Just like the Spanish national anthem, there are no words to describe what happened over the weekend. But I need to have a go, since Hedgie won’t be happy if I just send him a blank document with the odd swear word.
Marc Marquez topped every single session, then went on to eat his opponents’ souls by setting a race-lap record on the third-to-last lap of Sunday’s race. It’s a fair bet the rest of the field did nothing after the race but stare at the floor, wondering what can possibly be done to stop this from happening over and over.
If it’s not Marc winning, then it’s his brother. They carried off another one-two with seemingly effortless ease. Which then meant the world once again got to “enjoy” what is simply the worst dancing since I started busting disco moves back in the 70s.
Against his current run of bad form, Pecco clung grimly on to third place, and there were noises his team had “found” something. Talk suggests the turnaround in feel that the Italian has been searching for came via the firtment of the largest option 355 mm brakes, which due to their extra rotating mass gave Pecco somewhat of a breakthrough that boosted his confidence. Pecco was 12th in the Sprint but improved to third in the main race.
Rookie Fermin Aldegeur fought viciously with Franky Morbidelli in what had to have been one of the best stoushes this year. Franky was quite determined to school young Fermin in the way of the premier class, and he certainly did on Sunday, after Fermin initially flogged him in Saturday’s race. They took fifth and sixth respectively, unable to catch Pedro Acosta who managed not to fall off at all this weekend.
Joan Mir also did better on Sunday, managing to stay upright and finish seventh, while adding to his impressive DNF tally for HRC in the Sprint race, courtesy of Jack Miller. Jack basically helped Joan into the gravel, where Joan fell off all by himself because he was never much of a dirt rider. Jack copped a LLP, and Mir stayed away from him on Sunday.
Sunday’s gravel-ploughing was left to Quartararo (who is not a fan of Aragon), Zarco, and Brad Binder.
Marco Bezzecchi was a shining light over the weekend. A crash in Q1 saw Marco starting from 20th on the grid, but he worked his way through the field to finish a credible eighth in both races. He’s obviously come to terms with the Aprilia, unlike his mate, Bastianini, who cries himself to sleep each night wondering why his KTM hates him so much.
Rumours continued to swirl like crazy in the paddock. Jorge Martin is said to be speaking to HRC, on the basis he will be a free agent by the end of the year. Aprilia is of the view that once Jorge actually starts racing their bike, he will come around and hang until the end of his two-year contract. Dorna, on the brink of finalising the Liberty Media purchase is displeased with the situation, and would like “contract integrity” to be an actual thing. For its part, HRC keeps telling everyone it totally respects all the contracts all the time. But if you think HRC’s test rider, Team Captain, and Jorge’s BFF, Aleix Espargaro isn’t in Martin’s ear every day, I have a bridge you’d be interested in buying.
Luca Marini, currently rather badly injured after trowelling himself during practice for the Suzuka Eight Hour, is said to be heading for an HRC WSBK seat next year.
Testing followed immediately on the heels of Sunday’s race. Once again, Marc rubbed more salt into everyone’s wounds by dominating, up until Bezz and Maverick Vinales shot to the top of timesheets. Batmav actually ran a 1.45.694, which was a shade quicker than Marc’s race-lap record of 1.46.705m.
All the teams had new things to try, but KTM came armed for bear, with revised fairings, some new carbon fibre swing-arms here and there, and Batmav also scored a bigger mass damper to try out.
Trackhouse Aprilia gave Moto2 monster, Manu Gonzales, a crack on the injured Ogura’s bike, and despite an early crash, Manu was impressively quick on his first outing, faster than regular MotoGP pilot Somkiat Chantra. As the Thai rider is yet to score a championship point that might not be as big as it sounds, but nonetheless a good first crack for Gonzales to be two-seconds off the benchmark set on the day by Vinales.
Yamaha were all bout the swing-arms. Fabio stuck with the one he’d used on the weekend in the morning session, while Rins was swapping his old one back-to-back with a newer version. They both also tried some new aero front and back, and both opted to stay with the older wings at the front.
And while the much-heralded Yamaha V4 was at Aragon, no-one tested it. Dovizioso, Miller, Oliveira, and Augusto Fernandez pretty much spent the weekend staring at it and wondering. Yamaha have two more days of testing this week coming up at Barcelona.
Honda’s lone HRC rider, Joan Mir, was trying out a carbon fibre swin-garm. The same one Aleix Espargaro raced just recently. Mir managed tenth spot, while Zarco also had a taste of the new swing-arm and seemed to like it. Chantra still looks like he is coming to terms with the premier class and finished dead last, utterly indifferent to what changes Honda might have been making to his bike.
The Spaniards are now heading into the hostile territory of Mugello, where the Italians boo the Marquez brothers from start to finish. Dorna actually turns the sound down if and when Marc is on the top step of the podium. For his part, Marc likes nothing better than to rub more salt – of which he has a massive bag – into the ever-open wounds of the Italian fans.
It will be awesome – wait and see.
