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Showing posts with label marquez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marquez. Show all posts

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Track - Austin MotoGP


 March pre-season testing set the scene for the inaugural Austin MotoGP.  That the Repsol Hondas and Stefan Bradl lead the way over the factory Yamahas was not a surprise.  What was a surprise was that it was rookie Marc Marquez who topped the timesheets, not his 7th MotoGP season veteran Dani Pedrosa.  While Marquez played down his pace, in deference to the then team leader Pedrosa it was an ominous sign of what was to come.

The Circuit of the Americas is a strange track.  Fast sweeping corners and serious elevation changes make for a great TV spectacle, however most riders complain that despite its aesthetic beauty it does not flow properly, making it difficult to find the right lines and tiring to ride.  Unlike truly flowing tracks like Phillip Island, corner exits do not naturally lead to the next corner entry, making the right line difficult to find.  But it's the number of first gear corners (something like 40% of the lap is spent in first) that gives the natural advantage to the Hondas.  It was always up against Yamaha to overcome the hp and seamless shift transmission deficit.

Fast forward to qualifying and Marquez once again stole the limelight.  Pole for the 20 year old ahead of Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Crutchlow made him the youngest pole sitter in 500GP/MotoGP history.  Marquez did his best to tone down the hype but the prospect of eclipsing Freddie Spencer's record (youngest premier class winner) was the sole topic of conversation amongst the press and paddock.  With the natural advantages held by the Honda's, Sunday was looming as a two way shootout between the Spanish Repsol twins.

While Qatar had a metronomic leader disappearing ahead of an intense battle for second, Austin had an epic battle for the lead followed by relatively lonely rides for those behind.  A split tyre strategy where Marquez backed himself on the harder tyre posed more questions than answers early in the race.  Pedrosa did what was necessary, leading into turn 1 and was relentlessly stalked by Marquez, as in Qatar biding his time, waiting for his time to strike.  Try as he might, Lorenzo's inch perfect laps could not close the gap, although the differential was less than many expected.  Behind, Crutchlow put in his most impressive ride in MotoGP, challenging Lorenzo until a mistake put him off the track and into the pack with Bradl, Rossi and Bautista.  Impressively, however, as quickly as he was in the dogfight, he had cleared off again into a lonely ride for fourth.

Speaking of Rossi, after his Qatar heroics I was expecting him to charge the through pack and be competitive with Lorenzo (or at least Crutchlow).  But the Doctor had no remedy for a lack of confidence at a track with which he struggled to get to grips (and brakes) with.  Rossi revealed he lost a chunk of his brake disc after the race, but it is unlikey he would have challenged even without the problem
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 So back to the main show.  After losing the lead into the first turn, Marquez held station behind his team mate, waiting for his opportunity to make the move back.  At no stage was Pedrosa able to pull a gap, despite being on the medium rear tyre, versus Marquez on the harder option.  As in Qatar, it was only a matter of time befor Marquez shoved it up the inside on lap 13, and try as he might, Pedrosa struggled to keep tabs.  Riding at 11/10ths, he made a mistake with a couple of laps to go, fulfilling Marquez's destiny to break both of Freddie's record in one weekend.


On the in lap, the congratulations from the entire field showcased the arrival of the next era of MotoGP.  Rossi, in particular, made a special effort to congratulate him.  Greatness recognises greatness.




Friday 19 April 2013

Track - MotoGP Qatar


The pre season posed more questions than answers.  Would this be Pedrosa's year?  Will Rossi be able to recapture his previous powers?  Will Lorenzo make a mistake?  Will Marquez be able to step into the shoes of Stoner?  Will Ducati find hope?

A new F1 style qualifying format lead to a 'Q2' field that was much as expected, however the new format caught up a number of the big names.  Lorenzo on pole was not a surprise, but Crutchlow in second definitely was.  You get the sense that the indignation of not having full factory support is worth at least 3 or 4 tenths for Cal.  Dovi in fourth was a ray of sunshine for Ducati, made all the more impressive by beating Marquez in 6th and Rossi in 7th.

