Martin unfortunately didn’t stay as calm as I’d hoped for today. It was a massive ask for him to get to the front and stay there , and then see if Bagnaia got beaten up further back to give him one last shot at the title. But Pecco proved why he is a worthy Champion, keeping cool and has made the right decisions along the way, even if he isn’t the most exciting of characters. Martin IS as exciting as fuck to watch though. The chances he’s taken this season to stay as a challenger have kept us on the edge of our seats. Brilliant. A season to remember for a long time. P.s , I hope MM is fit enough to ring the neck of that Ducati on Tuesday. An unfortunate incident with him and JM today.
couldn’t have put it better myself!…. It never takes long and literally doesn’t matter how small the error is, it’s time to go burn his house down apparently. anyway…. I think it’s unfortunate that jorge Martin let his head go today, I don’t blame him the pressure was immense, but he was lucky not to wipe them both out into turn 1 and then he did the same to Marquez, he was understandably but not correctly trying to do too much every corner
He was just racing, agreed. Binder and Martin are happy to rub fairings too. Qualifying, MM got in the way of Martin on his hot lap. Maybe cost pole. Sprint race, left rubber on the leathers of Martin trying to go up the inside. Today..50/50. Racing incident. I’m not saying anything other than he has influenced the weekend in a negative way for Martin. Martin imo should have waited for a clean pass. Impatient, just like Binder. What a weekend of racing though. Martin and MM on Ducati next year. What can go wrong…
This is what Andy is referring to not the incident with Martin https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1042201/1/bezzecchi-marc-marquez-made-me-crash-nobody-punishes-him
Forgot about that during the race. tbh, a few will need to calm down a bit for next season. The Binder move on Alex Marquez was rather hard too. Martin on MM crash was due to Jorge being too hasty. Yes, we want overtakes, but we dont want injuries as a result. Just read this morning that Digi was given a three second penalty after the race for tyre pressure rule infringement. Imo that rule needs to be dropped and quickly. A real farce and teams/riders nearly need a crystal ball not to run foul of it. Let the riders race ffs.
The Martin/93 incident reminded me (a bit) of the FQ "incident" in Aragon last year. Rider going over the limits to stay in front of another rider involved in the championship (when he wasn't) and when that inevitably goes tits up, others suffer.. Its racing but if youre not a huge fan of 93 it certainly adds fuel to the flames (which i imagine he gives zero fucks about of course).
I tend to agree but this has been coming a while, a lot of ex racers (including ben spies) have been saying for a while that the aero and ride height stuff is making the bikes really really hard to overtake each other, so the overtakes you see are often in super sketchy situations. it’s going the way of f1, and it seems nobody within MotoGP can even see the similarity…. At this rate I imagine maybe another 2 years and you won’t see overtaking unless someone has a bad tyre. Look at the aero development over the last 3 months, now the wings on the back are designed to disrupt the air behind the bike, exactly like a formula 1 car, to make following harder
Be interesting to see a wind tunnel experiment ,showing the unsettled air behind a winged bike compared to what you may call a standard bike. The talent pool of riders is immense. Be a shame to end up with the equivalent of an F1 series where we don’t get to see their true ability. But certainly looks like that’s where it’s heading.
The way I see it is when manufacturers decide to go racing nowadays, their primary objective is to win races, but one of their other objectives is to take what they have learned from racing and use it to improve their motorcycles so that you and I benefit. Triumph have got it right, they supply engines for the Moto 2 series, and the outcome is they now produce a fantastic bullet-proof 765 engine available to all of us via the Street Triple. With MotoGP a lot of R&D money has been poured into aero & ride height devices... is any of that a real benefit to us, or the motorcycles we purchase? Perhaps if MotGP put a ban on aero & ride-height devices we will benefit from better / closer racing. Hmmm...
And just announced that DiGi has joined Bez in VR46 MotoGP squad for next year. Not a total surprise, but well deserved imho...
Re the whole tyre pressure thing. Imagine this scenario: Martin won. Bagnaia came in 4th, therefore winning the title. Bagnaia hit with penalty of 3 seconds, after the race and track side celebrations for winning the championship, to be relegated to 6th and then having to hand title to Martin…. Longwinded and hypothetical I know, but with what actually happened yesterday, not beyond an unrealistic situation. It needs sorting!
your view on Triumph ‘now having a bullet proof engine’ is interesting, because the 675 in all guises was absolutely bullet proof compared to the volumes sold, yes the racing has improved efficiency’s for example but the engine got selected because it was great, not the other way around. Incidentally it’s why the MV Agusta 800 triple wasn’t chosen, it wasn’t strong enough to start with, even though as a race engine it’s shorter stroke and counter crank is a better starting point
MM can be blamed for a lot of crashes and reckless riding....IMO this one was Martin's fault. "For me, the argument is, should a rider who has not made an impact on the top spots by the end of the season, ruin a rider’s race who has." Racers are paid to give 100% on a given day, and obviously to finish as high as possible in the championship. (doesn't really matter if 1st or 10th place) Therefore, why would one give space to a competitor?
Yes, you are absolutely right! The original Triumph 675 engine was excellent & it was bomb-proof! The point I was trying to make is that by racing the engine in Moto 2, Triumph engineers learned a lot from the process so they make improvements to their engines in the bikes we ride. The 2023 765RS has new pistons, conrods, primary gears...
Errr. My 675 Daytona track only bike wasn’t bomb proof. The Gen 1 and Gen 2 675’s are renowned for heat exchanger issues. So much so that you can buy a billet oil cooler to completely separate the oil and cooling systems. I wish I knew this before I ended up with a slippery mix of oil and coolant all over my rear tyre.
