap 11 because the are sorry, he quits on lap 12 because lap 13 was started by by him. So the last official lap to be ran was 12. And that put and I guess maybe Olivera came in on the 11th on lap 11, perhaps. So suddenly, Aprilia is saying, hey, we get to start again because we were a lap down. We get to start now because it's complete restart or was going to be a complete restart because 50% of the race had been completed, which meant we had to run the final 12 laps of the 24 lap race.

And everything that happened before was for naught. It wasn't going to count. All it did was decide the grid for how people were going to start. Aprilia is like, hey, we we should be allowed to start this with Vinalas. And then it's like, well, hey, by the way, we should be able to start Olivera on this second one, because Olivera because what happened was the race went backwards one lap, because if you red flag the race, the results are declared by the lap prior.

So the last completed lap would have been lap 11. Hence, Olivera pulling into the pits, hence Vinalas being there one lap down. Hey, we're going to let you restart. But you are going to restart by going out. They're going to use a quick restart procedure.

You're going to start by going back out, taking a sliding lap, pulling back into the pits and starting from pit lane. Zarko is like, well, I get to start too. But he wasn't allowed to start because he did not go into the pit correctly. Everybody's looking like a I think looking like a fool here. Rich, your take on this, please.

Well, the Zarko thing. OK, take them one at a time. Let's Zarko. Let's go there. Because we've got the background now.

I mean, I just think it was very unfortunate. I mean, you would you saw that crash. You would think there's no way that bike is going to turn a wheel to get back to the pits, let alone be fixed up to go back out into the race. But while I felt sorry for him, I mean, you know, he didn't come in through the pit lane, and that is the rule. So you can see why they said, sorry, you can't restart.

I mean, because if you don't follow the rule, don't have the rule. So it's a bit of a rock and hard place for the organizers, that one. But but equally, I'm sure what Zarko and the team was saying is you pointed out was that the marshals were sort of trying to kind of just get the bike out of the way as quickly as possible, probably thinking that it wasn't there was no chance for him to restart the race anyway. So I don't know. I'm a little bit on the fence with this one.

You would say that in an ideal world, a bit of common sense would be brought to bear. And they might just give him a bitterly way because he wasn't totally in control of where the bike was going to get back into the pit lane, because the marshals were the ones that were handling it and not him. So I felt a bit sorry for him on that one. The vinyard is saying I'm kind of a little bit confused about that whole deal really with him. I know with Olivera, initially, they said that he wasn't going to be able to restart because he rode his bike back into the garage.

And you're not allowed to do that. I think you need to leave the bike in pit lane. Otherwise, if you go into the garage, you're deemed to be presumably off of the live circuit at that point, because pit lane is part of the live track. Again, I mean, there were some people thumbing through bits of the rule, but they don't get to see the light of day very often, Jim, I would imagine, because this was all a bit frantic and a bit like, really? Is that a rule?

So the vinyard is one I don't really quite get. Well, I understand that if the race is finished and you're running, you don't get penalised for the fact that you're a lap down. You're effectively back on the lead lap. But I didn't really in my mind, I couldn't really quite fathom why it was that both he and Olivera had to start from the pit lane. I didn't really quite get that.

Perhaps you understand it and can explain it to me and probably a few others. But but these are like little nuanced details of the rule book, aren't they? And God, there must be some people with, you know, spend a lot of time reading through that thing, because it's quite a thick book, I would imagine nowadays with all the different rules and regs that come and go. So, yeah, but it messy really. Oh, yeah, this is this is messy.

It's very messy. The argument for Vinala's was, hey, we get to start last on the grid because you went back one lap as you as is required by the rule. You have to go back to where everybody was running one lap prior. Yeah. If that's the case, then you all says every right to be starting on the track.

But they wouldn't let him do that. They let him start from pit lane. I cannot answer why he had to start from pit lane, because if you count back, we're finished lap 12. That's the last fully completed lap that we have. That means you were looking to set the grid based off what happened on lap 11.

On lap 11, then you all is a lap down and he's the last man on track. However, you're restarting the race from scratch. So then you all is entitled to be last man on on the row of the grid. So so him starting from pit lane, I can't understand at all why he's going to start from pit lane. Olivera is the argument then for Olivera to restart and ride the rest of the race is, hey, you went back a lap to lap 11.

He was in pit lane at that time and still classified because he hadn't he had gotten off the bike and walked into the pits. But the bike was still in pit lane. And I use that loosely because the mechanics were getting ready to move it in. And we're not watching all this happen. But from what I'm taking, they were getting ready to move it in.

