Latest / Pit Talk / Marquez’s Triumph, Martin’s Gamble: San Marino MotoGP Pit Talk

Transcript

Marquez’s Triumph, Martin’s Gamble: San Marino MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:02
Speaker 1: To pit or not to pit?
0:04
Speaker 2: That was the question, and just like Hamlet, it was
0:07
Speaker 2: clear our riders were torn, maybe not quite between life
0:11
Speaker 2: or death, but in this case between slicks or wet.
0:14
Speaker 2: As the dark clouds loomed over the Adriatic coastline.
0:17
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ronita vmullen, and here to break.
0:20
Speaker 2: Down the action with more suspense than writers on Slicks
0:23
Speaker 2: in the rain is Matt Clayton, Matt Our, Crystal Ball.
0:27
Speaker 1: It's definitely getting clearer.
0:29
Speaker 2: But I don't think you I or it could have
0:31
Speaker 2: predicted Mark Marquez winning in.
0:33
Speaker 3: The Zano Ronetta. Of all the intros for this week,
0:36
Speaker 3: I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, so I feel a little unprepared
0:40
Speaker 3: for this. But I don't know about you. But on
0:42
Speaker 3: Sunday night, I don't often yell at the TV because
0:45
Speaker 3: the TV doesn't talk back. It's usually a pretty pointless exercise.
0:48
Speaker 3: But when I saw Joge Martin going to the pits
0:51
Speaker 3: when it was raining but not quite I threw my
0:54
Speaker 3: hands in the air and yelled at the TV, what
0:57
Speaker 3: are you doing? That was the extent of my analysis
0:59
Speaker 3: because I thought, if you're in a position like him,
1:01
Speaker 3: where you're leading the world championship. The last person that
1:04
Speaker 3: needs to be throwing the hail Mary is you, and
1:06
Speaker 3: you've done it. And we'll probably get onto this later
1:09
Speaker 3: in this podcast, but yes, he's still the world championship leader.
1:13
Speaker 3: I have real trust issues at this point because I
1:15
Speaker 3: just don't think you can do things like that'd expect
1:17
Speaker 3: to win a world championship. But what an absolutely bizarre
1:21
Speaker 3: race on Sunday and the set of circumstances which we'll
1:24
Speaker 3: get into. But yes to Pitter or not to Peter,
1:27
Speaker 3: And I think the answer was not not to.
1:30
Speaker 2: Mark Marquez said that in his post raise debrief that
1:33
Speaker 2: if it had rained more than a joe, my team
1:37
Speaker 2: would have been the winner, because he did it early enough.
1:40
Speaker 1: We would have been smart.
1:41
Speaker 2: But the cards played in Mark's hands and he decided
1:45
Speaker 2: to follow the locals, as he called it, and when
1:47
Speaker 2: they didn't fit, he was like, no, I'm just going
1:49
Speaker 2: to stay out. I'm just going to follow these guys.
1:51
Speaker 2: But I don't know if you heard in the post
1:53
Speaker 2: raise analysis, Matt. I think it was Bazeki or Bashanini.
1:57
Speaker 2: I'm not sure which one, but one of them said
1:59
Speaker 2: you can smell the rain here, And when I was
2:02
Speaker 2: on the grid, I couldn't smell the rain. Look, that's
2:05
Speaker 2: a true local, isn't it.
2:06
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean that was an ail that said
2:08
Speaker 3: that after the race, because he literally lives five minutes
2:11
Speaker 3: down the road from the circuit. He was born in Rymony,
2:13
Speaker 3: which is, you know, fifteen minutes if you obey all
2:14
Speaker 3: the traffic lights. But yeah, I just thought Mark was
2:19
Speaker 3: funny in that he said it with a bit of
2:20
Speaker 3: a smile on his face, like it was a bit
2:22
Speaker 3: of a piss take. But by the same token, you know,
2:24
Speaker 3: these guys, the VR forty six guys do laps and
2:27
Speaker 3: laps and laps around this place. You think they would know.
2:30
Speaker 3: And Mark's like, well, I don't have the local knowledge.
2:32
Speaker 3: These guys do, but they have the local knowledge. I'm
2:35
Speaker 3: going to follow that. How much of that was actually
2:38
Speaker 3: legitimate by Mark and he was just going to stay
2:40
Speaker 3: out there anyway, or how much of him was just
2:41
Speaker 3: playing a bit of a psychological game with Martine because
2:44
Speaker 3: he made a mistake. But yeah, I mean, look, do
2:46
Speaker 3: what the do? What the locals do? It's an easy mantra,
2:50
Speaker 3: But yeah, not everyone could follow it.
2:52
Speaker 2: Well, you just mentioned there Mark having to stay out.
2:55
Speaker 2: I don't know if you know this, But I was
2:57
Speaker 2: listening to who is at Matt Oxley and Peter Baum,
3:02
Speaker 2: and they said, because Mark's bike broke down in morning
3:05
Speaker 2: warm up, they didn't have it fixed anyway, so he
3:08
Speaker 2: actually didn't have a second bike to do a rider
3:11
Speaker 2: swap a bike swap with. So it's just lucky that
3:14
Speaker 2: the cards played in his favor for that, because imagine
3:17
Speaker 2: if it didn't rain, then Mark probably wouldn't have finished
3:19
Speaker 2: the race.
