Craziness at Catalunya!

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 Welcome to Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 768 for May 29th, 2024. I'm your host, Jim McDowell, riding solo this time as our good friend and colleague, Richard Jalot is on a work trip and he is unavailable at the time and I'm on a work trip starting next week.

So with Majella this weekend, I thought it best just to have a quick review show, which is what we're going to do. And I'm going to talk to you all about what happened at Catalonia. So we're just going to get right to it here. We'll start off with MotoGP news, some of the things that I think are a little bit interesting. We'll get Richard's thoughts on these as well.

The Indian GP has been removed from this year's schedule and its place is basically the Kazakhstan race. So that's like in September 20th or something, I think is the first day. There was a lot of rumors at the Indian GP that fees weren't paid, that this was going to be a cancellation. It's been a postponement technically, maybe that's because the lawyers have gotten involved. I think there's more to this than meets the eye.

Whether we actually ever go back to India is indeed a question. I mean, Formula One did stop going as well. But going to Kazakhstan, I don't know. We'll see. The circuit doesn't seem to be very interesting from what the pictures are, but it must be somewhat well done.

I think the biggest news from the weekend in Catalonia was that Alessio Spargaro decided to call it a career at the end of this season. So Alessio will retire. I believe he's going to be test rider, wild card for Aprilia as they continue. But does that mean that Jorge Martín, who was visibly choked up because him and Alessio are very good friends, is Martín destined to go to Aprilia or is Bastianini destined to go to Aprilia? There is a desire to have an Italian on an Italian machine.

Lastly, there are a few rules that came out for MotoGP. This is interesting to me. It pertains to helmets in the pit lane for crew. It says, it remains compulsory for MotoGP team members to use helmets in the pit lane during busy periods when the bike changes may be made. This is defined as Q1 and Q2 and in case of the bike changes during a MotoGP flag to flag race, it makes me wonder who was not wearing a helmet and when for them to reiterate this rule.

Speculation? No idea. But something happened and we just weren't privy to. And the other thing that I thought was really interesting was a tire change, a tire allocation change. So for Moto2 and Moto3 immediately, riders who participate in both Q1 and Q2 qualifying sessions will be allocated one extra front slick tire of their preferred specification.

Therefore if taken a maximum of 9 front slick tires and one extra rear slick tire of their preferred specification after Q2. Therefore if taken a maximum of 10 rear slick tires on the condition that both Q1 and Q2 are declared dry. So basically if you're in Q1 in either Moto2 or Moto3 and you burn up your two tires to try to get yourself into that Q1 session, you really don't have a tire to use to go for pole. Well now they're going to let you have a tire to go do that with. How many people want to see this in MotoGP qualifying?

You think it's coming? Do you think it's going to require Pirelli to actually be the manufacturer? Because it seems like Pirelli is willing to do whatever anybody wants them to do. Maybe more so than Michelin. I don't know.

Speculation here on my side. But something to watch. Let's just get into Moto3 qualifying. In the first qualifying session, basically Bertoli, Munoz, Lunetta and Rollstone all got out of that first qualifying session. It was a late charge by Bernetti to get there, but those four guys would move on to the second session.

In the second session, we learned that Alonso was six tenths clear of everybody in practice. So we shall see what's going to happen there. When the green flag started, half the field went out and half the field sat still in the pits. It was talked about on the broadcast that you really only got three good laps on the Pirellis here before there was a significant drop off. So I think everybody was trying to play their cards close to the chest, get one good run and at the end.

Alonso stayed cool. He was there. He was back in the draft. He was not going anywhere. He was playing around with everyone else.

Basically, everyone's looking for that one perfect lap and Vire was on provisional pole. Then there was a crash that happened in turn nine, which wound us having all kinds of yellow flags because Rossi had crashed, which ruined a lot of people's laps. So when it shook out, we actually had Ortola on pole position followed by Vire. Alonso was third, but yellow flags took away that position. So it went to Rueda, Furusato, Yamanaka and then Alonso.

So that's how we were going to start the Moto3 race. At the beginning of the race, we knew that Monios was going to get a long lap penalty. That was for infringements in practice. Furusato also had a double long lap penalty. So it was going to be seen what was going to happen to those guys as they went through the race.

