Thoughts from the ’Ring and Brno

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 811. Recording this on July 30th.

I am Jim McDowell and this show is going to be just a little bit different. Let me explain why. First off, I'm by myself. I will be talking you through everything that's going on and my thoughts on the Saxon Ring. Then after I'm done, you'll hear our good friend Rich.

He will be there and he will talk about what's going on at Brno. Now the reason for all this is kind of complicated, kind of silly, but here's why we're doing this. One, my work sent me to Belgium. I was gone for two weeks and we had the back to back. Started off with the Saxon Ring, then the next weekend I was there.

We were doing the race from the Brno Circuit in Czechoslovakia, or Chechnya I guess it's called. Rich and I, despite being only an hour apart from each other, Rich had been to Dyneton Park. He had a bunch of any views and World Superbike stuff. World Superbikes I guess. He had a lot of interviews with guys and everybody that he was trying to get done.

He had work issues as well, so we just could not find a time to do it together. We're still kind of trying to get back in the groove with our respective work. We think this is going to be the best way just to get you guys something that's out there so that you know that we're still here. We apologize for the lateness of this. We're going to give you guys our thoughts.

I'm going to give you the thoughts on the Saxon Ring. Before I do that, let's quickly just talk about the one thing I want to go through in the news. Now, that is the fact that it's been agreed to in 2027 that there will be a twin cylinder 500cc displacement single make only Moto 3 replacement. So basically, think of it this way. Instead of being a 250 and having a KTM or a Honda, you will now have a single make class supplying both an engine and chassis in a 500cc capacity.

So the FIM and Andorna have asked for a tenure for people to produce that motorcycle. KTM has entered theirs, their hat into the ring as they are the dominant brand. Of course, they're going to do that. Then added to that list is Honda. They have rendered their concept of what they would do for the class.

And this one here is the one that shocks me for the news. Yamaha has entered in to this as well. They have a tenure to produce these bikes. Now there's some other names floating out there like CFMoto and some other Chinese manufacturers. But is that really going to come to pass?

I don't know. I don't think it is. But what I'm thinking is I wonder how different the motors are going to be between KTM, Honda and Yamaha. Let's start with KTM. I think KTM would build a parallel twin with both cylinders laid very far forward towards the front wheel.

Like basically they would just be adding another cylinder to the side of their existing engine. I think they would do that because that's the easiest way to create this 500cc bike. They wouldn't be changing a lot more beyond that. You could probably do it easily enough that you could just make some new cases, reuse a lot of parts and pieces and you would have what you're looking for. So I think that's what they would do.

Honda, I think they're going to build a completely different V-twin. I expect them to have a V-twin where the V is going to be basically open towards the front of the motorcycle. One cylinder going upright towards the triple tree, one cylinder fading down towards the front wheel. The area in between is going to be open. I think that that's how they're going to build the engine.

How they're going to put it in there. That's sort of how Honda kind of operates. If you think about how their 250 twin cylinder machines in the two stroke era worked, that's kind of how they looked in the frame. And I think Honda may go back to that to provide some sort of different take on it. Again, that would be sort of the idea of mass centralization, which Honda is kind of known for.

They did that with the bigger bikes and the CBR 900RR. Their newer bikes are all mass centralized. Everything's very compact in the center. And I think that would be a way for them to do that. Yamaha, I believe, would make a true parallel twin cylinder side by side, generating basically in a slightly canted forward position, much like they're inline four.

Imagine their inline four engine that they have in their MotoGP bike and basically cutting that in half. And that's what theirs is going to look like. That's what I think. I don't know any of this for sure. I'd love to know what you guys think or which way they will do for each manufacturer.

So ride us, MotoPod, motopodcast.com. Now with all that said and done, let's move ourselves into my thoughts about the Saxon Let's start with some Moto3 qualifying on Saturday as we normally do. It's raining guys. It's very wet in there. Some of the names that are in this first qualifying session was Rossi, Fagia, Nepa, Perez, Versailles, Peroni, Carrero, and Buchanan.

Now the idea here was to get out and start putting laps in. The reason for that is that if it's going to rain harder, the track at the beginning is that the best shape is going to possibly be. If you stay out the whole time, you will constantly get faster and faster and faster, especially if the rain is letting up, you'll be able to go faster and faster and faster. So from that first session, Buchanan, Perez, O'Shea, and Detweiler all make it into the second qualifying session. In the second qualifying session, Panini, he goes down, he's off the bike at turn 8, and the bike punctures the air fence.

Now this creates a mad scramble for everybody involved. One to get Peroni's bike back out, two to put another piece of air fence in there, and basically they kind of reset themselves and get going again. But Fernandez, Munoz, Carpe, Almanza, Uri, and Furusato are your top 6 with 6 minutes and 30 seconds left to play in that session. Now Munoz then goes down at turn 8, and while he was on a serious flyer, Munoz was red sectors, he was probably destined to go to pole, but that one small slip up in 8 cost him big time. Carpe had a big off at turn 8, yellow flags started cancelling everybody's laps, but despite the rain, despite the chaoticness and the yellow flags, basically Scott Ogden takes a pole position followed by Almanza, Guido Pini, David Munoz, Alvaro, Carpe, Fernandez, Quiles, Buchanan, Eddie O'Shea, and Picaris down in 10th place.

We get into the race on Sunday morning. It's finally dry. We spent all day in the rain on Saturday. I love a good wet race, I think they're interesting for many reasons, but we didn't get that. We're going to have a nice dry race, which is all well and good.

Everybody lines up, Ogden got off to a great start, Munoz was right there with him, he had another great start again. Munoz is coming out of the...where was Munoz coming from? He was coming from the 4th position, so he had a great start on that 2nd row to get there. It was pretty impressive. Picaris is off to 5th, Buchanan is 3rd, and then Munoz at turn 12 is leading.

This is all through the first couple of laps. By the 3rd lap, Quiles has made his way to 3rd. This kid is something special. Let me give you a little side story about my trip to Belgium. Our original flight was delayed because of weather.

We had to take a flight the next day. We got shoved onto a Lufthansa flight. No big deal. I'm settled in, watching movies, trying to pass the time. But I noticed Lufthansa doesn't seem to have the best list of movies, so I'm trying to find something to watch.