3:20
Speaker 3: Well, no, he would have come in and done the
3:22
Speaker 3: world's longest pit stop as they would have transferred wet
3:25
Speaker 3: ties onto a dry bike, which would have been an
3:26
Speaker 3: absolute disaster. But it's something that Mark tends to do
3:29
Speaker 3: in the Sunday morning warm up, when there's any sort
3:32
Speaker 3: of percentage chance of rain, he'll go out on his
3:34
Speaker 3: second bike and scrub in a set of wets. And
3:37
Speaker 3: we saw that on Sunday. He got halfway around the
3:39
Speaker 3: first lap on wasn't the bike he was going to race,
3:42
Speaker 3: and then the bike broke down, so that bike was
3:43
Speaker 3: basically unusable for race day. So he was fortunate in
3:47
Speaker 3: that it didn't need a full bike swap. But then
3:49
Speaker 3: when you look at the guys that are most likely
3:51
Speaker 3: to stay out there in sketchy conditions and try and
3:54
Speaker 3: make the best of it. There's two guys that always
3:55
Speaker 3: come to mind for me. It's Mark and it's Jack Miller,
3:58
Speaker 3: because they're the guys that always come forward and it's
4:00
Speaker 3: not quite raining and not quite dry. So I think
4:02
Speaker 3: Mark was probably he had his mind made up anyway,
4:05
Speaker 3: and I guess the hope was if it rained so much,
4:07
Speaker 3: they might have had to have red flagged it and
4:09
Speaker 3: restarted it. That was his only hope. But yeah, the
4:12
Speaker 3: cards certainly played in his favor. But we talked about
4:14
Speaker 3: this with Aragon a little bit. There's no one better
4:16
Speaker 3: in Motor GP when the conditions are super sketchy where
4:20
Speaker 3: you don't know what you're going to get corner by corner.
4:22
Speaker 3: How fast did Mark get to the front once that
4:26
Speaker 3: rain kicked in. I think he was sixth at the
4:28
Speaker 3: start of that lap, and then he was in the
4:29
Speaker 3: lead by the second last quarter. So he is just
4:32
Speaker 3: the absolute master of changeable conditions. And we've had a
4:35
Speaker 3: couple of bizarre races now where yeah we've had some
4:37
Speaker 3: slick track surfaces and what have you. But look, he's
4:40
Speaker 3: only fifty three points off the championship lead now, and
4:44
Speaker 3: I'm willing to entertain the discussion that he's actually a
4:47
Speaker 3: championship contender at this point because there's so many points
4:50
Speaker 3: left to go, of course, because we've got seven rounds
4:52
Speaker 3: and seven sprints we didn't have until last year, so
4:55
Speaker 3: there's enough points for him to do it. He's got
4:58
Speaker 3: a little bit of momentum, he's got the monkey off
5:00
Speaker 3: his back with this one and forty three days between
5:03
Speaker 3: victories before Aragon. I think he's absolutely in the championship
5:06
Speaker 3: mix because I don't know about you. I reckon he's
5:09
Speaker 3: less likely to beat himself than the other two and
5:12
Speaker 3: so there's a stability with him that it's not going
5:15
Speaker 3: to require much from Martin or Vagnar, and we've see
5:18
Speaker 3: that Martin's pretty capable of shooting himself in the footwath
5:21
Speaker 3: situations like Sunday. I reckon, Mark's absolutely in this because
5:24
Speaker 3: there is time, He's got the belief he knows he
5:27
Speaker 3: could win races. Now. I don't think this is a
5:29
Speaker 3: two way championship fight. I think it's a three and
5:32
Speaker 3: maybe Bastianini is still in it. He's a little bit
5:34
Speaker 3: further back than Mark, but he looked what Marcus done
5:37
Speaker 3: the last two weekends. I think you absolutely have to
5:39
Speaker 3: consider him a title contender.
5:41
Speaker 2: I think you're smack bang on the money there, because
5:44
Speaker 2: Jorge coming into this weekend, you know that he crashed
5:48
Speaker 2: out of Saxon Ring, and then from there on he
5:50
Speaker 2: finished second and the s second and the main Grand Prix,
5:52
Speaker 2: three Grand PRIs in a.
5:53
Speaker 3: Row, yep.
5:54
Speaker 2: And then he's saying, you know, I'm more mature, I'm
5:57
Speaker 2: understanding more. And even like we were saying that, you know,
6:00
Speaker 2: we can see this new hall. Hey, we think he's
6:02
Speaker 2: going to be a bit more calmer, goes and does
6:05
Speaker 2: something silly like this. I see he really rolled the dice.
6:09
Speaker 2: He took the gamble on that one, and obviously it
6:11
Speaker 2: just didn't pay off and it was a fifty to
6:13
Speaker 2: fifty chance right. Well.
6:15
Speaker 3: The other the other one for me, I'm just going
6:16
Speaker 3: to sorry, I'm going to jump in here. The other
6:18
Speaker 3: one for me is I kept thinking about Philip Island
6:20
Speaker 3: last year, which is it's a weird parallel to draw
6:22
Speaker 3: between Massano last Sunday and Philip Island last year. Remember
6:26
Speaker 3: the Island last year he was the one that went
6:28
Speaker 3: mega aggressive on the tire strategy and he looked like
6:31
Speaker 3: a genius until there were eight corners from the end
6:33
Speaker 3: and he went from first to fifth on the final
6:35
Speaker 3: lap at Philip Island, And it didn't effect his championship
6:37
Speaker 3: in the end because he found other ways to lose
6:39
Speaker 3: it before we got to Valencia. So he was too
6:42
Speaker 3: aggressive at Philip Island last year on Sunday you could
6:46
Speaker 3: almost argue that he was too conservative in that he
6:49
Speaker 3: was the only rider in the top twelve on the
6:52
Speaker 3: road when the rain hits a hit for wet weather tires.
6:56
Speaker 3: Was he playing it too safe in that we talked,
6:58
Speaker 3: you know, you mentioned before about this new, improved, more
7:01
Speaker 3: more rational Martine where he just had this succession of
7:04
Speaker 3: second place finishes where he couldn't win. Look like he
7:06
Speaker 3: turned over a new leaf because he was being conservative
7:09
Speaker 3: and sensible when he couldn't win and taking the next
7:12
Speaker 3: best possible result. Did that conservation go too far on Sunday?
7:16
Speaker 3: And is that part of the reason that he was
7:18
Speaker 3: the only guy in that top ten really that rolled
7:21
Speaker 3: the dice and pitched particularly we didn't need to. I
7:24
Speaker 3: wonder if he'd almost sort have gone too far on
7:26
Speaker 3: the conservatism side and it came and bid him yeah, I.
