2023 Cota - Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas

MdubSTYLIE said:

Be careful sticking your neck out for Mav, you could end up like Louis XVI. I've made this mistake in the past in always been disappointed.

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.... starts on thr Yamaha, .... starts on the Aprilia. When are people going to learn it's not the bike, but Vinales?

MdubSTYLIE said:

I never had a single doubt that Prosecco Bagnia would fold under pressure.

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Like you, I said at the start of the season that he would either dominate or being like Sete Gibernau 2005. No one seems to have any consistency in GP these days.

Jorge Martin needs to calm down before he gets banned or kills someone. I like him but for ..... sake, he's riding like a .....

One honda.
Two honda.
Three honda.
Four.
All but one honda ends up on the floor.


Bravo Rins.

A* for effort there Dub.

If Rins rode like that every race.....

Props to Fabio too.

#22 said:

.... starts on thr Yamaha, .... starts on the Aprilia. When are people going to learn it's not the bike, but Vinales?

Like you, I said at the start of the season that he would either dominate or being like Sete Gibernau 2005. No one seems to have any consistency in GP these days.

Jorge Martin needs to calm down before he gets banned or kills someone. I like him but for ..... sake, he's riding like a .....

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Vinales is his own worst enemy as is Bagnia. I agree about Martin. I want to like him but he lacks conistancy. Win or bin is his style I guess.

#22 said:

A* for effort there Dub.

If Rins rode like that every race.....

Props to Fabio too.

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I'm happy for Fabio. Hopefully he can continue to stay near the pointy end on the upcoming tracks. They are ones he has favored in the past.

MdubSTYLIE said:

One honda.
Two honda.
Three honda.
Four.
All but one honda ends up on the floor.


Bravo Rins.

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The smoothest rider won on the satellite Honda. Time for HRC to draft Lorenzo in & replace Bradl as test rider.

mylexicon said:

Fabio is a hot mess. Only 1 podium in his last 9 races, and only 1 sprint race point in 3 tries.

In this sprint he put his front tire in to Rins rib cage, ran wide at the final turn before losing the front (and his points at Turn 1).

Last season he was on the verge of breaking down and it cost him the championship, imo. This year the world champion is long gone. He’s just riding like another mid pack marauder and blaming his bike.

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Being that it's been considered "accepted wisdom" among all the pundits that Marquez's poor results these past seasons were due to Honda not improving at the same rate as Ducati with the same being consistently said about Fabio and his relationship to the Yamaha, what insight do you have that leads you to believe that the issue is Fabio and not the bike?

michaelm said:

Rins getting results this early I meant of course.

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I'm seriously impressed. Can't wait to see if he can repeat this level of performance. He had of course, two advantages, being, One: He's always favored this track, and Two: It's been a Honda track since MotoGp first came here. Stoked for the LCR guys. Always love a good underdog.

Well, first non-Marc Honda victory since Crutchlow in 2018. Well deserved, Rins proves again the wrong Suzuki rider won the championship in 2020. It's fun to revisit season predictions now, most media outlets thought Rins would struggle with the wild Honda and Mir would adapt easier. Turns out that predicting the future can be hard.

Bagnaia... disappointed but not surprised. Dani Pedrosa on the Spanish feed suggested that maybe Pecco has a setup that makes him fast as hell at the cost of being very 'fragile' in terms of margin error, that he always crashes the same way and can't properly explain it.

Fabio got the podium but he knows he needed some luck with so many riders binning it. Still, nothing else he could do against the 'rocketships' as he likes to say about the rival bikes.

Maverick is not gonna improve his starts. This is who he is and that is what he offers.

Mildly ironic that the only KTM that finished was Folger's.

Will we see a penalty for Martín in the next race, or does that only happen when there's a social media shitstorm?

Very weird championship start and it could shape to be one like 2006 or 2020. Cool heads will prevail.

DavidSim said:

I am impressed by Rins myself so far this season, if he is for real on the Honda then they have scored a winner for sure. I am waiting to see his results for the next few races before I form my conclusion.

As for Mir, he reminds me of Nicky Hayden, a good rider who did not win much but got lucky with consistency at least once. If Rins continues to do well, and MM comes back and does his usual thing, then Mir will have to step up or become irrelevant.

