2024 MotoGP Round 9: Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland - Sachsenring

Alex has been towing Marc around the circuit ever since he joined MotoGP. He isn't fast enough to be a truly good wingman, however he has been giving his brother speed in quali and never any form of racing on track, when it mattered anything for Marc.

Alex's purpose is to help his brother then. Been pretty effective given all those wins and championships for Marc since 2020.

mikesbytes said:

Nothing wrong with Alex helping Marc, it was the best result for the team

When Morbidelli was moving forward I was wondering if he was pushing his tyres too hard and then he started going backwards suggesting tyre wear. Right or wrong it was still a good race for Morbidelli

Marini now has more points than Marc did in 2020

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Got me to thinking, how, in the event that MM should win the championship, everyone on Crash would be pissing and moaning for years about how Alex handed him the championship.

warthog1 said:

I seriously don't see Alex being in any position to be of much assistance to Marc very often. He isn't as fast and from next year will be on older equipment.
If that is some inference that Marc will have a significant advantage over Pecco because of his brother is also riding a Ducati I don't see it being in any way accurate. It hasn't happened that Alex has been capable of towing Marc to the front for the last 4 years and I don't see it happening next year with Alex being on inferior equipment.
This year there is just too much gap between 24 and 23 Duke for it to be effective.
As Marc said, sharing a podium with his brother is not something that is going to happen at all often. First time it has occurred and it will be a rarity if it is repeated,

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People are only remembering his latter years at Honda, in his pomp other riders were seeking tows from him in qualifying, and I don’t remember him complaining about same overly. Unless there is a drastic change which I don’t foresee he will be on the fastest bike on the grid next season, other riders will be looking for tows from him again rather than the reverse. He was fairly adept at finding tows in his dog days at Honda in any case, and usually from riders faster than Alex.

The Sachsenring obviously particularly suits MM, and the nature of the circuit may negate any advantage the GP24 has over the GP23, but MM if I read correctly had the second fastest lap of the race after Morbidelli, faster than although close to Bagnaia’s and Martin’s best laps, so he might have been very competitive if he had made Q2, you would think he would have outqualified Alex.

Exactly, something that people constantly miss (for convenience) was that Marquez (after Lorenzo), was the rider EVERYONE got a tow off.

Remember the pit board signal Jorge used to have?

mikesbytes said:

Nothing wrong with Alex helping Marc, it was the best result for the team

When Morbidelli was moving forward I was wondering if he was pushing his tyres too hard and then he started going backwards suggesting tyre wear. Right or wrong it was still a good race for Morbidelli

Marini now has more points than Marc did in 2020

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I generally try not to listen to Nick Harris, but he was suggesting Morbidelli as the second Pramac rider should employ team tactics to help Martin’s cause against Bagnaia for more than a few laps, so Alex helping MM would hardly be a radical departure from the norm.

#22 said:

Exactly, something that people constantly miss (for convenience) was that Marquez (after Lorenzo), was the rider EVERYONE got a tow off.

Remember the pit board signal Jorge used to have?

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The tow truck sign which was for Hector Barbera in particular.

Don

michaelm said:

The tow truck sign which was for Hector Barbera in particular.

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Don't recall tow truck, but did he have a wheelchair sign on his pit board at some point?

So, the next 2 years will the the Marc vs Pecco show...and if I had to put money down, I'd take Pecker over MM, tho I like MM more.
27, who knows, but I don't expect any ship jumpers to make headway on their new bikes.

Barbedwirebikerr said:

Don

Don't recall tow truck, but did he have a wheelchair sign on his pit board at some point?

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Damn auto correct. It added the 'truck'. It was a tricycle

#22 said:

Damn auto correct. It added the 'truck'. It was a tricycle

View attachment 14846

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You beat me, was literally about to hit post. lol

I for one am glad Morbidelli didn’t get Mapping 8’d when he was in P2.

But I wouldn’t put it past Ducati to do so in the latter part of the season, if the situation repeats. The last thing they want is for Martin to take the #1 plate to Aprilia, and Morbidelli is looking for employment as we speak.

synn said:

I for one am glad Morbidelli didn’t get Mapping 8’d when he was in P2.

But I wouldn’t put it past Ducati to do so in the latter part of the season, if the situation repeats. The last thing they want is for Martin to take the #1 plate to Aprilia, and Morbidelli is looking for employment as we speak.

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Also I wonder what the dynamic is now in terms of support that Marc is getting from Ducati since he's headed there for next season.

Yesterday was another ridiculous PR bonanza for Ducati.

I swear to god they are getting the most out of everything now with MM just on one of their bikes having these sorts of rides, and Pecco cleaning house on the factory bike.

Also read that Frankie Carchedi said after MM's windscreen broke, he was down 10kph on the straight.

JPSLotus said:

Also I wonder what the dynamic is now in terms of support that Marc is getting from Ducati since he's headed there for next season.

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Possibly some factory support diverted from Bezzechi’s side to #93. They did make a commitment that Martin will receive the same support he did before, but no such commitment to #72

synn said:

Possibly some factory support diverted from Bezzechi’s side to #93. They did make a commitment that Martin will receive the same support he did before, but no such commitment to #72

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I was thinking that. I find it strange how Bezzechi's form while not great this season anyhow, has taken a decidedly strong downturn as of late. He seems absolutely lost now on the bike from comments he has made recently.

The lap before Jörg crashed Marc was almost half a second faster than Alex.
After the crash it was clear both would be on the podium and I believe Alex just didn't bother to defend.

Towing will be an interesting aspect of the weekends, would be my guess.

Getting into Q2 and also getting onto the front two rows are so important.

It's true that Marc has been able to make up plenty of positions in the last few races. He has however not been able to win.

If he only could start from the first row, we could see the leading duo's advantage begin to shrink.

michaelm said:

I generally try not to listen to Nick Harris, but he was suggesting Morbidelli as the second Pramac rider should employ team tactics to help Martin’s cause against Bagnaia for more than a few laps, so Alex helping MM would hardly be a radical departure from the norm.

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We haven't had to contend with Nick Harris on the US feed for years. Permit me to offer my sympathies.

I've seen several articles today along these lines:

It seems that criticizing Martin is en vogue today, which is understandable, I suppose, since journalists have increasingly less access to real paddock information, and they have resorted to clickbait editorials for website traffic. However, these types of articles seem particularly cruel and without context. It's true that Martin has 3 major mistakes on his recent record, Indo 2023, Jerez 2024 and Sachsenring 2024, but is his record THAT different from other frontrunners?

How did Martin get a stranglehold on the 2023 championship? IIRC, it was Pecco's non-scores and Catalunya and India. How did Martin build a lead during the 2024 season? Pecco clashed with Marc unnecessarily at Portimao, and then Pecco crashed out of the lead during the Catalunya sprint.

And who can forget Bagnaia's error-filled 2022 campaign (Motegi most of all), which was only bested by Quartararo's epic meltdown?

Martin cannot capitalize on the gifts he receives, but Pecco Claus has a history of providing bountiful gifts. The difference it seems is that Bagnaia is either on the box or he's in the gravel, whereas his competitors are often top-5 or gravel. In 2023, Jorge Martin had 8 finishes off of the podium. Bagnaia had just 1 finish off of the podium. It's difficult for sprint wins to make up that big of a gap.

If Martin-bashing articles are required, perhaps they should have been written after COTA, when Martin managed 4th place. Martin has only finished outside of the top-3 once this season. This win or bin pattern he is executing during the first half of 2024 is actually quite similar to Bagnaia's formula for winning championships.