7:30
Speaker 1: Have nothing to say that other than I completely agree.
7:33
Speaker 1: I think that he's trying to look at things differently.
7:38
Speaker 2: But yeah, he's gone from one extreme to the other
7:41
Speaker 2: and he said it just didn't work out for him,
7:43
Speaker 2: which is such a shame. But it's learning and growing, right.
7:46
Speaker 2: I think it's bought the championship battle closer. But does
7:51
Speaker 2: that mean that there's more pressure on him or he's
7:53
Speaker 2: going to put more pressure on himself? And then same
7:55
Speaker 2: with Paco Bangnaye. Is he because it's his home Grand
7:59
Speaker 2: Prix that we're.
7:59
Speaker 1: Going to again?
8:00
Speaker 2: Is there more pressure on Peco because you know, he
8:03
Speaker 2: was as fast as he was on Pole is his home race,
8:07
Speaker 2: and I think he feels like he needs to retain
8:10
Speaker 2: it because why would he give it to Jjy Martin, Right.
8:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's part of it, I reckon there's another. I
8:17
Speaker 3: don't know if it's front and center in Martine's mind,
8:19
Speaker 3: but he has eyes. He can see a time sheet,
8:22
Speaker 3: he can see where a Prillia is right now right,
8:24
Speaker 3: and you'd be going, oh my god, what have I done?
8:27
Speaker 3: I mean, realistically, he had to leave to Caddie. They'd
8:29
Speaker 3: overlooked him twice for that factory team. In a three
8:32
Speaker 3: year period. But if you're looking at it from Jugay
8:34
Speaker 3: Martine's perspective and then where Aprillia are for probably next
8:38
Speaker 3: year in the year after. I'm not saying this is
8:40
Speaker 3: the only chance he's going to have to win a
8:42
Speaker 3: world championship, but it certainly seems like it's the only
8:44
Speaker 3: chance he's going to have to win a world championship
8:46
Speaker 3: in the short term, because based on what we're seeing
8:49
Speaker 3: from Aprillia, I know how good Martine is. He's not
8:51
Speaker 3: winning a world championship on a Prillier because nobody's winning
8:54
Speaker 3: a world championship on an a prellier in the next
8:56
Speaker 3: couple of years. You do wonder how much that little
8:59
Speaker 3: bit of I better do this this year because I'm
9:02
Speaker 3: probably not going to be I might win a race
9:04
Speaker 3: here or there the next two years, I'm not competing
9:06
Speaker 3: for a championship. That adds another layer of pressure for me.
9:09
Speaker 3: Whereas Bangala is like, well, I've already won two championships.
9:12
Speaker 3: I mean, the best team on the best bike, and
9:14
Speaker 3: I will be next year and I will be the
9:15
Speaker 3: year after. Even Mark Marquez it's like, well, I'm doing
9:18
Speaker 3: what I'm doing on a year old Decadi. Next year,
9:20
Speaker 3: I'm going to be on the modern speck in the
9:22
Speaker 3: best team. Joe Martin is undoubtedly going backwards next year.
9:26
Speaker 3: It's just the way it's going to go. So it's like,
9:29
Speaker 3: if I don't get it right in these next seven races,
9:31
Speaker 3: I might not win one for a while or at all, perhaps,
9:35
Speaker 3: And you do wonder how much that's playing into his
9:37
Speaker 3: mind as well. But it just seemed like a It
9:40
Speaker 3: seemed like an unnecessary gamble to make the stop for
9:44
Speaker 3: a wet bike. And one thing I did afterwards, I thought, Okay,
9:47
Speaker 3: who else pitted in the race and where were they
9:51
Speaker 3: in the field when they pitted? So I've written this
9:53
Speaker 3: down just for you. The other riders that pitted and
9:55
Speaker 3: took the gamble. Elasias Barger was twelve at the time.
9:59
Speaker 3: Pedro Acosta I was thirteenth and he'd already crashed so
10:01
Speaker 3: he had a damaged bike, so it was probably a
10:03
Speaker 3: decent gamble to come in any way for him and
10:07
Speaker 3: the other riders that went for the wet bikes and
10:09
Speaker 3: then regretted it. Ralph Fernandez Maverick Vignalez were fifteenth and sixteenth,
10:12
Speaker 3: and Alex Rins was twentieth. So none of those guys
10:15
Speaker 3: had absolutely anything to lose because they were just going
10:18
Speaker 3: to finish pretty much there if they'd stayed out. Martin
10:22
Speaker 3: was the only guy that's hopped twelve who pitted for
10:25
Speaker 3: a wet bike. And to me, there's a little bit
10:28
Speaker 3: of a little bit of conservatism as I as I
10:31
Speaker 3: said before, but maybe a little bit of pressure too
10:33
Speaker 3: in that of all the things you do when you're
10:36
Speaker 3: the championship leader, you don't hand the other guys at
10:39
Speaker 3: advantage when you don't need to. And that was just
10:41
Speaker 3: super interesting for me psychologically as much as anything else.
10:45
Speaker 2: Let's touch on Peco Bannaya quickly, because I spoke a
10:50
Speaker 2: little bit before. You know, homegrownd Prix, he was on poll,
10:52
Speaker 2: but coming into this weekend after Aragon that incident, he
10:57
Speaker 2: made a public apology to Alex Marquees on the Thursday
11:01
Speaker 2: press conference, which I thought was.
11:04
Speaker 1: A nice thing.
11:05
Speaker 2: I don't know if the meaning was there, but I
11:07
Speaker 2: think that for him he had to do that because
11:11
Speaker 2: there was such conflict on social media and I'm sure
11:14
Speaker 2: in the paddock and everything like that, and for him
11:16
Speaker 2: going into his home weekend, I think he could have
11:20
Speaker 2: gone two ways. And I'm bringing this up because I
11:22
Speaker 2: know that you have your feelings regarding this, but Peco
11:27
Speaker 2: is part of the VR forty six Academy under Valentino Rossi.
