2024 Round 21 Valencian GP of Catalunya

JPSLotus said:

Well Pecco did what he had to do.

Martin giving up a position to Bastiannini on the last lap was not great, but he is still leading the points table. He never looked comfortable out there though, too forced.

He needs to loosen up further for tomorrow but anything can happen. I would just hate to see him bin it in tomorrow's race and hand the title to Drunknaia.

Not sure what Acosta was doing in turn 3 when he was on the inside of MM. Silly error to make on his part in my opinion. He still has to learn. But Marc seemed to go into cruise mode after that incident. Don't blame him, no need to take risks at this point since it's not a make or break race for him...or weekend for that matter.

I hate this track so much. It was a .... choice for the finale. It's a mindless one-line circuit that is dull as .... whether its GP or F1. Great choice Carmelo, eat .... for this selection. Should have been at Jerez which would have been a far greater race to get. Whatever.

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I'm guessing it was strictly a matter of practical logistics, not booked, and close proximity. Stands as I predicted looked pretty empty.

Keshav said:

I'm guessing it was strictly a matter of practical logistics, not booked, and close proximity. Stands as I predicted looked pretty empty.

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I guess they could only sell 50,000 tickets do to parking limitations.

MichaelBolton said:

If you observed Marc's bike, he was lacking one of the rear aero wings after that incident

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Yes . . . and I also noted (unusual for me who is not great at picking up subtle stuff off live races) that the tail end aero fins on the Factory Ducatis and those on the Marquez Ducs were significantly different.

Good race, plenty of end to end battling throughout.

As long as Martin is able to launch well off the line tomorrow, I can't see him not being inside the top six.

If Bagnaia leads the pack after the first lap, and Martin is inside the top six, I can't see him wanting to pull away.

The young'uns race will be a good one, Alonso lookin to win yet another race, while there are so many potential winners in the intermediate class, it can be a good last outing, even if the title is decided.

Did anyone notice at like 4 laps from the end, Vast-Ninny had his leg WAY the .... out, intitially as a vain attempt to prevent Martin's pass, and then . . . how he extended it even further, as if he were about to re-create the Rossi high kick. It felt like he was truly contemplating kicking Marquez and then suddenly remembered that there were cameras watching?

Edited after fact checking. LOL!

MdubSTYLIE said:

I guess they could only sell 50,000 tickets do to parking limitations.

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Wasn't there an issue with security for the race, that they couldn't permit a larger crowd?

Keshav said:

Did anyone notice at like 4 laps from the end, Vast-Ninny had his leg WAY the .... out, intitially as a vain attempt to prevent Marc's pass, and then . . . how he extended it even further, as if he were about to re-create the Rossi high kick. It felt like he was truly contemplating kicking Marquez and then suddenly remembered that there were cameras watching?

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Bastianini and Marc were in different groups in today's sprint

Sennas_Caress said:

Bastianini and Marc were in different groups in today's sprint

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Prolly meant Alex, easy to confuse when Alex is ahead of Marc because that's very rare.

Jörg didn't do anything stupid once again, didn't take the bait from Enea and I'm sure finishing 9th tomorrow isn't a tough task?

Nice to see Aleix run well during his final weekend. That 125cc looked like a pocket bike.

Wow! My prejudice showing through. In the heat of the moment after an exciting live sprint, I totally misremembered the moment. It actually was Martin who seemed (at least from the way it looked on the camera of the moment) who looked to have his leg out in a very exaggerated fashion. Hey - if I'm right 80% of the time - I'm okay with that.

That grin!!!

Hoping for a tense and exciting race, yet after seeing that face, I must admit, I would not be disappointed if Martin just cruises into third again

To state the obvious Martin can only loose the championship with a DNF, he would need to loose 10+ seconds to finish lower than 9th and that's assuming nobody in the top 9 or so DNF’s which is 6 Ducati’s, 2 KTM’s and a Yamaha. Martin would survive a trip thru the gravel (not falling off) or 4 long lap penalties

Jorge got this. Too comfy lead to .... it up.

JPSLotus said:

I hate this track so much. It was a .... choice for the finale. It's a mindless one-line circuit that is dull as .... whether it’s GP or F1. Great choice Carmelo, eat .... for this selection. Should have been at Jerez which would have been a far greater race to get. Whatever.

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The track totally lacks character. I am also in the camp of the brass at Dorna either not knowing a thing about bike racing, which seems unlikely since they are Spaniards and presumably talk to Marquez, Lorenzo, Martin, etc., or they are so money driven so as to lose track of the big picture, ie increasing the fan base and attendance.

I’ll admit they haven’t done too badly with the sprint races. However, we live in an era of incredible growth in everything, and all endeavors pull in more than they used to just because there are so many more people added to the population, so it remains to be seen how Dorna are really doing with MotoGP. I am not an analyst.

MichaelBolton said:

Proper ass whopping by Acosta (click to view at full size)

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Followed by a fairing whopping. But, yeah, Acosta was fast in qualifying. I have hopes for the race on Sunday.

michaelm said:

He probably will do the professional thing.

