Double Treble

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 or life visit roadskin.co.uk Hello and welcome to MotoPod the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing This is episode number 801 for March 18th, 2025. I'm Jim McDowell with me from across the pond Richard Jodd Richard good evening to you. How are things in merry old England?

Yeah, good evening. Jim and good evening everybody. Very good over here. Thank you. We've got some lovely weather at long last It's still a bit chilly But we've got some light in fact I think on Thursday this week the UK is going to be or this part of the UK at least is going to be warmer than Ibiza which is not something that happens often in March So I'm going out on the motorbike on Thursday for a couple of hours Mmm, yeah, I've had some dry roads.

Well, we had some decent weather here. We've had some nice days in the low 70s Fahrenheit and Till Thursday, it's supposed to snow all day. So welcome to well, yeah, welcome to a you know spring in Ohio It's 70 degrees the day and then the next day it's snow. So that's how that rolls there I'll be thinking of you and I'm riding in the sunshine I know you well, I just want the snow to be gone before we leave to go to Texas which is Coming fast. It's with two weeks and they the circus of Moto GP will be at the racetrack in Austin, Texas I'll be there Unfortunately due to circumstances, we're not gonna be getting any interviews from there, but I will take a mic with me I might find some people to chat up or something like that.

I don't know We'll see what we can do, but I'm excited to go with all that Want to thank everybody who is continuing to support the show and Donates the show and subscribes to the show really appreciate all that you guys know who you are We're not gonna go through that right now But hey if you can share the podcast like the podcast give a review to the podcast tell your friends about us That all helps us do better in the ratings and that's what we want to be is that best podcast done by the non journalists if you will in there so With all of that said rich let's get to just a quick bit of least listener feedback or Listener learning I guess we should say maybe I don't know how but yeah, I did not know this But that's my fault for not knowing it. But Jake Rauer has again Caught us was something that I didn't know at the time and the name is Rossi Moore He is an American who has raced in Moto America has raced in Europe before but he now has a contract to go back to Europe to race this year in the junior GP Moto to class with team MMR so if you're an American looking to see someone and see how they're doing in Europe check out Rossi Moore You can find him and follow him and see all that's going on there So I thought that was pretty cool that Jake, you know, and thank you Jake for letting us know about that I did not know that he had gone back to Europe. So Hopefully big things will happen. He'll be noticed hopefully does well and maybe we'll see him on a motor to ride in the not too distant future In the Moto GP ranks Yeah I don't know if Jake picked up on that because obviously we had mentioned either last show the show before that, you know We think possibly Joe Roberts might not be around in Moto to you know a whole lot longer So there's obviously a yawning gap particularly with the Liberty thing coming in and the focus that they will want to put I'm sure on Yeah You know the series needs some fast Americans. There are plenty of them They're just not in this paddock or getting that close to that paddock.

So it was very heartening Yeah to pick up on that bit of news that Jake gave us and of course Scott chimed in Occasional host chimed in just to let us know what Rossi Moore is up to because I pointed out that Scott had interviewed him in the Moto a paddock I think he was probably running super sport couple seasons ago when that happened So Scott had spoken to him and I forget which episode it was now. I did email it back to Jake but But like you Jim, I wasn't aware that he was in the junior GP So that's quite significant and he looking at some of the photos in that news article Which we perhaps if we can remember should put in the show notes so people can go and read it for themselves There's some yeah, he's got some strong backing and is obviously very highly rated as a rider So it'll be yeah good to keep a track on his progress this is not that we get to see that junior stuff too much There's enough reason to keep on top of as it is. But yeah, we must try and mental note Follow the progress of young Rossi Moore because he looks like quite a talent. Yep sure does. All right Let's talk about the news that's going on here Let's start off with Moto GP news.

Jorge. Martin has announced that he will miss Cota and Probably gonna miss Qatar that hand injury is severe I am glad that he is taking the time to fully heal before getting back on a motorcycle I do I have did see a lot of signs that everybody said they missed him at Argentina and he is a Popular character, you know, he is missed. I mean he does add some spice I don't know spices the right word, but he had something motor GP. That's just not there right now and It'd be good to have him back on the track, but I want to be fully healthy when he does yeah, well, I mean the series needs him because No, I'm gonna sort of repeat the whole Ducati Cup thing But it is the Ducati Cup at the moment pretty much isn't it and you do wonder how close to the front? I'm not suggesting that he would be necessarily Battling with the Marquez brothers, but you could certainly see him running strongly in the top six on that bike But as you say Jim, we won't I mean we've spoken about this a lot that is going to take quite a while to heal And it's a pity he didn't take this advice Previously when he first injured himself Because the second crash that he had boss training before he was fully fit again is the one that's done all of this long-term damage so Yeah, it's a shame But I mean he's just got to sit it out now and it completely takes the pressure off him and to some degree a priller I suppose in terms of any Lofty expectations that some people might have had about his Potential in the championship this year.

I still think if he can get that wrist back working again properly I still see him podiuming second half of the season But obviously he's way behind in terms of his had no time on that bike really other than the Barcelona test and let's face it That was not really a serious day. He's running Compared to the preseason testing. So yeah, he's got quite a bit catching up to do when he does eventually make it back Yeah Iagura had a I don't think he had a similar wrist injury But Iagura did have a right wrist injury and his is the right and you know He was spent what half the season he was out something like that and then yeah Agar Agar then came back and it took him what? Almost a season to get competitive again Yeah, and now Iagura's, you know moto to world champion and looking stellar on a moto GP bike so It's not impossible for Jorge Martin to not come back from this. I mean he will he can There's a precedent there.

Iagura has done it, right? It's just he needs to be healthy and fit to do it and that's the key here So yeah wrists and shoulders, we all say that a work two worse things to injure if you're a motorcycle racer Yep, so it's a shame that he's done, you know One of those things and the worst bone to a broken in his wrist to boot as well So yeah, it's a shame, but you know, we just got a white patiently as does he? Hmm. So this next bit of news I actually get to blow my own horn and put a quarter in the jar that Jim was right I had said that for my suspicion was that Pirelli was wanted to be a part of Moto GP Class and supply tires to all three classes Well, they have now inked a deal to supply tires from 2027 when the new regulations start all the way through to 2031 so Pirelli will dominate basically every major motorcycle Championship that you can think of because superbikes are on Pirelli Yeah, you have a super sports on Pirelli world super sports on Pirelli You have Moto GP Moto to Moto three you have British superbike on Pirelli. I think Spanish CV is Pirelli based I believe not a hundred percent on that one, but I believe it is leaving literally only Moto America on thumb labs Wayne Rainey if you're listening Pirelli's perhaps sir just throwing it out there.

Well, it's a serious point, isn't it? Because There's no doubt that being on that tire in one series and then moving to another series with a I mean the Moto GP tires Suspect will be different to what they run in superbikes and a lot of talk actually Or differing opinions on this between some of the journalists I've listened to some saying no Probably will need to make a completely different construction tire for a Moto GP bike Others saying that Pirelli's intention is to try and modify the sort of the road based race tire That they use elsewhere. I mean obviously it'll be going on to a smaller capacity bike and there'll be less There won't be ride height devices. There might be a bit less aero They might perhaps not have quite the challenge that has befuddled or held back Michelin But nevertheless, it's gonna be yeah Well, we'll have to see what they come up with but it's curious to me that Pirelli have a virtual monopoly on world motorcycle racing from a You know, you have Formula One and sort of monopolies sort of position at the same time that Liberty have been You know being put through the ringer by you know, the European authorities anyway over their acquisition of my or potential acquisition of Moto GP But isn't there the isn't the difference the fact that? Basically there was a tender put out to provide tires and Pirelli then won that contract So it's not like they're trying to own everything They just simply have tendered a contract that they've won each and every time I mean that's to me that's not true.

I get the fact that yeah This is getting pretty wild that Pirelli's got everything in Formula One you in Formula Two blah blah blah You've got World Super Sport Superbike. You get down the line That's it's a lot of tires to make a lot of tires to manufacture a lot of tires to transport There's a lot going on there, but I'm somewhat excited for it too to be honest Because if you look at how they came into the smaller categories the Moto 2 and the Moto 3 class They did a phenomenal job. I mean the thing of it was we were breaking track records Nobody was crashing and complaining because of the tire, right? I mean some people had a little bit harder time trying to get adjusted to it and I still think Sorry that the Pirelli is a softer carcass design Which works better on a stiffer chassis because that's where the flex now is in the tire as opposed to in the chassis Sort of you got to have one or the other has got a flex Yeah, and you know, you just got to figure out which way it's going to be the good thing too. Is that they've Decided this early on We know Michelin is not gonna now basically has free reign to essentially not develop anything and Pirelli now has some time to think about what they're gonna do as far as providing tires to the new bikes and That's gonna be a bit of a challenge.