And it started to move it in when the red flag came out. Right. So it's still alive, effectively. Effectively, if you went, their argument was you went back one lap. His bike was still live to that at that moment in time.

So if you went back a lap, you get to start to again. Why Olivera has to start from? I think Olivera would start from pit lane. And it makes sense to me because, hey, you were in pit lane because whatever was going on, you decided to quit. You decided to your bike needed to be fixed.

Whatever. Blah, blah, blah. So, hey, if you were there in the pits, you're restarting from the pits, which makes sense. Right. But then the Zarco thing makes no sense because Zarco is like, well, I what was I going to do?

I've got five minutes to put this bike back in here to get ready again. This is, you know, this is wrong. But of all the rules that they threw out there, the rule saying that Zarco couldn't restart was probably the most sound. As you said, the rules are the rules and you did not enter the pits properly. If Zarco would have pushed it through the gravel and came in, no one could have argued that Zarco could have been started.

He would have been absolutely fine then. Yeah. So I understand how Vinales gets to restart. I don't understand why he restarts from pit lane. Now, I think they said it was like, well, because you're a lap down.

That's a load of crap in my book because you have set the race back to zero. Essentially, what happened prior doesn't matter. So he's not a lap down. Although that would equally apply to Oliveira by following that logic. Exactly.

But it does. But that doesn't. But it doesn't. Again, it was it was it was they things. Again, if it's I hate inconsistencies, it's a I am a creature of I want things to be consistent across the board.

However, it was not in this instance, and none of it was, which was terrible because it was it was one of the things that just makes everybody cringe because of it. It's like you don't even know your own rulebook. I mean, again, we're going to pages of the rulebook that are not dog eared at all. Right. I mean, everybody's whipping through to try to figure out what this all means.

And again, I'm not so sure that these rulebooks are written, not written by by by like a ghost, like a ghost writer thing. It's a bunch of lawyers and stuff, I think, that are putting together these these rules. And so they're open to interpretation. So and again, I think I think Dorna wants the rulebook to be open to interpretation so they can make a decision about whatever it is they were wanting to do. Again, that goes back to the very beginning, like the race started as a dry race, despite the fact that everybody knew on radar that the rain was going to come during this race.

We just didn't know when it was going to. I think they were hoping to try to get this thing started before the rain came. And it just so happened it was spitting when it started and everybody knew it was going to go bad. So everybody came in to change bikes. That's fine.

I think you're OK with that. But the other reason that they didn't start the race, they didn't say, hey, we're going to declare it a wet race is because there was no wet practice sessions from MotoGP at all over the weekend. And by the rulebook, you'd have to allow for a 45 minute wet session. Is it 45 minute session? You have to give them a wet session.

I it might be only 30 minutes of familiarization session at the very least. Yeah, at the very end, they have to have that. And I think the minimum is like 30 minutes. The problem then becomes that you have to get everybody on what's have this session. And because the race was starting at was at 2 p.m.

local time. So so that's 1400 local time. Sunsets in an hour and 30 minutes in Japan. So at 530, the sun is essentially set in that part of Japan. And without much cloud coming over, it was going to be very dark.

It was dark. Yeah. So they really couldn't afford to have a 40 minute, 30 minute wet session. They would have ran out of daylight and perhaps not got the race on. So they use the rulebook to their benefit at that point.

And then everybody who's a team decided to use the use the rulebook against them to get their bikes back on the grid, which shook everything up. And again, it's not anyone's it's not a problem. It's just again, it's an inconsistency for me. It's like, well, again, you can look at it and say, well, the vignales gets to start, then why doesn't Olivera? OK, yeah, they both start.

Whoa, why are they now in the pit lane? Like Olivera legitimately could have could be in the pit lane. I understand that. But then you all should have been at the back of the pack and blah, blah, blah. And it just goes around in a circle.

Yeah, I know we we need to sort of get to what have this all finished up because the whole thing about who was going to start, where was it? Pit lane, was it not? It was all a bit. Yeah. No, in the end is the word.

Yes, it was. Um, I just want to sort of return to something you said. The little guy, not to challenge you, but just to give a different perspective. There is a problem, however, that I see. You said you don't like the flag to flag format.