11:30
Speaker 2: They're in basically Rossi's hometown, and we actually spoke about
11:35
Speaker 2: this during after the racing that on the World Feed
11:39
Speaker 2: they would talk about, you know, some different writer, and
11:42
Speaker 2: the cameras there Simon craigfar is interviewing you know, somebody
11:45
Speaker 2: on the.
11:45
Speaker 1: Grid and you could hear booing and it just.
11:48
Speaker 2: Shows that somewhere Mark Marquez or Alex Marquez is coming
11:51
Speaker 2: up on the screen and the crowd are booing, And
11:56
Speaker 2: for me, I was so taken aback because I'm like,
12:00
Speaker 2: he know, it's not even on the grid anymore, guys,
12:02
Speaker 2: how is it coming that this is still happening? And
12:06
Speaker 2: I think that Pekku Banyaya, I don't know if he
12:11
Speaker 2: felt like he had to apologize because in his mind,
12:15
Speaker 2: maybe next year he's got Mark Marquez as a teammate.
12:18
Speaker 1: Mark could possibly kick his But next year we don't know.
12:22
Speaker 2: But I'm just saying so, I think for him mentally
12:26
Speaker 2: this weekend, I think he had to do that to
12:28
Speaker 2: kind of kind of sweep it under the rug and
12:30
Speaker 2: give himself some peace.
12:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit. I mean the thing pre race,
12:35
Speaker 3: I think he admitted that the heat of the moment,
12:37
Speaker 3: he was clearly hurt after what happened to Aragon, hurt
12:40
Speaker 3: physically because he had a bike dragged over the top
12:42
Speaker 3: of him, so emotions were pretty high. It was sort
12:44
Speaker 3: of an apology in air quotes, and that he didn't
12:46
Speaker 3: necessarily apologize for what he said. He apologized for how
12:49
Speaker 3: he said it, which is fine. I mean, can you
12:51
Speaker 3: can walk things back when you've got cooler heads. That's
12:54
Speaker 3: all fine. What was interesting in this is that you know,
12:56
Speaker 3: on the podium on Sunday after the race, like Peko
12:59
Speaker 3: was trying to get the crew the chill out a
13:00
Speaker 3: little bit with the booing.
13:01
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
13:03
Speaker 3: We talked about this offline yesterday, like it's twenty twenty four,
13:07
Speaker 3: Like what year is it here, Like it's fifteen years
13:09
Speaker 3: since Rossi last won a title, it's three years since
13:12
Speaker 3: he's retired Malaysia twenty fifteen. Yes, it was nine years ago,
13:17
Speaker 3: And I'm just wondering, like what's the statute of limitations
13:20
Speaker 3: on booing? Like is there a tie where it kind
13:22
Speaker 3: of expires or what have you booing? Per se, A
13:25
Speaker 3: few people get a little bit up at you, like, oh,
13:27
Speaker 3: it's booing, it's unsporting. I don't care less if you
13:29
Speaker 3: pay your money boo boo, or you're like, you can
13:31
Speaker 3: boom me if you don't like this sentence really to Honestly,
13:33
Speaker 3: I don't really mind. I don't really care about the
13:36
Speaker 3: action of the booing. But at what point do we
13:40
Speaker 3: sort of not let this go and move on? But
13:42
Speaker 3: it doesn't still need to be the prevailing narrative here.
13:46
Speaker 3: And we were saying offline yesterday like, don't get me
13:49
Speaker 3: wrong with the Rossi effect and what it's done to
13:51
Speaker 3: modern day Moto GP, and it's made it's helped make
13:53
Speaker 3: the sport what it is today. Every writer of anyone
13:56
Speaker 3: who makes a dollarate of Moto GP should probably be
13:59
Speaker 3: giving Rossier bit of a tip saying thanks very much
14:01
Speaker 3: for bringing this sport into a different sporting stratosphere by
14:04
Speaker 3: his achievements and the profile and everything else. But can
14:07
Speaker 3: we just move on a little bit here, because it
14:09
Speaker 3: just feels like it's dragging something along that probably has
14:13
Speaker 3: passed its use by date at this point. The other
14:16
Speaker 3: factor too, I don't know about you think with this,
14:18
Speaker 3: But I almost think the more you boo Marquees, the
14:20
Speaker 3: more he loves it.
14:21
Speaker 2: In that he.
14:23
Speaker 3: Likes I don't think he minds being the villain at all.
14:26
Speaker 3: He's obviously hugely revered in Spain, but when he's on
14:29
Speaker 3: enemy territory, I actually think it almost becomes a bit
14:31
Speaker 3: of a superpower for him in that oh you want
14:33
Speaker 3: to boom me, do you well? Watch this then? And
14:36
Speaker 3: there's definitely a little bit of that with him, So
14:38
Speaker 3: sometimes you've got to be a little bit careful what
14:40
Speaker 3: you wish for. There's some people that crumble with that
14:42
Speaker 3: sort of derision and attention going towards them. To me,
14:46
Speaker 3: it almost makes him even stronger than he actually is.
14:49
Speaker 3: So yeah, I don't know, like there's like a bit
14:53
Speaker 3: of pantomime villain going on with him, and you expect
14:55
Speaker 3: it at all the Italian rounds. But at some point,
14:58
Speaker 3: can we just kind of move on here? Because look,
15:01
Speaker 3: Rossi was an incredible writer, Marquez is an incredible writer.
15:04
Speaker 3: Banyai is the gold standard of the sport. We just
15:06
Speaker 3: enjoy it for what it is and actually have a
15:07
Speaker 3: sporting contest rather than just pantomime booing. And if you
15:11
Speaker 3: would like to boom me at the end of that
15:12
Speaker 3: little tirade, feel free, please.
15:16
Speaker 2: No, I appreciate what you're saying there. I think it
15:19
Speaker 2: would be cool if we could have a little bit
15:20
Speaker 2: more of a narrative on track and where we're getting
15:23
Speaker 2: out with Jorge and Peco and Mark with the championship.