Personally I hope that there is a good mix of manufacturers on the podium this year to keep things interesting, not just a Ducati free for all, we shall see. I am a Ducati fan though, without Ducati MotoGP would not be the same.

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Or . . . Marquez will bow to pressure from HRC to start using Mir's set-up.

Keshav said:

Being that it's been considered "accepted wisdom" among all the pundits that Marquez's poor results these past seasons were due to Honda not improving at the same rate as Ducati with the same being consistently said about Fabio and his relationship to the Yamaha, what insight do you have that leads you to believe that the issue is Fabio and not the bike?

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Because he lost despite such a large lead last year. Sure it would have been particularly meritorious for him to win on an inferior bike, but he was in a winning position in the title race and kept throwing the bike down the road. Like MM in 2015 except more so, if he had settled for position instead of crashing out he would have won the title. in his case he probably only needed to do it for for a couple of races. He was flaky in the 2000 season as well when he also had a good chance.

MM is extraordinarily fast, and a great rider obviously , but iif Rins can find a winning set-up in his third race it does call into question whether MM has limitations in this area. And perhaps Puig shouldn’t have fired Pedrosa.

Early days and a track which has always suited Honda as has been said, but this seems to have been a win for Rins on merit rather then based on unusual circumstances.

michaelm said:

MM is extraordinarily fast, and a great rider obviously , but iif Rins can find a winning set-up in his third race it does call into question whether MM has limitations in this area.

Early days and a track which has always suited Honda as has been said, but this seems to have been a win for Rins on merit rather then based on unusual cicircumstances.

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I certainly think it will light a fire in Marquez' behind now. Also, while this may be a track that suits Honda, Rins was the only one even in the top 10. So credit where credit is due.

Brilliant ride from Rins, once he was able to stick with Pecco for the first half race, you got the sense that something was going to happen when Pecco began to push, and reliably as past years Pecco doesn't like being pressured and folds.

Jack, a victim of too high front tyre pressure? He never was going to have the pace of Pecco and Rins, but could comfortably podiumed. KTM wouldn't have expected him to have clear air in the front pack and over-inflated is my thinking. We are going to see lots more of this over the season.

Next race the tyre pressure regs kick in, if agreed by the teams/manufacturers. Wonder how this is going to play out....


Martin cleaning up Alex in a early race too desperate move? Double long lap coming? Haven't seen injury reports but Alex slid into the wall between the two Ducatis.

Quartararo profiting enormously from crashers in front, lucky podium.


Vinales killing his race again in the first 5 metres. deja vu for the headcase Maverick.

Thanks for making it interesting Pecco. Unlike Marquez, he doesn’t seem to be able to save it when on the edge of the knife.

A well deserved podium for everybody who was there, especially Rins for the win. When he is on he is on.

Regarding Fabio, I think collectively we watchers are at the point we were with Marquez a few years ago: man just tone it down a notch and take the points when you aren’t in a position to win outright.

We know Marquez only listened to us for a race or two after big bins. Now we know he is never going to change. Uh, case in point being the very first corner of the very first race.

Fabio, who knows how the inner dialogue will play out with him. I think he is basically a hothead who tries to tell himself to settle down. Right now sometimes it works. Who knows what the lasting trend will be, if there is one.

#22 said:

I certainly think it will light a fire in Marquez' behind now. Also, while this may be a track that suits Honda, Rins was the only one even in the top 10. So credit where credit is due.

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I’m sure the fire was already lit when he crashed at the first race. I’m also pretty sure he will keep on binning it trying to win it.

michaelm said:

Because he lost despite such a large lead last year. Sure it would have been particularly meritorious for him to win on an inferior bike, but he was in a winning position in the title race and kept throwing the bike down the road. Like MM in 2015 except more so, if he had settled for position instead of crashing out he would have won the title. in his case he probably only needed to do it for for a couple of races. He was flaky in the 2000 season as well when he also had a good chance.

MM is extraordinarily fast, and a great rider obviously , but iif Rins can find a winning set-up in his third race it does call into question whether MM has limitations in this area. And perhaps Puig shouldn’t have fired Pedrosa.

Early days and a track which has always suited Honda as has been said, but this seems to have been a win for Rins on merit rather then based on unusual circumstances.