I wound up going to sports, and they actually had Red Bull rookies on there. This one that they had on the plane was a few years ago, but it all had Buchanan, Quiles, Rueda, and they were all in that Red Bull rookies, which I thought was really impressive to see how good Quiles was when he was just 14 years old. It was definitely impressive. It was just kind of neat. I thought it was interesting.

I thought I'd share. Anyway, back to the racing. By lap 4, Quiles has moved his way to 2nd. Piqueras has gone to 3rd. Their guys are really doing well here.

Again, we got a dry race. Motor 3 bikes are well suited to the Saxon Ring circuit. Quiles eventually winds up leading. Carpe had a long lap penalty that he took on the 4th lap. Quiles is out front, followed by Munoz, Carpe, Ogden, Piqueras, Furusato, and Pini.

They are literally racing like 4 abreast through turn 1, and sometimes it was almost 6 wide. It was absolutely crazy. By the 9th lap, Carpe has been chipping away at the leaders, and he's trying to get into the game here. Now, Fernandez goes down at turn 3. He had contact with Rueda.

It was decided that there was no further actions that needed to be taken. By lap 10, Quiles is still out front. Yamanaka is right there, then Furusato, Munoz, and Rueda. Man Piqueras. Yamanaka would go quickly to the lead, then Quiles would go back out in front again.

I was thinking this was Quiles race to lose. The kid looked to be dominant. He was right there. But you can never count everybody out. But my money at this point was definitely on Quiles.

12 to go, Quiles outbreaks himself and turn 1, and Yamanaka, Rueda all get by. Then Rueda goes to the lead. This is the first time in the race that Rueda has gotten to the lead, which was surprising to me. We're a 23 lap race, we're 12 races in, and he finally gets there. But there are 15 Moto3 bikes that are covered by 1.2 seconds across it.

Now, that's pretty impressive to have that many bikes. I know it's a tight, twisty, turny circuit, but still, 15 bikes, 1.2 seconds, that's amazing. By lap 15, Yamanaka is out front, followed by Munoz, followed by Rueda. For Rosado, Quiles, Kelso has now brought his way up there after starting way back. I think he was like 18th or 19th on the grid.

Yamanaka was then throwing down fast laps. Almanza has crashed out with a low slide at 13. Lap 18, Rueda is leading Yamanaka, Munoz, Quiles, Piqueras, and Kelso. With 5 to go, Yamanaka rides off at turn 1, and Ogden crashes at turn 1. So we lost two guys out of that list.

Three laps to go, Rueda is out front, followed by Munoz, Quiles is right there. This is going to be anybody's race. Everybody's right together. Two to go, Piqueras turns in one of the fastest laps of the race. Well, maybe Piqueras is going to come and show us what he's made of finally and actually win a race.

Big money was paid by Quiles to get off of that Honda and get on a KTM, and there really hasn't been a result really for Quiles yet. I mean, he's had a race win, but there's really not been that consistency that we saw in the first year that really made him a flash that caused Rich and myself to pick him for a world champion. But with two to go, Piqueras does the fastest lap of the race. Everybody's juggling for position because everybody's trying to figure out whether they're good or whether they're not. As they go into turn 1, Quiles is all kinds of out of shape.

Munoz sneaks by to get past Rueda to be leading it, and because Quiles is out of shape, he winds up stifling everybody else. So this lets Munoz and Rueda get away, and Quiles is left trying to figure out how to defend that third place. But as the look starts to unfold, basically, Furusato goes down at turn 12. Rueda takes that advantage to go and get by Munoz. But Munoz gets back by at 13 as a charge to the line, and he wins the race just ahead of Quiles who nips Rueda at the line, having charged back from about a half of a second deficit in about three quarters of the lap because he had messed up in turn 1.

An incredible race by everybody for this Moto3. Best race of the weekend by far. These guys are always the best race in my opinion. Got a great action. So the podium is Munoz, Quiles and Rueda.

Picaris with a fourth, then Carpe, Kelso, Pini, Rolston, Buchanan, Uredi, Fagia, Peroni, Nepa, Rossi and Yamanaki taking the last point in that race. That leads us to the championship. We can see where everybody is here. Rueda is now on 203 points. That puts him 73 points clear of Picaris.

Picaris needs to do something about this quickly otherwise this championship is done. After Picaris it's Carpe on 129. He's only one point behind Picaris. Then Joel Kelso in fourth, Munoz in fifth, Quiles is sixth. He's 97 off the lead.

Can that kid put it together, win a couple of races, get 50 maximum points, have a little bad luck from a raid and be in this one? That's possible. But Quiles is probably the hot hand for next year. For sure he gets my vote right now. Rosado is seventh, Almanza is eighth, Luneta is ninth and Fagia is tenth.

That concludes Moto 2. Moto 3, we're going to Moto 2. Let's look at Moto 2 from the Saxon ring. In the first qualifying session, Marrero, Dixon, Baltis, Zonta, Van de Gorberg, Guevara, Navarro, they're all in there with Bender and Arenas. Coming out of the wet session was Baltis, Dixon, Guevara, and Arenas.

We go into the second session. The conditions are improving. The spray off the bikes is reducing but it's still pretty wet out there. Everybody goes out but Baltis is quick. Now Baltis of course was fast.

He had pretty good knowledge of the conditions because he was in the first session which is always an advantage to know what those things are, especially in the wet. And Baltis is basically the fastest guy. Just clicking the laps off, clicking the laps off, clicking the laps off, clicking the laps off. He's just the fastest guy. No one can seem to do anything with him.

Now Kinet was trying to but Kinet wound up crashing at turn seven, turn eight area. He went down over to high side basically. Backhand stepped out, he goes over to high side. They hit the gravel trap and it appears as though the bike actually flipped over Aren and went all the way to the air fence. Luckily Aren was okay.

He did get up holding his left wrist but he would be declared fit to race the next day. I mean a crash like that is going to shake anybody up. It just shows the fine margins that there is when you are doing this in the rain and you're pushing and looking for a lap time. The rain tires, especially Pirelli rains, are really really good tires in the rain. And it's just the fact that it's just slippery conditions.

It's like you're on the knife edge, you're tense. It's like you're trying to think of what it's like. Get in your car in a thunderstorm, hit the interstate, have puddles of water everywhere that you can't actually see because there's so much spray from all the big rigs and that's what you're looking at most of the time. And it really is a challenge to actually go fast and all that. Eventually Aegis breaks Baltis' time at the top.

