Moto GP: Italy Expects And Mugello Delivers

Hello and welcome to Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 842, recording on June 4th, 2026, talking about Mugello. I had never talked about a race by myself, so with me as always, Richard Jodd from the UK. Evening, Richard. Evening, Jim.

Good to be back again. Yes, and as a special treat, we're bringing in Carl Hunn from the UK. Carl was at Mugello. Carl, welcome to the MotoGP portion of the podcast. Buongiorno, Jim.

Buongiorno, Riccardo. Buongiorno. Can I get a venti? Si. So, Carl, you were at...

Sorry, Rich. Go ahead. Got to love Italy. I just got to love Italy. I just love the place.

Love, love, love Italy. I had a lovely holiday in Tuscany a few years ago in Lucca, which is probably not that far away from Mugello, actually. But I've never been to Mugello. It's on my bucket list. So, Carl, what's your favorite place to go to?

Carl, you came back from Mugello. Some thoughts about it? Yeah, thanks, Jim. Sorry, my Italian's run out already. But yeah, got back this afternoon.

Where do you even start? It's MotoGP in Italy. That is like... It is... I know it sounds cliched, but it's virtually a religion there.

It's absolutely incredible. So, we're going to count on you to go. Give us some trackside info as we roll through this one. But as always, we will start with the news that came out of Mugello. We'll start here.

So, the first thing in MotoGP is, is Raul Fernandez out at Trackhouse? Is Bastianini and Gonzalez in at Trackhouse? Or is it the fact that Justin Marks wants a native English speaker, i.e. maybe Senna Aegis, going to Trackhouse? Who knows which way it is?

What do we really know, Rich? What do we really think? Well, like everything else at the moment, it's all pure speculation and rumour. Whilst this irritating delay in the kind of commercial deal between the team's manufacturers and the rights holders kind of drags on, who knows when we're going to get an announcement on that. But obviously, as we've said many times, it's holding up all of the announcements on riders going to wherever they're going to go.

Now, some of that we are pretty sure we know about from what people in the paddock have been saying. But yes, this latest rumour was that... I mean, Fernandez, it's ironic really, isn't it? He's having his best season so far, though it's taking him a long time to get to this stage. But he does still have this troubling habit, as we saw on the main race on Sunday, of kind of dropping the ball.

And I just get the feeling from what other people are saying, and I would probably be feeling this way a bit myself if I was in the position of Justin Marks, that it's getting a bit frustrating, really. So, there is a suggestion that he's likely not to be retained. And then I heard somebody else on another podcast just saying that, yeah, this thing about Justin Marks wanting a native English speaker. It's a little bit strange to understand that, actually, because most of the people in MotoGP from whichever nationality speak impeccable English, really. But I don't know, from a promotional point of view, I think they want somebody that's perhaps a bit more marketable, say, in the States.

I don't know if that's a sponsorship issue, perhaps. So, Sally Rages would seem like an obvious one to me. I mean, he's not American. Joe Roberts, I think that ship sailed some time ago. So, Senna would be an obvious choice because you can't see Miller going there.

I think probably Jack's on his, you know, last, what, two-thirds of a season in MotoGP now. So, but also, Gonzalez has been linked with the team. Again, as we'll come to, he put in a stellar performance in Moto2, the Mugello round. So, he has to be in the conversation. And we've said many, many times that he's kind of overlooked, almost to the point of being a bit embarrassing, really.

And if he walks off with Moto2 Championship, which it looks like is a distinct possibility from where we stand at the moment, then I think it's wrong that the Moto2 Champion doesn't get the opportunity to go into MotoGP. So, that's kind of where I think Trackhouse sits at the minute. Well, for me, I don't think Gonzalez is going there. I think he has, he has come from the wrong paddock to this paddock, and that's going to hold him back. He's probably better off to go back to World Superbike.

Find a Superbike ride, something like that. I understand Mark's wanting to have an English speaking, they all speak English, but I mean, I think there's something about, truly about a native English speaker. I think he would prefer that he could find an American to be on there, but his second best would be getting an Australian. There's a lot of similarity to how America is and how Australia is. They sort of kind of fit well together.

I've always, the few times I've worked with people who are Australians, had a great time with them. They just seem to, you know, they're a good bunch of blokes down there. But then again, you're living in a place where everything wants to kill you, you can really become that way, I guess. Anyway, so, I don't know. I can't imagine Bastianini going there.

It doesn't seem likely. I don't understand what good having Bastianini there would do. Well, I believe, or I think it's the case that he's signed a contract, or possibly a pre-contract anyway, not to say there aren't, as we'll come to with another news story. Bastianini has emerged over the weekend. There are usually trapdoors by which certain clauses can be exercised.

But yeah, I think it's strongly rumoured that he is already going to be there. And it kind of makes sense. I mean, the Aprilia is the best bike, so you would want to ride it. I mean, okay, we're assuming that the 850 will continue that trend. And that's obviously a huge unknown.

And the Pirellis, as we've said countless times as well, throws a huge kind of curveball into the mix. And riders are very sensitive to tyres, we know. But Bastianini is, famously, very good on tyres towards the end of a race. So, I can understand why a team might want to bring him in. Karl, you got any thoughts?

Yeah, I think it's a difficult one. Who would go there? Who would go to Trackhouse? Are there any Australians in Moto2? I don't think so.

Aegis. But only Senna, yeah. No Brits in Moto2, are there? Not anymore, no. Potential from World Superbike to go over, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go to that.

That doesn't seem to happen so much these days. I know back in maybe 20 years ago, that was a regular thing. But I guess Toprak and Villegra are going to be the exception to that rule. But it doesn't seem to happen much these days. No, true.

No, the choices are depressingly limited from a British and an American standpoint, and to some extent, an Australian standpoint as well. But yeah, so that's why kind of Senna Aegis seems the obvious one. He's having a pretty solid season in Moto2. Gone off the board a little bit in the last couple of rounds. But, you know, he's a big lad, actually, though, Senna.

So I think that does count against him. That would be mitigated largely by being on a MotoGP bike, just by the sheer horsepower of those things. So yeah, if it happens, I think that's what will happen, Jim. Yeah. But what happens to Fernandes, I mean, some people talking about Tech 3, I find that one very hard to believe, given the circumstances under which he left Tech 3.

And his maiden season in MotoGP. If you remember, it was Fernandes and Gardner that came up as the first and second in the Moto2 championship the previous year, wasn't it? And they both only lasted the season there. Yeah. All right.

Moving on in the news, Cal Crutchlow is in for the season. Is Cal Crutchlow in for the season to replace Zarco? I mean, you would think so, but Aleix is out injured and Nakagami is focused on 8.50 in Pirelli testing. So why not keep Cal in the fold for right now? I don't think they really should do anything different.

Just let Cal run the bike. I mean, I think Honda's got to look at it that we need to have plenty of people riding the 8.50 to get sure it's right and see where that is. So makes sense to me. Ana, thoughts? Well, I mean, it does and it doesn't to me.

Cal's, you know, as we know, he kind of got to the end of his career just from a sort of an age and an injury standpoint. He did that test roll with Yamaha, but kind of dropped out of that because he had a persistent either a hand or a wrist injury. And then when he got the call from Elsie, I quite candidly said over the weekend when interviewed that he said no initially. And it was his wife that sort of said, look, just go and do it. You'll regret it if you don't.

I think that was kind of the context. So he knew he was going to be seconds off the pace, although his pace did pick up significantly over the course of the weekend. It has to be said. And he's just not MotoGP bike fit, you know, and you just can't turn up and jump onto one of those bikes straight on the pace. So I think it's going to be a bit of a struggle.

But the reason I put it or phrased it in the notes in the way that I did is because of this situation that Honda have with the Spargro out because he obviously damaged some vertebrae in his back in the testing crash, what, four or five weeks ago. So I guess he's not allowed to really jeopardize that injury by coming back too soon. Yeah, Nakagami don't want to distract him. He's doing important busy work on the 850 and coming back into normal MotoGP on the 1000 with Michelin's is not really a good idea. So they've been kind of, you know, grasping around for people to ask, really.

I mean, another person you might have thought would be worth a roll of the dice would have been Jake Dixon, but he's having an absolutely torrid time in World Superbike and again, was unfit last weekend for the round in or when was it, Karl, was it Aragon, wasn't it? I think the last round in World Superbike. I don't think Jake ran besides the Friday morning. I think that's right. So even Dixon's not an option.

Possibly a more logical choice. So yeah, despite all their resources and money, they can't seem to find a rider that's particularly suitable. Although I have to say, it's a laugh having Carl Crutchlow back in the paddock because he's excellent when he's interviewed, obviously, because he has a fairly witty disdain for the media. Very true. Speaking of other replacements, it looks like Lechowona will be in to replace Alex Marquez this weekend in Hungary.

Alex, of course, still recovering from the crash, that terrible Lechowona. I think that makes a good sense to put Lechowona in there. I mean, he's having a pretty good season. He's having a great season and again, people will get fed up with me rattling the drum about Lechowona because I really, really rate him. He tries so hard and because of that, he tends to have big crashes and injure himself, but he's generally been on fairly uncompetitive machinery for a lot of his career.

This year, obviously, he's on the works Ducati and World Superbikes, and okay, he's not beating Büliger yet and maybe he won't, but he's really showing his class. It makes perfect sense to put him on the bike. A lot of people say, well, why isn't Büliger being put on the bike? But again, he's been busy testing the 850 for Ducati and he's leading the World Superbike Championship. They don't want him having a silly crash and injuring himself and ruling himself out of A, World Superbike races and B, testing the 850 because again, we believe and the rumors are very strong that he will be in the VR46 squad next year in MotoGP.