So we'll see how this all pans out. But I You know, I'm okay with it though. Oh I'm tremendously excited like many people are because as you say they've done a tremendous job in all the other series that they've participated in But I still I'm a little surprised that they've got away with it. I mean taking your point Jim. Yeah, they clearly did win the tender I don't know how hard Mitchell intended for it because they might had a gut full of Moto GP by now Yeah, that's a story for a different day or discussion for a different day But bearing in mind Pirelli is an Italian company and European law I mean, I don't know this for sure, but I'm pretty confident when I say European Competition law is probably a lot stricter when it comes to monopoly kind of Considerations and American law is because if there's one thing that EU does better than everybody else is over regulate so I'm surprised it's not being looked at to be honest because they do have a monopoly on pretty much all of well motorcycle racing I don't know what they run in endurance Racing whether there's more than one time manufacturer if that's a control tire, too We'd need to look that up somebody will know and that's no but yeah, it's a cool development and yeah, you called it Right Jim I mean, it's not a huge shock But I kind of wondered whether Mitchell might want to fight a bit harder to keep hold of it particularly with the reg change coming because that was going to Reset everything for them and you know because this front tire that we've been waiting for forever and ever which is not Mitchell's fault By the way, it's entirely the series organizer and the team's fault that front tire has never made an appearance Will never see it now Yeah, I don't believe we will see it.

No, I I don't think so Which is shame. It's a shame. Yep, but I you know, I think Michelin has had an eyeful of Moto GP but Pirelli Seems to thrive in this kind of a situation Like they sort of figured it out that okay. What do you guys what do you mr. Organizer want from us?

Okay, we'll build you one And they just they don't really You know their best PR is that no one talks about them, right? It's right because it isn't it isn't this you know, they've had some Again, not the same same but they had this they had some bad press for some races where tires were getting cut and especially Formula one, right? They got some bad press over all that but yeah you know in in formula one's a bit more upfront with how they want to do with the tires and yada yada yada and make competition but I Think Pirelli as far as it comes down to how they've done world superbike world super sport BSB, I think they've done Incredibly well at it. I think Pirelli is the dominant tire the Isle of Man too, I think Real reds. I think I'm not sure actually I'm sure lots of people run Pirelli's there because it is kind of the go-to Tire for the superbike class there.

Yeah Obviously the TT, you know the real roads and the speeds they're going and surfaces are on Not directly sort of relatable to world superbike or British Superbike track racing it's true, but yeah, but picking up your point I mean they do know how to take a punch Pirelli because if you remember when they kind of early days when they came into F1 and I was staggered to learn the other day that had been supplying tires in F1 for well over a decade I think now I'm sure yeah that doesn't seem possible but You know They were tasked with making a tire that would deliberately drop off a cliff at a certain point and of course that caused a lot Of complaints which you know, they quite rightly stood there and said well that was what the brief was That's what we've given you. So don't you know, they're Italian So, you know, they'll have a cup of coffee several cigarettes shouts a bit and you know, just get on with life So perhaps that's the way that I brought shoulders work, you know So I think I'll be good in MotoGP, but it's going to be a much stoner challenge I think than anything they've done in any other category Yeah, but I think they're up for it. So alright, let's move on here Not to spoil anything but I agor was disqualified from the race in Argentina He was disqualified for illegal use of software that was non Homulgated now I looked into this I read it on the race This is where I got it all from but apparently Magneti Morelli was is working on a new standard control unit for Maybe later this year definitely for next year, okay, so Apparently at some point Magneti Morelli gave The software the new software to the teams and the teams were then told to install it onto their ECU's just to check to be sure that they could start the bikes run do what they wanted to do is a It was like a bug test if you will right Magneti Morelli just needed to know that they got everything sort of compiled and Correct and the bikes run Okay, that's what they did now those ECU's were then taken back off the bikes and then apparently when I agor crashed his bike in Argentina and Almost destroyed it that forced the track house team to build up another motorcycle Unfortunately, they grabbed one of the ECU's that had the software that was non homulgated on it And put that on their machine It was a simple error done by a team in a desperate time trying to put a bike back together again That was been pretty much destroyed with you know limited amount of material because obviously we're on a fly away, right? We're not we don't have the big hauler sitting in the back here and They just didn't catch that they had made that error There was obviously no advantage gained by any of this, but it just simply ran fine But the point is that software wasn't homulgated so that's a disqualification per the rules There's been people saying look it was no advantage. Why were you so harsh?

Why did you disqualify? I agree Why didn't you just why didn't you leave his position in the race stand? And why didn't you just just why didn't you just not take manufacturers points? Well, if you did that guess what everybody and her brother would figure out a way to run some sort of illegal Piece of software on their motorcycle claimed that they didn't know what that was actually there all and it was no performance advantage Oh, okay. Well, we'll disqualify the bike, but the rider gets the points Oh, you can see what that was gonna do which is where they are right there.

So Reason. Oh, yeah So that's a the that was the whole DQ thing that came out later on after all that Another little piece the last piece of news for moto GP So this is a tweet and it was a tweet towards Matt Oxley which sort of got retreated by the Group of you know that whole pack of journalists and stuff around it was people were saying how The sprints are ruining the weekend by having a moto GP sprint race It ruins the weekend because Sunday isn't special anymore because you know what's gonna happen Because you just watched the mini version of it on Saturday Hmm, okay, where do we start with this one rich? Tricky tricky here, right? Okay. There was some great racing in the sprint There is great racing in the sprint right because I mean legitimately You can go out there on any tire and you can make that 12 lap distance or half race difference Take take whatever it is, right half or half the distance and you can just go flat out So it has produced some good racing.

It also has lately Been a real amount of foreshadowing about what is going to happen. So I see the point now When they came out with sprints, I thought for sure that it was only going to be like at a few tracks We were gonna have a sprint race not 20 rate 22 races plus 22 sprints to give you 44 races In a year. I didn't think you were gonna go that far So is it time to dial it back and say like you have a sprint like once every three races or something? What do you think rich? I think that would be a regressive step to do that now I mean if anything you would have thought that they would ramp them up with the slower start As you say we were all kind of cool town So all the teams and riders if I recall correctly when it was suddenly announced, oh, by the way, you've got another kind of 20 odd a half races to do.

I mean everybody was flabbergasted at the time and we kind of got used to it and the first sort of few sprint races were a little bit kind of brain out people kind of just really going at it But I have a slightly different take on this having thought about it a bit Jim, which is that I Don't know that it's necessary the sprint. That's the problem I think it's the Michelin front tire problem and the and the modern generation aeroad Moto GP bike which is the problem because I think you know Do we see wildly better races on the Sunday than on the sprint? Well, I don't necessarily think we do I think it's to do with the bikes as much as anything So I would well though it's a long time to have to wait I'm kind of reserving judgment on the sprint until we get the new rule set in in 2027 Let's say it's a long time to have to wait to test that 44 worries Change are they between now and they're not fundamentally. So I think we're stuck with this kind of pattern of You know, the problem is it's very difficult to overtake in Moto GP with this current set of bikes I think that's well understood now in terms of the aero effect and the things are so fast and breaking so late with all the gizmos and Etc etc. So I think that's possibly a big part of the perceived problem as well but I mean it is true to say that In terms of the last few races that I'm thinking about what happens on the Saturday does tend to replicate on the Sunday, but I would if I was going to do something if they wanted to try and I Don't know kind of change things up a little bit Perhaps they should go back and look at and I know people talked about this at time when sprints came out and they was Most people were very much against it, but should the finishing order on the sprint?

Place some role in the grid for the Sunday race. I Know that's kind of blasphemy to some people But they do need to try and do something that isn't utterly contrived and is for sort of performance based To just change that change it up a little bit for the Sunday But the problem with that is that you qualify and that the qualification Session for me should relate to the Sunday race the sprints the outlier. Yeah I agree. So it's a tricky one, isn't it? But I kind of take I understand the question I'm just not sure I'm quite fully on board with what the reason for it is Yeah, I I think it's down to aerodynamics is down to tires.

I think I think also Especially this year. I think the sprints are gonna be much calmer mainly because you Watched last year if you paying attention Martin won a lot of sprints then. Yeah, I won a lot of main events, right but but You know Ben, yeah, I seem to have Worst or worst worst is no, that's like a sausage or something, right? Worst I'll get it out here worst finishing positions in the sprint So he'd always be like maybe on the podium of the sprint whereas he'd win on Sunday Martin was always winning on Saturday and then second You know on that Sunday and that's how one of the ways Martin won the world won the World Championship was that consistency of in The sprints and winning and whatnot. So I don't know there's yeah who knows what's gonna happen They'll figure something out, but it's not gonna change.