He takes the top spot. Arbolino would go second. Dixon then jumped up to the top and Aegis was then down. And that caused yellow flags and so it puts the Brit, Jake Dixon, on top followed by Barry Baltis. Arbolino was going to start third then Aegis Arenas.

Onchie would be sixth. Ramirez Lopez, Ortola, and Joe Roberts rounding out the top ten from Moto2's qualifying session. Race day of course is a bright sunshiny day. Although there were ominous dark clouds that appeared to be billowing behind the racetrack, whether that was going to produce rain or not, did not know. The forecast didn't say rain but those clouds did appear to be threatening.

Now the light can it is now fit. He is declared fit. I've mentioned that earlier. And then Aegis winds up jumping the start. That's going to give him a lap penalty.

He pushes then Dixon wide as they go into the first turn. Arbolino emerges out in front followed by Baltis. Onchie had made a good start to be third because of the craziness that happened in the first turn. Then Aegis, Ramirez, and Ortola. Marrera was 14th.

Lopez crashed on the second lap. Marrera was up 14 places in two laps. That was an impressive first two laps by Marrera. He was passing people where nobody passes. And he did, and what was weird is that he didn't do all of it passing from say the waterfall into 12 and then 13.

Did he pass a lot of people there? Sure did. But wow, he went around the outside of people at the Omega. Then when he was on the inside and then he was just up everybody as he was going towards the waterfall. It is an incredible incredible incredible riding by Marrera to be up that good.

But he's riding off of the momentum of winning a race. So you tend to get in that rhythm and when you do that you know you can do it. Now you just can go and execute because you know it can't be done. You don't have to look for anything else. Your whole mental game changes when you get that breakthrough right and you actually are know that you can accomplish it.

It just comes so much easier. It's just one of those things that happens with racing. It's your confidence. Now Arbolino is looking really good. Ancho has made it to second and by lap five it's Arbolino, Ancho, Baltis and then there's a gap.

Now that gap is pretty big and then it's Dixon, Arenas and then Joe Roberts. Ancho gets by Arbolino at turn 12. Arbolino then is down from second place at turn 12. He had a fast crash front end wash off into the weeds. There went Arbolino.

By lap nine Marrera has now gotten to sixth place and he's pushing Ramirez out of the way to go faster. Marrera then also goes by Dixon on lap 10. At lap 12, Ancho, Baltis, Dixon, Arenas, Marrera and Roberts as your top six riders. By lap 12 Marrera has gone by Arenas in turn one. Lap 15, Ancho is still leading followed by Baltis, followed by Dixon, then Marrera and Ramirez.

Now the top five are clearly closing the gap up on each other. What was a sort of spread out top five is closing together and it's starting to pull in. The guy that's really causing this is Marrera. Marrera is the guy that's dragging everybody together in all of this. Suspiciously the person that's really missing in all of this is our championship leader and that would be Gonzalez.

Now Gonzalez had a pretty decent qualifying. He's fourth but he can't seem to make anything happen and I don't know why it was that way. Lap 16 Marrera goes for the gap under Dixon and he stands him up, runs him off out into the grass and then Marrera comes back on in front of Alonso and Alonso rams into the back of the bike and into the back of Marrera. They both go down in a hard hard heap between turns three and four. This was the moment that I didn't know what to think at first.

It's one of those things where Marrera's run wide, he's in the grass. It's his job to come back on safely and at first when I first watched it and I first saw it I thought Marrera never looked at all and came back onto the racing line and I really thought that initially it was Alonso's fault because Alonso should have been able to see Marrera coming back on and then he should have been able to ride around the outside of the slow Marrera. I was like wow that's a really weird crash as I start to dissect it but then I got a different angle and sometimes the camera angle is everything and in this crash it was. When you looked at it from the opposite angle from the camera from the other side two things become clear. Marrera does quickly look to be sure that he has racetrack to enter back into but the bigger problem is he doesn't take a long enough look or a second look when he gets onto the racing line to see what's going on.

Alonso is completely unsighted because Alonso is hanging off the right hand side of the bike. He can't see Marrera until it's too late as he turns to come back over the tank and is trying to turn the bike back left. Marrera really should have rode around the corner and entered somewhere else as opposed to where he did and that caused a massive massive crash. I put the blame squarely on top of Marrera for this one. I think it was the thing I think that was the issue but they wound up deciding to discuss it after the race and hopefully Rich will have a little more on what happened to Marrera in his take of things at Brno.

With that big crash now everything is shooken up to where it's onto Baltis, Dixon, Arenas, Ramirez and Vietis now up to snuff in the top 6. By lap 21 Ramirez is up the inside of Arenas they touch and that's a bit of a crash and off we go. That creates a red flag because the air fence has been destroyed. Again, a lot of air fence destroyed this weekend for sure but that gave onto the win followed by Baltis followed by Dixon. That's your podium.

It was good to see Jake back on form. I mean he got pushed out wide in the first turn put his head down did his thing got himself back into contention. He got a little bit of help with Marrera not going to lie about that one but sometimes you make your lone luck because you got to be prepared to take the opportunity when it's presented to you and Jake did in this instance. Gonzales winds up in 4th then Vietis 5th Roberts finishes 6th, Kinet with the sore wrist finishes 7th, then it's Gulvarasasaki slatsch ages in 11th, Holgardo is 12th then Ortolo Novara Binder scoring the very last point in the race. If we look at the championship now we have Antju having won 2 races so far this year which is really good for him.

Gonzales is on top of the championship he is on 172 points but Aaron Kinet is only 9 points behind. This championship is hotting up in a way that I don't think we were expecting it to. This is a lot closer. I don't know where Gonzales is right now and I hope he gets himself back to the form that we saw earlier after the summer break. Maybe he just needs a reset.

I don't know is his mind focused on a MotoGP ride? Is he thinking about the MotoGP bike? I don't know but there is something, there is some bit of magic that Gonzales had that he doesn't have now and that magic disappeared once he got on that MotoGP bike. Now I'm sure it's got to be a thrill. It has to be an amazing event.

I would not have told him to not get on a MotoGP bike. No get on the bike. Do the test. Enjoy yourself. You deserved it for what you've done so far.

But somehow you've got to learn to reset yourself and try to get back. Now is it a setup thing? Is it a tire thing? Is it just tracks that Gonzales just doesn't do well at? I don't know.