That kind of explains Lecrona is perhaps the slightly unusual choice to come across and do those duties. I don't know, Karl, have you got any thoughts given that Lecrona is coming over from World Supers? I think it's a great opportunity. I'm really glad to hear that they're going to give him the chance to ride it. And a Ducati at that, which is the best bike he'll have ever ridden in MotoGP because he was on the KTM as well, if you remember, and again, didn't last too long.

All right, so moving to some more news about, well, not HRC, but moving back to HRC, the question is, are they backing away from Alonso in 2027 or are they placing him at LCR? Where is he going to go? Is it the factory team? Is it LCR? I wondered why they would put Alonso into the factory team to begin with right off the bat.

I thought the perfect position would have been to put him and Marrera into LCR together, perhaps for a year, sort of a la KTM, putting Acosta in at tech three on a gas-gas. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But, you know, they can do it as he wants.

He's still injured, still has a shoulder injury. And I mean, I know that the 850s are going to be fast, but he still has a lot to learn about MotoGP and how it's going to work. Those bikes are going to be completely different, and it's going to be a learning curve for everybody, probably even more so for the rookies that are coming in. Any thoughts with that, Rich? Yeah, so again, I'm pinching other people's rumors.

I'm just going to say, I think that's a good way to put it. I think that's a good way to having picked this up on the TNT sports coverage so what they were suggesting and again there's a degree of conjecture in there although they're pretty plugged into people that will know it would appear that well first of all Alonso I think his team were pushing for a works contract so I think that's why the HRC thing happened but it's alleged that there's a from HRC's point of view there's a million dollar buyout clause that they can move him out of HRC and put him back into LCR should they wish to do so I personally think it would be the better move to be honest with you certainly far less high pressure and but I just wonder whether or not they might even be thinking whether he could do with another season in Moto2 before going up because is it the shoulder is it just slow adaptation we don't really know he's obviously won races previously in Moto2 so it's he has got to grips with it but so I suspect it's more the injury that's the issue at the moment. moment but even so that's still going to be of concern to HRC as well because shoulder injuries that go on and on and on generally tend to be a problem you know later on so I just think he needs to have a bit of less pressure on his shoulders and certainly Morera and as Carl will be able to tell us had some eye-catching rides in Mugello this weekend and looks like he's ready to go up to the works squad if that opportunity arises so I think that's where that rumor has come from why we just when we thought all the contract talk with Jorge Martinez died down and we all figured out that we're just gonna you know basically begrudgingly look at each other in the garage and ride out this season nope he's decided that he wants to piss off his sponsors apparently their Aprilia landed a deal with Monster Energy to sponsor the Aprilia factory team that is in conflict to Martin's personal sponsor of Red Bull to which now he's essentially just shoved them a letter saying that hey I'm not right I'm not with you anymore and bye which is bizarre that you know I would think you would just want to try to put that on hold because you're going I guess he is going to Yamaha so I guess he's got to get rid of the Red Bull at some point because they're both sponsored by Monster but I mean the way in which he does things seem to be particularly bad like who is who is advising him on these kind of legal type matters because they are really really bad I want Carl to chime in on this one because I think my position on Martin is reasonably well understood but so it's probably useful to have a another opinion on the matter yeah the kind of this inconsistent behavior from Martin this inconsiderate behavior I think going back the last one or two years it was perhaps tolerated because of his results but he didn't have a good season last season this year is not really shaping up that much better um I don't think he can afford to run out of friends I don't think I don't think he can afford to burn as many bridges as he has burnt already when it continues to burn it's just um he's got he's got no doubt in his own ability that's for sure oh he's not sure confidence all right yeah no but yeah you just can't go around like this behaving in this way at the risk of sounding glib he's kind of running out of bridges to burn I would suggest at the moment and as I think I made this point in one of the previous couple of pods that we did Jim I wonder how much the Japanese hierarchy within Yamaha are kind of looking at some of this and wondering what they're taking on yeah I I think I was shocked that he was going to get anybody to take him quite honestly I you know they're these are fickle things contracts and you don't know what clauses or loopholes are in there and you know what's guaranteed what's not guaranteed who's how do you break it what does it cost you to break it they all these things are things we don't know but still the way he goes about it is really bad because his track record's terrible he rage quit Ducati it's like okay and then he went to Aprilia and you're like okay that's a pretty good move Aprilia is on the on the on the proven that they are very good this year he's done well on the bike then he shoots his mouth off again there and basically he says I'm not going to ride for you during that whole first year where the bike tried to kill him and you know now he's trying to he says well he's got a job to go ride with Yamaha like you know it's there's I know it's happened to people who've driven race cars where they've used their mouth and they ran themselves out of a job because they out of friends i won't name names but i've seen it for a couple guys with race cars and it's same things happening here you just you'll run out of people in the paddock who are going to be willing to put up with your with your crap and give you a motorcycle to ride i think his attitude is that i'm the greatest and it doesn't matter what i do somebody will give me a bike to ride because i'm that great well you have one world championship and that's it and arguably you probably would have lost that one if ben yai hadn't crashed when he did it's a pang you have to you have to finish first for to first you must finish to finish first so i get where that is but yeah jorge martin's career has been one that just seems like uncertainty doubt and bad time and bad saying bad saying of things has all followed him around if the yamaha 850 is anywhere near as bad as the 1000 cc yamaha he will rage quit yamaha and then i'm going where is he going to go now because he's already done burnt the bridge of ktm he's burnt the bridge at ducati he hrc is not going to touch him i'm almost positive hrc won't touch him yeah they've got their own similar problem with quattro coming down the tracks as well potentially i mean the way he's behaving at the moment as well might be causing a few head scratches in uh in hrc as well but i'll tell you where martin can go and join me and only on the baggers that yeah that'd be good that would be hilarious yeah yeah that would be hilarious to put all his failed contracts and and broken contracts in the in the side bag things yeah at least it'd be something in them for once yeah that's what that's in there scott that's what's in the baggers it's contracts that's what's in there that's what it is it's been solved okay last bit of news that's in this one is that ross braun yes the ross braun from formula one fame is on the board as i stand on the board of directors for pre-mac racing he has not bought into the team he is he is on the board he is helping to make the critical decisions and helping to run the team which means either ross is test driving it so that he buys it which you know is possible i can't say not supposedly he is very good friends with whoever is at the top of the pre-mac organization and it sounds as if he's doing it as a favor to help them gel become a team and become a powerhouse much like ross did with ferrari took a ragtag bunch of italians and put them together and won multiple world champions but i guess you get i guess for that sake we'd have to find a german rider i don't know that's inside joke there but who knows what it is i just you know it just goes to show that i think that the people who are who are in the known formula one know that moto gp is the better series especially now with the whole problem they have with f1 at this point in time but you know if steiner's here and braun's here who's coming next well horner doesn't have a job and there's a lot of red bull money running running around there is horner gonna wind up running a moto gp team is he going is he going to buy a moto gp team who's to say who's to know right i wouldn't i would not be surprised if christian horner winds up replacing um david brivio at track house as a team manager it wouldn't surprise me it's a long shot but it wouldn't i would not be surprised because it fits the justin marks mold here's this native english speaking guy you know horner's a brit he's been very successful at organizing a team putting people where they need to be and sort of running it but then he's also kind of ran it into the ground so you there's a high point followed by a low point maybe there so maybe you don't want christian horner there but it wouldn't surprise me if christian horner doesn't show doesn't show up it wouldn't surprise me if toto wolf doesn't buy into ktm at some point to be honest or to you know the point about all this is is there's going to be a lot of money to be made out of moto gp teams in the future so that's why some of them are getting in early now yeah so it doesn't surprise me that you see horner in the pits i think he was with hrc the weekend that we saw him wherever he was uh the ross braun one is it's fascinating to me i mean obviously ross has kind of moved out of formula one because he's well past retirement age but i mean it's just a unfortunately i've never met him but he's always struck me as an absolutely outstanding individual i mean obviously he's a technical engineering god within sort of the formula one realm but he's also a very astute organizer of people i mean all of the success that mercedes had was down to him when the new turbo era started yes uh you know he really ran that that team got it firing literally on all cylinders so he why wouldn't you want him on the board you know if any advice that he can give will be valuable what was it you said uh luck is preparation waiting for an opportunity so you know that's his mindset is just make sure everything is ready and then you know you can take your opportunities when they arrive but it's not but it's not luck so yeah no that's a uh a sort of a great appointment for pramac and don't forget there's another guy that's very prevalent within yamaha and you see him in world superbike a lot is herbie blush who's another ex yeah yeah formula one guy and those two would have known each other very well so there's a lot of interest coming across from him and i think it's a great opportunity from formula one but i think you know formula people have races at heart and if they are then they'll look at motor gp and think well that's miles better and has been for a long long time in formula one quite frankly yeah for sure i mean if there's any you know i admire ross braun as an engineer i i think the world of ross i the way he took a you know took ferrari he was completely in shambles it slowly started to build it and you know he was one of the leading people who wanted to get schumacher into that team saw the potential that was there i you know maybe that's part of what bros is looking at he's looking at the potential of these guys and well maybe we need to try to find this rider that rider who knows where any of this is going to go but you are correct and you were very much this is the case there is money to be made in moto gp now and the formula one guys are going to come to play that's just what we're looking at well all sorts of investors and consortiums and all this sort of horror horror stuff you know from the point of pure sport point of view but sport is business isn't it so uh that's inevitable really sure all right with that all the news is done oh sorry one last bit there uh we should mention this um a shout out to maria costello who was on the sidecar crash that sort of ended sidecars for the tt sarkarl i know you guys are doing tt this t uh show but she suffered a t she's paralyzed from t5 and t6 is that in your neck or your back does anybody know i think it's the upper chest so i think currently and hopefully there will be some potential improvement or medical procedures that will help with this i think she's currently going to be sort of the injury is a paraplegic injury now whether that means arms are not in use i don't know if you know on this one obviously you know you're the tt guy amongst the the three of us here um that's what i read anyway i hope you know it's horrible absolutely horrible and the reason for putting it in the show notes is because we want to put the gofundme page link uh because there's a big sort of money raising exercise going on now because clearly she is going to have life altering or has life altering injuries and it's going to require an awful lot of changes to take place all of which will be very costly um from a financial standpoint which you can hardly say that's very important but it is uh so yeah if anybody can help out with that and i think from the moto pod point of view you know we've got a few coins in the in the can we should chuck a few quid into that as well so i'll make sure that happens uh but carly have you got anything to add to that yeah rich um very shocking to hear um i'm not sure of the full extent of her injuries but you say it looks like it's towards paraplegic status there is the gofundme i mean it's a lot of work to do but it's shocking because i actually saw maria on my last track day at donington a couple of weeks ago she was uh she wasn't using a sidecar on that day but she was uh riding just on two wheels um yeah i think the target for the gofundme is about 200k 200 000 pounds um to be fair again you say i totally agree with what you say um you know money can't make a use of her legs come back but i think it's there as a support for whatever you need basically um but to be fair i think they're already sort of three quarters away there on this gofundme that's not saying that um people shouldn't contribute towards it um but yeah it's been amazing to see the uh the numbers for that gofundme go up so quickly yeah i mean i don't know how these go from your things where the number you know it certainly was 200k it's actually gone up a little bit now because as you say there's so much so much going on in terms of contribution but i had a quick look earlier this afternoon and it had just gone 190k um you know because her property will need to be modified you know different cars everything will need to be changed and all of that is colossally expensive so and obviously a lot of people face this for one reason or another and so she has a profile where you know enough people are going to be willing to contribute to help her out and that's great um so hopefully all of us can do the same thing and certainly as i say as motorpod we'll we'll do our little bit as well so we'll put the link in the show notes i guess jim and then you know people can click to it from there if they haven't already done so yeah just to add to that the reigning bsb champion car ride to help raise money for the gofundme for maria he's actually riding his honda grom his 125 grom from his home in derbyshire to knock hill for the next round so he can't use he can't use motorways on his honda although he's a british superbike champion he only has his cbt which is a compulsory basic training in the uk which means that he can ride a motorcycle on the road but he can't ride it on motorways um so he has to take the the scenic route to knock hill i think he's he's estimating it's going to take him about 12 hours to ride his little 125 to knock hill for the next round of bsb but he has a sponsorship thing is he yeah he's uh he's saying anybody who wants to contribute towards uh maria he's doing that ride from to raise funds for maria brilliant all right guys so look for that in the show notes if you can help out uh maria and for all the medical expenses and stuff that she's going to need to continue uh in life please do check the show notes all right guys with that let's talk about magella that's the reason that we're here uh we'll kick it off with moto three qualifying in q1 we had uriate moodley peeny buchanan danish and ogorman and crucius were all in that first qualifying session um halfway through the show notes if you can help out maria and for all the medical expenses and it was uriati uh buchanan and uh danish and peeny were all there and then we get to what we always see with magello is the moto three teams all sitting around waiting to get out of the pits now i don't think it's that hard to figure out that a lap is like roughly two plus minutes to get around they were in racing in the one high 150s 145s 150s you have to get out and down the pit lane to go but nobody did it took forever for everybody to go and as we're waiting for everybody to finally leave that i think only two people actually got through to complete a lap and it was ridiculous um peeny did not get a chance did not get away to get a lap in and he got bumped by bertelli and i think bertelli actually did make it through because he got out in time to get it but it didn't matter nobody was going to bump uriati off danish moved himself to second then it was um buchanan then bertelli they get out through there now peeny got a very distinct dressing down as soon as he got back to it to the pits he was told to go out and just get on with the show and get in and get that lap i had the draft is everything as we'll learn later but you know to make that mistake you it's like time and time again these are you know professional race teams and somehow we can't get it together to get out on time i mean at least for the very least go out there get a banker lap right rich just put something down in case something else what happens if a yellow flag comes out what happens if times get taken off the board what happens if anything like that you can't control it so put something down do your best get the best lap you got let the chips fall where they may but apparently that's not good enough for these guys they obviously have their reasons for behaving the way that they do because they just consistently do it this way so i mean obviously i know you see a lot of the riders hanging around either waiting to follow somebody out or trying to avoid people following them out if they're you know amongst the fastest of the weekend but it is very perplexing and we often see a rider just go out and do laps on their own round around around and they generally tend to be the ones that do well i appreciate the magella you got that monster straight well straight inverted commas and so the toe is powerful in terms of lap time but even so yeah it's just kind of well not criminal that's a bit overstating the fact but yeah to come out and go around and just get the checkered flag when you're meant to be on on a hot lap is just very hard to understand i don't know carl i mean you were trackside what did you make of all this i must admit i am guilty of not watching motor three normally there we go but these best race of the weekend normally i'm definitely going to be paying more attention to it for now and i've been seeing it live in italy um yeah it's just it's madness some of the slipstreaming um yeah it's amazing yeah all right so we get into that second qualifying session keelys goes out he just does his own thing i was proud of the boy you know hey go out there put a lap down but you know it looked like it was a pretty decent lap but guess what here comes the pack and the draft and you watch keelys just literally just comes around you know you walk down there and go as fast as you can talking Arkley gehen tumbled down that list it's like well you know that's all right you got a banker in what you know if anybody falls or anything like that you're gonna be okay all right do your thing halfway through we had out we had Almanza, Danish, Ariate, Rios, Munoz, and Morera there now Keelys gets caught up in the trying to go out and find a partner to play to dance with for all this Keelys didn't get it right messed it up didn't get a chance at a last lap all of a sudden Kelso jumps himself up to third from basically nowhere again the might of the draft that was there essentially when it ran out Almanza would would take the pole followed by Danish Kelso stays on the front row Ariate, Rios, and Esteban there Keelys wound up qualifying 15th on the grid I'm like okay this is going to be interesting to see what this kid does from 15th on that grid spot because we've seen him do amazing things from it I'm like It's not going to be that difficult to get from 15th to 1st at Mugello, but I was thinking he can't let the first pack of, say, 8 get away from him. If anybody screws up in between him and that 8th place spot and they somehow break that draft, Keelys is going to be in serious trouble. So we come back on Sunday, and suddenly we have Danny Champolle.