I don't think they're gonna do anything drastic until we get to 2027 So no, I agree. I'd be very surprised if they did change rules I mean the other point about the last couple of sprints obviously what I mean by that is this season is that we haven't had A fit Martin Because even though he's not on the Ducati anymore I still think he would be at least ruffling a few feathers certainly in the sprint as you say because he is the sort of Disengaged brain go for it Saturday guy, isn't he? Yeah more so than the Sunday guy Although he has won a lot of main races too. I mean, let's give him credit Yeah, so we're missing him as well as a another kind of disruptor in the field Which we badly need at the minute. I mean it wasn't for Alex Marquez Mmm, this would not be a couple of very entertaining races so far.

Yep. All right Just finishing these up here. We'll real quick to last things Just this note round two of the world's her bikes are from Porto Mayo this weekend so tune into that see how things go there and Lastly the Daytona 200 happened last weekend. It was won by Josh Herron. That was his third straight Daytona 200 victory No one's done three in a row That I can think of remember at the time which that's amazing to itself It puts him on a grand total of four Daytona 200 victories that leaves him one short of Miguel do Hamel and Scott Russell who both have five victories in the 200 So congratulations to Josh Herron on that and that is the end of the news rich and we'll just get right into Argentina and moto 3 racing.

Yep so We had the first qualifying session you had Munoz Bertelli, Linetta For a sawtoe we're all in that session You would have expected those guys to get out and be in the first session second session, but they weren't There was some rain lurking around the time that moto 3 qualifying was going on. They did at one point have the White flag with the red cross waving which indicates precipitation. It never put anybody on to a onto a wet but It did have that there Remember of course that Munoz no matter what he was gonna do in this qualifying session. He's starting from pit lane Due to his indiscretions that happened previous event but There was the interesting thing was that lunettes as seat had come off there was a seat pad on the back of the bike He came out late that fell off. He came back in They quickly repaired it, you know kind of duct tape things up or whatever Then he had like a near high side in the light rain So Linetta never really got a great chance at actually trying to get through It was just bad luck all around for him.

But Bertelli got out with your a the first sawtoe and Crucis they all went to the second qualifying session Remembering here in the second one with Kelso He gets too long last because of his indiscretion in the last race So we nobody so he needed a good qualifying session to be at the front so he could get through those two halfway through Bertolli Rossi Carpe Yamanaka and Esteban and Kelso were all there at the front Rossi did have a have an offer fall and that took out Scott Ogden, which wasn't the greatest thing that could have happened It was sort of you know, kind of one of those act freak accidents thing But Bertolli would take his second pole in a row followed by Piqueras Yamanaka Almanza Carpe Rueda Rossi Kelso and Peron they are your top three rows now Sunday's race Where do you this one was? interesting Yamanaka got off to a hot start followed by Carpe and Almanza Rueda Piqueras and Bertolli and those guys Basically were the main group that was out front running around they were having a great battle Kelso would jump into six and fall back a little bit first Soto would come up and take sixth place Bertolli kind of went Stayed where he was Almanza Carpe had replaced Yamanaka at the front as he fell back to basically fourth But I had that it was a great race going they had 17 riders who were capable of being at the front I think two point five seconds covered the top 17 With you know 15 laps left to go in the race. It was a great slipstreaming race It was fantastic to watch them get the run out of three make Yeah, is that three then make the break and to four as no three, which is that the Argentina and Thailand are? They got sort of a similar base layout, but what you're talking about the hairpin That's five, right? Little kink I think in oh, okay straight which they kind of For it's not really a turn at all, but I think that's how it works Yeah, I think it is five so they would all outbreak each other into five and it was The thing that I thought that was really kind of I like your thoughts on this rich I felt like everybody was riding well within themselves and very controlled.

It was good Hard racing which I think everyone will agree that that's what we want to see But there was no massive dive bombing running people off banging bars It was good clean hard racing, which is not the necessary norm of moto 3 Certainly hasn't been in the past although I would argue and I think this is again thanks to Pirelli I think they've got so much feel and grip on these bikes now as compared with the done-ups that they had before That you know, these kids who are pretty crazy still At one point I was kind of looking through my fingers again because they were six six abreast going down into that turn five at The end of the back straight and it's long god surely somebody's gonna run into somebody else But no, I mean I actually wrote lap seven I actually put quite a steady race so far by which I meant a good race but yeah, like you say nothing too crazy going on in terms of Ill-judged moves or any moves that were a little bit ill-judged at least weren't resulting in any crashes. So I'm pretty convinced that yeah, as I say we've got Pirelli to thank for a lot of this in terms of just Creating faster lap times and creating a lot more grip and feel so that we don't get some of these unnecessary crashes that perhaps The dumb ops used to cause because they were that much harder of a tire And perhaps a bit more difficult to read at the very limit. So Yeah, it's kind of weird because We've still got the crazy racing that that you know, the 17 to 20 and a pack kind of thing going on But we don't have thankfully as many of the crashes going on alongside it. So And so it's crazy for me to think it was actually quite a steady race because when you watched it actually, you know It was just normal moto three without the crashes. So I Don't know what you think Jim whether you think the Pirelli is part of that factor because I mean, they're still all quite I mean, okay Another factor is that they're a year or two older now Whether the slightly older riders with a bit more experience and perhaps a touch more imagination as to what can go wrong Maybe that helps a little bit too, but I think it's more the tires.

Yeah, I Think you I think you're probably right on that one. I don't really have an answer for this one. It's just it's sort of I Wasn't watching through my hands through my fingers at all. Like I love the six wide into into five Mainly because I think the tracks really wide. I think it's wider than than most of them I think the only track that I think is is as wide and I don't know this I don't know how wide Argentina is but Sepang is like 30 meters wide and this seems to be as wide But it could be because there's just grass around it So you got a splash of asphalt that somehow seems wider than it is But I I do believe it's the wider track helps a little bit too.

I just thought it was just good racing That's so this way you wouldn't be sort of tremendously surprised to see a triple seven landed on that back straight No, I think they could easily do that without too much felt too much problem Anyway, like 11 laps to go Panini was down at turn seven Rossi had made his way to second You know again Rureta now had Rureta had now made his way to third But it was all you know, it was all going sort of back and forth there With nine with nine laps of racing To go there was still the whole pack I mean again, there was still there was like only three seconds covering like 17 motorcycles. It was it was quite impressive Adrian Fernandez came to the front He was racing with Rureta then Almanza for Asado Bertoli and Picaris for the first time after having a horrible start and had fallen back had made his way to sixth with eight to go Again I was a marveling has still my notes I've got still 17 rider pack of people for you know, even with you know seven to go here But Bertoli looking like he was gonna get a win shows up on six followed by Rureta then for Asado Carpe was there then Fernandez had fallen back Picaris still hanging on six I don't care where you were watching it was there was passing at the front for first there was passing for second There was passing for the third passing for fourth physics seventh eighth It was just anywhere you wanted to put your eyes in the screen Somebody was passing somebody or trying to pass somebody and it was all just good great clean Racing it was a fun fun race to watch I can't really and I'm really applauding the Moto3 guys for having a good race without contact and having a bunch of problems that you know, Simon Crafer has to sort of Go through it sort out. It was refreshing to have this kind of a race With her at four to go Bertoli is still In the lead, although the top six had developed a bit of a gap at this point It wasn't much it was probably like a half of a second but you know the cream had sort of risen to the top and the guys who are the best of the best were easing away from that 17 17 rider pack at this time the question was a With three to go was Bertoli was looking like he wanted to win. He had put the hammer down He was trying to break everybody else's spirit. But the question was who was gonna go with him?

well, I think the answer to that was Piqueras because at right as soon as Bertoli had gotten away Piqueras got the hurry-up sign and he absolutely just comes Whipping through the field like the last couple of laps are watch Piqueras because he's coming and I don't think anything was going to stop him with two to go Piqueras had made his way from six to third and On the last lap there was a high side by Carpe He was putting a little too much throttle on at one lost it flicking himself off Piqueras was then got by Rurata and Bertoli they both knocked Bertoli back and Piqueras then leads but Rurata was by and they went back forth But at the end Piqueras would win followed by Fernandez who would finish second which I was watching Piqueras So I'm not sure how Fernandez got to the front fill me in on that one rich cuz it's sort of like they sort of Bumped Bertoli out of the way and the rest of the pack just sort of came through that was in that top six Well, there's a bit of controversy around this one and I must admit I Meant to go back and watch it over a few times and I haven't done it We're talking about the green paint. Yeah, okay. I prepared for this one. Well, we all saw it And I mean it was absolutely I mean he was on the green wasn't he and was that Technically and I'm not doubting the decision that was made because they know the rules far better than I do But technically if you go into the green on the last lap, you have to lose a place Because you've seen been seen to gain an advantage so and not only that I mean This is where I'm admiring what Simon Crafer and the team are doing this year because they are allowing people to race And I learned them to race pretty hard as well. So having gone into the green zone as On that fast approach to the final turn which obviously in moto three of all categories You just know that's where the race is going to be decided Because you know five or six bikes are gonna turn up there more or less at the same time so, you know, there's gonna be a bit of a kerfuffle so having gone onto the green and inverted commas gained an advantage the carousel goes actually barreling up the inside and I'm trying to think who he hits.