I wish I could figure it out because it's driving me crazy to see Gonzales languishing around when you know he's got talent to win. And I just wonder if maybe, just maybe, it's a setup issue. And maybe his bike doesn't work as well as we think it does with the Pirellis or he can't make it work like he wants to in these hotter conditions. I mean it was pretty hot in the Saxon ring after the rain all moved away. You had some heat in the Netherlands and I'm sure Brno is going to be hot.

Well Brno was hot right? So we know that much. So I really really am trying to figure out what's going on there. Again I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about it. As we go on down the rest of the way with the championship, Barrera is now in that third place but he is some 44 points behind the leader and 35 points behind Kinet.

It's a it's a Manuel Gonzales-Aaron Kinet battle unless Barrera can string some stuff to get stuff together at this time. But again he needs to find his he needs to center himself after that big crash and get it back together again and focus on what he does best and really he needs to be clean the rest of the year and he needs to just keep putting down some great races and hopefully some other people are going to step up and get in the mix and help him get closer. Dixon's fourth in championship followed by Baltus followed by Anciu on the strength of on the strength of his on the strength of his his wins that he's had. Then after that it's Senna Aegis, Celestino Vietti, Albert Aranis and Marcos Ramirez is the man in 10th place. And that is how things went down in Moto 2 at the Saxon Ring.

Alright let's move on to the big boys Moto GP and what happened at Saxon Ring. So we are in mixed conditions of course on Saturday it's the rain coming down. Vignalas, Zarco, Iagura, Mir, Oliveira, Renz and Audegr are all in this first qualifying session. The rain's coming down it's starting to get harder get out get a lap get it now. Zarco basically goes out and just pounds out the laps on a medium rear wet that's kind of crucial.