What happened to Almanza? Well, he had been diagnosed with tonsillitis and was declared unfit for racing purposes. So that bumped everybody one spot. Now, Danish got a whole shot getting into that first turn, but Kelso led going out of that first turn. At the end of your first lap, you had Kelso followed by Danish, Esteban, Uriate, Rios, Munoz, and Keelys came across the line in 15th.

I thought that was a good start for him. He didn't lose a place. He stayed with everybody, kept his nose clean. Because he could have easily gone way too deep in one. He could have easily been bumped out.

He could have easily had any numerous sets of problems as he started to work his way through the pack. So it was a good start for him. By lap three, Uriate had gotten in front with Kelso and Danish. Then Kelso went back to the lead after that. O'Gorman was out.

It looked like he had, I couldn't tell, did he have a crash or just a bike failure? Because when I saw it, he was on a bike trying to muscle it through the gravel trap. So I'm assuming it just sort of failed. It looked like a technical retirement to me. Again, they didn't really sort of follow up on it with any footage.

So I'm assuming it wasn't a crash. I don't know that for sure. I don't know if you were within sight of that, Carl. I can't quite recall which corner it was he retired at. But any ideas?

Yeah, I think it was a technical issue. Yeah, okay. All right. So we got that answer. So at that point, Keelys had made his way to 11th.

All right. So he's starting to slowly pick things off as he's going through. By lap five, Fernandez is now in front as he had come on, followed by Uriate, Carpe, Kelso. Again, it is picket. It's that long draft on the front stretch, right?

These guys are just basically going to keep swapping it around. And they're going to wind up getting somewhere. But by lap six, Keelys had moved himself up the grid all the way to like second with an absolutely massive move out of turn one. Keelys just was so late on the brakes and just made it look easy. But Uriate, Uriate went down at turn six.

He was down. Then by lap seven, Keelys had made his way to the front. So in seven laps of a 17-lap race, Keelys is now in front. I'm thinking, okay, I don't think he's burned the tire off the bike. Let's see what happens here.

Let's see how he does. But he was leading. Munoz was second. Then you had Somalia down at the 4-5 complex. He had a high side out of five that was just wicked and tossed him and threw him to the track.

Then we had, an eight-rider, it broken down then because of that high side. It became that eight-rider pack that we kind of tend to see at Mugello, which meant that basically anybody who was ninth or worse wasn't going to span that gap. So Keelys had avoided that death nil by being where he was. But to what extent? Again, these guys are going to go after each other and keep flipping it around as they go through all of this.

By lap 10, Fernandez is back out front with Uriate and Keelys in the front three. Carpe, Kelso, and Ogor, uh, Kelso and Danish take up your next three spots. Carpe then goes to the lead for the first time. And you had two M-Lavs that were in the top, top six, which I thought was crazy. Uh, then Eddie O'Shea went to fourth.

It was looking good. Like, wow, I think Eddie was smelling the fact that he could win, which would have been, I think, what the first Brit win since, uh, was it the flying, what, John McPhee? John McPhee would have been the last one. Yeah. Yeah, because Scott Ogden hasn't won a race, has he?

No, not yet. Uh, no, it must have been John McPhee then. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like there.

But, uh, he then, then he fell foul of track limits. So that kind of burned that off. Uh, or, you know, or he got off track limits warning, I should say. Um, then by lap 13, uh, O'Shea led. Kelso was third.