So 2 of the big 4 were outside the top 5.  When the race started, it was really a tale of 2 fields.  One was the sole realm of Lorenzo, who disappeared from pole and was never seen again.  His metronomic times are now the stuff of legend, but it was so effective that we barely saw Lorenzo on the coverage.

The second field was a cracker.  Watching Lorenzo disappear, Pedrosa focused on keeping his rookie team mate and Crutchlow behind.  Rossi started well, tailing Pedrosa but overcooked his corner entry on lap 3, bending his brake lever protector and running off track.  The next 10 laps seemed to be a fight for second between the Repsols and Crutchlow.  Marquez surprised many with his controlled aggression, keeping his trademark bruising style in check. 

The apparent strengths and weaknesses of the Hondas vs. Yamahas persist into 2013.  The sweet mid corner handling of the Yamaha that Rossi has craved for the past 2 years interplayed with the much stronger drive from the Honda seamless shift transmission and higher engine power.  No where was this more apparent that in the mid race battle between Crutchlow and the Repsol twins.  Working his backside off to close up on the back of the Hondas, Crutchlow was powerless to fight their straight line speed.

Having had to battle with Bradl and Dovi after his early off, Rossi started to come into the frame with 10 laps to go.  Chipping away a gap of about 5 seconds to Crutchlow, Rossi displayed an ability to rattle off fast laps that we have not seen since the failed Ducati experiment started.  The collective motorcycling world held its breath as the Rossi of old (rather than the impostor wearing his leathers that we ahve seen for the past 2 years) reappeared.  Consistently reducing the gap to the Repsol/Cruthlow trio by 0.5secs per lap, Rossi caught the battle for the podium with 5 laps to go.  As Marquez finally moved on Pedrosa, Rossi used the carrot of watching Marquez disappearing to pass Crutchlow on the straight and then home in on Pedrosa.  Rossi achieved what Crutchlow couldn't, finding a gap up the inside of Pedrosa setting a scene for a showdown between the old school and the very new school.

Of all the riders in the current paddock, Rossi has been the most complimentary of Marquez.  He sees a lot of himself in the rookie, who has truly stunned the GP paddock with the ease he has adapted his small frame to the complexities and brutality of the 1000cc machines.  Watching them dice for the last 3 laps was the most excitement we've seen since Lorenzo first entered the class.  All credit to Marquez, despite being passed with 3 laps to go, he refused to be intimidated and regained second place briefly.  The old man would have been impressed, but stamped his authority 2 corners later and was not to be caught.  Realising that a podium on debut ahead of his team mate was at astake, Marquez kept his head to take 3rd.

What a race!



Thursday 28 February 2013

Track - Sepang Test II wrap up

It's always a trap to read too much into test times.  Set up changes, race simulations, tyre testing and weather conditions play a huge part in determining the final order.  The second MotoGP Sepang test was subject to all of these, but we can see a few trends emerging:

-The fight at the front will be once again Repsol Honda vs. Factory Yamaha
-Marquez is a freak and has gotten to grips with the machine very quickly, his comments that the other big three are in a different race are just for expectation management
-Pedrosa is not going to have it all his way, he could be easily upstaged as Marquez rapidly goes up the learning curve
-Rossi will fight for podiums and occasionally wins, but Lorenzo clearly has his measure at this stage as shown by his race simulation 
-Cal Crutchlow is a podium contender, however the amount of support he gets from the factory could impede his raw speed
-Ducati are still in the doldrums
-The gaps between prototypes and CRTs remain staggering if you remove the Ducati's who are battling with the fastest of the CRTs
        