He's really only backs off a little bit with when there's five minutes left to go and he slows a little bit kind of like reassesses things I guess you could say then he gets right back on it again. So Zarco and Vignalas get out of that first session. When we get into the Q2 Vignalas is down on the out lap of turn four. It seems as though it's like it's much wetter now like the rain intensity had increased but Vignalas was we would find out how it had dislocated his shoulder and maybe possibly had a small fracture of either the bone of the bone or some the shoulder blade something like that not sure exactly where it was but he did have a small fracture so he would be declared unfit for the sprint race later that afternoon. Now Miller was down at turn four the bike just followed him into that air fence I mean so many crashes so many people going into the air fence at Saxon Erring you know it makes you wonder could they not find maybe a little bit better place to go race the motorcycles there I don't know could they go to the new Nurburgring circuit you know not the Nordschleife but the actual Formula One circuit that was used for a while I don't know could they go someplace else could they possibly go to the Hockenheim and use that circuit maybe I don't know I kind of want I kind of want us to go someplace else in Germany for motorcycle racing just Saxon Erring is just too small and the energy these bikes are carrying is way too great I mean all the Moto3 bikes were going to the air fence Moto2 bikes all the way to the air fence I just there isn't enough runoff and you can't fix the track right the layout's the layout there's not a lot of room that you could move it around and do anything with it but there is something kind of quirky about the Saxon Erring that I really like I know maybe it's all the left hand turns something like that I really don't know but it's I'm just wondering is this track one of the tracks that may possibly get sort of shuffled aside if you will given that we're starting to find all these new tracks and whatnot you know and I guess I should have mentioned this in in the news and hopefully Rich will say something a little bit more about it but Argentina is going to be on the on the on the schedule come 2027 at a purpose built facility so I mean I'll believe it when I see it but you know we'll see what's going on there anyway back back to where we are now in MotoGP QP2 sorry for the detour on that one guys but Marquez now goes quicker than anyone and he's out the front then Marrera then Marrera goes fast or sorry Morbidelli goes faster but then Monte3 is the fastest and and then it turned out with the waterfall it was super sketchy like I thought Mark was going down at that point but Marquez was leading he was faster than Zarco faster than Bez faster than Morbidelli Bender and Didja with about two minutes left now it's 90 93 was the fastest guy there followed by Bezzecki Zarco tried to make Mark pay for it but he doesn't turn the time fast enough to take the pole away from him Morbidelli does crash at turn eight there but Marc Marquez is on pole after his beloved Saxon ring Zarco would be second on the grid followed by Bezzecki then Morbidelli Acosta the pager looking good looking good this weekend like the KTM seemed to either work well in the wet or something but we'd see what was going to happen later on and if it was dry but for right now that's pretty good for Acosta followed by Alex Marquez Quattraro Didja Antonio Miller and Bender and Benyaya 11th like poor Benyaya I don't know what's wrong but that man has zero confidence in the front end of that motorcycle you can tell he rides so tentatively I don't know what Didja or what DG Delinia can do to help him mainly due to the fact that there was a great picture Matt Oxley posted this on his Twitter or Twitter x account whatever it is where you can see that when Marquez is going to an apex of corner you can see the little hop jump skippy marks that are in the black line that he's following because the bike is kicking and sliding sideways and the back tires off the ground and skipping yet Mark somehow can deal with it all but if the bike isn't perfect Benyaya doesn't seem like he can actually handle it and quite honestly Benyaya has is not smiling have you has anybody seen Benyaya with a smile on his face yet this year at all no it isn't and who's got the big smile on his face Marquez the only time I can think of Marquez not having a big smile on his face was when he was on the Honda and it was absolutely junk at that point and he realized you know he had to have the divorce from Honda now he's on the best bike in the bike on the factory Ducati and he is the best rider and he is showing you the immense talent that he actually has I wish I could fix Benyaya's motorcycle for him because I want to see desperately somebody challenge Mark Marquez I think Benyaya could do it but Benyaya is a beaten man he is mentally in the wrong place and I hope that during the summer break that Benyaya can actually recover his form and get himself back into the proper mindset to win races and can figure out what he needs to do to make that motorcycle work for him and what he needs to change because he is losing the mental game against Mark Marquez you have got to be tough I mean this kid that kid Mark Marquez is 32 years old he went up against Rossi and he was the first person who was really immune to Rossi and Rossi's mind games that he played you know if you think back it's really true I mean if you think about it Marquez was a give no give no care and no quarter to Rossi which led to the problems that we hadn't had in Sepang when they decided they were going to run each other off the road so if you think you're going to you can break Mark Marquez mentally no you're not going to be able to do it and Benyaya really needs to focus on these three week break he needs to get himself into a better place mentally and he needs to come back refreshed and focused and think really what he's doing with that motorcycle and his setup if he intends to to have any shot at being near the podiums or having any kind of success this year with all that said we're going to move towards the sprint race but we didn't lose vignoles again we talked about a shoulder problem there it was declared wet Zarco went with a medium medium where everybody else was on a medium soft now that seemed kind of odd that Zarco would do that considering that this is only going to be like I think a 10 lap no a 15 lap session but maybe Zarco felt comfortable on that wet you you cannot underestimate the feel and and that's what makes you happy is the feel now if Zarco has the feel for that rear and he likes it which he ran that throughout all the qualifying the conditions seem to be pretty similar to what was going on in qualifying maybe even a little drier which means that the medium would work maybe a little bit better or carry life a little bit longer it was really interesting to see that and it was a gamble that I loved I mean I would go that way I mean if I could make it work I'd take it right that's just how my mindset is I love Zarco just going for it which is the way to go Marcade had a great start he went way deep on the brakes into one he fell back to fifth he was way back in there Bez would emerge with the lead followed by Morbidelli and Quattrar and Digia then Marc and then Alex after that now Digia and Marquez go back and forth for a look up for a little bit as they go through turns one and turn two but Marc eventually does get by Digia now Bez he's out front he is gone Bezzecki has this in the bag I'm like this is it Bez is gonna win this sprint because Marquez is deep in the pack how is he ever gonna get near Bezzecki like Bez is gonna walk on this right this is this is just gonna be it now Morbidelli goes down at turn eight and he goes into the air fence again everybody's in the air fence luckily the air fence didn't need to be repaired or need anything else basically everything was a okay there and then it was Bezzecki, Quattrar, Digia and then Marc Marquez and then Acosta and then 93 winds up getting getting getting by Digia at 13 because you know Digia and him are having this battle back and forth Marc had it for a little bit Digia goes back by it's probably the best battle in the circuit but that battle is costing Marc Marquez time again this is Bezzecki's race because he's losing time because he can't deal with Digia and he can't make the pass actually stick but this time I think he did it mainly because he just toughed it out going into one forced Digia out wide and that was so he was so far out that basically Pedro Acosta was able to get by as well and this is like halfway through now mom thinking well Marquez might get to Quattrarro maybe oh you know then Acosta was off at turn eight he saved it he saved in the gravel which was quite impressive by the kid he's got the reflexes he has the skills he just needs the motorcycle and he would be winning races guaranteed that KTM is looking better it's getting closer but it's just not there just yet now Benyaya is a lonely 11th he has no feel in the rain he doesn't want to be there he was you know I think he was checked out for the summer break I've said enough about Benyaya again I'm being critical of Benyaya because he is a two times world champion and if you're a two times world champion you should be able to understand what's wrong with your motorcycle you should be able to affect a change to that motorcycle to help you and part of it is that you should be able to adapt your riding style somewhat to the machine to ride around the smaller problems but you should be able to have a setup that you can get rid of it now if Benyaya does not have that from his motorcycle well then the blame is equally his as well as Ducati's but unfortunately the guy in the pit stall next to you is making that bike look good so it's just double pressure on Benyaya and he like I said he's a beaten man mentally right now with nine laps done Marquez gets by Quattrarro and then he got a huge warning I mean it was like yo the back end was out at two I thought he was going to be by there but with four to go there's a second between Bezeky and Marquez by three to go it's seven tenths of a gap with one to go it's Bez and Marquez and Marquez goes by Bezeky at one like like in roughly three laps he hunts Bezeky down from a second behind to pass him going into turn one and then he runs in wide and he stays on it stays around the outside and Mark leads the race Mark then