15:27
Speaker 2: But it's funny because all these writers are friends the
15:31
Speaker 2: VR forty six Academy, which I think is great that
15:33
Speaker 2: Valentino's done and he's helped bring writers through and we're
15:37
Speaker 2: seeing the positives from that. But they're all friends with
15:40
Speaker 2: each other. And I think back in the day, you know,
15:42
Speaker 2: like Casey Stonehell wasn't friends with other people in the
15:47
Speaker 2: Paddick even like Casey and my brother, like they get
15:50
Speaker 2: along and they've known each other for forever.
15:52
Speaker 1: But they don't hang out on weekends. You know, in
15:55
Speaker 1: their mind their rivals. But these guys, they're all best
15:58
Speaker 1: friends with each other.
15:59
Speaker 2: So I think it would be nice to have a
16:01
Speaker 2: little bit of that, and we're getting a taste of
16:03
Speaker 2: it with a championship battle, but not like it used
16:05
Speaker 2: to be with the Marquees Valentino Rossi Era, let's call it.
16:11
Speaker 2: But speaking of all VR forty six with a front row.
16:14
Speaker 2: We had Peco Baana, Franco Morbidelli in second, his equal
16:19
Speaker 2: best qualifying in Moto GP, and Marco Bazaki in third.
16:24
Speaker 3: I thought you were about to congratulate me for my
16:27
Speaker 3: incredible foresight of having Franco Morbidelli on a podium at Massana,
16:30
Speaker 3: which I did say to you that if I ever
16:33
Speaker 3: got a prediction wrong on this podcast, I would never
16:35
Speaker 3: mention it again. But I did have more Bidelli on
16:37
Speaker 3: a podium at Massana. I can't remember whether it was
16:39
Speaker 3: the spridge or the main race. I'm outing myself here,
16:41
Speaker 3: but yeah, look, I mean a bit of local knowledge
16:44
Speaker 3: in that track, and let's face it, Franco he's on
16:46
Speaker 3: the best bike on the grid, so it was nice
16:48
Speaker 3: to see him do something. But wasn't a great surprise
16:51
Speaker 3: that grid, was it? Because you've got the guys. I mean,
16:53
Speaker 3: Banya said he's done literally millions of laps around there,
16:56
Speaker 3: and that's one of those things where it's not actually
16:59
Speaker 3: hyperbole to say that he probably has done a million
17:01
Speaker 3: laps around there. So even with him being a little
17:03
Speaker 3: bit beaten up, they were the gold standard in qualifying
17:06
Speaker 3: those guys. But yeah, more Bbidelli up the front. How
17:09
Speaker 3: weird was it to see Franco Morbidelli up the front.
17:11
Speaker 3: It looked just strange, didn't it.
17:14
Speaker 2: He makes me laugh so much in his post race
17:17
Speaker 2: de reefs or when they're interviewing him, because he is
17:20
Speaker 2: cool as a cucumber.
17:22
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, this.
17:23
Speaker 2: Is good, and everybody else is like, you know, it
17:26
Speaker 2: was hard out there, and there's so much energy behind it.
17:29
Speaker 1: Frankie says relaxed. Frankie is relaxed, right.
17:32
Speaker 3: Did you see his comment about the rain on Sunday
17:35
Speaker 3: where they were talking about it might rain, it might this,
17:37
Speaker 3: and he sort of shrugged his shoulders and said God
17:39
Speaker 3: will decide. And that was just like the most Frankie
17:42
Speaker 3: comment of all time. It's like, if it rains, fine,
17:44
Speaker 3: if it doesn't rain, fine. And that was one of
17:47
Speaker 3: the sort of pinch points of the actual race, wasn't it.
17:49
Speaker 3: When he fell from the podium positions at the start
17:52
Speaker 3: of that seventh lap in the race, that was when
17:54
Speaker 3: people started to think, oh, maybe we do need to
17:57
Speaker 3: pit for wet weather bikes. And I know he was
17:59
Speaker 3: behind Martin at the time, but Martin would have clearly
18:02
Speaker 3: seen that Morbidelli had gone to the ground, and I
18:04
Speaker 3: wonder if that played a factor too, But I didn't
18:07
Speaker 3: mind Frankie being up the front. Was nice to see.
18:09
Speaker 3: It's got a certain style, like you were saying, like
18:10
Speaker 3: there's a laconic nature about him that translates to the
18:13
Speaker 3: way that he rides. It was nice to see him
18:15
Speaker 3: back up there. And do we expect to see him
18:19
Speaker 3: back up there for the next round at Massado?
18:20
Speaker 2: Yes?
18:21
Speaker 3: Do I have any faith that he's going to do
18:22
Speaker 3: it for the rest of the year after that? Probably not.
18:25
Speaker 2: Let's touch on the KTMS because Paula Spargo's top ten
18:30
Speaker 2: finish actually really surprised me. We know that the KTMS,
18:35
Speaker 2: I think they're starting to head in the right direction,
18:37
Speaker 2: and you could see that Pole's bike was very different.
18:39
Speaker 2: Simon Craifi also spoke about that on the World Feed,
18:42
Speaker 2: saying that it's noticeably different. There's a lot of things there,
18:45
Speaker 2: but you know, for the main Grand Prix we had
18:47
Speaker 2: Brad Binder fourth, Jack Miller eighth, and then Paula.
18:50
Speaker 1: Spargo in tenth.
18:52
Speaker 2: Apart from Pedro Acosta's crash, I would say that's a
18:55
Speaker 2: good weekend for KTM.
18:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, very much. So and not that sort of track
19:00
Speaker 3: that tends to suit them either. It's a bit more
19:02
Speaker 3: flowing and you know, the stop and go tracks are
19:04
Speaker 3: more their sort of thing. But no, they were pretty decent.