At the start, Ortola got a hole shot. He was followed by Vire and Monios, Furusato and Alonso. The little battle up front was Monios. He went to the front immediately, maybe trying to get as much distance ahead of everybody as he could before he had to take that long lap penalty or at least try to mitigate the results of the long lap penalty. He was charging to the front ahead of the other guys.

Basically, Vire and Alonso then replaced Ortola at front and replaced Monios when the long lap happened. Then it was Horgardo, Linnet and Rueda. Kelso fell at turn two. He felt sorry for Joel. Got a soft spot for him after I've done the interviews with him at Kota.

Nice kid. Things just aren't going his way right now. So I wish him the best there. Ortola went back to the front with 10 laps to go. Then Alonso took the lead and it looked like he was going to try to slip away.

He really was moving around trying to save the tire maybe or maybe since he had saved the tire for roughly half distance, he felt like now he could take off there. But at this point, the pack was now divided in two. This is a very calm Moto3 race, especially with the long straightaway in Catalonia. Everybody seemed to be behaving themselves and really you're wondering when the crazy was going to start. It just isn't a typical Moto3 race like we usually see.

The battle isn't up front anymore because Alonso has taken that. But the battles between Ortola, Weier, Horgardo, Linnet and Rueda. Munoz has caught back up after the long lap penalty. With four to go, it was a lead group of four being Alonso, Ortola, Weier and Horgardo. Then Horgardo was sliding back down.

Maybe he had used up all the grip that was on his Pirelli rear. So he starts to go backwards. And it's so bad that he's really going to the end of the lead group. He's fallen so far back because everybody had come back together again and he went all the way back to the very, very end of that list. But Alonso would run on to win the race and he would be followed home by Ortola and then Rueda.

Weier would slip back to fourth. Then Munoz fifth even after the long lap penalty. Helgardo had fallen back to the end of the lead group so he would finish sixth. Then Linnetta, Rulstein and Faroli. Fernandez, Adrian, Yamanaka, Piqueras, Nepe, Joel Esteban and Tatsuki Suzuki taking the last point.

Alonso was truly amazing in that last lap. From turn nine to the finish, he was unstoppable as he went through there. So there's a great ride by Alonso for yet another victory. The kid obviously has some talent. He's definitely the man to beat right now in there.

And with this now and Helgardo's sixth place finish, Alonso now takes a 14 point lead into Mugello. It's 118 for Alonso, followed by 104 for Helgardo. Weier is on 75 and Ortola is on 70 followed by Munoz, Rueda, Kelso, Yamanaka, Fernandez and Piqueras. Again, not the usual Moto3 race that we usually see. I was hoping for much more out of them because they are the best race of the week.

And usually this one was relatively tame. Let's go to Moto2 and see if these guys were any better. In Moto2, Kinet was in the first session along with Ramirez, Alcoba, Masayoshi Sasaki, Vietti and Darren Binder. The Franti crew, when Kinet came in to change rear tires and get a new one and go back out again, he stopped. And the Franti crew, the guys must have thought one guy on the back had the bike or the guy in the front thought that the guy in the back had the bike.

And basically they dropped the bike. They literally, Kinet gets off and bump, it falls right over, which goes to show that in the chaos of what's going on, a well-oiled team usually doesn't make those kinds of mistakes, I wouldn't think. But again, the pressures of the moment of what you're going through, anything can happen, which is what this kind of showed. It was just not to make fun of the crew, those guys work hard. It was just, wow, they dropped the bike.

And you just kind of didn't think that that would really happen, but it does. So Aegis, Kinet, Vietti and Binder all go through from the first qualifying session to the second qualifying session. The second qualifying session, really, we were waiting around to see if Aldiger would possibly get to the front. We wanted to know where Roberts, I wanted to know where Roberts was going to qualify at. He had been second quickest in combined practice, but given everything that had happened, we initially had Garcia being on the pole, followed by Vietti, followed by Aldiger, followed by Arenas, followed by Lopez and Munoz, with Roberts down in 16th.

