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2024 MotoGP Round 11: Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich - Red Bull Ring

I will be shocked if MMarquez does not at least give Bagnaia a very very strong challenge for the championship next year. I'm entirely undecided as to which has the greater chance of winning out.

I'd be happy with either outcome. I'm not a dedicated fan of either.

Personally I tend to support the underdog. So, Rossi when he switched to Yamaha. Hayden and then Stoner for their first (or only) championship. Marquez when he was in his debut year, and later Dovi. I don't see either Marc nor Pecco as an underdog.
I think it will be a good battle between them but MM is more prone to crash than Pecco. Let's see. I don't think Martin will be a threat next year, it'll take some time to adapt to Aprilia which is a good bike but it's nowhere near the level of Ducati. I know both Vinales and Aleix sucks hard but I don't think Aprilia has the cards to play head to head with Ducati. And unless KTM does a turnaround with their bike (kinda miracle) Acosta will be out of the party, sadly. Sad momment for his career, by the way. KTM sucks. They have shown to commit the same mistakes as Ducati did between 2006 to 2013: too much pride. Pit Bierer is a morom.
 
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I expect Bagnaia will be counting the minutes, all the time, burying the part of him (such as it is) that expresses passion, the part that would be vulnerable to mind games. He - for the most part - strikes me as a cold calculating fish . . . very much not like Rossi. With a 3rd championship under his belt, his confidence will stead him well in 2025, and barring injury or unforced DNFs for either rider, it points to a very tight season.
Agreed.
What we saw in this race was that MM was noticeably faster than anyone who wasn't on a GP24. Next year I'll guess that whether its Bagnaia or MM who is fastest on the GP25, I'd say it will depend on how much the GP25 suits their respective ride styles
And/or, as has always been the case, how well each rider adapts to the characteristics of the bike.

This is the skill set lottery that every rider faces coming into the top class. Sometimes you get lucky.
 
i it
I think it will be a good battle between them but MM is more prone to crash than Pecco. Let's see. I don't think Martin will be a threat next year, it'll take some time to adapt to Aprilia which is a good bike but it's nowhere near the level of Ducati. I know both Vinales and Aleix sucks hard but I don't think Aprilia has the cards to play head to head with Ducati. And unless KTM does a turnaround with their bike (kinda miracle) Acosta will be out of the party, sadly. Sad momment for his career, by the way. KTM sucks. They have shown to commit the same mistakes as Ducati did between 2006 to 2013: too much pride. Pit Bierer is a morom.
I don’t like Pit Bierer at all, but it is hard to dismiss KTM’s eventual success in every form of bike racing they have taken on.

I suspect they will get there eventually, but as you imply they look like wasting a couple of years of Acosta’s premier class career, and they are echoing Ducati in earlier days, even in going from a trellis frame to a carbon fibre bike. At least so far they like Ducati have not really gotten that technology to work, my theory is that it can look promising in testing on certain tracks but can’t be adapted more broadly.
 

That looks different from what I expected from seeing the race. Marquez already had a terrible start before he went off-track. I knew it was bad, but here it looks even worse than I thought. I previously thought Alex Marquez let Marc through easily, but it looked harder fought onboard. Was that Miller revenge dive-bombing Marc after Marc passed the first time?
 
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That looks different from what I expected from seeing the race. Marquez already had a terrible start before he went off-track. I knew it was bad, but here it looks even worse than I thought. I previously thought Alex Marquez let Marc through easily, but it looked harder fought onboard. Was that Miller revenge dive-bombing Marc after Marc passed the first time?
Yeh Miller wasn't going to let MM thru without a fight. When did Miller crash? Was it when dueling with MM?
 
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One thing that I noticed in the last race series was that KTM has improved the turning of the bike, that has been the missing link, if they tried to push hard they crashed, Binder kept crashing and Jack knowing the results, didn’t try.

Brad said before the last meeting that they were trying a new front forks (guess the it was still WP) and you can see the results, it got Jack’s mojo back up and he road the front end as he likes to do, setting fast practising and the very fast Qualifying times like he always did.

In the Sprint he held off Frankie's 24 and a few 23 Ducati to finish 5th. In the GP race he held fourth for a while till turn 2B when the front tyre called enough.

The way the engine is setup is to give strong torque on acceleration out of the corners and now with it turning you could see the problem Mark had to get past him.

Binder and Pedro had the long pipe smooth torque version, while Jack’s bike had the short pipe peak torque version of the engine (as he can never have enough of a good thing), but when the rest of the team gain confidence in the front end, they too will use the short pipe peak version to be up the front again.

I can see this going well for the rest of the series, while never beating the Desmos for the circuits with long straights, they can be a problem for them on the shorter twistier tracts.
 
That turn 4 crash might not have been great for Acosta mentally. Can't imagine going down at 180MPH like that and not having a moment or two till you can get your head back in for Aragon. I think going to a Spanish circuit should be good for him if nothing else.

Yes, I was thinking that also. However, it seems there was an explanation for the crash, ie the missing aero from a previous crash. At least there is an explanation. I think he is strong enough to get over it. Acosta is definitely learning a lot.

Hopefully KTM eventually delivers a bike he can win on.

It is definitely tiring when one bike wins race after race seemingly unopposed.
 

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