19:07
Speaker 3: I mean Binda. It was sort of memories of twenty
19:11
Speaker 3: twenty three for Binder on the weekend. He's just always
19:13
Speaker 3: there in situations like that. You have trust that he's
19:16
Speaker 3: going to get the best out of whatever that bite
19:18
Speaker 3: can do on the day. Really good weekend for Jack
19:22
Speaker 3: Miller relative to the rest of his season. Eighth in
19:24
Speaker 3: the sprint, eighth in the Grand Prix, ran in the
19:27
Speaker 3: podium places in the Grand Prix, and which made me
19:30
Speaker 3: do a bit of a deep dive yesterday. I thought,
19:32
Speaker 3: how many times has Jack Miller run in the podium
19:34
Speaker 3: places this year? He has spent five laps in third
19:37
Speaker 3: this year, none in first, none in second, and four
19:40
Speaker 3: of those five laps were on Sunday when the weather
19:42
Speaker 3: was a bit sketchy at Massano. So nice to see
19:44
Speaker 3: Jack back up there. I think he needed it to
19:46
Speaker 3: stay sketchy or wetter, because I think he would have
19:49
Speaker 3: stayed in that top group. He did regress to the
19:51
Speaker 3: mean a little bit, and yeah, Paula Spargo on the
19:54
Speaker 3: very visually different looking case, Yeah, which is clearly a
19:57
Speaker 3: nod for next season. A Costa was quick until he
20:00
Speaker 3: started hitting people and ripping winglets off the side of
20:02
Speaker 3: his bike. But on the whole, a good weekend for
20:06
Speaker 3: KTM relative to probably what we expected for them at Massano,
20:09
Speaker 3: and also relative to who the other team that we
20:12
Speaker 3: always compare them to, because they're in that cluster behind
20:14
Speaker 3: the decaddees, because Aprillia were basically nowhere the entire weekend,
20:19
Speaker 3: and you had this bizarre circumstance. I don't know what
20:22
Speaker 3: you thought about this. You've got Maverick Vinales and Juge
20:25
Speaker 3: Martin fighting for the final point in the Grand Prix
20:28
Speaker 3: in fifteenth but they're in the TV shop because they've
20:30
Speaker 3: been lapped by the leaders. And it was just the
20:32
Speaker 3: most bizarre thing because you don't see that in MOTORGP
20:35
Speaker 3: races with guys getting lapped, certainly not guys who were
20:37
Speaker 3: on a bike that was capable of winning a Sprit
20:39
Speaker 3: twenty four hours earlier with Barbidelli. So that was bizarre
20:43
Speaker 3: because you've got this fight for one point that's going
20:45
Speaker 3: on right behind the leaders because they're a lap down,
20:47
Speaker 3: but Aprillia had an absolute shock over the course of
20:49
Speaker 3: the weekend at Massano, which was probably an extension of
20:52
Speaker 3: what happened to Aragon. But getting back to your original point, Yeah, look,
20:55
Speaker 3: a good weekend for KTM and maybe a sign that
20:59
Speaker 3: things are starting to move forward there because that a
21:01
Speaker 3: spargo a bike seems to be the way they're going
21:03
Speaker 3: forward for a bit of the rest of this year
21:05
Speaker 3: and certainly for twenty five, and it seems to be
21:07
Speaker 3: better than what they've had.
21:08
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Yamahas quickly, because fabr Corderraro, he
21:12
Speaker 2: was in the top ten, I believe in Sunday's Grand Prix.
21:16
Speaker 2: Also in the sprint, it felt like he was closer
21:19
Speaker 2: to the leading group. So I'm wondering what has changed
21:24
Speaker 2: with the Yamahas in literally the last week where we're
21:27
Speaker 2: seeing a new glimpse of Fabio or the glimpse of
21:30
Speaker 2: what Fabeau used to be and who he really is,
21:33
Speaker 2: which is a world champion that bit closer to the
21:35
Speaker 2: front again.
21:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, equal to Portugal for their best result of the year.
21:39
Speaker 3: He finished seventh in the Grand Prix and we saw
21:41
Speaker 3: him the week previously. He was very good in the
21:43
Speaker 3: sprint at Aragon. They just look a little bit more
21:46
Speaker 3: sorted and a little bit more competitive to what they
21:48
Speaker 3: have been. There's a slight asterisk on that one to
21:51
Speaker 3: me because they had recently tested at Massano, so they
21:55
Speaker 3: hit the ground running on Friday. They were a lot
21:57
Speaker 3: further sort of down the track of having the bike
21:59
Speaker 3: sorted for the try than any of the others because
22:02
Speaker 3: they've been to Massano so recently. I think you'll see
22:04
Speaker 3: that sort of early out the gate advantage maybe disappear
22:07
Speaker 3: a bit when we get to Massano too, because everyone's
22:10
Speaker 3: been there two weeks before. But it's undeniable that they
22:14
Speaker 3: are starting to progress. And you know, we keep talking
22:18
Speaker 3: about them being a bit of a one man band
22:20
Speaker 3: because they've only got two bikes anyway. And Alex Rinz
22:22
Speaker 3: still doesn't look anywhere, dear fit. He just watched the
22:25
Speaker 3: guy walk when he's not on the bike, and you
22:27
Speaker 3: wonder how he's actually riding the bike when he's on it.
22:29
Speaker 3: But yeah, like you said, look, they look much more convincing.
22:33
Speaker 3: The extra testing and the concessions and the amount of
22:36
Speaker 3: riding they're doing away from the spotlight of a Grand
22:38
Speaker 3: Prix weekend is massive, but they're making the most of
22:43
Speaker 3: a bad situation and they're clearly moving forward. And I'm
22:46
Speaker 3: sure the next thing on your run sheet is we
22:48
Speaker 3: need to talk about Repso Honda, which we will, but
22:50
Speaker 3: they have massive They've distanced themselves. Now it's no longer
22:54
Speaker 3: Honda and Yamahara at the back. It's Decati first, Katiemmapriuli
22:58
Speaker 3: a second, depending on the week, and Yamaha is in
23:00
Speaker 3: a tear by itself, and then Honda's in a tear
23:03
Speaker 3: that you don't want to be in down the back.