However, that was at halfway, I'm sorry. So that's how it was halfway. But as it finished, Garcia would be on pole. We thought then Aldiger, then Vier, as Aldiger put in a stunning lamp that almost nipped Garcia. But all it did was move him over Vietti to be second.

Then Kinet coming out of the first session, Arenas, Gonzalez, Roberts would move himself up to ninth. Qualifying here lately for Joel has been difficult, but there's always the race and that's where the points are paid. And as Nikki Hayden said, that's why we line them up on Sunday. In the Moto2 race, Gonzalez was riding slow in practice and in qualifying. So he received a three grid place position change.

So that's why he had dropped off from where he was. Now, at the start of the race, Guilvara, it was Chantra having contact at turn one and going down. Garcia had the whole shot and then Sasaki was also down. Roberts took the first lap, ending up in tenth. Garcia out front doing his thing, followed by Arenas, Alonzo, or sorry, Aldiger and Vier.

Aldiger and Garcia are battling up front and they are the guys that are doing it, but they're sliding away from everybody. They're slowly getting out there. Algar would get by Arenas and that would mean it would be a Bosca Cora 1, 2, 3, 4 at this time. The Bosca Cora is on Pirellis, seem to be almost unstoppable now. Whatever they figured out has really got it, really made them be good.

By 15 laps to go, Roberts is tenth. He's not really making any pace whatsoever. But Kinet has got by Arenas. Now, Aldiger got a track limits warning with 12 to go. Roberts also had a track limits warning, but Iagura was the man because he moved into third position.

Aldiger still leading at 10 to go by Garcia and Aldiger. Then Lopez, Kinet and Vier. Vier goes down, or Vietti, sorry. Vietti goes down at turn 10. A lot of people crashing at turn 10 there.

Garcia got track limits, so now he had to be careful for the rest of the way. Aegis got a long lap penalty for his track limits. And then Aldiger then has a long lap penalty. When you thought Aldiger had this and it was going to be right there and he was going to be able to get Garcia, no, track limits threw up its ugly head and he was forced to take the long lap penalty. So Aldiger heads almost immediately to the long lap, which is at the first turn.

He promptly goes in too hot, loses the front and crashes. Thus the penalty being even worse now because he's crashed the bike and won't finish in the top 10, if any points. Now, Kinet then crashes out at turn five. Roberts has a long lap penalty and he was seventh when that happened. So he had made a fairly decent recovery, but having another long lap was definitely not going to work because everybody seemed to be fighting track limits.

But meanwhile, the man was Agura because Agura with four to go takes the lead and he made it look easy. Now, again, Garcia probably didn't want to fight back. He had a track limits warning. I'm pretty sure he knew where Roberts was. I'm pretty sure he knew where Aldiger was.

So really, did he really need to push on anything like this? No, he didn't. Literally, he could just ride home second and take the position. And that's what happened. Agura would win.

First time he's won in almost two years, I think. Then Garcia, Jake Dixon came through with a great ride from where he was. Again, he really never showed up on the scene until five laps to go when Dixon was running fourth. That was the first time there was really a mention because everybody's got long lap penalties and crashes. And so we're really not watching where Jake is until the very end.

So I know Rich would be chuffed for Dixon to be back on the podium. Then we had Alcoba, center Aegis, Arenas, Lopez. Roberts would take the long lap penalty and finish eighth. Arbolino would be ninth. Then Navarro tenth, Van de Gerberg, Solatj, Masiya, Binder, and Aji getting the last point.

This does shake up the points for Moto too. Now Garcia has a 19 point lead as he is on 109 points and Joe Roberts is on 90. Iagura has jumped up now to 88 points, which means he's only three points. He's only two points behind Joe Roberts, but he's 21 points behind Garcia. I wouldn't put anything past Agura to be winning more races now that he seems to have the Basque Cora figured out.

Fourth in the points championship is Audeger. The guy that I think we all thought was going to be the presumptive world champion considering the form that he had at the end of last year, but he can't seem to replicate that this year. Maybe it's the Pirellis. I'm not exactly sure why Audeger hasn't quite got on top of it. We know the other Basque Cora's are all fast and they're fast on Pirellis.