I Think it might have been Bertelli. Yeah, he bumps Bertelli. Yeah, I Think he bumped right out of the way, but it came okay. It was right over telly There's kind of their concertina effect started really by a very aggressive move by Picaras, but it's the last corner of the race. So I mean, okay fair enough and Fernandez just was in the right place at the right time and played a blinder and that's how he slipped through To second place and you got a feel for Bertelli really because he led a large chunk of that race and ended up off the podium compounded by the fact that in the post race kind of analysis Picaras was deemed not to have gained an advantage now I can only assume and I did hear them speculating on this on the TNT coverage that When he went out onto the green he lost a place because somebody nipped up the inside of him So maybe they're considering that he lost a position Or lost the position that he was required to lose but I would argue that he didn't deliberately lose it I haven't gained an advantage.

It just happened because he went out wide Don't know. I mean These guys will interpret the rule and the letter of the law far better than we can but most people were expecting him not to win the race and for Fernandez Adrian Fernandez to get his first win, but that is not what transpired Yeah, and poor old Bertelli got punted off the podium altogether. So in that kind of last corner melee Oh, well, it's not the last corner It's the penultimate corner because I now have the little left flick onto the straight but we'll start finish straight So, yeah, it's a bit to unpick there really but yeah, I mean Picard's the question is is he the new Alonso because he looked in that top 10 for the whole race and then very Alonso ish suddenly with four or five laps to go Arrives at the front and then does the devastating last lap kind of routine That's a good he doesn't have the charm that long so has there's a lot of chatter about the fact that he's very unpopular And has a large entourage which is quite unpopular as well. So that's something to keep an eye on Because he's not the first rider that we you know We've talked about with this thing going on and they don't always come off Well in the long term with that kind of attitude, but he's young and he's clearly very very very good. So Yeah, but what do you think Jim?

I mean we tipped him as the guy that we thought we did. Yeah Yep, he showed up this weekend. He did First of all, this is sort of just his Mo like I think every race Picaris is one he's done it on the last one or two laps Like that's just he's he doesn't really In the top five Until the final third of the race and then he's there. Okay, that's you know remains to be seen what he does I mean, maybe he progresses as Alonso did to where he figured qualifying out He figured out how to race in the pack and then just decided to go and decimate everybody there If you know for the seven seven on the trot, I Don't know if he's got Alonso's talent. I don't know if he's he's got that in him, but he's good He's definitely good.

And if the entourage doesn't cause a problem then then you know, maybe we're all okay here, but You know, maybe it does and maybe things go wrong who knows which way it is But you're not there to be liked Okay, you're there to win races, which is the point of it. Yeah so I Yeah, there's a fine line there for me there's there's there's a point about being confident in yourself and being aggressive and winning races and There's another part of you about being a real Real prick about it, right? I don't I don't know him. I don't know the whole entourage scenario But You know, I look at what's going on on that motorcycle. That's hard not to sit there and say yeah I need him on my motorcycle because he's you know winning races, which is what he's there to do Well, obviously there was a tug-of-war for his services wasn't he bought himself out of the layer part contract.

Also, that's what we understand So the team that he's with now, I'm still gonna call it the MTI It's not quite cool that anymore. But anyway empty helmets, let's call it They're clearly Happy to have him on board for his talent Despite some of the other issues that come along with that and we've seen this would load and loads of riders over because it's kind Of goes with the territory, doesn't it that uber aggressive alpha kind of apex predator kind of attitude? Manifests itself off the bike as much as it does on not all the time but often it does so Again the bit of color I get now with the TNT coverage as opposed to the dawn of coverage They did talk about this a lot over the course of the weekend. I don't know if something happened or has happened Recently to ruffle some feathers and bring this more to the fore but you know, this kid had a stellar career in the junior category and was renowned for this kind of last lap Ability, you know this racecraft thing which is something we talked about a lot with David Alonso Obviously that kind of ability to just look and then read the race and then make the moves Forcefully and decisively but not to go down too often and again, that's what we saw this weekend I mean he had a bit of a so-so race in Thailand, but that's such a weird race because of the conditions that perhaps as we speculated it just just didn't quite fit for him that weekend, but I mean he did well on the Leopard last year and had that double long lap to victory kind of racing Mizano, so the signs have all been there and you know, he has this stellar Career outside of the main world championship That yeah kind of means that he is the next big thing and it looks well This is only the second race. He was absent in the first race very much present in this one I suspect you'll be seeing a lot of him trackside at Kota gym.

Yep. Yeah, hopefully I mean so let's talk about the green paint thing Mm-hmm. So he did go over there. I mean it's it's Plain as in those in your face that he's there However, he did lose a position by going out there he was past so I'm gonna be with Simon Kray for on this one because That's what you're supposed to do now You can all claim whether it was intentional or not, but my point is if he is out there and he got past That's what you're that's okay. There was no advantage gained by him being out there Now if he had been out there and didn't get past and went on to win the race Yeah, we're talking a different thing then yes It's a two position penalty or whatever they assess time wise or whatever afterwards But he was legitimately passed by somebody else which in theory Negates the advantage that he may have had by being out on the green I'm 100% with Simon Kray for on this one.

In fact, I'm I'm 100% behind Simon Kray for right now I'm like his champion because he has made the right call I think in every single one of the decisions he's had to make they've been consistent and the one thing we're seeing is you're allowed to race and race hard and That's okay It's all we want and it's what they want. That's what they want. Right? Yeah, I think you know, I think he's got it But you know anyway that can I just say Jim? Just as a kind of comeback on that my and I'm not suggesting that I disagree with the decision that they made like you I have full confidence I just think the rules a bit silly when you you have a penalty which is if you go out there you're gaining an advantage But then you get passed by somebody else and so you haven't gained an advantage Well, you either have or you haven't so either have the rule or don't or or have the green strip there or the blue one Because if he didn't gain an advantage There's no point in having a penalty to to say that you have gained an advantage if you go out there if you see what I mean No, yeah, how do you go now onto the green on the last app on his own?

You know the guy in second Let's say that the person second was five seconds behind him and he'd gone out on the green on the last lap Would he have had to drop a position then? That's the bit of the rule. I don't understand, you know, so it's a bit weird I know that people will shout me down on safety grounds here But for me I would not have this green paint thing or blue paint I'll just have some gravel or some grass so that it is an actual Penalty to be out there because it is going to slow you down It's a little bit like what I hate about the yellow flag rule where people get kind of retrospectively Let's say find I don't mean let's say financially but find For a yellow flag infringement. Well, the point of yellow flag is to slow down But most of them go through at full speed and then cop a penalty for it later, you know So it's not really quite the intention of the rule so that's my slight befuddlement with the way this whole thing works at the moment and if Because my attitude is if there's a if there is a wall there say this with the TT the penalty is obvious then I'm not advocating for building brick walls on the sides of racetracks. But the point is if you go out there You're not meant to be there so That's what they're trying to police and Simon and his team have made the right call.

I have no doubt I just think this is a bit that this could be done better the policing of this. Yeah There's some gray area there for sure and it has kind of opened a can of worms But I'm interested what other people think yeah, right us motor pod at motor podcast comm let us know what you think guys So we were telling was for first Soto then Almanza Linetta Kelso recovered from his double long lap to finish eighth Then Yamanaka NEPA Foggia Ogden crucial Buchanan and then Moodley those are your people who scored points quickly Let's look at the world championship because now we have two races Ruraytas is leading the championship. He's on 41 Adrian Fernandez is second on 36 five points behind Picaris is 12 behind because he's on 29 points then it's a Bertelli Carpe NEPA Almanza Foggia Linetta and first Soto the top ten and that puts us to moto to and moto to qualifying So in the first qualifying session we had do we had We learned that Garcia was still unfit to ride from that He's got a wrist injury to I think or finger something like that Can't remember exactly what it what it was, but he's unfit wasn't gonna be able to take place But in the first one was on to you Marrera Guevara Alonso Aegis Vietti or Tola and Vire I you know kind of the people you expect to be there Except for maybe Marrera you kind of would think he'd be a little farther up there But you look at or yeah Vietti, but I mean Vietti does have those days where he just isn't that great there You know Olgardo Is in that first session right so you know I didn't think we'd be talking about hor gardo as much as we do is for being a rookie and what he's doing, but either way With the vend of the first qualifying coming there were red helmets everywhere like everybody was turning a fast fast lap To you know to get out or get through but it was Vietti Alex's screech had the ultimate lap to get himself in on the forward machine Which was great then Solache and Marrera That both on shoe and Alonso who had put themselves in got bumped out because of the other guy because of a screech and because of Solache because those two were riding together and got through so those guys those four were going through kind of gutted for Alonso Kind of gutted for Alonso, but he's showing you know he does have an injury still his shoulder. He's making his progress It's slow. It's steady.