So this is looking to be a, a real shakeup that was going on. At five to go, things sort of kind of go back to being normal as Fernandez is leading, followed by Keelys, Kelso, and O'Shea. I'm getting, I'm thinking, all right, Keelys got there, use some tire, settle it down. Kind of, we've seen him do this, ride that pack, ride that three, four, five spot. And kind of like the last couple of laps, just bring it on.

So I'm like, okay, these final three are going to be really pretty dramatic. Nothing's going anybody's way. I mean, we're still got sort of the same, the same deal with two to go. Only Keelys is now down in, um, fourth place. Fernandez, is looking really strong on the Honda.

He's been able to outbreak everybody going into one. He's had a great draft, great top speed. So it's going to be what's going to be what's who's going to beat him. And it's like, well, Keelys is going to have to get on the, on the move. He wants to have that happen.

So Keelys is working his way past everybody to work his way back up. And as he goes through the last turn and onto the front stretch, he just has the mother of all out of the seat type things. And I do not know how that kid actually kept that bike upright. Let alone didn't hit anybody else as he tried to regain it and come back in let alone not run off into the pit lane and get messed up in that area. He puts it all back together again, but that one move where he had to crack the throttle when everybody else has got the throttle wide open, dropped him from a strong second place all the way to 12th.

He lost 10 positions in the span from essentially corner X of the last turn to the pit entrance, which is what maybe, a couple of hundred feet, possibly rich, crazy, crazy that how that happened. Meanwhile, Fernandez is out front with Uriate and O'Shea as they're starting this last lap. Uriate then goes to the lead more. Morelli is getting his way into second. And then we had Keelys has now worked his way back from that 12th to seventh.

He's made some trip. He's moving himself forward, but it just isn't going to, be enough. Then Morelli just clips a rider at the last turn as they're going for it. As they go out to that run to the line. And then what happened there was that gave Uriate a bit of a gap to run off and win the race followed, followed by a Carpe and then Danish in third.

So the first podium for the Indonesian, then Fernandez got knocked back there. Then Esteban O'Shea was eighth, Munoz seventh, Pratama eighth. Then Kelso got really shuffled back in this thing to go back to ninth. Then Rios, Keelys would finish 11th. Then Bertelli, Morelli, Ogden and Pini getting the last point in that.

It was a pretty exciting race, especially the last couple of laps. I mean, they're always really good in Moto3, but could you hear the crowd, Carl, for those last couple of laps as they probably went nuts? Yeah, absolutely, Jim. A lot of cheering. Yeah.

I mean, the crowd, the crowd, the crowd there is absolutely amazing. Were you anywhere near the guy with the chainsaw? Because wherever, whatever they were showing you, I could always hear that somebody revving a chainsaw. So I figure you must've been close as you had a picture of him. Jim, there was strategically placed people with chainsaws.

There were a lot of chainsaws being revved to the limit. I would point out that they haven't got the blade fitted. It's just the motor. Yeah. Yep.

I was fortunate enough to go to a motocross donations in the U.S. and the U.S. and the amount of people with chainsaws without the blades on just revving them to the moon was absolutely crazy. But yeah, it's just kind of one of those crazy things that happens in jello as it were. It's a particular speciality of the Italians and the Spanish for that matter as well.

I've never understand how they get these things into the tracks because, you know, you have to go a few bag checks and stuff like how the hell does that guy got two stroke leaf blurring? You know, he's just like, they're just, they're everywhere. These things stop. Unbelievable. Yeah, I know it's like highly entertaining.

Yeah. You could never get one. One in Dakota because I mean, they get really mad if you try to take a lawn chair in, you know, or a sandwich drink, a bottle of water, they get bad at batting and they get mad at you for having an umbrella like, and then it's like, oh, you have a point on your bill. You can't take it in. I'm like, yo, whoa, dude, I bought this in the, I bought this in the paddock just yesterday.

So you can't tell me I can't have it in there because they got a truckload full of them in there. Oh, okay. Like, oh, does anybody know the rule? I guess not. Anyway, back to the reality of this rich, anything else that you would like to add to this really pretty exciting moto three race?

Well, yeah, I mean, it was a classic motor three race at a classic track. So I mean, I wrote down at one point sweaty palms because again, you can't really, it becomes very difficult to write notes and stuff with the way the draft works. Cause you know, the person who's first coming off the last turn is quite often in sort of seventh or eighth by the time they get to turn one. So it becomes very hard to, to sort of really follow it to that extent. But I, what I did write was frantic, clean, brilliant, long live Mugello.

And I believe I had somewhere earlier that Mugello has just signed a five year extension to the contract. So that keeps the race there to 2031. So you know where you're going next year, Carl again, um, other than that, just a correction, Eddie O'Shea finished six. He, he was the one that got barged wide by Morelli on the last lap in actual fact, because he was very much in contention for the, for the podium. And yeah, he just gave a, a stunningly emotional interview, you know, a few minutes after the race had finished when one of the reporters from TNT quarter with him, he's crying his eyes out just because it was a, it was one of those races where all of the years of effort and the belief, but the doubts as well just kind of come to the surface.

And I mean, it was very emotional. The whole team were emotional and Kelso had a really decent race as well. I mean, the MLAB squad is having a very, a good year. Yes, they are. I would say, uh, and my view of this and Carl will probably chime in, in a minute is that from the point of view of Eddie, who's well, I think this is his second full season now, you know, he didn't disgrace himself last year, but this year he has been starting to show up more and more in the top 10.

And my view is that anybody that has a race like that, a Mugello of all places is a talent. And clearly the bike is working well and the team is working well. So I think we can have high hopes for both him and Kelso, because we were all a little bit surprised when Kelso decided to join that team. Weren't we? Yeah.

Cause it hasn't been a front running team, but it's certainly starting to look like one now. So I'm really looking forward to, well, I always look forward to motor three anyway, but it's going to be cool to see how that team performs as we go on through the season. All right. Well, let's look at the championship standings here. I mean, despite his lackluster appearance in for kill, for Achilles way down the list and 11th, he does maintain his championship.

Believe me, he's on 145 points and it's a 93 for car pay. So there's plenty of room in there. No worries there. Oh, then Fernandez, Pratama, Morelli, Peroni, Almanza, Oriate, Pini, and Munoz are your top 10 in motor three. Again, Keeley's is the man he's got this.

He's got probably, I would say a few fingers on that trophy for world champion. It's highly unlikely. You know, this is sort of an off track with the big draft. That makes a difference. He did well at Barcelona.

I expected him to do well here, but so what, right? Head off to hungry, tight, twisty track. Keeley's will be right there in the front. No worries. You know, by his gold standards, Jim, he had a really poor outcome.

I mean, it was really because of that near crash that he had on the penultimate lap in the last turn. It's true. But what I love is given the guy has had such a stellar year so far, and you've got a massive points lead, he was really annoyed when he got back to the pits. You know, he looked not to the sort of whole, Hey Martine levels of going and shoving members of the team around. I'm pleased to report, but he just looked visibly very upset with the way the race had gone.

And I, I love that. You know, when you can, most people would think, well, you know, it's just one of those days, you know, the rest of the year has been great, but know that he just wants to win everything all the time. And that's, that's how champions are made. So he'll bounce back. Yeah.

He, um, you know that that boy hates to lose. Period. So he's going to be, he's going to be. Defeated by what his expressions were in the box afterwards, which does that surprise you considering he is a mark Marquez protege. So they're going to share the same, the same concept.