I do not. I actually do like the flag to flag format because I don't like races that constantly stop started. I mean, thank God they got away from aggregate timings and stuff like that, because that was always a nightmare when you had kind of like amalgamated different race times and stuff from different race segments. So I'm glad that's gone. One thing that I thought was almost very nearly a nasty situation, though, and is a problem with the flag to flag was when all of the budget, like you said, what, two thirds, if not more of the field went easily into lap one.

Somebody went in really, really hot. And there could have been an absolutely colossal pile up as they all went into the pit lane off off the track. So that is a problem. And I don't know how they would address that, because you can never know if it's going to be in a typical flag to flag. You might get a few bikes that go in, take the gamble.

Whereas in this one, they all went in on mass and had one of them gone down. And it would have been a horror show with guard railings for pit lanes and walls and stuff around. Yeah, particularly in the wet, because people slide more. And it's that needs kind of looking at. But I don't know how they deal with that.

Your point about there being a lot of people in pit lane. I don't know why they couldn't. And perhaps they will on the back of this do something like I think happens in some of the Moto America series. Certainly happens in all superbikes where you've got a mandated stop time and or you could have it so that the crew are not allowed to come out into pit lane until the bike has arrived and stopped. And then they bring the bike out as quickly as they can.

And the rider does the swap. You could do that. You could say, well, you've got a minimum stop time of 60 seconds so that there's time for people not to be because, you know, the riders come in quick as well. And, you know, on a wet pit lane, which is not very grippy. We have seen bikes tumble before and mechanics get knocked over and stuff.

So there's all sorts of jeopardy, but ways that you could solve that. My single biggest problem with the flag to flag and the way it played out on Sunday. And we saw this with several riders is that whilst you can come in and change your bike, they don't have time to come in and change their crash helmet. And Miller was definitely having visibility problems because you could see him turning his head going down the back straight as if he was trying to get some air in to clear the visor, because obviously they don't have the double visors like the what you call it, the double glazed ones. They certainly don't have the face mask on it to cover their nose, to try and keep some of the condensation down.

So Olivera pulled in basically because he couldn't see anything. I'm sure that was the case for Miller. And I bet it was the case for a few others, because there have been a few cases over the last few years where not naming any brands and getting in trouble because we can't afford the legal bill. But up until a few years ago, pretty much everybody was wearing a showy or an air helmet, weren't they? Now you've got a proliferation of different brands.

And I know there have been problems in the past where people have stepped down from one of those, let's call them premium or historically premium lids and then suddenly found that in iffy conditions, they're having all sorts of problems with steaming up and stuff. And that is not pleasant on a motorbike, is it? And those MotoGP bikes are running so hot, they're just creating so much steam. So I think it's a problem when riders can't change their gear, because that is a genuine safety concern. If you can't see where you're going or you're having to do stuff whilst you're on the bike to try and clear, get some clear air through or whatever, then there is an issue there, I think.

And we definitely did see that. And as we say, that is what led Olivera to call it quits at that point in the race, just figuring that he didn't want to crash and bash himself up again. And like you said, all the power to him, really, because that was a brave decision to do that. But so that was just a sort of a thought I had about flag to flag. Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, super bikes, MotoMerca, now MotoMerca did have a mandatory pit time to be stationary.

That was on the long supersport races where they were changing tires. So they made a time limit so that the crews could take the time to get everything back onto the bike properly. And it was a it's a fair way to do it. I agree. I think that you are hit the nail on the head that that is probably the way MotoGP is going to have to go.

Hey, you have got to be stationary for pick it. I don't know, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, whatever it's going to be. You got to be stationary for that amount of time again. Hey, your bike can be sitting there. You can come in and as soon as you get into that area, you know, a designated area, you mark off tape, paint, whatever.

Now you can step out, catch the bike and now you can get on the other bike. They'll take it off the stand and away you go. I like that. I really do. I have no problem against that.

My whole thing is, is that you have everybody going every which way. And like Cal Crutchlow fell victim of this. A couple of people like they had entered the pit wrong and they were penalized for long lap penalties because they have little marker cars that are out there which are not super visible to begin with. They're in team colors. And if it's dark, you're not going to see a dark colored one.

If you have a missed over visor and a dark visor as well, you're probably not going to see it. You missed it. And I don't like that. My my big fear is that in the panic of getting to the other bike, someone's going to dump the clutch, spin it and be gone because most of the tracks we go to hold car racing of some type, whether it be Formula One or some other series, the pit lane is asphalt or bitumen. But where the garages are is concrete, where the cars would be serviced.