You know here in a few races He's going to be in that first qualifying session every time and he's gonna start slowly You know top tens top fives and itching his way towards the podium might give you that Halfway through the second moto 2 session we had Gonzales Dixon Vietti Ramirez Marrera and Arbolino all there But when it came down to the end of it Gonzales would be on pole Dixon with a great run on the Bosca Cora VDS He would be second then Ramirez was third a screech again with the forward having a really Amazing lap to get in to be fourth. He was third for a little bit And I think yeah had a chance at pole and then Diego Marrera Solache Lopez Binder and then Vietti or your top three rows We go to the race It was looking like it was going to be I Think you kind of thought that the the mark VDS boys were gonna do pretty good from their qualifying They were right there slash sort of got kind of Miffed a little bit in qualifying But if you looked at the race pace at Dixon how you looked at the race pace of slouch had you thought wow this might be old-school mark VDS kind of a thing which was kind of impressive because They're they're off of a Kalex onto a Bosco Bosco Cora, right and Dixon did even said he was gonna say well You know, hey, I'm not gonna really be anywhere until I get four or five races on this bike they must have found the setting that Dixon likes because Dixon just took the whole shot and took off in this one followed by Gonzales Ramirez slouch Vietti Morelli and then Orta had a turn to crash to get off to for his get-off So latch got by Gonzales Kinet would move his way up to fourth because Kinet had a horrible qualifying I guess I should have mentioned that he like didn't go out till way late didn't turn a lap really Well, I don't know if there's a problem there. He had a massive crash at some point over the week Friday or Saturday morning, but he got a vicious crash and most in the summer Aftermath he was kind of Doing that walk with his arms hanging down you think it'll good that looks like collarbone might be gone or you know shoulder Dislocated or something but no, I mean luckily for him and so what amazingly Nothing was broken or or out of the joint that it should not really be in but he must have been suffering a bit Come qualifying and certainly during the race So that I think that's a good thing for him A bit come qualifying and certainly during the race So that I think that kind of explained a bit perhaps some of his Relative underperformance, although he still did pretty pretty well Yeah, he did. Uh, he had gotten up to fourth and by Ramirez with with uh, by the third lap Uh, then Ramirez and Kinet were in in a good ding dong. It was pass repass Draft back, you know into five trade places good racing there Dixon's still out front.

He was starting to ease away with after five laps Marora, uh marrera, he had no front feel on the bike. He pulled into the pits. He just stopped. Um, you know the crew Were confused by what had happened. They had a discussion he I believe he had taken his crash helmet off and was sitting in the pit box when they convinced him After putting a new front a new rear tire on to go back out and give it another try To try to maybe diagnose what was going on.

I understand the vague feel of the pirelli My personal experience on I went from dunlap to pirelli because the racing series we were in that was you had to run pirelli's It was mandated. They are a whole different beast than a dunlap. I'll just say that It does not mean that a pirelli is not as good as a dunlap Not nope, not at all. They just have a very different feel And they take a very different setup to be able to make them work for you that I can attest to in spades You have to imagine though jim that he had a bite a technical issue on the bike I think so fixed after a couple of laps had passed by and then just sent him out to check it check it out to verify Yeah, it could have been it could be anything as simple as a wheel weight got chunked off The tire could have spun on the rim Any of those things are possible to create but that would have more than likely instead of being a vague feel would have been a vibration Don't know maybe it was a vibration He you know, it was just we were told by jack applegate That it was a feel thing. So, okay I'm gonna go with it was a feel I again There is every possibility that it was just a bum tire that just did not come out of the ovens correctly That happens these are not production tires.

They're sort of Hand made there's a semi production System that pirelli uses they're not all handmade like michelin's but anything can happen To those tires in the production state and you know This is the first instance of really anybody complaining about a pirelli and not having feel so I'm going to chalk it up to it was maybe a technical problem on the bike And we're just going to leave it there until we know something more Dixon was now easing away. He he had kind of broken away. He had a 1.2 second lead He was definitely in control Of the race. Uh, he was followed by gonzalez. Canet ramirez Salak and vieti vieti having make his way up from his poor starting spot going up there Uh the battle for third that was going on was really good You know the question was did gonzalez have anything left he was there but was he going to stay Can he was he going to hold on to it?

That fight was really interesting going on there Ramirez had gotten by salach at turn five and salach was up and under ramirez again They bump each other and lose the front or whatever and then salach is down Uh, and ramirez is now fourth the stewards looked into it. They said no further action required again I thought that was just hard racing two guys wanted to occupy the exact same space at the exact same time That's called racing. They bumped one person stayed up one person did that isn't somebody trying to take somebody off That isn't somebody running into somebody that was racing That's what it was Totally agree. I again a correct call again. I mean it was tough on salach No doubt about it, but they were racing hard and he came off worst on this occasion But these things have a habit of you know evening themselves out over the course of the season So he was wide he came back to the towards the racing line.

It was occupied. It was occupied by ramirez It's pretty much that simple again, you know, hey you're out wide Your responsibility to sort of come back to the racing line Was but in cases like that jim in past seasons under the previous stewardship that that was resulting in penalties for the unsighted Which in this case would have been ramirez on the inside of the thing So You know that would have been a travesty to give him a pet that is just an unfortunate racing incident. So yeah, correct call totally correct call again Golf clap for the stewards because the simon is doing it right so far I mean i'm not gonna sit there and say right, you know Anything bad about the former people that were running the show But I think there was some question as to why things were the way that they were so far It has been consistent and we have had good racing as a result and i'm loving it Yeah, so dickson would uh Viet he was was was was back he was trying To catch up the question was was he going to be able to get there or whatever? Ramirez was then catching those guys at the end dickson was long gone in this race The question was where was everybody going to finish out? What could viet?

Get to a podium would connect hang on for the podium But dickson wins gonzalez is second viet.y nix canada on the last lap To get that position ramirez had had to settle for fifth then it was bender escreege lopez orgardo and ninth reynos arbolino baltis agis Anchu and guvara getting the last point great race for jake dickson on the Uh mark vds boss kakora. He looked really comfortable on it. I think maybe hopefully they found a setting Uh, you know, this is going to be I think we might have a really good championship run this year Just I think there's going to be a lot of different people winning and a lot of different people on the podium this year. So Looks like it might be a really good moto two years the trick for jake dickson Having said last episode or the episode before I felt his shot In moto gp had gone And I still fear that that is the case, but if he can go on a bit of a run In this crucial sort of first part of the season Particularly with some of the underperformance that's going on in the moto gp field in certain quarters at the moment He might just put himself in the shop window, you know Just for somebody to give him a try a proper time Yeah, i'm hoping that does happen because as i've said many many times and apologize for kind of repeating myself, but Dickson was great on a super bike now motor gp bike is not on the super bike are fundamentally very different beasts But he's got a lot of experience in moto 2 and the jump from moto 2 to moto gp is not as big as it used to be So there are many things going in his favor It's that he's tended in the past to peak mid or towards the end of a season, which is the wrong time for contracts So if he can go on a bit of a tear To use your term jim in this first sort of third first half of the season then if a ride comes up, you know, you might just Might just start having a bit of interest from a moto gp team or two because there are some People in moto gp that you have to question You know how long they can hang on at this point in time and I can see some big changes coming In moto gp in terms of who's on the bikes over the course of the next one to two years So I agree with you. Let's look at the points Gonzales leads on 45 dixon is second with 34.

He's 11 behind kinets only one behind Dixon on 33 Ramirez on 22 then ages Vietti Helgardo baltis lopez and morera. That's the championships for moto championships standing for moto 2 With that let's move into moto gp In that first qualifying session you had agura, you know He had a lot more track time With the test before the race so Maybe a more typical type of qualifying scenario for agura this time But yeah, he was in there with uh morbidelli with mir with miller daniella's outagr and bascinini Morbidelli had about three tenths on everybody the question is would he go back out again? He did not he sat it out and he would get he would then Just barely go through one mirror had a great run to second to go through as well I agura had went down at turn two Chantra was down at turn two. These guys were trying to get to that. There's two spots They call it the jungle for a reason And that was it.

So it was good to see mirror go through the honda was good Chantra was there with the other honda you had zarko was in the first session already on a honda And uh marini was in that first session already, too So if two hondas were in there, I mean honda's looking really pretty good right now. I was impressed You know at this point, you know a lot of honda's now in that second session, which was pretty impressive, but We would see how quick observation jim. Yes I don't know what your take on this is but whenever over the course of the weekend you saw zarko He's a very experienced rider and is you know renowned for his kind of testing and setup skills his sort of analytical approach So perhaps it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that He looked pretty silky smooth from my recollection all weekend whereas Contrast to jamia He was making the bike go very very fast But it was making some hellish shapes in the process but unlike the Last year and the season before when he was on the bike. Is it this is his third season on the honda. I think it is uh anyway Yes, I think for sure if he had been riding that hard on the bike last year The result would have been what we saw at virtually every session last year, which was he had been going down the road on his face So that guy has got his mojo back big time and you know It would be interesting to know quite what they've done to that honda to make it so much better Than last year's bike.