Maybe it's an Audeger thing. Maybe he just can't wrap his head around it. Who knows what's wrong with Audeger, but I welcome your suggestions or comments. Motopod at motopodcast.com. Write in and let us know.

Alonso, fifth in the championship, then Kinet, then Alrenes, Gonzales, Alcoba, and Arbolino rounds out the top 10. It was an interesting race. There was drama at the end. You were rooting everybody. I think it was rooting for Agura after the terrible wrist injury that he's had.

That's taken him basically two years to recover from. I think everybody was rooting for Agura to get on with the win. He did. There was the craziness of track limits in that race, which made this race, I think, a little more interesting than the Moto3 race because there was a lot more going on in it. But we need to finish up here with the MotoGP sprints and the MotoGP race.

Before you can race, you must qualify. In MotoGP, the first qualifying session, the Marquez brothers are in there along with Olivero, Quattroraro, Mazzacchi, Digia, and Raul Fernandez. Halfway through, Raul Fernandez is faster than Marc Marquez and Quattroraro. Raul takes out a 1.38 floor. That's like the fastest lap around that anyone had seen.

Marquez had pumped himself up to finish second, but Digia comes out of basically nowhere in that qualifying session to bump Marquez. It was Digia, Fernandez, and then Alex Marquez and Marc Marquez. Now, Marc would then have to start the race in 14th. Started 13th in Le Mans, started 14th here. Everyone was talking about how the track was slick and couldn't get any grip, but people were putting down fast times, but yet people were still talking about it being slick.

It was a bit weird, but maybe it was the temperature. MotoGP qualifying, first thing in the morning at that time, it's a lot cooler. Maybe when the track gets hot, we have a problem, but we get into the second round of qualifying. Basically, Acosta just threw down a 1.38-3 like, bam, right now out of the gates. Threw that down.

I was like, wow, that's crazy. But then Vignana came by to beat it with a 1.38-2. Track record is just being obliterated, basically. Halfway, it was Vignana followed by Acosta, followed by, sorry, by Martín. My mistake.

And then Alessio Spargro. Now, Martín and Morbidelli are down at turn two. Martín loses the front, and then farther down the track, Morbidelli falls off as well. Not sure why that actually happened to Morbidelli on the field. Target fixation or whatever.

But Martín is now starting to blot the copybook by falling in these qualifying sessions. But when you're pushing hard, you are going to find the limit. And maybe with the way the admission on tires are working with the tire pressure rules, maybe he just can't find that limit and know where to actually get back from. Binder would slide into second, but Alessio would come through to take second, and then he would go on to win the pole. So Alessio would have the pole followed by Vignana.

We had Raul Fernandez for a split second, but then that lap was taken away for a yellow flag incidence that happened with Martín and Morbidelli. But then we had Binder after that, then Acosta, then Digia, and then Martín. But on race day morning, the stewards reversed the decision of the yellow flag, decided that Raul Fernandez did not have a yellow flag infringement. He would start on the front row. So the start would look like Alessio Sparta, Benyaya Fernandez, then Brad Binder, then Acosta, then Digia Antonio, and then Jorge Martín.

So we go to the sprint. And in the sprint race, Benyaya blasted out to lead, followed by Acosta, followed by Raul, followed by Binder. Marc Marquez was eighth off the line. Acosta goes to the front quickly, and then Benyaya goes by at turn five. It's Acosta back to the front again, followed by Raul, followed by Benyaya, followed by Binder.

And Raul was starting to pull away. No one is going to touch Raul Fernandez on that Aprilia. He was rock solid fast. He was pulling away. Not even Acosta could really do anything with him.

But with seven laps to go, Raul would crash out at turn 10. The tricky, slightly downhill turn 10 would cause him to crash out. He was frustrated at what he'd done. It was his fault. He'd made a mistake, but mistakes happen.

But he did look fabulous on that bike, and I was looking forward to see what he would pull off in the race tomorrow. Binder was now leading, and he was pulling away from Acosta. And then Benyaya got by Acosta. Maybe Acosta used up all the tire. Again, it was very slick out.

But then as soon as we got done watching that, Binder then fell at turn five. Front end washout. Now Benyaya is leading. Acosta is second, and then there's Alais. And then there's Marc Marquez.