wins the sprint he had no reason to ride that hard in the wet he could have easily just taken what he got second third wouldn't have mattered but no Mark Marquez is a racer and when he said yeah that didn't quite go to plan I realized I needed to give Gigi Dillinia a birthday present and a victory would be great and that's why he rode the race that he did no Mark just doesn't like to lose folks birthday gift or not that's a convenient excuse he just wanted to win because he could he took risks if you watch those three laps that he hunts down Bezeky he took huge risks many warnings were coming from that motorcycle yet Mark ignored them and gave it and made it a race Bez is second on the podium Quattroraro gets a medal for third and then Digi and Tonya Miller Bender Zarco who really couldn't make the medium work you know but hey I applaud the effort and the try and the thought then Alex Marquez with his broken hand Acosta would slide back to that because he did have that off and he gets the last point that moves us to Sunday's Grand Prix and again we know that Vignoles isn't going to be there but hey the question is was it going to rain maybe possibly Mark Marquez wasn't going to going to take any chances he went out for his siting lap with a set of wets to scrub them in so that he could use them if necessary on the second bike as we said Morbidelli is out he's got a crack in his shoulder slash dislocated shoulder so he wasn't going to be in there we knew Vignoles wasn't going to be in so it's kind of a depleted field just even at the beginning it's a 30 laps around the Saxon ring Mark Marquez leads Bezeky beats Digia and leads his brother's brother and basically you had to ask yourself was it over already I thought it would be now Digia got by Bez at 12 and then Bez got back by at 13 and then Bez loses two places at 12 and 13 on third lap Acosta goes down and goes down lost the front Olivier's down as well on lap four by lap five it's Marquez, Mark, it's Digia, it's Bez, it's Alex then Vignale and Zarco seven laps to go seven laps in sorry the director of the race by this point is looking way back in the pack to find any kind of action whatsoever we were watching like the race for like eight nine ten eleven which was really crazy Quattrora gets himself up to seventh he gets past Miller by lap nine it's this is Mark's race lose let's just call it it's Mark ran off on everybody and he wins he wins the race he's long gone there's really nothing going on between laps ten to lap for the eight laps to get to lap 18 on lap 18 Digia is down in turn one he had the front tuck Zarco was down at turn one he was just a little farther up the road when he fell did was Digia cited by that and grabbed a little more front brake I don't know I thought it was too far for Digia to react to it I think it was just two guys that had two separate accidents that happened to be in turn one shock of by 20 laps to get 20 laps in it's Marquez Bez his brothers and third Alex that is then it was Benyaya Quattrora and Outiger Benyaya working his way up from his terrible starting position because he had a terrible qualifying you know it's a dry race obviously he's way more comfortable in the dry more willing to push the front end of the bike but again you have to maybe change your riding position you maybe have to change how you attack things you need to be thinking of alternatives that you can apply to your motorcycle to make it work for you and I don't know if Benyaya is doing that I mean he seems I would hope that he would he's a champion and he's a great rider he just needs to focus on what he's doing Bez goes down at turn one the front tucks I mean I really thought Bez was destined for at least a podium you know two seconds on the weekend would have been great for the Aprilia I mean let's talk about a really for real quick they have made some fantastic progress Bez has made that bike look good they're on a great run of form it would be great to see what Jorge Martin will be able to do with it when he gets back in Brno I do think the Aprilia is the second best bike now on the grid at one point I thought it was the Yamaha now I thought it's it's definitely the Aprilia so it's Ducati Aprilia then Yamaha maybe KTM kind of a toss up there depending on the track by lap 22 Iagura and Mir they go Iagura goes up the inside of Mir and pushes Mir wide then he tucks the front and you know basically he takes out Mir I tucks the front and takes out Mir Salvadori is also down there at the same turn as well anyway things roll on from that point after Salvadori is down and it's basically Mark Marquez the race finishes off with Marquez winning his brother Alex would get but would move to second and finish there then Yaya would wind up on the podium and thanks to the attrition that happened in front of him then has Quattroraro, Outiger, Luca Marini, Brad Bender, Jack Miller, Ralph Hernandez and only 10 bikes finished with Alex Renz taking taking six points the people that didn't didn't make it Mir, Iagura, Bizecki, Salvadori, Digiantoni, Zarco, Acasal, Oliveira I mean it was an attrition race it was one bizarre race in that spec but at least Mark Marquez well in charge of this championship that is for sure that is not in doubt that Mark is leading the championship and that he is truly in command Marquez sits on 344 points his brother Alex is 83 points behind so that's over two race wins and a couple of thirds I think that you know Mark would is going to take for Mark to sit out and for his brother to win all those to get to pass him then Yaya is still third on 197 points which puts him 147 behind Mark but only 64 points behind Alex then it's Digiantoni, Morbidele, Bizecki, Zarco, Acosta, Outiger and Quattroraro finishing out the top 10 that's my thoughts on the Saxon ring that was some it was some good racing I you know we're now starting to see the idea of Marquez becoming the dominant force that we thought he would be on the Ducati and we're just going to see if he can keep that rolling when he goes to the to this Bruneau circuit in Chechnya the adrenaline factory they like to call it I kind of like that name too and that's it for me hopefully you enjoyed my thoughts on Saxon ring and right now you'll hear Rich with everything from Bruneau take it away Rich well hi everybody this is Rich coming to you from the magnificent Corfu first off I need to start with a bit of an apology really this is going to be my contribution to episode 811 now as you know Jim and I missed out on doing a Saxon ring review primarily because I was at Donnington Park for the World Superbikes that weekend and Jim was traveling I think I'm right and saying to Belgium on a work trip so what we decided was that Jim was going to cover the Saxon ring races and I would just give some quick thoughts from holiday on what happened last time out in Bruneau just before that as many will know I'd managed to get some pretty decent interviews in the bag at Donnington Park so I'll be working on those over the coming few weeks and hope to get those out as soon as possible a couple of bits of news just a report in World Superbike well Toprak did the triple as pretty much everybody expected at Donnington Park it's also emerged since then and since I spoke to Stefano Manzi that he's been confirmed to move up to World Superbike next year on a Yamaha R1 and although it's not officially confirmed yet the very strong rumor is that Jake Dixon has now signed to move across to World Superbike to join the Honda stroke HRC squad which is quite a significant piece of news and we'll come to that a little bit later on so turning to Bruneau then well I mean it's just majestic isn't it it's absolutely great to be back for my money along with Philip Island Mugello got to be in the top three best motorcycle race tracks in the world interested to know if people agree or disagree with that as the MotoGP circus returned for this year they found a brand new surface so that plus the fact that it's need to check five or six years I guess it would be since we were last at Bruneau meant that it was pretty much a level playing field for everybody in all three classes obviously there are a few people that had raced previously in Bruneau but it's always nice to come back to track after a few years away because it inevitably throws up a few odd results and allows a few other people that might not necessarily shine to do so looking at Moto3 then very quickly on qualifying one Piqueres and Furusato were notable in being in that first session Furusato would actually have a crash with Piqueres actually making it through into Q2 Q2 itself amazing lap from Pini to take his first pole position and David Munoz although he had a good Q2 session would actually have to start from the very back I think that was due to some indiscretions during practice I suspect it was to do with some slow riding just another one really to chalk onto the 2025 list of indiscretions by David Munoz although he's been having some pretty strong races just of late at some point during the weekend in the practice sessions Joel Kelso had quite a big high side I think at turn one I didn't actually see it but that put him out for the rest of the weekend so after a very strong start things have gone a bit awry in this middle part of the season for Joel Kelso so once he's back from injury and obviously we do now have the inverted commas long summer break I think as I record this it's probably two weekends to go until we all rock up in Austria again so hopefully Joel will be back in and fit for that in terms of the race I mean not an awful lot to say really Rueda was just sublime all race long and essentially untouchable out front alights to flag victory there was however a pretty spirited battle behind him for second place that featured pretty much race long Dennis Foggia, Max Quiles, Munoz who had come through in a sterling effort from the back of the grid I think he was up to 15th by the end of that one something crazy like that Picaras was in there Fernandez was in there and Almanza too but essentially Rueda just in his rather Jorge Lorenzo number 99 style just rode away from them out front quick all weekend nobody could lay a glove on him really so he took the win with Max Quiles in second and amazingly David Munoz taking the third place so despite his troubles during the practice and qualifying sessions a very very strong race once again so Rueda leads the championship on 228 points he's now a rather significant 85 points clear of Picaras and 95 clear of Carpe.