It is clearly improved in multiple areas. Not just one but quite clearly the front end Feel issue or the lack of feel perhaps That was particularly afflicting joanne mea in the last couple of seasons and last year was just ghastly to watch I mean you wondered how long he could sort of put up with it for Uh, you know, he has huge confidence again now in the front end and it's it's so Kind of maybe inspiring is not the right word, but so kind of gratifying to see a guy who was that low Suddenly given a bike that he can do something with again now admittedly Okay, he was going through q1 and he got through but so it wasn't as if he was automatically through to q2 Although he was I think in thailand Would need to double check but you know, he is a man reborn at the moment. So i'm Yeah, really sort of looking forward to watching how much better he gets as the year goes on and as his confidence Continues to build with by and as the bike itself Continues to improve but the contrast between him and zarko was quite marked. I thought Yeah, my best guess is that the engine in the honda has been Rotated Towards the front so you know mind where the crankshaft is rotate just rotate about the crankshaft And rotate it forward some or or the motor has been moved Up in the chassis slightly that would put more weight to the front end Uh, which also then explains sort of that lack of rear grip that they are sort of having You've taken the weight off of the back You put the weight to the front and now they're trying to work on the rear suspension to match the Rear suspension to match the match that Uh power that they're putting down that that is my best guess as to what's making the honda work And jim the bike looks Radically different in terms of its aero package as well Again on the tnt coverage they referred several times to how wide The bike is at the back in particular. Yes um Again, you'd need somebody like a matt oxley or neil spaulding, you know could probably write an entire book You know like a 10 chapter book on this year's bike versus last year's bike from a technical standpoint Uh, I I don't know how much of this is down to albercino who's come in obviously from aprilia But he only started I think at you know early this year because of gardening leave as he left aprilia And so on so I don't know that he's been able to do a great deal technically to the bike Although he might well have had a hand in some of the approach aspects, which obviously you can implement stuff like that quite quickly But yeah, I mean honda looked to be reborn and and Much against my expectation appeared to be quite far ahead of yamaha at the two japanese manufacturers as things stand at the moment Yeah, I didn't expect that given testing You thought yama was going to be there thereabouts?

And it has not happened for them Not yet honda it has I mean yamaha have improved. Oh, yes Massively, but theirs has been a gradual thing whereas honda appeared to You know if you're being an uncharitable you might just say that they've just lucked in and they've suddenly got a bike that works But you know, that's not the way it works in moto gp All of the problems that they've had and all of the people they brought in and all the approach changes Which we've gone on and on about clearly this year It's started to all click into place I mean zarka, I mean crikey. I mean nobody imagined that Okay, we know he likes argentina. He's had winds in moto to the podiums of moto gp before on the pramac gkati. I think So clearly he loves argentina as a track and it's a shame to hear that this might be the last time we've gone there I don't know if you picked up on that that would be a great shame.

It seems like it's we're done. I think the paddock seems to not like the 14 hours of travel to get there and Eight different airplanes or whatever it is I know why simon patterson was talking about how many different flights it takes to get there and it's in the middle of nowhere To some extent. I mean they're Five or six kilometers from the town itself, but it's only a town of like 30 000 people. Yeah, that's not That's not many logistical Facilities or lack of Of Issues associated with the place, but fundamentally I think it's a great racetrack and it seems to produce Pretty good racing. I think so, too Oh, let's look at the second qualifying session here.

Um, the first flying set of laps. Those mark marquez zarko alex marquez morbideli and guacararo and akasta and Ben Yac was just ninth It is like the struggle was real there for ben yac when they got down to business at the at the end of it It was mark marquez on the pole followed by alex then zarko And as you said that that honda is Was really well Balanced was zarko on it. It was not out of shape. It wasn't all over the place with mirror It was as you rightly pointed out So honda showing some massive improvement ben yac would be fourth akasta would be fifth Dji antonio sixth quattro raro seventh then morbideli the zeki mirror bender and alex rins So both the almaz actually made it through to the to the second qualifying session. But yeah, they couldn't you Rins couldn't really do much with it quattro was seventh so There so yeah Yeah, that's that part of it.

So We get to the we get to the sprint. The question is would there be rain? There were a few drops that were possibly there but basically mark marquez, uh Takes the lead at the beginning and in the first Half of a lap had three tenths on Everybody in there It was basically him his brother and ben yaya Then quattro raro akasta and zarko zarko had a very bad start from the front row went backwards with it Akasta got by quattro raro for fourth bender was down at turn three Morbideli had helped him with the crash again Bender was wide morbideli was being aggressive was on the line He is, you know morbideli being off to the Left hand side of the bike couldn't see bender coming from the right Or sorry coming from the left. He's off on to the right my bad. Yeah Sorry My bad on that one and basically bender and they occupied the same piece of ground at the same time And no further action was taken So that part was all good Outter girl was out with a crash with alva vera They were going to look at that after the race alva vera would have sustained a Uh, well a hematoma, uh on his collarbone right near his shoulder it was deemed that there wasn't any Damage done no ligament damage or there wasn't any broken bones or anything.

They were concerned about some ligament damage And he was hurting really bad. So he would not start the race Tomorrow he went back to spain or portugal to be checked out. Hopefully he'll be fit for the race in the u.s I'd be slightly doubtful about that jim to be honest I think he's in a fair bit of trouble with that injury by the sounds of it. Yeah, it doesn't sound great But i'm hoping You know with some physio That maybe he can ride but yeah it was Because I'm, not sure what happened. I watched that over and over again.

I'm just assuming that the handlebars flinched somehow and it just Tore muscle there. I'm not sure it wasn't well caught from what I saw anyway on camera it's mostly from the back precisely what happened but clearly aldegaard lost control of the The ducati and it forced olivera onto the grass and then as you say the bike snaps hard on the on the sort of somewhat soft wet Surface and yeah threw him off. So that's obviously why he's injured But I mean golly he doesn't have a lot of luck does he that guy when it comes to crashes that are not his own Of his own making and then getting nastily injured as a result of it. Although Perhaps a racer off the bike. He might quite appreciate because he's not exactly been gelling with the yamaha So far has he it's been a bit hard to watch to be honest so uh Yeah, you olivera is as much as i've admired him in the past certainly when he was doing some pretty decent stuff on the ktm, but He's another these riders.

You got to think might be looking at a ride elsewhere before much longer Mm-hmm can't tan this agree with you Alex was threatening his brother. But I mean mark had this under control Zarco got by akasta for fourth boseki then got by akasta. So akasta was going backwards Zarco was charging hard. He was catching ben yaya. The question was could he catch ben yaya Before the end of the race He got close But time ran out marquez takes a sprint win his brother finished second again and ben yaya finished his third So again, I told you to get used to this 93 73 63 Yeah, it happened again.

Zarco being the wild card but fourth on a honda, which is like One of the best rides for a honda rider since 23 or something like that. Is it been a long been a long time Then it was dj antonio boseki morbidele mere eighth and akasta slid all the way back to ninth. I mean the ktm is Horrible and we were chatting about this on whatsapp rich. So we'll talk about it real quick There's akasta going to be on a honda in 26. I I gotta believe he's going to be headed there I I can't see ktm fixing this And if they did it's a lost season, right?

And then if they do have the money are they going to be able to develop a bike for one more year? Or they need the money to develop an 850 or 800 850 850 um, so Obviously, we're not we're not privy to His contract naturally and whether there are clauses in it that give him, you know the ability to escape or Or indeed the ability to buy his way out of that because i'm very sure that as much as he's always been Ktm through and through, you know throughout his career He wants to win championships in moto gp and he'll go wherever he needs to go to do that I think what we could say with more Assurance jim is probably that if he could get out of the ktm contract at the end of the year, I suspect he would or will Where he goes is a slight different matter. There's still the rumors. They're still doing around about the vr 46 team Wouldn't be a bad spot to go but the accosta to honda Particularly with marini being out of contract I'm pretty certain at the end of the season and marini out of the two is the one that's you know Not setting the world on fire compared with joan mir I yeah, I can I can envisage a world in which that becomes reality. I really can because honda will Not have an issue paying whatever accosta wants And that ktm looks horrid I mean obviously binda was taken out of the sprint fairly early on accosta made it through but he was spinning the rear up Markedly more than anybody else or the bike was not controlling the spin.