Then there's Martine. So that's where we are going into this. It was crazy. And then Alais would go to second. This is a fantastic sprint race.

It's the race that seems like nobody wants to win. Everybody who touches the lead suddenly falls off. Did Acosta realize that, so he started slowing down? Don't know. But when we got with about two laps to go, it was Benyaya out front, in the lead, followed by Alais, followed by Acosta, and then Marc Marquez.

Then Marquez got by Acosta. Then Binyaya goes down at turn five. Again, it's a race nobody wants to win. Raul falls out of the lead, crashes out of the lead. Binder crashes and falls out of the lead.

Binyaya crashes and falls out of the lead. And at the same place, Binder did turn five, slightly downhill, breaking, tricky turn. And at the end of the day, in the heat, apparently nobody had any grip, and down he went. So Alais was gifted a victory in the sprint. And then Marquez would be second position.

Then Acosta would have a podium in third, followed by Martine. Then The Beast himself bashing in, and then DG Antonia. A wild and crazy sprint race with that one, folks. Definitely one to watch. Probably one of the better sprint races so far this year.

Now we get to Sunday's race. There's a different tire strategy. The consensus of almost everyone on the grid was medium front and the hard rear option. But not Pedro Acosta. Believing in himself, he went with a medium front and a soft rear.

Mark Marquez, having to come from way back in the packet in 14th, decided on a medium front and a soft rear. And then Miller was on a medium front and a soft rear as well. At the start, Binyaya got the whole shot followed by Acosta and Binder, with Martine and Alais falling close behind. Marquez had made his way up to 11th at the start. Martine was able to go by Binder at turn 10.

Binyaya and Acosta and Martine are out front with Binder with them. The Binyaya-Acosta battle is awesome. They come out of 10, they want to pass each other. Acosta's poking, probing, doing everything he can, but Binyaya is keeping the pace slow. He knows the tires are not going to last in these hot conditions, so he's letting the medium bed in.

And he doesn't want Acosta and his soft to get by. It's a masterful job of riding by Binyaya to slow the pace, take the lines that Acosta wants to use, and thereby keep him behind. Every time that Acosta seemed to go by, wow, Binyaya would just come right back by at him. Never gave him a chance to think about it. Finally, Martine was able to get, who had now worked his way up past Acosta at turn 10, and Martine started to really fly.

Maybe Acosta was going to go backwards, maybe Martine was coming forward because of the medium. Don't really know exactly what was going on at this point in it. But Martine took a shot at Binyaya at 10, got him, and Acosta came right on through. So they were able to make that pass stick. And so we got Binyaya back in third.

Martine starts to pull away with 15 laps to go. He's got one and a half seconds on Acosta who had gotten back past Binyaya, who had gotten past Binyaya, sorry. And then Binyaya had a good second over Brad Binder. Then it was Alais and Raul Fernandez. Raul hanging in there, maybe perhaps saving the tire or trying not to fall off so that he could actually have a really good race.

Not sure what he was thinking, but Marquez was eighth. Alais was now moving forward and he was starting to close in on everybody. Binder was over four seconds behind Binyaya and Alais has moved through those guys to be running basically fourth. Then Pedro Acosta crashes out at turn 10. He lost the front end.

He looked like he was starting to find his game again. He was starting to cut down the lead on Martine, but he fell off. So again, the youthful enthusiasm of a potential podium, potential win and be the youngest guy to win a MotoGP race. And Acosta bends it yet again. Again, folks, this is just the learning process that that kid's going to go through.

This is just the learning process that that kid's going to go through to figure out where he is. I do tend to think he may be pushing the KTM slash Gas Gas a little bit beyond where it can be comfortably ridden just because he's got the talent to do it sort of a la Marquez. Because I guarantee you, as good as the KTM is, it is not the best bike on the track. That is definitely the Ducati and it's probably tied for the Aprilia. But on that main stretch, Acosta just was an absolute rocket ship going to be very, very interesting to see what happens at Mugello.