And the last thing I just want to know now is, is, is Carl at long last going to start sharing some interest in Mato three? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Just, just to reiterate, I haven't watched my three that much in the past, and the corner speed of these guys is absolutely insane it's up there with MotoGP if not even they're cornering even faster the lap times are not really that surprisingly large really consider how much smaller the engine is or you know how skinny the tires are but like you say they corner like you couldn't believe yeah yeah they're running so much lean angle through those corners it's absolutely insane and the the bikes actually sound pretty good as well yeah it does sort of it always reminded me slightly of a sort of squadron of Lancasters going overhead you know it is a bit of a drone but but loud and and very spectacular I always think and where were you based at the same spot for the two days that you were at the track or did you um vary it a bit no we we sat on the hill for for both days so it's the hill and just before turn six the turn six and seven complex Casanova and Cervelli yeah as they go down the hill yeah um so yeah actually turned out to be a really good spot because we seemed to be entrenched in their Marco Brzezinski fan club basically which worked out well for the MotoGP not a bad place to be yeah yeah yeah absolutely all right well that's it for the Moto3 let's move to Moto2 and go through Moto2 qualifying in the first qualifying session wow there's some big names in here Holgardo jumps out off the page Anciu was in there that's kind of normal uh Zondavani Gerberg was down there Huertas Rueda Arbolino was there and Kanett as well halfway through this very simplified session Holgardo and Anciu and Zondavani Gerberg and Barry Baltus are all there then at the end Arbolino jumped to third and he knocks Baltus out so Holgardo Anciu or Arbolino and Zondavani Gerberg all get in from that first qualifying session now the second session Vietti he had a vicious wobble out of like turn one that thing was just going every which way and he's trying to hang on to it then you had uh Garcia was then down at like turn three it was it was Anciu uh was lucky there at turn four he had a over the curbs big kind of fighting the bike kind of the one of those deals which is kind of wild motions it's the most counterintuitive thing you actually let go of the bars and release your grip and push out and then the bike will settle itself right back down again it's like no you think I want to hold on to it harder but if you did the bike would win and it would just toss you off like a rag doll so it's kind of kind of neat especially in slow-mo slow-mo was really cool to watch the bike as it got out of shape so halfway through this qualifying session Solach was in front followed by Gonzalez Escrige Lopez Aegis Ortola and Guevara now you sorry and Guevara did not have a lap time yet he had a yellow flag that discounted one he had some bike problem that happened as well so it was going to be a bit of a rush to get Guevara back out and get him there with it you know a shout out to Escrige on the forward machine Rich he has been qualifying well he's been racing that bike well I mean is are we finally seeing forward make progress towards the front I mean I hope so I thought you were going to say forward progress then uh I thought about it but the alliteration would have been too much I mean he's yeah he's got to be on the radar for some of the other teams I would have thought I would think yeah for next year not to say he would necessarily want to jump off the he's having a good season on it he certainly is yeah no really good really good meanwhile uh Guevara has an absolutely wild save at turn two he was able to keep that one up then Vietti was able to do it well Gonzalez shot back to the top followed by uh Guevara for a little bit then uh but I'm sorry Gonzalez would go to the top of the leaderboard but Guevara bailed out on the lap that he could have possibly made up some ground but he didn't didn't go through with it so it finishes off with Gonzalez winning pole position so latch being second Dennis screech then holgardo you know making it your first four rows so that is moto 2 qualifying we move to the moto 2 race which is 19 laps and we had uh so we had Fernandez's for for Randez sorry has a problem with his bike on the siding lap they take it off and he's going to have to start from the pit lane so the bike got removed from the grid he would then be eligible to start from there now Gonzalez gets a great start takes the lead ahead of slatch and holgardo and a screech and rotola there's a crash at turn six it's zaruba and canette they both go tumbling into the ground I think it might have been connect's fault or he might have felt that way because he was instantly up over to Zubora and was making sure he was okay sort of looked like it was a you know are you okay kind of sorry about that it got away from me kind of a thing it is racing on a tight circuit going that was down into casanova I believe so it was a big crash at a pretty good clip and but both riders were up and that's always the best thing to see you must have had a good view of that Carl yeah that's right rich yeah we saw the whole thing so I from what I could gather that wasn't easy to see but perhaps you could tell us what happened it looked like connect just lost the front and I uh is it I don't know I'm never sure about the name of this right is it is there a tozer is that what yeah yeah it could be yeah i'm terrible at names so totally innocent party just got kind of wiped out and had a nasty crash actually but what did you see carl you know you're right i think he lost the front going in and as you say the other guy i'll struggle with his name as well um um yeah yeah he just got worked out first first lap that happens yep that's that's it's it's called racing for a reason right yep uh let's see uh we got to that second lap munoz is is or yeah uh munoz is uh deep in at turn one i almost didn't get out of there uh that one uh he was then he was right to the end of the turn one uh he was right to the end of the turn one uh he was right to the edge of the gravel trap before he got that thing slowed down and was able to turn it around and get moving up the hill lopez takes a screech down at the two three part i you know couldn't believe that there wasn't a penalty you know on that one because it just looked as it looked as though it was like you know one it's like how did this how did lopez know that a screech was on the outside of him because if you look at it from his standpoint he's under the fairing and can't see him and it's like oh he once he bumped him he's like oh i didn't even you know you get that look in that turn but he did wind up getting a long lap for it didn't he rich yeah i i thought that was i thought that was a racing incident i thought it was two guys on varying lines because you know lopez you know a screech makes a mistake slightly he's wide and so now they're on two different lines and now they come together and converge with neither one wanting to give up and you're out on the curb anyway and it only takes a little bit then because he's farther away from the curb and then he's out on the curb anyway and it only takes a little bit then because he's farther out on the curb you go the greater the serrations depth are which causes the bike to then go kind of haywire and then once you touch the gravel trap it's over i thought it was a wrong call rich you're gonna say it's probably a good call well it's one of those that a few seasons ago would have just been chalked down to early laps that kind of thing happens i mean i think lopez's bike did actually take the handlebar of a screech i think it wasn't just him going wide off on the curve i think he okay i take your point and i think it's a fair point that that's not where alonso's looking yeah really in that situation and therefore but it's it's another one of these things where it's the outcome that determines the penalty i think rather than intent so i'm kind of more of your mind than the than he should have got it but of course alonso lopez does have a bit of form in this area as well and i'm sure that plays its part too i i fundamentally felt extremely sorry for the forward racing team who after having a you know guy on the front row both of their riders were out sort of more or less blamelessly with a big build with crash damage within a couple of laps of each other and that was a pretty unfortunate end to the weekend for the ford racing squad as a whole yeah i mean what was a great what could have been a great race became a not great race just down to you know bad luck essentially yeah uh so uh as we start at lap three it's gonzalez ortola horgardo they've got a one and a half second lead over lopez and weyer then it just kind of maintains that same pace except for now lopez is now getting chased by ages because ages is starting to come on song then lope uh then lopez did get by lap five lopez did get the long lap for the screech accident so it took him a couple couple laps to figure out that he should have gotten that he took him a couple laps to look at it and say yes you deserve a penalty for that there so by this point a lap six gonzalez and ortola are just gone they are they are at least a second a second to a second and a half ahead of salach and holgardo suzaki goes down at the four five uh and lopez uh takes the long lap at that point he falls back to eighth we get to the fact that we get down to about lap 11 gonzalez is starting to stretch it out a little bit he's got a two-second lead on lap 13. that then gets bigger it becomes like a two-second lead on lap 13.