Carpe actually finished 13th in a slightly underwhelming race for him and just of note Pulsator Pini he would actually end up finishing 10th so pretty good to see him finish because he is a bit of a crasher one other little thing that I just wanted to point out about Max Quiles as well as everything else that we've been waxing lyrical about with him is he's got a really cool bell helmet and you don't see bell worn by an awful lot of riders these days or not as far as I can recall anyway so that's um yeah a nice touch by him moving on to Moto2 well in Q1 there were some big names struggling actually across the weekend in Moto2 so in the Q1 session we had Dani Holgado Barry Baltus Albert Arenas Dennis Ancho and Diogo Marrera. Marrera having a very off weekend I do wonder whether or not he was injured as a result of that crazy crash that he ended up having with David Alonso at the Saxon ring I didn't actually get to watch much of the Saxon ring stuff because as I said I was at Donington Park for the weekend however I did see that crash in the Moto2 race on social media and yeah it was a pretty bad move on the part of Marrera and I just wonder whether or not he was carrying some sort of an injury there's also of course all the talk about a move up to MotoGP next year to coincide with the Brazilian Grand Prix coming onto the calendar whether that's playing a part we've seen it before it does get into people's heads a little bit anyway Baltas, Holgado, Ortolla and Arenas would make it through Q1 notable people out of Q1 were Arbolino, David Alonso again possibly a little bit roughed up from that Saxon ring crash Ancho and the aforementioned Marrera of course in Q2 we had a crash for Aaron Canett I'm afraid the Aaron Canett of old is starting to reemerge he looks to be on his way out of Moto2 being strongly linked to BMW in World Superbike I can't see him doing another season in Moto2 I don't really see that there's a lot of points in it and the MotoGP move just doesn't look like it's ever going to happen proving that there's some merit in going through Q1 Baltas would actually take the pole from Roberts and Ramirez so it was a pretty good day for the American racing team and once again we're seeing a completely new rider in Barry Baltas I mean this was a guy let's remember that was almost out of Moto2 at the end of last year and was pretty much rescued going into that team alongside Canett and very much the top performer there currently even though Canett is still second in the championship but you do wonder how much longer that's going to be the case anyway moving into the race I mean not much to say really just a few points really to touch on which is that it was a master class from Roberts I think Bono is his favorite track pretty sure he said that and once he was out front rather like Rueda in Moto3 never really looked as if anybody was going to lay a glove on him although Baltas did keep him honest for pretty much two-thirds of the race let's say so yeah I mean great again from Baltas as I've just said very strong second place finish a win can't be too far away and moving up in the standings now very strongly into third place and again just touching on Aaron Canett would go down on the first lap in turn one not at all what he needed for his championship as he slips further and further behind Manu Gonzalez and it's starting to look like a bit of an implosion is taking place there again you just have to wonder whether or not there's a psychological element to this with the frustration that he has expressed numerous times in the past not getting a chance in MotoGP and the likelihood that he'll be moving out of the paddock all together at the end of the season in the end Roberts would win very commandingly from Barry Baltas and Gonzalez not having his best weekend but doing what all good championship contenders do and banking the points when they need to in terms of the championship that means that Gonzalez is now on 188 points that puts him 25 clear now of the crashing Canett 54 back is Barry Baltas now in third place with Marrera in fourth 60 behind and then Jake Dixon still in the top five just about but he's a full 69 points behind Gonzalez and really with the troubles that he's been having of late and not a particularly strong race this time you don't really see that the championship is really within reach now unless something pretty significant changes over the course of the second half of the season with 2026 in mind it looks to be again some rumors saying that Darren Binder probably out of Moto2 obviously there's no place for him back in MotoGP and you wouldn't see him dropping back to Moto3 he's far too big and old for that I guess World Superbike is probably going to be on his radar possibly World Super Sport we'll just have to wait and see on that one I guess Canett and Dixon as I've said previously very strongly tipped to being World Superbike next year and yeah if I mentioned Diego Marrera still being hotly tipped to go up to MotoGP so I think that means that we're very likely to see Rueda up to Moto2 particularly if he takes the championship which looks on odds on certainty at the moment and I certainly wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Picaris and even Max Quiles up to Moto2 next year Quiles is one of the taller riders in Moto3 so probably wants to hop onto Moto2 as quickly as he possibly can because as David Alonso was showing us this year the adaptation for Moto3 can take a bit of time all right MotoGP worth pointing out that Friday was for MotoGP at least pretty much wet in both sessions so that did affect a lot of people Bagnaya and Digi Antonio were notable in the Q1 session with Digi failing to go through Bagnaya did make it through with Raul Fernandez alongside him in Q2 it was a bit of an interesting session a good session actually quite entertaining Bagnaya would actually take the pole position again coming through Q1 proving on a track that's let's say newish to a lot of people certainly in terms of recent memory and lack of data proving that there is a benefit to coming through that first session Marquez was actually on course to take the pole position but would actually crash in the dying moments just going into the last chicane and when I say chicane it's a quick set of sweepers really he crashed immediately following a similar incident for Joao Zarco but it was literally within a matter of one or two seconds that Marquez lost it as well so there was some initial fear that he might pick a penalty for that but as it turned out no penalty was given which was the right call given how quickly the two guys had gone down there was also a late crash for Marco Bizecki so anyway good to see Pekka Bagnaya on pole position again because it's been a while leading into the Saturday sprint Bagnaya would do what Bagnaya tends to do which is not have a terribly good sprint but that wasn't really the headline piece of news I mean the main talking point of the weekend I would say arguably was what happened in the sprint in and around our good old friend tire pressures albeit it wasn't quite as it initially seemed we'll come to that in a second Mark Marquez went into an early lead John Muir who had qualified rather strongly in fifth place was well we didn't see exactly what happened but he got pushed wide at turn three I think and that put him to the back of the field so a pretty miserable sprint race again for Muir we also had Augusto Fernandez taking Tekka Nakagami out Nakagami was subbing for Chantra on the LCR Honda which has created a bit of a problem for LCR but again we'll come to that in a moment on lap four is when the oddities started to happen so first of all Bagnaya suddenly dropped down to third place worth pointing out that Mark Marquez had taken the lead from Bagnaya at the start then on lap five Mark Marquez himself had to drop down to second place and immediately we're all thinking they're over pressure on the front tire that wouldn't necessarily have been a big surprise at Bruno given the lack of data but it would actually transpire that and again this is rather complicated and I'm not sure I've fully got a grip of the details on this but it seems to be that whoever sets the tire pressure data within I'm gonna say race control it probably isn't race control I'm not sure if it's the FIM or which technical part of the overall traveling circus it is but somebody plugged some wrong numbers in but likewise so had Ducati or that was the story so that