2024 Catalunya GP

MichaelBolton · Sep 1, 2023

Surprised there isn't a thread already. Friday practices have just ended, the Aprilias looking the real deal on the tarmac with Aleix smashing the all time lap record and Maverick behind him. Rest of the top 10 are composed by the usual Ducati batallion (+ Di Giannantonio, surprisingly) and Binder. The last places, from 17th to 22nd, are predictably made of Japanese bikes, plunging deeper in the crisis; Quartararo couldn't hide his disappointment before the cameras.

mylexicon · Sep 1, 2023

When M Marquez sees a wall, he smashes through it. That might explain all of the crashes and injuries.

Japanese manufacturers in freefall. Bottom 6 positions occupied by the Japanese bikes, with Honda occupying the bottom 4 positions on the time sheets after Practice 1. They've got to be kicking themselves for letting Dorna find new manufacturers and give them incentives.

Aprilia are on fire at Catalunya. Who knows if the weather will hold and the sun will shine on Saturday and Sunday. I guess Aprilia have Oliveira if it doesn't. The grid is a bit spread out. Only 9 riders within a second during the first practice. Maybe there wasn't enough incentive to push with rain forecast for tomorrow and clouds forecast for Sunday. Could be an interesting race weekend.

Despite all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding Jorge Martin after the superslowmo of him dragging his entire elbow and shoulder, he's 1 second off the pace. Bastianini still struggling. I hope he's not the next Marco Melandri. How many careers have been cut short by accepting #2 rider status at Ducati? It's almost like that seat exists just to eliminate potential competitors.

MdubSTYLIE · Sep 1, 2023

mylexicon said:
When M Marquez sees a wall, he smashes through it. That might explain all of the crashes and injuries.

Japanese manufacturers in freefall. Bottom 6 positions occupied by the Japanese bikes, with Honda occupying the bottom 4 positions on the time sheets after Practice 1. They've got to be kicking themselves for letting Dorna find new manufacturers and give them incentives.

Aprilia are on fire at Catalunya. Who knows if the weather will hold and the sun will shine on Saturday and Sunday. I guess Aprilia have Oliveira if it doesn't. The grid is a bit spread out. Only 9 riders within a second during the first practice. Maybe there wasn't enough incentive to push with rain forecast for tomorrow and clouds forecast for Sunday. Could be an interesting race weekend.

Despite all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding Jorge Martin after the superslowmo of him dragging his entire elbow and shoulder, he's 1 second off the pace. Bastianini still struggling. I hope he's not the next Marco Melandri. How many careers have been cut short by accepting #2 rider status at Ducati? It's almost like that seat exists just to eliminate potential competitors.

I never thought I'd ever say this but I am so happy to see Marc at the bottom of the times. I don't want to see him risk anything on that bike. Its like a sigh of relief when he is down that low. -FREE MARC!!!! FREE MARC!!!!

That doesn't look good for Mav. The better his practices and qualifying the worse his start.

Bastianni was my underdog for the championship this year. It pains me to see him struggling when I know he is capable of so much more. Unfortunately the pipeline at Ducati is strong so he needs to put together. Fortunately he has another season to do that.

mikesbytes · Sep 1, 2023

MdubSTYLIE said:
I never thought I'd ever say this but I am so happy to see Marc at the bottom of the times. I don't want to see him risk anything on that bike. Its like a sigh of relief when he is down that low. -FREE MARC!!!! FREE MARC!!!!

Unfortunately MM has done his 17th crash of the year hurting his thumb

Faz · Sep 2, 2023

Think it’s time we started a GoFundMe to get Marc out of his Honda contract! Would love to see him on the Aprilia to really see what its potential is, same with the KTM. If Mav doesn’t turn up for the races again I hope Aprilia are tempted. I want to like Mav and could see his side at Yamaha but he makes it difficult given his undoubted potential compared to his achievements.

Faz · Sep 2, 2023

STUNNING from Aleix! So good I half believed it was Marc in disguise!
Brad right there but where’s Jack?

MichaelBolton · Sep 2, 2023

Faz said:
Brad right there but where’s Jack?

He must getting nervous about his seat for the next season, he knows KTM is gonna promote Acosta no matter what.

Decent battle between Aleix and Pecco for some laps, but Aleix has been on another level during the weekend so far. Nonetheless I expect Pecco to improve on Sunday like he's been doing lately. Mav didn't .... the bed in the start to my surprise. Marc did decent considering he's riding a Moto2, and Quartararo must be in zero-.....-given mode to not even finish above Franco.

mylexicon · Sep 2, 2023

Wow, Mav actually got a good start, and converted his talent into a respectable result.

Pecco deserves respect. Even when he and Ducati are outclassed, he isn't going to slip much farther than 3rd. Same story as last year. That's how champions are made. Every season Pecco and Ducati get stronger as time passes.

Aleix, well he's not my cup of tea, but he did yeoman's work, and made a clean pass for the lead. He was getting stronger as the laps went by. He could win by a country mile tomorrow depending on the conditions and Aprilia's ability to get off of the line. He struggled a bit during the sprint.

MdubSTYLIE · Sep 2, 2023

mylexicon said:
Wow, Mav actually got a good start, and converted his talent into a respectable result.

Pecco deserves respect. Even when he and Ducati are outclassed, he isn't going to slip much farther than 3rd. Same story as last year. That's how champions are made. Every season Pecco and Ducati get stronger as time passes.

Aleix, well he's not my cup of tea, but he did yeoman's work, and made a clean pass for the lead. He was getting stronger as the laps went by. He could win by a country mile tomorrow depending on the conditions and Aprilia's ability to get off of the line. He struggled a bit during the sprint.