lopez and guilvara and are battling for seventh which is really good meanwhile we go to five laps to go gonzalez is basically gone he has decided now was the time i'm going to put the hammer down and i'm going to see what i can do and he what he did is he pulled away from ortola now ortola was now in trouble with five to go because hogarda salach and ages are all in on him big time at four to go again gonzalez is gone ortola's holding on but now here's holgardo salach ages and oh wait a second somebody named vietti is now coming because the guy who's turning red helmets suddenly is vietti with three to go ages gets by salach at one and but then he you know basically because he was you know ages was d air was slash was deep at one so ages goes by hogardo is closing in on ortola ages is by salach and um hogardo is all over or or tola and vietti is all over slash at this point so wow this race that looked to be a runaway of what the top five were going to be suddenly gets a massive injection of of intrigue in who is actually going to finish where as some people's tires are going off and some people's tires are still really good on the on the last or we're sorry we're at where were we uh we're at two to go holgardo's by otto uh then here comes ages ortola's got a real has a very big problem he actually stops so it's holgardo ages vietti vietti then blows by holgardo then it's the last lap and vietti is all over her gordo then vietti goes by at scarpetta then ages is by ortola in the last turn and it winds up with a great move by vietti to finish second so gonzalez wins vietti then comes second in this race because he because he got you know basically drafted holgardo to get there then ages is now fourth then salach lopez guevara baltas vire anchu arbolino huertas rueda joe roberts and vanda gerberg is getting the last point a race that looked like it was going to be a nothing became a really good race with like four laps to go and if you want to watch the highlights the highlights are all the last four laps nobody was going to beat gonzalez i think he's got the bit between his teeth he's bound and determined to win this championship this year and i think he's going to take that championship and leave the paddock vietti's made a real name for himself these past two races that he should maybe have a ducati in the vr46 team although i don't think that's going to happen there's just too much history of vietti not performing consistently week after week you'll have a few tracks where he's good and then he's just going to fall off and not be seen again but i thought this was maybe the best race of the weekend rich oh really that's a bold claim yeah i did because i love i thought the last four laps were really awesome yeah there was a lot of intrigue there was a lot going on a lot to watch i just thought that was really cool you you kind of admit i have to admit i think the moto 3 was intriguing as it was always going to be and it just got shaken up because really they got separated because of uh keely's near high side but anyway i'll take this one as the race of the weekend myself but yeah fair enough yeah i mean it kind of boiled down to the last few laps as you've said i mean for me the sort of standout bit which i think has probably gone a bit overlooked was autola yeah it's obviously very unfortunate that he had a technical issue i believe it was a gear shifter issue that was slowing him down and then i guess it just broke uh which is why he sort of pulled off in the end but he's another ride that in the last few races has been really starting to show some form in his adaptation to the moto 2 machine and my again i mean it's not really room at the end for anybody i don't think any more or any further people but another guy that i feel the moto gp teams might be starting to just take a bit more of an interest in because he's not been in motor 2 for long has he and he's really starting to show his his class and um again he's one of the bigger taller lads as well which is a help compared to saying alonso who finished the race with quite a lot of heat 18th not even in points so he did finish the race uh david alonso but all the way down in 18th which is again not not great i'm sure the shoulder is a problem and that's the biggest part but i mean gonzalez has been helped out i think a lot by the fact that there isn't a consistent challenger to him sometimes it's holgado sometimes it's agius you know it's kind of a bit inconsistent really vietti as you said jim has kind of done quite well the last couple of rounds but again i just think he's been in a bit like joe roberts he's been in moto 2 for so long and very sort of inconsistent so i just don't think a moto gp team would take the risk given some of the other options that exist so other than that yeah i mean i didn't find it the most entertaining race uh if i'm honest watching it on telly but i guess it was a bit more entertaining trackside carl yeah i mean what a performance by vietti i think imagine if he'd have come first from that would have been the dream come true an italian winning at magello moto 2 coming from 16th place but even to get second place what what an incredible ride yeah and so jim did you say because i didn't actually watch the qualifying for moto 2 did you say vietti crashed in the q2 session i think he did yeah is that why he was so far back on the grid is it gotcha right yeah he could he couldn't get out of q2 uh for whatever for a midget of reasons it just couldn't you know there was some yellow flags and stuff that took laps and he just couldn't put a lap together it was like the pressure was too much you know like your name is now suddenly in the conversation to have a moto gp seat and he just couldn't deliver uh kind of what it seemed like but he pulled it together and actually ran great on on sunday yeah no as carl said i mean it was a great sort of recovery ride and if it wasn't for that pesky gonzalez i mean yeah they would have had a an italian winner in moto too but yeah i think vietti gonzalez i mean it was a great win just again showed his class didn't he just cleared off kept the tire alive couldn't nobody could touch him and ortola was yeah the other noteworthy one i think so yeah um pretty good right yep we look at the championship gonzalez is now building on his lead in the championship he's on 129 and a half to guvara's 95. uh vietti has moved himself into third in the championship ages is fourth holgardo has fallen down to fifth alonzo stays sixth then um or torla then lopez munos and fire all right so we'll move to the big guys moto gp and qualifying well we got to start off talking about uh one uh jorge martin who set a top speed record of 369 kilometers per hour rich that is 229.3 miles an hour that is moving on a motorcycle to give a reference point of how fast that is indie cars at the indianapolis 500 qualify for an average lap of two and a half miles at 228 so their top speed is about 230 maybe 232 so jorge martin's motorcycle is roughly three to four miles an hour short of the speed of an indie car phenomenal when you think about it makes me feel a bit queasy actually i have to say the thought of going that far but i'm amazed at the fact that jorge martin did that he's actually fast on the motorcycle it's it's yeah quite astounding really particularly when you consider all the aero on the bikes as well i mean the bikes were still slippery how bloody quick would they be going there yeah well you know the thing of it is that the only reason that they're slippery is because they had the right height device so you back the back end down which rotates the wing on the front to give it a less less downforce and less we still have drag i guess so you'd have less downforce and so the bike goes faster although the bike is pretty slow now does occur to me of course and i'm assuming it's still being used but aprilia brought out this kind of f duck tribe oh i'm sure they're using that so uh whether the stalling of the aero kind of helped with that top speed oh i'm sure it did as well but that's its purpose whichever way you look at it 229 miles an hour on a motorbike is um just scary as hell well that boundary layer with the f duct is definitely part of it right they're definitely aprilia's figured out how to make that bike slippery without creating drag and it is quite amazing uh so as we went into qualifying digia would only have one bike i think they said there was a technical problem with his number one bike so he was down to just the one bike for qualifying and since digia was in that first session it was going to be one of those hey don't bash it and don't destroy it because there's not enough time to do another one yes rich i've just thought of another news item that we didn't put in the notes or that i didn't what's that which is a suggestion that they should drop to one bike oh yes that's ridiculous like what's that going to solve the only thing it'll solve is it'll quit this stupid flag to flag race that they do true i'm not sure where that suggestion has come from or why if it's a budgetary kind of thing but i'm very much against that idea because these bikes get crashed heavily often and you're all just going to have less bikes out on track if you're not careful right i think it's an idea of like saving costs which it isn't going to save any cost because guess what the teams are going to have a chassis sitting there without fairings without wheels and they're going to say well it's not a motorcycle because it doesn't contain those two key elements yeah and they're just going to loophole that and as soon as there's a crash somebody's going to be working on that bike to throw wheels on it and throw a set of fairings on which they can do that in a probably three to four minutes ish call it five or they'll practice it and then there'll be another bike sitting there for the one that's been crashed i think it's dumb i mean i can understand it in moto 3 and in moto 2 just from the standpoint of a cost reduction to some extent having two bikes prepped and ready sitting there is obviously difficult and requires more crew more team and moto gp has that ability to run that now why they don't why they want they're thinking it i don't know it's been it was always that way you know again liberty is coming from formula one so their basis is going to be the same way as i think for some of these ideas that they're sort of throwing out there because i don't think this was done by urta or someone like that i think this was a liberty thing that had gotten tossed out so their reference point is formula one now there used to be quote unquote the t-car that was there that was completely built and either driver could take the t-car if they need it now the t-car was set up to match what or mimic whatever the number one driver wanted that's just how the well there's all this expense in having this car and blah blah blah blah well we can't afford that anymore and formula one ixnade having another full chassis sitting there well what happens they've got one if you ever watch there was always one sitting there on the with a motor attached without wheels and wings and you know they could just simply build that one did they save anybody anybody any money no did they make the show better they think they thought they did because you could theoretically have someone have an off in their car and they couldn't get back in and jump in another car and they couldn't get back in and jump in another car and they couldn't get back in another car to qualify so maybe they would start deeper in the field and therefore you could create passing but that's not i just think it's stupid for motors for motorcycles myself i just find the and i think i think this is a sort of coming from the liberty direction i just find the logic a bit hard to understand when we're about to go street racing yes you're going to need more bikes in the pit not less given the the severity of some of the crash damage that might be happening as a result we're going to need more bikes in the pit not less given the some of these places i wholeheartedly agree with you what what if alex marquez by some miracle was only bruised and battered from that crash he wouldn't have been able to restart which would have meant one less bike on the grid so they need to think through that one i i just i'm wondering what their real objective is because i think they're throwing out crazy things just to figure out where well how deep is the water so to speak carl you got a thought on that one i think it's really important to think through that one i think it's really important to think through that one whether they should have a second bike they should absolutely have a second bike the single bike rule is applied to bsb but guess what as jim has already said they have a second bike they just have it in various states and disassembly yeah yep yep so all it does is put pressure on mechanics to assemble a bike very quickly after a big crash on the main bike so you've got to argue from a safety point of view is that a good idea or not well it's not really a good idea is it an excellent point it's a great point carl yeah anyway uh we were talking about a gp qualifying right yeah uh iagura fernandez uh oh um acosta mir and quattro are in this first session as the big names halfway through acosta is there he only missed about like a few tenths that morning so you figured he was going to go through fernandez was there with the aprilia and iagura so somebody's going to get knocked out here somebody who's got a good bike is getting knocked out of it basically it came down to the fact that uh fernandez and acosta would get through but i girl was trying but he just lost a little bit of time in that last sector and then at the end of the session we had top rack with a very weird crash on the entry to the last corner where they looked as though the front brake just simply locked up on him because he was you know when they first showed it on the door speed that i watch on the app he was rolling in the gravel trap got up and looked around like what just happened i assumed incorrectly that maybe another bike had bumped him and he didn't realize it or wasn't prepared for it but then a a long angle shot from from watching from the corner as he is approaching you see the him go he sits up like he's applying the brakes and then whammo they instantly locked on him and down he went so of course he was going to get knocked out of the bit of a weird crash there i don't did anybody give a reason as to why the brakes locked i didn't hear anything he had just done a practice start i believe oh really that's one of the designated zones and so i think people think he just kind of grabbed a bit too much front and yeah just the bike went down as a result it happens you know but and of course top rack is reasonably famous for being a person that can manage a front front brake and tire pretty well but at the end just proving that moto gp is a bit of a different ball game yeah we go to qp2 on the first run it's martin fernandez bez digia morbidelli and mark marquez who we never mentioned mark is back racing after having had surgery to remove a screw that was pushing on his nerve in his arm and you know they kind of cut through a lot of muscle to get to that nerve and for him to be that