I believe both Bagnaya and Marquez were getting incorrect signals on their dashboards to say that they were in tire pressure trouble which is why they both dropped back to try and get some heat by following the rider in front in the case of Mark Marquez he was almost glued to Pedro Acosta's back tire for several laps quite astonishing really how close Mark Marquez can ride to people in front of him much as we often say about Pedro Acosta himself actually and for a little while we were wondering whether or not this could be a rather fantastic return to form for Acosta KTM Red Bull you name it it would have been a rather fitting place to do it but having dropped to second place Marquez clearly managed to get the message off his dash removed I can only assume that's how he kind of found out that his front tire pressure was okay again anyway on lap eight I think it was he retook the lead and that was that really I mean it was all a bit of a shambles really and all I can say is roll on 2027 when Pirelli come in and hopefully we don't have this same problem again we've gone on about this a lot as have others but whilst these tire problems in the races are very frustrating you have to lay the blame at everybody's door really Dorna teams the riders the other parts of the governing structure of the sport I mean this should have been sorted out a long long time ago everybody's failed basically so this is where we are again hopefully this problem goes away in a couple of seasons time in the end then the sprint podium was Mark Marquez from Pedro Acosta and definitely surprisingly Anaya Bastianini and a lot of us myself included were thinking now who is that again Anaya Bastianini we haven't seen anything from him all year he's been having a torrid wretched time on that KTM and then turn up somewhere new maybe it was the level playing field just gave him a little bit of a step forward we'll obviously find this out in the races to come if he's had a little breakthrough with the bike we don't know but in any case he was in third place and great to see him back on the podium heading into the main race on Sunday it was a good start from Bagnar from pole position but Marco Bizecki and Mark Marquez were fairly quickly passed him then on lap two the Alex Marquez that we kind of expected to see a bit earlier in the year kind of came back to the fore an absolutely boneheaded move on the luckless Joanne Meir on lap two to take them both out Meir it must be said was absolutely apoplectic with rage in the gravel trap and remonstrating with Alex Marquez for quite some time it appeared quite understandably so because i mean that guy just he cannot catch a break at the moment and for my money i would say on pace not on results obviously but on pure pace i think well i'm a bit of an unabashed Joanne Meir fan for which i'll probably cop a bit of flak but he is a quick rider and he's doing pretty well on that bike and i think he's probably just about moved past Joanne Zarco as the season's gone on i don't know that's a contentious view i just hope he catches a bit of a break before long and snags a strong top six finish and maybe even a podium somewhere towards the end of the year because he's got it in him he's not crashing like he did he just keeps getting caught up in other people's issues on lap six we had a big crash for Bastionini who again was running very very strongly but going into turn three like a few other people have done during the weekend had a sort of a weird off throttle rear coming around under braking pseudo high side nasty crash a lot of damage to the bike and initially looked like there might have been some damage to the barriers so we were kind of wondering if there might be a red flag but you know happily there wasn't he was up and okay and the race continued which is to say that nothing else much of note happened quite frankly Marquez out front just doing what Marquez is doing really so much redundant capacity in his performance level nobody else really looked like they were going to give him any trouble so in the end it was Marquez from Marco Bizechi and Pedro Acosta back on the podium again must be said actually that it was a pretty decent weekend for KTM Acosta and Bastionini in particular of note Vignales of course was out having crashed early on in the weekend in the Saxon ring Brad Binder kind of a little bit AWOL I think he finished 10th in the main race somewhere around about there but a little bit sort of underperforming underwhelming slightly absent from the tv screens but he did finish in terms of the championship Mark Marquez now on 381 points from Alex Marquez in second but Alex is now 120 points behind Pekka Bagnar is still in third but he's 168 back so we've been saying this for a while but it's I think it's really now just a question of the fun of trying to work out which round which event and venue Marquez is going to lift the championship because as far as I'm concerned it's a done deal the only other thing to say really and I sort of hinted at a couple of times this is just a bit of wild speculation for me and it's highly unlikely to happen but LCR do have a bit of a problem at the moment as we've said Chantra is out whether he will be fitting back in time for Austria we don't know Nakagami who is obviously the natural replacement was taken out and injured so is probably out going forward for a race or two should he be needed and the other person that has tended to slot into that LCR ride when the situation dictates has been Ike Lekowona obviously riding for HRC over in World Superbikes he was involved through no fault of his own again another rider who tends to crash and get injured all the time and often is caught up in other people's crashes and gets injured and this is what happened last weekend in Hungary again a slightly ill-judged move let's say in the first couple of turns on lap one from Andrea Iannone which took out seven riders including himself one of whom was Lekowona who ended up with a broken wrist a disaster for Lekowona who's again been doing his best and having some progress on the HRC bike in World Superbike was also due to race this weekend as I speak at the Suzuka 8-hour for Honda so is out of that and is going to probably be out of action for quite some while with a broken wrist one would assume that leaves potentially a seat open or a seat to be filled by somebody anyway at LCR and a little bit of world speculation that broke into my mind was that with Jake Dixon as far as I'm concerned out of the Moto2 title race and let's just say not officially announced yet at HRC and World Superbike you do wonder whether a deal could be struck with Mark VDS his current Moto2 squad to get him onto the LCR Honda for a few rounds I don't know world speculation a little bit of British bias the fantasy I suppose but stranger things have happened but unlikely to happen I just thought I'd throw it in there see what people think also just quickly before I do go and join my wife at the pool the World Superbikes were in Hungary last weekend it is an interesting track there are some sketchy corners there's been a few concerns expressed by riders that visited the track prior to this first main event one or two corners in particular where there were some big crashes over the course of the World Superbike weekend and bikes hitting barriers riders barrel rolling through the gravel I mean that's kind of normal but there are one or two corners on that track they're slightly concerning MotoGP bikes obviously a step up again from World Superbike and MotoGP will be there in a few rounds times so yeah that's going to be an interesting round but an interesting track a fast track in places not too bad as modern tracks go but Elena Bruno it's not a Philip Island I mean they so rarely are these days aren't they which is more the pity but anyway that's something to look forward to as a spectator if not as a rider I think that's everything for me for now sorry again that we haven't had the regular shows but what with my travel Jim's travel going to other race events etc etc it's just been a little bit tricky to squeeze everything in we've now got a couple of weeks before the MotoGP guys get back together again in the Austrian hills so Jim and I will be back with a normal MotoGP race weekend review following that one and until then I hope everybody is in good health enjoying summers winters wherever you are in the world and we will look forward to speaking to you next time out cheers for now