Pedrosa looks to be very comfortable without Stoner to chase
Marquez is up to speed with the machine already, imagine what it'll look like after another 2 tests!
Lorenzo's race pace puts him squarely in the mix
Crutchlow will be glad he missed out on the Ducati ride
Rossi shows decent pace, but not enough to reel in Lorenzo
Overall Results from all Three Days of MotoGP’s Second Test at Sepang, Malaysia:
Pos.Num.RiderTeamTimeDiff.Prev.Day
199Jorge LorenzoYamaha2:00.282 - -Day 2
226Dani PedrosaHonda2:00.5620.2800.280Day 3
393Marc MarquezHonda2:00.6430.3610.081Day 3
435Cal CrutchlowYamaha2:00.9070.6250.264Day 2
546Valentino RossiYamaha2:01.0620.7800.155Day 3
619Alvaro BautistaHonda2:01.0780.7960.016Day 3
76Stefan BradlHonda2:01.3091.0270.231Day 3
84Andrea DoviziosoDucati2:01.6501.3680.341Day 3
969Nicky HaydenDucati2:01.7781.4960.128Day 2
1038Bradley SmithYamaha2:02.0231.7410.245Day 2
1129Andrea IannoneDucati2:02.5662.2840.543Day 3
1251Michele PirroDucati Test2:02.7732.4910.207Day 3
1314Randy de PunietAprilia ART2:02.8632.5810.090Day 3
1441Aleix EspargaroAprilia ART2:02.9052.6230.042Day 2
15T2Katsayuki NakasugaYamaha Test2:02.9462.6640.041Day 2
1611Ben SpiesDucati2:03.0552.7730.109Day 3
178Hector BarberaFTR Kawasaki2:03.1552.8730.100Day 3
18T1Wataru YoshikawaYamaha Test2:03.2572.9750.102Day 3
197Hiroshi AoyamaFTR Kawasaki2:03.9903.7080.733Day 2
2017Karel AbrahamAprilia ART2:04.0663.7840.076Day 3
215Colin EdwardsFTR Kawasaki2:04.1023.8200.036Day 3
229Danilo PetrucciSuter BMW2:04.2793.9970.177Day 2
2337Takumi TakahashiHonda Test2:04.5124.2300.233Day 2
2470Michael LavertyPBM Aprilia2:04.5464.2640.034Day 3
2568Yonny HernandezAprilia ART2:04.6714.3890.125Day 2
2652Lukas PesekSuter BMW2:04.6744.3920.003Day 3
2771Claudio CortiFTR Kawasaki2:04.7094.4270.035Day 2
2867Bryan StaringFTR Honda2:05.3135.0310.604Day 3

Thursday 23 August 2012

Track - It's official, Ducati and Yamaha swap Italians



So the silly season for factory bikes is over.  Ducati announced that Andrea Dovisioso would take Valentino Rossi's seat next year, having signed a contract until 2014.  The likely candidate for this ride has changed from Rossi staying, to Dovi's team mate Crutchlow, and finally to Dovi.  The irony of the situation is that Dovi had moved to Yamaha Tech 3 with the hopes to move up to Spies' seat in the Factory team.  With Spies quitting Yamaha, it seemed that the plan was falling into place, however Rossi's desire to get on a competitive bike asap blocked this path for Dovi.  Crutchlow 'The Honey Badger' has been speaking publically about the verbal offer he had from Ducati for a long time and will be dismayed by the way he has been strung along and ultimately dumped in favour of his team mate.

So Dovi is now back in a factory team, but the underperforming one.  The Ducati has been a career killer for all but Stoner so it is a brave move, however Dovi will be hoping that new Audi money and technology will fast track the development of the bike.

So confirmed riders for 2013 prototype bikes are now:

Factory Yamaha Racing: Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi
Repsol Honda: Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez
Ducati Team: Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovisioso
LCR Honda: Stefan Bradl
Tech 3 Yamaha: Bradley Smith
Cardion Ducati: Karel Abraham

The key riders looking for a ride are now Cal Crutchlow (who you would think would stay with Tech 3), Ben Spies (Could return with Suzuki to MotoGP or go to WSBK with BMW), Hector Barbera (who is currently injured) and Alvaro Bautista (talk is that his ride at Gresini is at risk).