quick i thought was pretty great bez would turn a 143.9 to get himself towards the pole position and he did have like four minutes left so it was sort of a hey why don't you go give this a try and see if you can beat it mark tried he was red in a couple of sectors but would fail to go fast enough he would finish fourth so bez would take the pole an italian on italian bike at an italian racetrack it's kind of like the trifecta of all things good fernandez on another italian bike would be second then another italian bike with jorge martin would be on the front row aprilia for the first time had locked out the front row of a moto gp race which i thought was absolutely astounding carl was the crowd just digging it when that happened oh yeah absolutely madness and chainsaws right yeah a lot of that what we'll say about the italian fans is that obviously they're cheering for the italian bike but they're cheering for the italians but they they cheer at all the good racing as opposed to um being selective yeah they're just cheering for for racing basically in the blood yeah it's worth pointing out also jim because there's a bit of obviously there's beef between aprilia and ducati's rival italian marks and this is the centenary year for ducati so for them to be pushed off the front the entirety of the front row with two ex ducati riders on aprilias was must have been a little hard to swallow i would think yeah it had to have been tough for sure uh let's see finishing out qualifying marquez would head up the second row then aldegar benyaya digi antonio uh more rare up morbid delhi acosta bastione and rents there's the guys that make up the top 12 okay great worth pointing out maria there jim i mean oh yeah by a country mile the quickest honda oh yeah he had very impressive he was definitely he he definitely was very impressive was hanging on to the italians and studying what they were doing but you still have to perform and to be one he didn't have to go through q2 which i think is the first time maria hasn't had to go through q2 i think not 100 on that one but but i don't remember him being there before but yeah i mean the honda is not slow it's not horrible so i mean i think it has tire issues i think it wants to destroy tires because if you look at how everybody else wound up on a honda there but he's definitely staked his claim for being the number two guy in the factory seat behind quattro raro yeah 100 i mean it's worth caveating this to say zarko is obviously out injured so yeah he i'm sure would have been up there as well but yeah maybe he got zarko's bike well could be yeah yeah because zarko is the guy who has to run the more the development parts i mean maybe they wouldn't do that with a rookie i don't know but i think he's just showing that he's a very very fast rider as we know i mean he's a motor city champion but nevertheless i mean in the first half of his first season that mugello of all places showing the promise isn't he yeah he has shared promise for sure uh all right so let's go into the sprint it's 11 laps now before this started there was a bit of the tire deciding that had to be done martin decided that he was going to be on a media or sorry fernandez says i'm going to be on the medium rear medium front and that from after weeks this is kind of finding out later after everything went down that was the tire that suited him he couldn't make it work on a soft so he was going to run a medium regardless jorge martin thought about it and threw in a medium shortly before they left to make their siding lap or sorry warm-up lap to get back to the grid um so okay we have tires that are going to be different now that worked to some effect in barcelona running on a medium in a sprint was the same thing going to work here or was it going to be everybody who was on softs what was what was going to be the best thing to do it's only 11 laps around mugello so we'll see what actually happens mark marquez got a whole shot he was leading followed by fernandez followed by martin uh who was who got sort of roughed up by mark a little bit then marrera actually launched in the middle of the sprint and he was able to get to the third and got himself to third at the beginning on the second lap fernandez then got to the front he was and martin went by as well then we're uh it was morbid delhi was there right rich at the beginning i think or marrera sorry marrera was marrera morbid delhi the names are close enough that i get them forget which way it is then it was digia mark who again got roughed up and started to go backwards a bit and then best best would get by we get by mark then did you got by marrera on lap three lap four bez was by marrera at the last turn by lap five it was fernandez and martin they had a 1.4 second lead over digia who had about a second over bez and then it was followed by marrera and marquez so marrera marquez were actually going kind of having a bit of a go at each other for that whole team uh then we had bastionini on the on on the uh i had a front end well i can't talk right now bastionini winds up going down at turn 10 the front end folded on him that's what i was trying to say uh then marquez would get by marrera at turn one uh it's all spread out by lap seven you know it was fernandez martin digia bez marquez and aldegar martin was closing in a little bit on fernandez it but you know hey it doesn't good enough for him because fernandez started to get a little bit of a go at him and then marquez started to get a little bit of a go at him and then marquez started to get a little bit of a go at him and then marquez started to eke it out a little bit you know he got it down to something like about a half of a second but it just sort of stabilized right there marrera was then fading as the honda tends to chew up the soft tire on the back the gap at the front was then stabilizing as i just said uh marrera had nothing he was going backwards fernandez wins the sprint followed by martin digia bez mark marquez and aldegar it wasn't the most fantastic sprint race you've ever seen but it did have some nice battles that were in the middle of marrera i think kind of spiced it up a lot just because that's the out person who's sort of out of place and he was riding with nothing to lose which is kind of how you have to ride the honda a little bit so yeah so anything there that uh would be noteworthy from your side rich um i mean the surprise really given the friday performance was did you get because he had been really quick with the practice sessions and then just yeah the weekend seemed to sort of just get away from him a little bit i haven't seen or read anything really as to whether they went kind of in the wrong direction on setup or something like that but i have a theory okay so he was at barcelona we know his right hand was hurting him i'm wondering if the high stress of breaking from almost 230 miles an hour into turn one got to him his hand was fatigued to where he just didn't have either it was swollen maybe didn't couldn't have the feel that he needed i i think it was something related to the barcelona incident i realized a good point i realized that they had two weeks in between but if it was as bad as we think it was because he wouldn't take his glove off then i gotta think that at a track like this with that high energy breaking point at turn one you're maybe going to be feeling it a little bit and it was his right hand that was damaged wasn't it so breaking hand yeah that's a really good point jim i hadn't kind of thought about that that would make total sense yeah otherwise it yeah just wasn't a particularly entertaining race to watch on tv however i'm assuming i've never asked you this i'm assuming you've been to moto gp races before this wasn't your first moto gp race i'm assuming no this isn't the first one i've been to moto gp at donington before that's going back a few years now and i've been to moto gp at silverstone once um yeah to be honest the silverstone one it was in 2021 um so yeah it did put me off moto gp a bit because it was the whole rossi's final year a lot of naval gazing going on during that weekend and you know he rossi seemed to take priority over the uh the people that actually win the race and um yeah and also the crowd as well they were actually cheering when marquez crashed i just uh that's that's not that's not what i that's not what i get from motorcycle racing absolutely not yeah um so that that experience in 2021 kind of kind of soured moto gp a bit for me but uh going to magello's definitely uh put it put it back on my radar let's just say that the circuit itself magello itself is absolutely awesome you look at it on the when you get there there's so much elevation change the climb from aribe after one to two that is so steep when you're actually looking at it i know on the television the television always flattens these circuits but yeah that climb from aribe out of one to two is that is so steep uh the biggest problem the bikes must sound pretty awesome around that kind of yeah that topography as well i'm guessing yeah it's literally a race track draped on the side of the road it's a race track draped on the side of the road it's a race on the side of a mountain it's and the biggest problem i have now is that i want to go and do some track days there so um the thousand pound holiday is going to be the best three grand i ever spend i think yeah you know i i use this little trick to see how bad it is if you can get a long camera shot if you look at the wall that's around the track and you can see how much the wall goes up in your screen you can then get some relative sense of how steep it is it's not true to form but you can say wow there's quite a lot between the wall here and the wall up here and you know like you know that must be that we're going downhill or uphill or take your pick and i had the same thing with i got fortunate enough to go to spa at once absolutely probably one of the greatest racetracks ever okay they neutered it with the bus stop she came missing so i'm a big fan of the t-shirt bring back the bus stop but still when you stand there and you get to stand on the inside and you look at uh a rouge and going up through radion and you're going wow that is a climb and they do it very cars do it very quickly all the cars do nowadays but yeah it's it's impressive anyway enough about tracks right let's talk about the race that happened on sunday now before the race on sunday all the aprilea boys were summoned to a meeting and basically it's like hey uh rich who is it who's the guy who's head of aprilea result rizzy riz i can't remember his name you always get it for me oh god now i put you on the spot didn't i've gone blank yeah you've been throwing so many versions of a name at me i've actually forgotten what it is now uh come back to me give me a minute so he they came they all got to bring the riders into their their their pit complex and it was basically look we have the front row you guys are here to race but you will race respectfully and you will not take each other out so that was exactly what they talked about it was look we're not gonna you get it rich but massimo rivola massive reveal this is because of what happened between fernandez and martin and barcelona i think yes why they had that little um yes altercation yeah that's probably the the polite way of putting it and both both of whom were still blaming each other for that if you want to say it the unpolitically correct way you would say that fernandez took his brain out of his brain out set it on the handlebars yeah well he denies that of course but then you know they always do don't they film don't lie clearly it's kind of for me it's not funny haha but it's just kind of slightly amusing that aprilia have gone from being pretty much a laughingstock in the moto gp pilot for years after they came back in what the mid 20s remember there may be i can't think now say to 2014 or something like that they've been around for quite a while and tens i'm gonna go yeah it'll be somewhere around about that i think when they came back again anyway and now they got this problem and i have to calm the riders down so they're not taking each other out from winning positions i mean it's an extraordinary change of form isn't it really it is it's great it's but that's great it's sort of the good bad problem to have right absolutely yeah so with that bez winds up getting a whole shot at the start of the race fernandez is with him but goes way wide at turn one apparently not wanting to violate any of the rules that have been set out and so it was bez then martin so it's an aprilia one two benyaya snuck in there as they headed up the hill mark marquez was fourth going up the hill and alder was behind so it's either it's an all italian front five as they go up the hill martin then went what was wide at one as well that's how and then that's how benyaya gets by him to get to second place when they get to lap two by lap three benyaya was leading at turn one acosta had worked his way past mark marquez and then mark went right back by now this part of the section of the race is the probably the most boring part of it benyaya was leading bez was right there with him martin was right there after that but boy did mark marquez acosta and alder put on a show and thank goodness they showed us some of it because otherwise this race would just be doomed to being an absolute failure but i gotta give marquez some props one he has just had the surgery two he's not at the full strength three he doesn't want to risk crashing and injuring that shoulder more to which he can't possibly not necessarily but his whole right arm shoulder collarbone whatever he doesn't really want to risk any further injury with that but damn did he keep trying and i think it was like look boy you might be my teammate next year i.e acosta but i am still the number one i am the king and if you want this throne you are going to have to dethrone the king and my gosh that was some absolutely great racing that was happening right there carl were you near a big screen where you got could be mark and acosta going at each other yeah we were directly opposite the big screen yeah as you say jim i think um the battle between marquez and acosta is what made the race really it's fairly static at the front once bez got out of the front he was controlling it from there i think the biggest shame is fernandez going wide at the first turn it would have been very interesting to see what he could have done in his second race after his victory in the second race sprint i think is that fernandez first sprint victory yes it was yeah yeah so yeah yeah massive massive shame for fernandez to go wide on the false neutral going into turn one apparently interesting okay that's what i heard on yeah i think on paddock pass i think that's what he said in his you know post-race media debrief um i don't know to what extent i mean it's a bit strange with moto gp gearboxes in particular that you can still hit a false neutral to me uh but apparently that's what he said so certainly ruined his race uh it's also worth pointing out jim that just the degree to which acosta was getting gobbled up on the straight as well i mean the ktm seriously struggling all of a sudden for kind of top end speed mark was just breezing past