Winners
The championship
A few rounds ago we all thought MotoGP was boring and that the championship was over. After India all that changed. Now we believe MotoGP is boring but the championship isn’t quite over.
That’s an impressive 50% improvement.
Marco Bezzecchi & Jorge Martin
Bezzecchi was better performing on the track and Martin better performing off it. But both took the fight to the Bagnaia and found the bearded Italian slumped in a gravel trap clapping himself.
Japanese manufacturers
For reasons unknown both Honda and Yamaha inexplicitly found form in India. Not Morbidelli of course – he was still pretty terrible. As, predictably, was Honda’s token rider Takaaki Nakagami. But for whatever reason ex-champions Marquez and Quartarararo found themselves near the front both earning a podium.
More amazing was that Joan Mir, who according to a false input on Wikipedia is also supposedly an ex-world champion, was for the first time this season not awful. Obviously he fell off in the sprint race – but that’s normal. Not normal, however, was the fact the Spaniard finished fifth (seriously – look it up) in the main event meaning that he’s scored more points in this one race than the rest of the season put together then multiplied by a million…probably.
Going into the next race in their homeland of Japan both Honda and Yamaha have their beansprouts erect and proud as they ride high on their fleeting success…which should make their predicted return to form even more noodle crushing.
The race
A fantastic Moto3 race is every bit as predictable as the aforementioned Joan Mir falling off whilst near the back of the field. Moto2 too (two?) has also a sneaky habit of throwing us a cracking race in preparation for the final let down.
Not this weekend. Moto3 was dull. As was Moto2.
So with such a low starting point MotoGP looked set to test our eyelid strength after lap 2. But it was, all things considered, quite entertaining.
That’s relatively speaking of course. Take off the Dorna-affiliated rose-tinted Oakley’s and the Indian race was still perhaps dreadful but given the monotonous beige paste we’ve been force fed these past few years then we can happily take this as a win…as we slowly morph into F1 v 2.0.
Losers
Pecco Bagnaia
Motorcycle crashes in India are commonplace. In most cases the wreckage is just pushed to the side of the road and left to the stray dogs to pick through. No one generally takes much notice. But, in the case of Bagnaia’s crash in India, it was shocking enough for the crowd to spit out their biryani.
Since crashing upside in Ibiza Pecco, at the request of the police, has been on his best behaviour and has kept his unforced spills to a bare minimum. But then Catalunya happened – and once again the world champion lost control of his vehicle on Spanish soil. This gave the foaming-at-the-mouth chasing hounds of Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi a glimmer of hope.
This weekend Bagnaia needed to stamp his authority on the championship a make a big impression. And he did – in the four-foot deep gravel.
Fabio Quartarararo
The likeable yet French Yamaha rider rode his beret off all weekend gaining a well-earned podium in the main race. Much to our confusion Fabio was so strong that he almost stole second place on the final lap from Jorge Martin who lost concentration whilst daydreaming of a frosty ice drink.
So why is Quartararararo a loser? Because he’s staying with Yamaha next year whilst his teammate has landed a plum ride on the best bike on the grid.
It’s not what you know – It’s who you know.
Luca Marini
The spaghettified Italian had an eventful weekend…
- Belittled by his less experienced teammate
- Crashed into his teammate
- Ruined teammate’s chance of a victory as he was clearly the fastest rider
- Broke collarbone at the busiest part of the season
- Missed main race
- Given a double long lap penalty for his next race
All-in-all not a stella weekend for Marini who presumably had to the face the wrath of the team manager afterwards…oh wait…that didn’t happen. Maybe a two-year extension to his contract instead?
Journalistic knowledge
When the rumours first started that Marc Marquez could leave Honda at the end of the year and join Ducati we were all dancing around with excitement…except for a bitter demographic who turned the yellow to brown in a localised area.
Such excitement was a welcome relief given the way Dorna has doubled the amount of boring races this season.
But our momentary euphoria was kicked in the spuds when the journalists all clubbed together to give us endless “100 reasons why Marquez won’t move to Ducati” articles to dampen our spirits and crush our souls. They knew better than us…so clearly the Honda/Ducati switch was nothing but fantastical dreaming.
Or was it?
Once again the “Will he? Won’t he? Why doesn’t he just tell us for god’s sake?” questions regarding Marc’s future cropped up with the pendulum now swinging towards the “oh god he’s actually going to do it”.
Apparently we’ll find out at the next race in Japan. If we do, and Marquez does switch, prepare yourself for a barrage of “I told you so” tweets and articles from those ‘in the know’.