The interesting thing tomorrow would be if Mav gets another good start and Olivera also. Mavrick has a lot to prove and I think will do anything to beat Aleix. Olivera to me is the best rider of the three. He also will do anything to be ahead of the factory bikes.

PRS717 · Sep 2, 2023

mylexicon said:
Wow, Mav actually got a good start, and converted his talent into a respectable result.

Agreed but I wanted to see more of a fight out of him against Pecco. I know it's easy for me to say watching from my easy chair but it feels like he doesn't have that extra 1% to go for the kill. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I was rooting for him to pass Pecco. I like Pecco but I'm getting tired of his dominance.

mikesbytes · Sep 2, 2023

Faz said:
STUNNING from Aleix! So good I half believed it was Marc in disguise!
Brad right there but where’s Jack?

Jack has had 3 things go wrong this weekend;
1. Didn't get into the top 10 so had to go thru Q1
2. M Marquez used Miller as a tow getting thru Q1 at Millers expense
3. A Marquez managed to stuff it up for Miller in the sprint

I'm not expecting to see anything of Miller in the race as he's too far back on the grid

PRS717 · Sep 2, 2023

MdubSTYLIE said:
Mavrick has a lot to prove and I think will do anything to beat Aleix.

If it comes down to a battle between these two, I'll put my money on Aleix. He's got more heart, plus he's paying attention this year as to the actual lap count.

mikesbytes · Sep 2, 2023

PRS717 said:
If it comes down to a battle between these two, I'll put my money on Aleix. He's got more heart, plus he's paying attention this year as to the actual lap count.

I agree. This circuit works well for the Aprilia and the Aprilia has been built around Aleix who's ride style suits this circuit. Aleix will be difficult to beat in the race

warthog1 · Sep 2, 2023

mikesbytes said:
Jack has had 3 things go wrong this weekend;
1. Didn't get into the top 10 so had to go thru Q1
2. M Marquez used Miller as a tow getting thru Q1 at Millers expense
3. A Marquez managed to stuff it up for Miller in the sprint

I'm not expecting to see anything of Miller in the race as he's too far back on the grid

Problem is we wouldn't be saying the same if it was Binder back there.

warthog1 · Sep 2, 2023

Alex rode well. That Ducati with Pecco on board is very tough to pass.
Alex did well at the end of the straight and was very quick out of the corner onto it to get alongside. It was still very hard to brake as well as Pecco. Mav could not do it. Appeared to have more speed but couldn't get past.

Bern1 · Sep 2, 2023

PRS717 said:
Agreed but I wanted to see more of a fight out of him against Pecco. I know it's easy for me to say watching from my easy chair but it feels like he doesn't have that extra 1% to go for the kill. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I was rooting for him to pass Pecco. I like Pecco but I'm getting tired of his dominance.

Yes, I like Mav too BUT: it just seems over and over that Mav can only pass when it doesn’t really count for anything. When it is all on the line, he chokes. I hope I am wrong tomorrow but it doesn’t seem likely.

He got a good start in the sprint race. I somehow don’t see that happening tomorrow. When there is too much on the line, Mav somehow loses perspective.

Go ahead Mav, prove me wrong !

michaelm · Sep 2, 2023

warthog1 said:
Problem is we wouldn't be saying the same if it was Binder back there.

Jack has just looked lost the last few races, this weekend without even his customary one lap pace.

I don’t think it is an easy bike to ride, and believe Binder is doing something exceptional to have the thing as close to the front as he has managed. The Red Bull programme is over producing quality riders, and I don’t see a KTM satellite ride as much of a reward for moto 2 success. If a 2 year KTM satellite contract was second prize for winning the moto 2 title perhaps a 1 year contract would be first prize.

I can’t see much place for Jack in the premier class going forward, even apart from the talent in the pipeline, he doesn’t seem to be able to ride the current tyres whatever bike he is on.

AlexRMN · Sep 3, 2023

Here is Motorsports just in case someone doesn't have access to the MotoGP Catalunya race

JFM01 · Sep 3, 2023

PRS717 said:
Agreed but I wanted to see more of a fight out of him against Pecco. I know it's easy for me to say watching from my easy chair but it feels like he doesn't have that extra 1% to go for the kill. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I was rooting for him to pass Pecco. I like Pecco but I'm getting tired of his dominance.

It looked like Maverick clearly had the speed to pass Bagnaia but lacked the confidence. Ultimately finishing 3rd is better than wrecking himself and Pecco in a "maybe" maneuver.
It was a decent sprint race for once but the big show is today. Depending on how they get away at the start I think we could see at least two Aprilias on the podium again.

warthog1 · Sep 3, 2023

michaelm said:
Jack has just looked lost the last few races, this weekend without even his customary one lap pace.

I don’t think it is an easy bike to ride, and believe Binder is doing something exceptional to have the thing as close to the front as he has managed. The Red Bull programme is over producing quality riders, and I don’t see a KTM satellite ride as much of a reward for moto 2 success. If a 2 year KTM satellite contract was second prize for winning the moto 2 title perhaps a 1 year contract would be first prize.

I can’t see much place for Jack in the premier class going forward, even apart from the talent in the pipeline, he doesn’t seem to be able to ride the current tyres whatever bike he is on.

No, as you say he can't seem to be fast on them for the whole race.
Yes there is plenty of young talent coming through.
A pity as he seems a good bloke.
He will know at this level you must perform or somebody else will get the bike.
Hopefully some better results will come.

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2024 Catalunya GP

MichaelBolton

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