him and i totally agree with what you say i mean there's quite a lot of territory marking going on between those two this season because they know that they're going to be competing against each other and i suspect mark's a little bit worried about the cost of turning up there yeah on equal equipment the question is can the kid dethrone the king and that's going to be interesting but i think if we've ever seen anybody be adaptable it's mark and maybe a little more so than acosta so if you throw an 850 with pirellis at marquez i'm not betting against that is a costa going to probably be there and make a menacing thing yeah he's going to be a menace but he's more like going to be i think the pesky fly and i think you know i honestly think if you get to 850s if mark wins the title next year he's got nine he's done he's just going to walk off that podium be like i i have accomplished everything i ever wanted to do i'm beaten up my body is basically okay i was looking for batter i was going to say rebuilt well yeah you know take it for what it's worth there uh you know he doesn't have anything else to prove at that point so i think what's going to be funny is do you remember mark's face the first time he got on the grassini at that valencia test the bigger in a couple years that's going to be a costa as well oh i think so because i'm gonna choose my words carefully the ktm is by far and away not the best bike on the grid correct and he he's been used to riding that so again making the assumption that ducati will put a good bike out next year i think it's very hard to imagine that they'll put a bad bike out you have to imagine that the cost is going to feel like a kid in a candy shop on that thing so that just adds another layer of nuance and interest to us in that battle which is going to be fascinating with mark marquez he will want to stay top of the pile of course he will i mean he's been used to being there isn't he he wasn't there for a long time he got back to the top and i don't think he wants to you know essentially go back to go out on a high as you say he wants to go out with a title and yeah being you know that that goat uh discussion will then kick off in earnest in earnest marquez hangs up the helmet all right well either way yeah sorry carl do you think marquez will definitely ride next year yes yeah i know he's i know he's contracted but i think so i think he was hiding the shoulder injury wasn't he jim which all of a sudden kind of told us what the problems were and why he was looking and sounding the way he was i think if he wins a few races before the end of the year which i'm pretty sure he will do then he will go into next year i don't my doubts about that have sort of evaporated since the shoulder issue became known and has been you know repaired although it's work in progress still the internet rumor is that the the that he will ride but his contract he will sign a two-year contract to race 27 28 but there is there is a retirement clause in that contract that everybody essentially has now finally agreed to and it's i think that retirement clauses i win a title i'm done so anyway um if we go and they've got a costa yeah so what are they what what do they care you know yeah no they've they've got more than enough talent and we got aldega i i wonder if there was a bit of waiting around for a costa to be sure that his signature was on a contract because it was rumored and we don't know that he's technically signed but i think that ducati was waiting the cost of signature goes to a contract maybe a few maybe a month or two ago maybe now they said okay well mark what do you need to ride for us i want we want you to for two years i don't know if i want to race two years well can i do a one-year contract no we don't want a one-year we want security because we want two riders that are going to be together for two years and then the market turns over roughly every two mark's like no not going to do that and then you know once a cost is signed they're like okay mark if it takes us to give you a retirement clause it says that you can get out if this happens then you know what i'm not going to do that i'm not going to do that i'm not going to do that we'll take it and sign it i think that's where they are yeah and i would be willing well if i was in ducati's position i would be getting max kilos's signature on a long-term pre-contract around about now as well immediately if not sooner probably already happened probably but somebody will you know because you can sign a client says i'll come to moto gp in two years time or three years time you just need to get the signature on a piece of paper yep and i i also think that mark is going to be in the pits a lot but he will be with max tutoring telling showing talking that's going to be a really deadly combination yeah either way let's finish up this race here like i said if it isn't for the race between marquez acosta and aldegar it really isn't a great race they go back and forth the for the entire for the entire time uh we did have uh bastiani and marquez and marquez and marquez and marquez and marquez and marquez and marquez and martini crashing at turn 10 again his favorite spot on the track bez will work by ben yaya on lap 14 at turn one bez then pulls away like he just put his head down i mean in a lap he had a 1.1 second lead i think he had almost eight tenths to the first two sectors on ben yaya acosta would get back by marquez again they're like this isn't going to quit going on martin would get by ben yaya on lap 17 again you now the marquez acosta digia battle now includes ayagura as ayagura has now turned the wick up we know he's good on old tires and he always comes good at the end of the race so he's really flying and he's catching up five to go aguras by acosta at turn one and he closes the door on acosta pretty hard digia then winds up getting by acosta things stagnate out then and then you finally get to the last lap where iagura is in the lead and then he's in the lead and then he's in the lead and then iagura is actually coming for ben yaya he was really going for it really go really going super fast trying to get there now i mean you know he's obviously the fastest guy on the track they get to the last turn ayagura goes up the inside forces ben yaya wide but ben yaya kind of sensed it was coming tucked it back in the inside because if you go deep into that turn you ruin your exit speed coming out then yaya knew that if ayagura went there he was going to be in the lead and then he wouldn't have as much rolling speed through the middle of the corner ben yaya turned his rolling speed at the middle of the corner into his advantage and nips ayagura at the line to be third so that last lap is pretty fascinating with ayagura but it isn't enough to save the race because bezeki wins italian rider italian bag italian track rich i'll ask you this question did you recognize the helmet pattern that he had on oh yes i had that in my early notes which i mentioned yeah the alex zanardi already tribute which i thought was absolutely fabulous really nice and i didn't know actually um you probably saw kimmy antonelli yes in the park fairmere area him and bez are big mates apparently nice to see um it always cracks me up when you see the four-in-one drivers next to the bike riders because you know the four-in-one drivers just got like solid necks um yeah just looks it kind of looks a bit ridiculous really but it goes to show the g-forces rd um banya that was a good ride by banya i mean we haven't mentioned him but it was nice to see that and quite emotional for him i would think at mugello in his final season on the ducati well as far as we know the final season on the ducati and really showed his racecraft and knowledge of the track with that last turn with ayagura who you know if i gira could qualify he'd be a sort of championship contender wouldn't he but he just can't seem to his skill at maintaining the tie some amount of attire and qualifying i think i can only assume that's the problem because he just even a motor too it was a problem for him if you recall so if he could just sort that out he would be continuously now troubling the front i think uh but banya really saved ducati's blushes although not to much degree but that would have been you know another one two three for aprilia had banya not just nipped him on the line as you said jim so um yeah i know he's fallen out of favor but i tardozzi was giving him a few kisses on the cheeks for getting on the podium at least yep uh after the agra is fourth digia falls a cop agura through to get fifth um you know in that battle that was going on acosta is sixth mark marquez is seventh out of your eighth ralph fernandez after that mistake at turn one is ninth then morera a top 10 i thought that was really good for morera and the honda bender's 11th mirror is 12th luca marini 13th so you know there's a guy in between the rookie on the honda versus you guys have been riding the honda then morbidelli and miller gets the last point um final thoughts about the race rich yeah then carl's got to say something but i was very annoyed because actually 15th went to top rack but then he got hit with the track limits penalty he just really green on the last lap and that automatically demotes him otherwise he would have been top yamaha i didn't know that and cotoraro languishing down just ahead of piro um that's a discussion for another day we'll see how the next couple of rounds go for cotoraro but to me and i can sort of understand why to some extent but he just appears to have decided that you know he's lost interest this year and he's just waiting for we believe the hrc thing to start but that's not great is it no not really unless he feels vulnerable and you know the bike's dangerous or something but i don't think that can be the case because i mean he pulled one out in the middle of the night and he's just waiting for the next couple of rounds on didn't he sure did so there is performance in there uh but top rack i think is doing an outstanding job given that he's going most of these tracks i mean he won't have been at magello before so to come across the line effectively first yamaha home i think is an unbelievable performance really and okay he got track limits thing on the last lap but that was probably a couple of mil on the green you know so that to me is just a bs kind of penalty really for sure carl final thoughts of the race yeah a bit of an emotional win there for bez uh we were we were sat where boseki came to do his uh post-race celebrations so the crowd were going absolutely mental at the turn boseki um i know we're only seven rounds in but is it too early to think about boseki as this year's champion don't jinx it that's all i'm gonna say it looks like it's between bez and martin doesn't it at this point i mean that i think is where we're at i think that um sorry i forgot what i was going to say then it's all right let's uh we'll work to the championship standings here and if you think of it carl we'll get back to it but boseki's on 173 he's 17 ahead of martin he's on 156 then digi antonio is third he is a 39 point gap behind that's not insurmountable but it's it's not a big deal it's not a big deal it's not a big deal it's starting to grow it's looking like it's bez's championship especially considering the fact that when 25 points are on the board bez generally gets those 25 points acosta's fourth of the points agura fifth fernandez sixth banyaya seventh ah mark marquez eighth alex marquez ninth then outager on the ducati is 10th that is everything from magello any final thoughts about anything from magello before we sign off what you're going to say carl was it still gone just about boseki really um i think he's perhaps got one hand on the title maybe not even one hand maybe a few fingers on the trophy um and just maybe i was wrapped up with it because i was there at magello but the way the crowd reacted to him um his fan club on that corner and um just the way it's almost it's looking a bit rossi-esque i mean i think boseki he also he also looks a bit like rossi as well he is the natural successor to rossi i think yeah yeah this is that sort of same carefree sort of quite sort of odd sense of humor that's kind of endearing i think and yeah he's very popular wherever wherever he goes so i think you're right there carl yeah he'll be a very popular champion and a good one for all the championship as well but there's a long way to go yet yeah 22 races makes the championship and i have to say that the next one we go to this well starting tomorrow in actual fact is the car park in hungary so uh i'm not expecting a weekend of particularly fantastic racing if i'm honest but there's a couple of things that will be intriguing at uh ballaton park but uh hopefully we won't see um accostas or anybody else's motorcycles going up here in hungary so i'm not expecting a weekend of particularly fantastic racing but that's where we're gonna be for this year we're going to take a look at the last two races but we're going to take a look at the last two races and then we'll see where we can be on the track for this year so this is the last time we'll be at this track i i strongly suspect we'll be going somewhere like turkey before very much longer and i would imagine hungary will be one of the rounds that gets chopped i can't wait for turkey i would love to see turkey back on the schedule that track was phenomenal elevation change everything you want the last section a little mickey mouse but it's a toki track built for formula one so people can look at a car and see a sticker anyway all right um magello just always sort of delivers doesn't it it's just such a stunning place for a track to be in as carl said it's just like a parcel on the side of a mountain it's just yeah uh it just philippa island aside where you could sort of say the same thing i suppose almost it just doesn't get any better than that in my eyes no sure doesn't all right so that is the show folks remember to reach out to us uh on our social channels uh official underscore motopod instagram blue sky all the social media things you can email us at motopod of motopodcast.com if you can if you can financially help the show out you can go to our website www.motopodcast.com paypal patreon links any little bit can help if you can't that's great we understand and if you could leave us a review where you get your podcast uh goodbyes everyone so we'll let rich to his goodbye yeah well i say be watching pre-practice one in a few hours time so although you know i'm not necessarily particularly looking forward to the this weekend's racing if i'm honest but because it's not just not a suitable track for a moto gp i mean arguably not for moto 2 or moto 3 for that matter but anyway i mean it is what it is but um yeah it was great uh it's been great to have carl on giving us some trackside insight and uh yeah i'll look forward to talking next time out carl last words yeah thanks for letting me join the top table the fast the fast group of motopod me and dan are very much stuck in the novice group at the moment i think but uh thanks for letting me join oh no worries there mate good to have you on cheers all right everyone ride safe you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Thank you. Thank you.