It's concrete and it's done because if you spill racing fuel on asphalt, it will destroy it. So those are all concrete and will be concrete. So there's a very big difference in the cohesion, coefficient of friction that I was looking for between the asphalt when it's wet and the concrete when it's wet and concrete that's wet that's had a bunch of rubber laid down because there was a car race two weeks ago. So that's why I don't like the races like that. I really never thought about the whole helmet and misting type thing, mainly because when I was racing, we didn't have those things.

And if it was a even remotely dark kind of day, I would have a lighter smoke. I had I had the money for an awry. My head was on my head was in a ride all the time. I was road racing and you could move it and adjust it to get a flow of air through it and all that stuff. But that is a very valid point that you make there.

So it was a particular sort of I use the term perfect storm because that is almost too much too much of a perfect pun. But just the conditions under which the race started as a dry race, even though it was spitting, but people wouldn't have had time, although you might have said they should have had the full thought or the foresight because, as you said, the rain was quite expected. It was. Yeah. And I know it comes down pretty hard, pretty quick there.

But anyway, for whatever reason, people didn't have like the see through sort of waterproofing over coats and stuff on. And I'll say they certainly didn't many of most, if not all, didn't have kind of like the wet setup for the crash helmets. And so, yeah, that became a problem. Now, that's not going to happen very often, but, you know, it only has to happen occasionally. And if somebody has a nasty accident results, you might sort of point the finger at the organizers and say you have some provision to change that because you're so big on safety and you're always giving people penalties for doing things that are unsafe and yet you're allowing stuff to go on that jeopardizes people.

So it's a bit of a weird one. I wonder what people think. I mean, we don't want to over sanitize the sport and kind of wrap everybody up in cotton ball because that's not the nature of what we're up to here. But that is an area where you would think that they could probably make it a bit safer for the riders. Yeah, you know, I mean, they didn't feel as a wet race.

They would have had their wet gear on. They would have had their clear covers over top, etc. And all that. And I agree with that again. Double sized knee sliders again.

I mean, not many people would have had those on and they certainly needed them when the rain came down as heavy as it did. Correct. So to me, I fail to understand why there's such a gap between the end of the Moto 2 race and the beginning of the Moto GP race. There's time in there that is essentially a lunch break. And it's more for the corner workers and that the crews are going to eat when they want to eat, riders will have their pre meal ritual because they're going to happen at that time.

I don't see why that if you know inclement weather is coming and if Japan is the sun sets at 530, it's in the middle of the night for the UK. I think it's that's like middle of the night for you. It's really, really late at night for me. We hours in the morning, maybe for you, I don't know. It's 12 hours for you, I think something like that.

So like two in the morning for you, maybe like 11 o'clock, 1130 my time, something like that. I'm not sure. Why not just move the whole thing forward? Why can't you just start racing Moto 3 instead of racing at 11? Why aren't you racing at 10?

Yeah, that's a good question. That's to me. That seems like the most logical thing to do here in Japan is start earlier. You can still have that hour, hour, hour and a half each break between Moto 2 and Moto GP, you can feed the corner workers and get them a sandwich, all that kind of stuff. I understand.

You know, I'm not, you know, it just seems to me like if you're already up against this and it's already in the middle of the night here anyway, moving it to start at 10 o'clock in the morning Japan local time would be fine. Yeah, just get rid of that stupid rider pride. Oh, there you go. I was going to go there. There's some time you could get back there, which wouldn't at the end of day wouldn't be a major kind of loss to most people on the for some of these venues where this is likely to be an issue.

And Thailand would be another one coming up because you can pretty well set your clock that it will start to rain at this time, you know, if you're in that part of the season, as in that part of the weather season. So, yeah, there is a bit more give and take now that we don't have three warmups in the morning and the one we do have is much, much shorter than it used to be. So you would thought they could juggle it a little bit. I know the TV schedules tend to be the, you know, the be all and the end all. But I don't want to be arrogant enough to say that it's, you know, the American TV audience market or the European one that should take prevalence.

Although that has historically tended to be the case, because obviously there's a TV audience all over the world for this stuff. But yeah, why they couldn't just juggle it. I mean, I don't think anybody would particularly moan about it too much. We're only talking about a few rounds each year where this is really likely to be an issue. Or have a contingency in the rulebook that says we reserve the right to shorten the distance between a Moto 2 race and a Moto 3 race.