It wasn't Keeping that rear tire alive. I think is the point and we know this is one of ktm's main issues I've got to say jim. I never thought the day would come when I thought or when I would say That the moto gp ducati is a better looking bike than any other bike on the grid But god alive is that ktm a abhorrent thing to look at? And and it's not fast either That's the you could give it forgive it if it was quick Which we used to sort of say about the ducati but god it's it's ugly enough to make small children cry that bike It really is Yeah, I I agree. I agree with you.

It's absolutely hideous I know it doesn't make any difference in the other screens, but it's just a Wretched thing to look at it really is I'm i'm pleasantly surprised at how the hondas look at least Mears in zarcos now, maybe it's the colors right because it's You sort of have that iconic hrc. You're red white with the castor. All you've got the classic castor all I don't know. Maybe I just nostalgia sneaking in on that one, but yeah, it's not a bad looking bike I have to say because it's got a rear end which is very reminiscent of the ktm's but it's it's just a bit softer somehow Like ktm looks like two different bikes that have kind of been bolted together in the middle in the hope that it will go fast You know Yeah, yeah It is vile Oh, anyway, let's look at sunday's gp race Um tires were going to be an issue some thought that you were better off to be on the medium Some people went with a soft everybody was pretty much on the medium rear But morbideli did go with the soft. He's sort of the outlier of the people who we expect to be at the front so it would start off with 93 73 63 and five because Zarco got a much better start this time than digia and more and morbideli Quattraro and besecki tangle in that first turn now besecki got in hot he was I kept I don't know who was in front of him.

I don't remember I didn't write it down, but he got in a little too deep He got on the brakes hard, which I think he locked the front He had to set it up to avoid that and unfortunately when you let go of them at that speed you you carry your momentum and he wound up clipping the back of Quattraro's bike now quattraro did stay on he was able to run wide He was able to continue but Bez was down now. There was no further action taken from this Previously he besecki had been getting a long lap penalty in the next race he didn't because It's the start. It's crazy. Everybody gets caught out every once in a while. He was not trying to take quattraro out He was trying to make a corner He couldn't he was trying to not hit the rider that he that was in front of him I apologize for not remembering who it was.

He let off the brakes to do that and clipped quattraro Enough said done deal again. I I can't give enough praise for simon crafar and the team right now because they're doing it right for sure I'm reminded jim. I suspect I can't quite remember but i'm pretty sure on the sprint race at silverstone last year morbidelli had almost an identical Accident. I can't remember who he hit and if he took the person that he hit Down but i'm pretty sure he got a long lap or even a double long lap the day after for the sunday race, so that's The difference now this one's slightly different as we say because bez didn't take quattraro down So I don't know whether He might have been penalized as a result of it had quattro Quattro quattraro gone into the gravel as well Which obviously didn't although I suspect he did damage the bike somehow because quattraro really just never recovered from that but again signs that A bit more sense has prevailed up in race control Yes, completely agree with you Um zarko banyan are having a good little ding dong. They're going back and forth at each other But as time wears on, you know, you can see that banyan is sort of the head of the train That's stacked up behind him.

He's the rolling roadblock in this whole mess as the marquez brothers take off but uh We did get morbidelli did get by zarko That did that move did happen. Um Alla and then he was then morbidelli was moving towards getting banyaya But alex snuck by mark on a mistake by mark at turn five Mark was in a little deep release the brakes. Let it roll and alex took his best shot Okay. Well now alex is in front and I sort of expected Mark to kind of go blowing right by again That didn't happen Now it's like he's sitting behind alex Okay, is this another one of those tire pressure things and he just didn't make it as obvious as it was the first time Don't know. I mean we were kind of Wondering aloud what this was all about.

I mean everybody was talking about the tire pressure thing But morbidelli was was catching banyaya and he did get by banyaya at turn seven, which is a very nice move But morbidelli was also catching the front two like morbidelli was was quick. He was doing laps Slightly faster than what alex and mark were doing. It's like, okay, that's cool But eventually alex and mark started pulling away again from morbidelli. I think the soft After roughly 10 laps, it's a it was a 24 Lap race or something like that that it was starting to fade on him It didn't quite have the grip but he did have a very big lead on banyaya who just simply kind of Couldn't get anything to happen or go anywhere. But the interesting thing was is that You know Digia was was battling it out with bender.

That was a good little race that was happening He eventually got by at turn one And then you know mark had a big old moment at turn six where he's out of the seat Okay. All right quick corner. That's a quick corner. It's a left corner And he almost unloaded there Okay, if you people think that he was letting his brother win at this point That's sadly mistaken because that was on the edge. He was pushing and alex was just riding good enough to keep him there So it's like okay, we know what's happening there.

So but eventually mark did make his move He did it that he did it at turn five He got a little better drive through three than what than what alex did He was able to get by him, you know in the draft And then he was able and he was a little bit wide thought alex might get back in front but you know it He you know, he did the first time but the second time at five to go mark did get by And it stuck this time. He would then rode on to the win mark Mark marquez would win his brother would finish second Morbideli held on for third although benioah was starting to catch there at the end a little bit Then digi antonio fifth zarko fell to sixth again Doesn't have the rear grip or the drive because the bike handle is good, but we can't get the back end to work, right? Then bender was seventh. He actually beat his teammate akasta who was eighth Mir was ninth so you got and then marini was 10th. So you had honda's Sixth ninth and tenth that's pretty darn good for honda I mean, I don't know where quattrarra would have been in that in that Scenario perhaps somewhere in there rins was top yamaha on 11th and vinales in 12 miller 13th quattrarra 14th and then relo fernandez taking home the last point in 15th And that is how it all went down rich.

It's worth noting jim that obviously agura was in that top. Yes It was the eighth. I think possibly he crossed the line Somewhere around about I can't remember obviously he doesn't feature in the result anymore. So everybody else behind him bumps up one position Unfortunate for agura, but yeah, no mark markers did actually have to work pretty damn hard for that win, but goes to show the the spirit or the the competitive fire is burning away in him because the Some people kind of suggesting that he was maybe trying to help his brother out a little bit. No, no No, no mark markers would sell his grandmother for a win.

I'm pretty sure so You know, there's no favors being done there and he fought hard for that win Tried to put a sketchy move back in that first attempt which allowed alex back through and then did a better job a lap Or two later. So yeah, I know I mean we don't know obviously We're calling it the 24.5 or the 24.9 Not quite a 25 bike although it is but we don't know quite how much better it is than the 24 that alex is on We suspect that the mark markers bike will improve as the year goes on to some extent whereas probably The 24 bike won't change a great deal from here on in probably, yeah, so You know the interesting thing for me at the moment is the fact that And we know that these are not favored tracks of his but banyaya does look a bit sort of lost and forlorn Relatively speaking at the moment doesn't they i'm sure that this is going to change But he's dropping quite far. I mean we'll go into the points in a minute But he's dropping quite far behind already and the guy in second is not the person that we expected is it? let's be honest, so perhaps we should have expected it after the preseason testing but I mean alex is yeah making the most of the package that he's on didn't they and yeah He did run his brother pretty close on sunday. Yep.

He did, you know after the sprint race podium They were talking to banyaya and banyaya just goes. Oh, I will enjoy the crowd Yeah, okay, that's because you don't have a clue at how you're gonna make that motorcycle faster right now That was the definition of putting a brave face on things. Yes it was because he's He's Banyaya is a great rider. Okay, there's there's no question the man's a two-time champion There's there's no question that banyaya is a is a great motorcycle racer The difference between him and marquez is the fact that mark can ride around a motorcycle that isn't set up perfectly Yeah, and that's where we are banyaya has not found his setup yet And i'm not sure I know when banyaya is going to find that setup Okay qatar maybe You know, he might be better there because banyaya has done fairly well at qatar I mean, I can't say that marquez has not done well there either, but I would expect when they get to qatar That they're going to be better now. The one thing banyaya cannot afford to do is fall off that coda like he did last year He falls off and if marquez wins and i'm Kind of thinking mark's going to well Yeah, you know, I mean that's kind of like the sunrise and then the eastern setting in the west and mark marquez winning at qatar I know he didn't last year, but he almost did he almost did Yeah, but this year.

Yeah, you bet the ranch wouldn't you? I would I would I would bet A large sum of money that he will win both races And if like I said banyaya does not care for the bumps and the bounce and whatnot there And he you know if he if he falls off and gives up 25 points to mark. I mean I'm not Going to say that he's going to lose the championship. But wow, that's a nail into an early Coffin, you know, it's just yeah. Yeah, you know, we just didn't see that I agree with you jim.