23:04
Speaker 3: So positive signs for the Yamaha. And like you say,
23:07
Speaker 3: we know the rider's good enough because Fabio, to my mind,
23:10
Speaker 3: is still one of the best three riders in Moto GP.
23:12
Speaker 3: He just hasn't had the machinery to show it.
23:15
Speaker 2: Repsol Honda, let's go there then, So not the weekend
23:18
Speaker 2: they wanted because Juan Mia out with a tummy bug,
23:22
Speaker 2: and then Luca Marinis same thing Sunday, went to bed
23:26
Speaker 2: with fever's Sunday night, woke up and was unable to race.
23:29
Speaker 2: So not the weekend that they are wanting. And then
23:32
Speaker 2: the news broke on Monday that Repsol is parting ways
23:35
Speaker 2: with Honda Racing Corporation, which for me, thinking back in
23:40
Speaker 2: my earliest memories of watching Moto GP back in like
23:43
Speaker 2: ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, is all you see
23:46
Speaker 2: was Repsol Honda, and that was what it was, obviously
23:50
Speaker 2: Mick doing. Like, there's such a big partnership, and I
23:54
Speaker 2: guess it's kind of the history of Moto GP and
23:57
Speaker 2: now they're deciding to part ways.
24:00
Speaker 3: What's your take on that, Matt, Yeah, Look, it just
24:02
Speaker 3: shows you where things are and that there there wasn't
24:04
Speaker 3: a Repsol Honder on the grid on Sunday, and I
24:07
Speaker 3: had barely noticed, to be fair, because we never see
24:10
Speaker 3: them on the TV coverage anyway, so they were completely
24:13
Speaker 3: anonymous that you know, usually they're anonymous and on the grid.
24:15
Speaker 3: This weekend they were anonymous and not on the grid.
24:17
Speaker 3: And then an hour, literally an hour after the race
24:20
Speaker 3: that they hadn't competed in, the press release comes out
24:23
Speaker 3: and says that Repsol Honder and HRC are partying ways.
24:26
Speaker 3: We knew this was coming because it was floated and
24:28
Speaker 3: around about May, but it was the official announcement on Sunday.
24:31
Speaker 3: But like you were saying. You know, for a lot
24:33
Speaker 3: of people their entire history of watching Motor GP, it's
24:36
Speaker 3: Nick doo It, it's Valentino Rossie, It's Dicky Hayden winning
24:38
Speaker 3: a world championship, It's Casey, It's Marquez with six titles
24:42
Speaker 3: in seven years. That bike and that color scheme just
24:46
Speaker 3: became synonymous with winning, and it all went sideways obviously
24:51
Speaker 3: once Mark hurt himself at the start of twenty twenty.
24:53
Speaker 3: And yeah, he came back and won a couple of
24:55
Speaker 3: races in twenty one when his body wasn't really working,
24:57
Speaker 3: But it's just been a place where career years have
25:00
Speaker 3: gone to die in recent times. I mean, you think
25:02
Speaker 3: of the last hole Halo red So season on the
25:04
Speaker 3: Repsol Honda as a disaster. Chiuan Mi has either just
25:07
Speaker 3: been broken or nowhere since he went there after the
25:09
Speaker 3: Suzuki thing finished, and it is kind of sad. But
25:12
Speaker 3: I also wonder too whether this is a bit of
25:15
Speaker 3: a blessing in disguise for them, because I reckon we
25:17
Speaker 3: judge that team differently because they're reps So Honda. We
25:20
Speaker 3: think of the history and the pedigree. If they can
25:22
Speaker 3: just be insert sponsor name here, Honda for the next
25:25
Speaker 3: couple of years, maybe we see what they're doing with
25:29
Speaker 3: a slightly different lens and we don't judge them based
25:32
Speaker 3: off that successful pass. But that about you. How many
25:35
Speaker 3: years are we going to keep calling them reps So
25:37
Speaker 3: Honda for But even though they're not Repsol Honda. I'm
25:39
Speaker 3: one hundred percent going to write that one hundred times
25:42
Speaker 3: before I go, oh, hey, God, they're not that anymore.
25:44
Speaker 3: So whoever the next title sponsor is, they've kind of
25:46
Speaker 3: got their work cut out because everyone's got to call
25:48
Speaker 3: them reps So hold.
25:48
Speaker 2: There anyway, Literally, I was just thinking the same thing,
25:51
Speaker 2: and in my head, I'm going, well, we don't Callju
25:52
Speaker 2: Caddie Lenovo Ju Caddi, we don't call Yamaha Monster Energy, Yamaha.
25:56
Speaker 1: But it's always been Repsol Honda. It's just what is
26:00
Speaker 1: always been.
26:00
Speaker 2: So it is going to be sad to not see
26:03
Speaker 2: those colors. And I guess for those who maybe haven't
26:07
Speaker 2: experienced it, I went to Spain in twenty nineteen, and
26:11
Speaker 2: you know, Repsol is there field stations over there, and
26:14
Speaker 2: you walk in and you see back then it was
26:16
Speaker 2: like Mark Marquez, Danny Pedrosa, you'd see that everywhere because
26:21
Speaker 2: in Spain and Europe it's so well known, so to
26:24
Speaker 2: cut ties with that being majority of European Championship as
26:28
Speaker 2: we know, that is huge for the.
26:30
Speaker 3: Sport well, even the way the sport looks visually for
26:33
Speaker 3: the European rounds, particularly the rounds in Spain where there's
26:36
Speaker 3: been a huge following with Marques and Pedrosa in the past.
26:39
Speaker 3: You look at the grand stands and they've just got
26:41
Speaker 3: this tinge of orange to them because of all the
26:42
Speaker 3: team colors and the merch that everyone's got and so
26:45
Speaker 3: on and so forth. So motor Gip's going to have
26:48
Speaker 3: this different color palette in Europe, which is bizarre because
26:51
Speaker 3: for as long as we can remember, that's just been
26:53
Speaker 3: this predominant color in the grandstand So it's certainly going
26:56
Speaker 3: to take certainly going to take some getting used to.