Hey, if you're running the middle of the two middle running in the middle of the Moto 2 race and you look at the radar and there's a really significant chance that you're going to get rain because you can watch the radar say it's coming. Hey, guys, you are on alert for us to move the start by 30 minutes. You if you move that start by 30 minutes, you're racing the second half of the race, which we never ever talk about what happened in the race. So we probably should do that and cover the cover the point. We went back out to try to restart the race.

They did the they all went out for a quick restart. They all got to the grid. They all took off on the signing lap. It poured again. And they said, that's it, we're done.

And this is the last piece of controversy. They said half distance, everybody gets full points. How is it half distance? You went back and reset the grid on lap 11. Lap 11 is not half the distance of the 12 lap race.

You had to complete 12 full laps and you didn't. Because if you did, then we wouldn't have had Olivera going back on grid. We wouldn't have had Madri Vignale is going back on grid. So it's not a full race distance, then is it? We better shut up.

Otherwise, we get told off for ranting. It's incongruous, that one. Yeah, I do agree. That was that one's a bit messy. Either way, it means that Martin wins.

Then Jaya, which he was very excited when they rolled back down pit lane. They told him, hey, you won, which was kind of cool, because he had the clear visor on then so you could see Martin's eyes and things. Then Jaya would finish second. Marquez gets a podium, a very lucky podium, but it's a podium nonetheless. Right.

Yeah. I'd rather be lucky than good. Vizecki is fourth, Aslash is fifth, Miller is sixth, Fernandez is seventh. DG Antonio, Raul Fernandez, Quattro is your top 10. Then we look at the World Championship standings and the shakeup that this potentially gets well.

Because it's only five points different between first and second, Martin cuts the eight point lean from Saturday to a three point lead from Ben Jaya. Ben Jaya is on 319. Martin's on 316. Vizecki is on 265 and he's 54 points behind. This is a two horse race.

Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. So two horse race. I would not be surprised if Martin is world champion. We know that Ben Jaya has concentration lapses, if you will, because he did have a fair crash in Motegi last year.

He then did crash at Sepang. I think that might have been a qualifying though, to be honest with you. I don't think it was in the race. Because I think he did win the race after having crashed in qualifying. But again, if you crash, there's always that possibility you're going to break a finger, you get a collarbone, et cetera, et cetera.

So that's where that is. Bender's championship is done. He's in fourth and he's 118 points behind. Alash is then fifth and Zarco is sixth. So that's how things finished off in Japan.

Is there anything else we want to do, but not rant about? No, no, no. I think we've talked through everything. There is really something about the race. I mean, anything I would add is the kind of the rub from my point of view.

And of course, it's very easy to say this from the comfort of a warm chair, sat at home. I kind of like the rain races. I mean, rain does introduce a real kind of curveball that, A, gives some other people a bit of a chance that they wouldn't normally get in the dry, all things being equal. And I mean, it's just a bit more exciting to watch often. But, you know, we have kind of entered this time now where it doesn't take getting very, very well.

They're quick to stop the races now. Whereas in the past, of course, they would have just carried them on, you know. And I'm not saying that was right. And I'm not saying that's what they should be doing now, because clearly they shouldn't. But you always know that you need perfect rain.

Really, you need it to be sort of wet ish, but not too much. Don't you? Otherwise, you know, just you're going to get into all of this restarted races. And then that's all just a bit of a damp squib as well. So I do.

I mean, it was I think Bernie Ecclestone years ago, probably not a stupid idea. Kind of surmise that they should install sprinkler systems at race tracks and then have a random shower at some point during a Formula One race to make it more exciting. And that probably would work because not much else does. But not saying that we need to have a motorcycle racing, but a bit of rain does tend to, you know, spice things up a little bit. Jim, I don't want to forget this one because we're getting a regular contributor.

OK, through the X channels to get it right now. And so this is TZ John again. By the way, John, I hope you're doing OK. John's in having some health issues and so is undergoing some treatment. John and listens to the podcast and others while he's sat in a chair, having all sorts of procedures and stuff.

So I hope, John, you're doing OK and you're sort of on the road to recovery. I'm glad that this helps to fill up some of your time when you're sat at the hospital. So John came back and just made a comment about what we were talking about, them drinking cans of Red Bull or what we assume are cans of energy drink now. So he says, gents, three episode seven, four to Jim mentioned or a Martin rehydrating with a caffeine drink. I remember a journalist saying that they have water in those cans.