If Acosta's bike is that fast there, how fast is it going to be when he's in Mugello? Mugello may be where Acosta breaks out and actually wins a MotoGP race. Hell, he can maybe win just the sprint. But either way, I look for big things out of Acosta at Mugello. Something to look for.

With 13 to go, Marc Marquez got past Bender. And then you're thinking, well, how much farther up can Marquez go? He's on a soft. He's on a soft, right? So you're thinking, wow, what's he going to do?

Martín has a 1.1 second lead over Vagnaia and there's three and a half seconds to Alais and Fernandez. And then we get Marc Marquez. Then Bastianini is given a long lap penalty. Now this would elevate because Bastianini would not take the long lap penalty in time. And this was for taking the shortcut at turn two, which Vagnaia felt, or sorry, Bastianini felt that he was forced out there.

Now, while that may be true, the stewards didn't see it that way. And you should respond to what the stewards say. Bastianini didn't take the long lap penalty. Bastianini then gets a double long lap penalty because he didn't take the first penalty. Then Vagnaia just keeps going around and around and around.

Or Bastianini just keeps going around and around and around. And eventually is giving a ride through penalty as well. And he never took that either. He was definitely defiant to what the stewards are going to say because he honestly believed that he had been wronged over the situation, which was crazy. But I don't know where I stand on this one.

Love to get your thoughts on this. Love to get your thoughts too. Again, motopod at motopodcast.com. Write in and let me know. Was Bastianini right for ignoring stewards' orders?

Or is this just like, hey, I'm going to ride this out and protest, and I don't care what you do to me. Not sure which way that one's going. But Vagnaia is now just pecking away at the lead that Martin has. He just starts to start nibbling away, nibbling away, nibbling away. Marquez would finally get by.

Raul Fernandez was 7 to go. Vagnaia is then by Martin with 6 to go. He did it at turn 5. So that's like a big, kind of stick it back to the track that took you away your win the day before by passing the corner that you crashed on. Vagnaia just simply had way more edge grip than Martin did.

He just did not have the grip at all. He was struggling massively to finish the race. As it came down, it's Vagnaia leading over Martin, over Aleix, Marc Marquez, Raul Fernandez, and Alex Marquez with 5 to go at that point. Then 93, Marc Marquez would get past Aleix. And then basically this now is how we ride out.

Vagnaia would win the race, take the 25 points. Martin would take 20. Marquez would be back on the podium again. Podium in both races from 14th place. An incredible ride by Marc Marquez over the weekend.

I think you count Marc Marquez off at your peril. And I can't even imagine what that guy would do if he had a 2024 Ducati. So again, there's going to be, we're going to talk about this all the whole year. Does Marquez warrant getting a 2025 factory Ducati in the Grissini team? I know there's a lot of politics about all that, but it's mouthwateringly tasty, isn't it?

To have the cat amongst the pigeons. Aleix at his last home race would be 4th, DiGiannini 5th, Raul Fernandez with a great 6th place. Then because he did hold off Alex Marquez, Vindersleet back to 8th, Quattro 9th, Biela Rivera, the Zeki Vinyals, Acosta would finish 13th and take 3 points. He remounted and was blindly quick, meaning that his gamble on a soft tire was going to work. If he would have stayed on the bike, could he have beaten Vinyaya?

Maybe. Maybe not. But I would have put money he would have been on the podium somewhere. Then Nakagami and Juan Mir scoring a point on the Repsol Honda. And that takes us to the World Championship standings.

Jorge Martín is on 155 points now. 39 points clear of Vinyaya. Marc Marquez is now on 114 points, 2 behind Vinyaya. And if you all thought that Marc Marquez, given the crashes he had early in the year, would be 3rd in this championship, I just didn't think it was going to happen. But he is right at the ship and has made his way up to 3rd.

Using the podium in the sprint races and the podiums in the main races, he's collecting handfuls of points and moving up quickly. Bastianini 4th, Vinyalas 5th, Acosta slides backwards to 6th. Then it's Alisa Spargaro, Binder, Digiantonia and Bezeki are top 10 in the point standings. And that wraps up the craziness in Catalonia. Hopefully you guys just got what you needed.

Some quick news, quick report. We have Mugello this weekend. Be looking forward to that. And with that, everybody ride safe.