2024 Round 16: Motul Grand Prix of Japan - Mobility Resort Motegi

MotoGP Forum

Help Support MotoGP Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
MichaelBolton said:
Not the most exciting Motegi race after the first few laps, welcome to the age of tire pressure racing. Martín did well minimizing damages again and getting close at some point to an imperial Bagnaia who managed the gap like he likes to while closing another gap, the one for the championship race. Little by little he's erasing the points difference. Marc and Enea this time didn't have the pace to cope with the top duo, and proved again that the championship hopes were just a dream but they did well regardless. Solid showing by Binder, hopefully Acosta learns something from him, finishing is a valuable skill; the latter has to be the disappointment of the weekend. Miller with the usual disappearing act after making sponsors happy for the first laps. Quartararo the top Japanese bike again. What the hell happened to Maverick? another disappearing act masterclass.
Click to expand...
Zarco beat Quartararo across the line to win both the frenchy gp and japanese cup.
 
warthog1 said:
A long way in front of the other 23s and infront of a couple of 24s. 8)
Click to expand...
Exactly. 15 seconds ahead of the next GP23, ahead of Bastianini on a GP24, and if he reckons a GP24 has 0.2 seconds a lap on him then within 5 seconds of the race winner in a 24 lap race is pretty good as well, doubtless making him look forward to next year.

To be fair Bagnaia had the race in control the whole way, Martin settled for a good second from 11th on the grid on a weekend he didn’t quite have it, and they deserve the credit for beating everyone who turns up to race them, there being no Marc Marquez riding a GP24 in the field. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to ride the same bike as well as them, It will be hard to ride a current spec Ducati better or even as well as Pecco does on his many good weekends, but I am quite hopeful as I am sure he is.
 
Last edited:
I'll be honest I passed out before I got to the main race but I'm going to go back and watch it just so I can see how it was. Motegi definitely does not produce interesting racing at all.

Kudos to David Alonso for becoming world champion. He rode extremely well and waited to take his chance at going after P1. Which is pretty much what he's done the entire season. Once again felt like a man beating up on children! Absolutely scary to think he can still add to his season win tally! Going to fascinating to watch him in Moto 2.

Just from a cursory glance at the time differentials I'm the main event, even though it was a boring race from all accounts, I'm impressed with Jorge Martin getting up to P2 to try and limit the damage much as possible. Phillip Island is going to be a banger of a race in 2 weeks I feel. I'll post more thoughts once I've seen the main race later.
 
Congrats to David Alonso on a dominant championship campaign.

The MotoGP race was not as boring as it seemed for me since I watched every single lap wondering if Pecco or Jorge would crash.... again. Anyway, a good showing by both. Great consistent showing by Marq. I think this will be his main weapon against Bagnaia next year.

Acosta is having his wings clipped a bit with those two DNF's. A character builder for sure. He will come back the better, I reckon.

That clash between Mir and Alex M. where Mir is seen riding on with the Ducati slung to his rear is one for the archives of bizarre/funny moments. Absolutely over the top. :eek: 🤣
 
MichaelBolton said:
Not the most exciting Motegi race after the first few laps, welcome to the age of tire pressure racing. Martín did well minimizing damages again and getting close at some point to an imperial Bagnaia who managed the gap like he likes to while closing another gap, the one for the championship race. Little by little he's erasing the points difference. Marc and Enea this time didn't have the pace to cope with the top duo, and proved again that the championship hopes were just a dream but they did well regardless. Solid showing by Binder, hopefully Acosta learns something from him, finishing is a valuable skill; the latter has to be the disappointment of the weekend. Miller with the usual disappearing act after making sponsors happy for the first laps. Quartararo the top Japanese bike again. What the hell happened to Maverick? another disappearing act masterclass.
Click to expand...
Zarco pipped quartararo right at the end.
 
Okay watched the main race.

It was as boring as said to be. But that's Motegi for you.

Pecco rode extremely well and did everything he had to do to try and get the points deficit cut further. Of course by the same token, Jorge Martin did everything you could hope for with that starting grid position. It's a shame we never quite got that battle between the two, but I am hopeful that in 2 weeks time when we hit Phillip Island, we get some sort of battle between the two. But knowing Phillip Island, it's going to be a multi-way fight between multiple riders, so it's possible either Pecco or Jorge could find themselves battling just to save their own points haul rather than outright victory.

But that's for 2 weeks from now.

Pedro's crash wasn't expected unlike yesterday's where you could see that coming from a mile away. He's not there yet, and neither is the KTM. The bike simply has to be overridden to keep up with any of the Ducati bikes....or at least the top GP24's.

Marc continues to impress with last year's bike when the rest of the GP23's cannot even get remotely close to him. When the season is over, someone should ask Bezzecchi about all of his comments from late last year and this year. He looks like a fool. Next season is going to be fascinating.

Maverick continues to unimpress more and more every single race weekend. KTM must have thrown a lot of cash his way to get him to sign which is sort of dumbfounding as his riding style does not fit what we see necessary to get the most out of the KTM...unless of course you are Dani Pedrosa who is an altogether different case.

And the same applies to Morbidelli, who should not have a ride any longer. He has no idea how to get the most out of the Desmo package, and should not have been given any type of lifeline to hang around for 2025.

Onward to the best track on the calendar.
 
Well, aided by my time zone and a Saturday evening without interruption, I watched the entire program live for the first time this season, including the warm up. Moto3 was a sensational race and I got to see what the David Alonso buzz was about. Spectacular judgement at 18 with racecraft, ability and patience, he will be fascinating to watch. Moto2 did not disappoint with wet drama. Glad the MotoGP race wasn’t wet and on the surface it was a snoozer. However it was nice to see the usual suspects on the podium with none of them crashing. Pecco metronomic, Jorge with good damage control and MM keeping the rubber side down as well. All three have shown a propensity to crash this year but they let the Shark take up the slack today. Acosta definitely has the ability, but that’s not enough. It reminds me of the former Zarco phenomenon: when, not if, will he win? We had to wait so long for Zarco, many of us lost interest. At least Acosta doesn’t have the curse of the two Moto2 titles, so here’s hoping he can tame all the loose ends and that KTM builds a bike he can adjust to win on.
 

Similar threads

AnnoyingTwit
2024 Round 20 Petronas GP of Malaysia - Petronas Sepang International Circuit
7 8 9
Replies
164
Views
4K
Sennas_Caress
S
B
MotoGP: 2014 Race 16 - Tissot Australian Grand Prix (SPOILERS)
Replies
14
Views
4K
povol
povol

Recent Discussions

Recent Discussions

Back
Top