Not what it says on the can. There's a little bit more. So his point is because often you can see them with a like a pool tap. So I know when they have kind of like the big containers with the the tubes that they're constantly sucking on clearly, although they will be Monster or Red Bull or whatever branded, they will have water in them clearly. But when they've got like a little can of Red Bull, like you will see Martin have one with a clearly with a pool tab on it.

I wonder if that does have a fizzy water or something in it or just a still water, whatever. But it's just branded that way to make it look like it. I mean, John makes a very, very good point there. That's a great point, John. We do not know what was in the can.

I only know that Martin was dehydrated. He in my mind was drinking a Red Bull from a small can with a pop top. And hey, I who knows, sir, he may have been water. Well, John says you never see them open one as in, you know, pulling on the. I actually think I have seen it.

I have seen them do that. But that's not to say that it's not got a fizzy water inside. That is true. So maybe somebody on the inside will have to try and track down one of the journos that's actually always in the pit lane and sort of just quiz them on this one. That's a good one.

That's a very good one. Yeah. Lovely. I like these kind of like little kind of niches of the sport that you don't normally think about. And then somebody raises a question, you think, hmm, I wonder.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, a sugary caffeine drink. I've always kind of assumed that that would be would be a good thing to drink if you're a bit drained. But I suppose drew his eye on that. I mean, my wife will tell you that having caffeine and be dehydrated will simply it's a diuretic.

It's going to want to make you pee to which you have nothing in you to pee. And if you do pee, you're peeing out all of the electrolytes and things that your body needs. So if you're dehydrated, as bad as Martine was, even a fizzy water may not be exactly the best thing. I'm assuming that it would be better than a caffeinated fizzy drink. But water or, you know, your things that have electrolytes in them and sugars, so, you know, Gatorade's the power aids.

I'm sure there's other brands of that kind of drink. So it's a great point, John. I don't know. We don't know what's in the can. Right.

I sponsor placement is massively important to these people. And I hey, they very well could be canning just regular water in a can and have their their their brand on it. And I mean, so it's entirely possible. Although I have seen I have seen Pedro Acosta open a Red Bull and at the end of a race and it is fizzy drink Red Bull. I don't know.

But interesting. That's a great thought. Thank you for that. Yeah, no, that's that's really great. So I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget to raise that because because we talked about it last time, given the Hawaii, Martine difficulties at the end of that race, quite understandably.

So, yeah, good one. We'll do a bit of digging if we can. And while I'm supposed to be, I need to get my ass in gear and get some stuff arranged, but I'm meant to be at Qatar this year. So I will ask some people in the pit lane myself if I get there. Don't we know a guy who does some stuff in BSB with an energy drink?

You're not talking about rich energy, are you? Yeah. Well, there's some people. Unfortunately, I've missed the opportunity to ask that question because I saw the tweet yesterday, but we'll be able to find somebody that could give us the inside. No, I'm not.

Yeah. Anyway, I think it's a great place to end the show, Rich. So everyone, if questions, comments, send it to Motopod at Motopodcast.com. Do you want to reach out to either Rich or myself? I am at MotoRGV Instagram X.

Rich is at Richard Jowett Instagram and X and Rich. Yeah. Well, just before we sign off, Jim, because I know you're going to do your little normal bit of lingo in a moment. We've got a two week gap now in the MotoGP schedule. We're recording this on the Monday night, which is some kind of a miracle for us.

So this will be pretty close to the race. So we've got a two week gap to fill. So I just wanted to mention that we've got some bits and pieces of interviews that we've each collected over quite a wide space of time this season from the respective British and American and World Superbike paddocks. So we're going to kind of I'm going to sort of do a little bit of a sort of what would you call it, a mashup show with various bits and pieces. So that we will I will aim to get out just to fill in probably some point next week before we get to MotoGP Indonesia.

So keep your eyes peeled for what will be 744. And we are going into the first triple header, Thailand or Indonesia to Malaysia to Australia. Correct. I think that's right. Yeah.

So and then there's a week off and then it's then it's a triple header to end the season, which is which way us which way is it? Is there because there's there's a Thai GP, too. Right. There's a Thai GP and Indonesian GP in Malaysia. Then like a week break in Australia, Australia, Qatar and Valencia.

It ended up right. I think that's right. Yeah, for some unknown reason, I can't get the MotoGP website calendar up now, so we'll have to park that. Well, it's something like that. But again, it's going to be a yeah, a pretty arduous run into the end of the year.

Yep. Two triple headers to finish out the season is going to be tough. With that, we will end the show this time. And I'll do it by telling you all the ride safe. Cheers, everyone.