I think banyaya will improve as the year goes on and my suspicion is that alex marquez will Drop back a little bit the thing that's been interesting about alex marquez so far this year and again Two sprints in two main races is not a big sample size But alex marquez's problem in years past is that he has sort of crashed needlessly too much And he's been sort of very good some weekends and then you know completely invisible on others Now clearly he is gelled with that 24 ducati massively so so the The likelihood is that if he can eradicate the crashes and be consistent then he's going to stay Right up the front of the points table For me, I think marquez is is gone Already, I can't see anybody beating him in the championship I think the fighters for second does things stand at the moment particularly with no joey martin around to bother the top of the points table Because by the time he comes back It's got you know, it's game over already. Never mind if he's back the other side of katar and I mean certainly I mean the promising signs from morbid ali and digi and you know Maybe we'll see honda and one or two of the amahars coming on strong But nobody's going to get anywhere close to the front three. I don't think I don't think anybody's going to get close to mark marquez So for me, it's the interest really and I use the last with a not a capital i Because it's not really that interesting, but it's simply going to be the battle between alex marquez and peco banyar. I think I don't disagree with you. There's every i'm not willing to Hand out trophies and whatnot because you know ben yaya is a strong rider San marino, he's really good at mark doesn't necessarily go well there.

I mean philip isle. I mean The problem is you go Anti-clockwise circuits, right coda philip island anywhere where it turns left. I mean you almost think marquez is gonna win that now It's I had i've had friends ask me When do I think marquez is gonna lose a race? And I I think he may lose a sprint in qatar possibly but as far as like main sunday races I can't see him losing until After the british gromp race After the british grand prix in march I just I I don't see it. I'm not trying to spell doom and gloom here Like his brother's got a great potential to win it it just depends on the day, but This is kind of what we all Sort of thought was going to happen though the best rider of his era is fit And enjoying life and riding the best bike in the paddock What did you all think was going to happen?

Yeah, well, we we were pretty solid in our prediction that this is precisely what would happen weren't we? And let's face it. We're not exactly coming up with revelatory thoughts here mark macros oner works. Jucahti bang up to date Was always going to be a formidable thing. So My point is simply that I think Bagnari season will mirror how the average weekend goes for him Which is that it starts poorly and gets better as it goes on So I think banyan will finish second in the championship But there's a question how distant it will be Assuming mark marquez doesn't injure himself or something odd Because I mean banyan is already 31 points behind mark marquez.

That's quite a lot already And that's likely to get worse You know at the next round let's be honest And probably again unless something particularly weird happens I mean I can certainly foresee marquez dropping the bike once twice during the season and they'll will as you say jim There will be the odd race where he can't win But the more often than not he will win, I think. Yep I mean What what did gg delinia say after thailand is something like that was the showmanship of his immense That was a show of his immense skill and talent on a motorcycle Okay, that's some pretty far-out praise right there I mean the guy deserves it. Okay, he's got eight world championship titles and banyan has got what a Motor I don't care. Remember banyan was a moto 3 125 champ. I know he was he was motor 2 Championship and so now he's one moto gp two couple gp titles.

He is no slouch The thing of it is is that this is how mark marquez wins his championships He takes all the points at the beginning of the year He jumps on everybody doesn't let you have a chance to breathe because he's already got you by the throat And he just never lets go after that you know benya has always had people where he's been able to fine tune things and and and work into the season and become Good and then by the end, you know, he's gonna be good like there's races that are going to be absolutely Barn burners between him and marquez, right? Yeah, you can see a magelo somewhere like that jello malaysia Um san marino. I think those are going to be amazing fights Right, there's going to be a lot of good stuff to talk about later on it's just right now you're you're in the season At the beginning of the season I should say and marquez is doing what he does He wins races right out of the box when everybody else is still trying to dial it in He just rides around whatever the problem is wins and just puts 25 points in the bank. Yeah, and You know the other thing about him as we saw in turn whatever turn it was when he kind of lost the Well, he lost the front and the rear from what I could tell but yeah, that was uh, you know He still has those cat-like reflexes, which means that he catches crashes that other people would fall off from So he's still got that bit in the armory as well So there are not many weaknesses there on show at the moment and he's clearly enjoying life He's back to let's say probably full fitness and Yeah, I mean As we said last time at jim and we'll repeat it over and over and over again He has that kind of magic next title In mind to equal somebody that let's face it is he doesn't have a poster on the wall anymore Yep, and that is a big motivation And then there's going to be just as much motivation to do it again in the last year of it because even more so probably Because that's I think he can see the handwriting on the wall that he is at the end of his career as opposed to the beginning Of his career and he's lucky that his arm is healed as it has and he's lucky he was able to get it fixed All right. Yes and he's he I think he Age tempers you and teaches you things that you didn't know when you were 22, right?

You know mark is 32 now, I think He's I know he's in his 30s. I think it's like 32 So age tempers you and teaches you things that you didn't know before he knows now what it's going to take to win And how special they are to win and how special these titles are and he knows he's I got two fingers up that close from winning 10 which is Going to be some really rare. Look this guy's going to the hall of fame, right? No questions asked. Oh, yeah first ballot as they like to say in the nhl And whatnot.

So anyway, um, let's just go to the points here. Oh, sorry rich go ahead. Well, I was just gonna he Am I right in thinking that they're now counting the sprints as part of this calculation Which I don't think they should if they are but at some point over the weekend I can't remember it was saturday or sunday, but he did the whole equal in anghel nietos. Yeah, 90 wins Yeah total of 90 so he's gonna be knocking on the agostini record I think by the time we get towards the end of next season isn't he because what's our goes? Because rossi never quite made it did he was it 120 or something?

Is it no? uh Who is I think he's got he's Is it I saw it somewhere posted. I can't remember but yeah, it's like 120. It's way out Let me just see if I can find it. No, I saw I think I think I had seen it on that but Anyway, i'll run the points down while you do that rich marquez obviously is on a perfect score of 74 He has taken every amount of points available his brother who has taken all the available extra points that are on the table Is on 58 which puts him 16 points behind his brother already You know almost a full sunday race win ahead ben yaya as you rightly pointed out rich is 31 behind marquez 15 behind Sorry, he's 31 behind mark.

He's 15 behind alex And then you've got morbid deli there and then zarko dg antonio bender agura Bezeki anacosta is barely hanging on to 10th and that's how the points roll out So, yeah We are interesting. I am Off to coda. I will be there if anybody wants me i'll have a motopod motopod gear on you should be able to find me relatively Easily walking around and enjoying it. Um, if you are going to coda Turns eight nine ten You have to spend at least one practice session with moto gp to see marquez go over that hill I'm telling you it is worth the price of admission and the time it will take you to walk there I promise you that it's actually good to see all the motor gp bikes go across that too But that's all I have rich. Do you have anything to add?

I need to say that agustin the total win uh number is 122 grand prix wins and 15 world championships and 68 of those wins were in the top class, let's say It's a folly kind of comparison with the modern era of course because like agustin I don't know how many races they would have had In 1960 something but like well he yeah 350 a 500 Yeah, but he wrote multiple classes within a weekend. So yeah, it's it's but it's very hard if not impossible to make these sort of comparisons plus it was Moucifully dangerous in that I mean it's dangerous now, but it was off the scales dangerous in agos day But anyway having hit 90 this weekend 122 doesn't look too far away with the number of races they have now True and the number of races mark markers is highly likely to win over the next two seasons and that seems he doesn't go into 850s Which we can't make that assumption because you might well do it Yep, very well. So I just wanted to just pull that little fact in at the end Well, you know, it's kind of like you never thought grits you never thought gretzky's goal record in the ahl would be beaten by Anybody but a vegkins really close Records are there to be broken. That is correct. And with that said folks.

I'm going to tell you all ride safe Well enjoy kota jim and we'll try to hearing about it and seeing some pictures on instagram I will try to post as much as I possibly can I just want to just before we do sign off. I'll just pick up on something that you said earlier on I'll just keep banging this drum, but as things presently stand we are out of the paddock Uh where dorner is concerned so you alluded to the fact that there won't be any interviews coming on kota this year and like last year Uh, i'm sort of facing down that same gun barrel with regards silverstone unless people kind of chime in and Subscribe and get more people to subscribe and etc all the things that we've said You know join the socials x insta We're easy to find we won't read the things out. It's very easy to find without that Additional level of support over what we get from the loyalist and ship already Yeah, sorry to say as things stand we're out on the gp side of things Which is a great shame because I thought we were making really solid progress But you know, there's a lot of new media and whatnot clamoring at the door and yeah, uh, they're getting In ahead of us, unfortunately It's just sad fact of life of where we are. I'm afraid we're not professionals. We do this, you know as a hobby and It's not cutting the mustard as far as dawn are concerned Bastards, but that's where we are.

So, um, yeah, sorry for that because you know, we wanted to Speak to alonzo again and get in front of a moto gp rider again and etc, etc, etc So it doesn't look as if we're going to be able to do it this year, which is a great frustration But anyway, it was good while it lasted. Yep Yep, uh good times there But like the thing of it is i still gonna go to the race is still gonna enjoy it Just still gonna walk around try to look at it the track from as many different angles as I possibly can Try to give you any insights that I can see while i'm there. Yeah, and We'll talk all about it when I get back Enjoy it jim and i'll look forward to talking Cheers everyone