It is in MM's overall interest for Martin to win the title although not by his agency of course. Lining up with a guy who has won 3 titles on the bounce for Ducati Corse is a rather different proposition than with a guy who has lost the most recent title to a satellite rider even if a Ducati satellite rider.

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If Bagnaia wins the title this year (unlikely as it is) then Marc would look even better if Marc beats Pecco next year. I think Marc would enjoy the challenge of beating a 3x in a row champion.

MichaelBolton said:

Entertaining sprint, at least everything that happened behind Pecco, who dominated the race and postponed the champion ceremony another day. Martín did well and had to deal with an overly combative Enea, will the yellow horde protest that a rider out there is interfering with the championship battle? I guess not, that is what is called racing.

Aleix had pace but his horrible start ruined everything. Decent race by little Márquez, not so much by his elder brother, with a tussle that ruined Acosta's race and also gimped Marc's bike. Morbidelli is a waste of a MotoGP spot. Honorable mention for Quartararo who did the almost impossible; get some TV coverage on a Japanese bike these days.

Good outcome for viewers tomorrow.

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I thought it was a great race. Apart from whatever that was between Acosta and MMarquez, there were a lot of hard but fair passes. And, nobody fell off at all. (Acosta did DNF, but not due to a fall). There were even five, count 'em: five, Hondas finishing.

MichaelBolton said:

Jorge can get it done with a 9th place finish tomorrow. But still, the possibility of binning it is still high. World's most nervous man right now.

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There have been 2/19 feature races this year where Pecco has won, and Martin has retired. That's a 10.5% chance. Nowhere near zero. Those are the only two races where Martin has retired. Martin has that 15th place in South Africa, and Pecco was only second there. That would give Pecco the championship. So, I'll make Pecco's chances 3/19 = 15.8%

In Moto2, Canet is on pole again. His roll continues, and I predict a Canet win tomorrow. I think Ogura will play it safe - he needs to be in good shape for MotoGP post-race testing.

In Moto3, Alonso just gets better and better. It's only his seventh pole - one more than Ortola. I predict that Alonso will have another masterful race tomorrow, and extend his records even further.

Pecco is showing he has significant speed and can maintain that, despite significant pressure. Marquez has a big hurdle to overcome next year.
Yes I rate Marc ahead, but again, aero and ride height have drastically reduced that corner entry advantage he had over the rest of the field. Pecco is very, very good on corner entry on these bikes and has more experience on the Ducati and in the factory squad.

So Crafar's final on-air tech talk was a good one IMO. If you missed it, he was talking about team rankings and differences in engine & tyre allocations for next year and rules for testing, etc. I've given Simon a lot of .... for struggling to get his words out but I am going to miss him. I've really grown to appreciate him. Is Jack Appletwat taking over paddock duties full time next year? He's bloody awful.

PRS717 said:

So Crafar's final on-air tech talk was a good one IMO. If you missed it, he was talking about team rankings and differences in engine & tyre allocations for next year and rules for testing, etc. I've given Simon a lot of .... for struggling to get his words out but I am going to miss him. I've really grown to appreciate him. Is Jack Appletwat taking over paddock duties full time next year? He's bloody awful.

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I still find him hard to take. Apart from his voice which I (unfairly of course) still find grating to me he is one of those fake humble guys who beneath it all really thinks he is smarter than everyone else, and I partly gave up on watching practice yesterday because of all the self congratulation and mutual admiration with Matthew Birt, who really is an idiot with poor knowledge of the sport. I don't of course dispute Crafar's knowledge, and admired him as a rider, particularly for that one race win which shouldn't have been possible given his equipment..

I don't have great hopes he will be a free and fair chief steward, then again I doubt Dorna would appoint any sort of maverick and have appointed someone widely popular with whom they hope people are less likely to take issue. In my obviously jaundiced view they probably thought Freddie Spencer would be immune to criticism because of his stature in the sport, which didn't quite work out, and Freddie imo largely toed the Dorna line.

AnnoyingTwit said:

There have been 2/19 feature races this year where Pecco has won, and Martin has retired. That's a 10.5% chance. Nowhere near zero. Those are the only two races where Martin has retired. Martin has that 15th place in South Africa, and Pecco was only second there. That would give Pecco the championship. So, I'll make Pecco's chances 3/19 = 15.8%

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Good analysis. In those 3 scenarios Bagnaia still needs to finish 2nd so you would need factor in the probability of Bagnaia finishing 1st or 2nd. BTW if Bagnaia does come 2nd then Martin needs to finish 14th and the worse that Martin has done apart from the 2 DNF's and the 15th is 4th so it looks comfortably like that Martin will finish in the top 9 if he doesn't DNF

Imo, Martin just needs to survive the first lap. If need be, let the yellow crew through and cruise around in 5th. The boy better not get the red mist, as likely will cost him an absolute sitter of a world title.

Dothan liked to seal the world championship with a win even when it wasn’t necessary, I bet Martin would like to as well