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But in fact, everyone was already saying last year that the Yamaha had fallen behind in terms of acceleration and top speed. How many times has Fabio had a good position and out-ridden another rider, only to have the other rider (on a Ducati) walk away from him in the straight like he was standing still?

Re: MM - couldn't agree more.

Barbedwirebikerr said:

Brilliant ride from Rins, once he was able to stick with Pecco for the first half race, you got the sense that something was going to happen when Pecco began to push, and reliably as past years Pecco doesn't like being pressured and folds.

Jack, a victim of too high front tyre pressure? He never was going to have the pace of Pecco and Rins, but could comfortably podiumed. KTM wouldn't have expected him to have clear air in the front pack and over-inflated is my thinking. We are going to see lots more of this over the season.

Next race the tyre pressure regs kick in, if agreed by the teams/manufacturers. Wonder how this is going to play out....


Martin cleaning up Alex in a early race too desperate move? Double long lap coming? Haven't seen injury reports but Alex slid into the wall between the two Ducatis.

Quartararo profiting enormously from crashers in front, lucky podium.


Vinales killing his race again in the first 5 metres. deja vu for the headcase Maverick.

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Wondering what the final consensus will be. Was the insane amount of crashes a result of the track surface - or Michelin dropping the ball?

Keshav said:

Being that it's been considered "accepted wisdom" among all the pundits that Marquez's poor results these past seasons were due to Honda not improving at the same rate as Ducati with the same being consistently said about Fabio and his relationship to the Yamaha, what insight do you have that leads you to believe that the issue is Fabio and not the bike?

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Well, we probably all agree that the 2022 Yamaha was better than 8 points in 4 races. That was the slump that cost Fabio the title in the home stretch last year. The 2023 Yamaha is probably better than 1 point in 3 sprints.

I rate Fabio highly, but if Bagnaia gets blamed for 25 points in 3 races on the Ducati, Fabio is surely deserving of review for some of his scoring slumps. That said, he did yeoman’s work today, and I was happy to see him take the points after Marini breezed by on the back straight. Fabio from yesterday would have crashed and then blamed Yamaha for building a bad bike. Sunday Fabio accepts that it’s okay to take points at COTA, and try to make points elsewhere. Huge progress in 24 hours.

Not to go too far OT, but I don’t think the pundits have it right with Marc. He was late and loose into corners. Marc’s style doesn’t jive with ride height devices that allow the rear tire to do efficient work in the braking area. You can’t hang the tail out, when the suspension is transferring weight to the rear. Both Espargaro and Fernandez scored DNF at COTA due to reported ride height device failure. Let’s hope these systems are put in the bin sooner rather than later.

Pecco is probably going through a rough time right now, considering his points haul from the last two races, but I’m incredibly thankful that it takes time for him to find feeling at the front. He could easily be sweeping the series, and some fans might already be pushing the eject button for 2023. He’s keeping it interesting.

Rins did an amazing job and filled MM’s shoes. The race wasn’t exactly enthralling, but the fans got treated to an interesting result—two satellite bikes followed by a factory bike.

Great race by Marini as well, but the ride of the day goes to Fabio. He was a headcase yesterday, but today he finished on the podium despite lacking 5-10kph on the straights. Mav and Oliveira did a nice job rounding out the top 5, and a shout out to Jonas Folger who kept the bike upright, scored points, and did not finish last. None of those things were probable before the race began.

Regarding Marini passing Quartararo with ease. Perhaps too much is being made of it. The fuel mapping strategies, gearing restrictions, aero drag, etc are too complex to judge the situation by a single clip. If Yamaha are burning fuel elsewhere, and they switch to a different map to get the bike home, that’s the way it is. The Yamaha deficit is undeniable, but it’s unclear how they are attempting to play to the M1’s strengths and disguise it’s weaknesses.

The championship is in a fun spot with Bezzechi extending his lead at COTA.

Keshav said:

Wondering what the final consensus will be. Was the insane amount of crashes a result of the track surface - or Michelin dropping the ball?

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Have seen a reported comment from Alex of teh Marquez clan about this, with specific emphasis on the single bike crashes and he stated wind.

He mentionedt hat all weekend the wind was from a specific direction but for the race, it switched and was or seemed stronger.

Not sure if that is a fact of course, but they were his comments