26:59
Speaker 3: Orange now available for all other team sponsors, by the way,
27:02
Speaker 3: but I don't think anyone will use it because you're
27:04
Speaker 3: just going to be associated with Honda until people you
27:06
Speaker 3: start to forget about the whole Repsol Honda thing. But yeah,
27:09
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to train myself, don't write reps
27:11
Speaker 3: so Honda don't write reps a Honda because I know
27:13
Speaker 3: I'm going to do it because I've just been so
27:15
Speaker 3: used to doing it.
27:16
Speaker 2: Do you think then reps all are going to take
27:18
Speaker 2: a step back from the sport or do you think
27:20
Speaker 2: that they will maybe go to a different team or
27:23
Speaker 2: maybe even like a Moto to Motor three team. Yeah.
27:26
Speaker 3: What I can imagine them doing is because we've got
27:28
Speaker 3: this big rual reset coming in twenty seven, they can
27:31
Speaker 3: almost afford to sort of sit back and go, all right,
27:34
Speaker 3: what's the landscape going to be like in Motor GP
27:36
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty seven, because you know, there's no what
27:39
Speaker 3: chance they go back to Honda if and when Honda
27:42
Speaker 3: actually get good again. I mean, because I don't think
27:43
Speaker 3: Honda's not going to be down here forever. That's pretty clear.
27:47
Speaker 3: So maybe when things start moving up for Honda again,
27:50
Speaker 3: maybe they rekindle that association. But what's amazing to me
27:53
Speaker 3: is that you think how much modern day sport changes.
27:56
Speaker 3: I mean, every four or five years, things change massively.
27:58
Speaker 3: A thirty year sponsorship with a brand and a team.
28:02
Speaker 3: It's not something we see, is it.
28:04
Speaker 2: No, that's not something you ever see. And thinking back
28:07
Speaker 2: to other sports like even Formula One. I remember, like
28:14
Speaker 2: Michael Schumacher, I mean there's always been like the tobacco
28:16
Speaker 2: and the alcohol sponsors and things, or V eight's even
28:18
Speaker 2: has always been Shell. But you don't often see like
28:21
Speaker 2: that one major sponsor that sticks around for so long.
28:24
Speaker 1: So they say change.
28:25
Speaker 2: Is as good as a holiday, and hopefully this is
28:27
Speaker 2: the holiday that Honda, not Rep So Honda, Honda need
28:31
Speaker 2: to help them improve. But you actually wrote an article
28:35
Speaker 2: in the lead up to the Grand Prix and something
28:38
Speaker 2: I thought was really really nice. Mark Marquez actually went
28:41
Speaker 2: to the Rep solhanda garage post his Aragon win and
28:46
Speaker 2: said to his old crew chief Sandy Hernandez and the
28:49
Speaker 2: rest of his old team that you guys also are
28:52
Speaker 2: part of this win. And I thought that is just
28:55
Speaker 2: that's top class, like big round of applause for Mark,
28:58
Speaker 2: because you don't often see that. They'll usually writers will
29:02
Speaker 2: blame the old team or maybe not have anything to do,
29:04
Speaker 2: but that was his family.
29:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, completely, And I think you saw that he was
29:09
Speaker 3: really wrestling with that when he left Repso Honda with
29:12
Speaker 3: a year left on that contract, because the main feeling
29:16
Speaker 3: was he felt he was ready to win again and
29:18
Speaker 3: the bike wasn't, and that's been proven out with what's
29:21
Speaker 3: happened this year because Mark is back to being something
29:23
Speaker 3: close to Mark again. But those guys, he'd come through
29:28
Speaker 3: Moto two with a lot of those guys, he'd had
29:29
Speaker 3: all that successive motor GP and he felt that that
29:33
Speaker 3: was the appropriate thing to do, because yes, you win
29:35
Speaker 3: the race at Arragon, but that's not the win or
29:37
Speaker 3: the race of a moment. That's something that had taken
29:40
Speaker 3: years of mental pain and anguish and surgeries and we've
29:43
Speaker 3: seen all of that. And I think that Spanish crew
29:46
Speaker 3: with Santi Hernandez and those guys, they've been so close
29:49
Speaker 3: to him through all the good times that he didn't
29:52
Speaker 3: almost want to not acknowledge them after all those bad
29:55
Speaker 3: times and go back and say, look, you guys are
29:57
Speaker 3: a part of this. I wouldn't have been able to
29:58
Speaker 3: get back here without your involvement. So it was a
30:01
Speaker 3: small gesture, but it was a really appropriate one, and
30:04
Speaker 3: I think it just speaks to how tight that Marquez
30:07
Speaker 3: in a circle is. Some of those guys obviously could
30:09
Speaker 3: not come with him to Grassini because he was already
30:12
Speaker 3: signing a one year deal. They'd already signed with Honda.
30:14
Speaker 3: So they had to go their own separate ways. But yeah,
30:16
Speaker 3: it was nice to acknowledge the past, and like you said,
30:19
Speaker 3: it was class I think.
30:20
Speaker 2: Speaking of acknowledging the past, I wanted to touch briefly
30:24
Speaker 2: on the track itself because obviously it has quite a
30:28
Speaker 2: big past. You know, it was where Wayne Rainy essentially
30:32
Speaker 2: was paralyzed back in ninety three, I believe, and so
30:36
Speaker 2: Goodyear by the way, yeah, I was born so but
30:40
Speaker 2: I wanted to talk about because the story behind that.
30:43
Speaker 2: Obviously Motor GP didn't want to return the old Dorna
30:46
Speaker 2: didn't want to return there, but when they decided to,
30:49
Speaker 2: they reverse the track around and this weekend we saw
30:54
Speaker 2: so many track limit warnings.
30:55
Speaker 1: Right, is that.
30:57
Speaker 2: Purely just because of this reversal of the track the
31:01
Speaker 2: corner exit, there's not I guess, like that runoff that
31:04
Speaker 2: they can harm, so the bikes are just constantly going
31:07
Speaker 2: over the green.
31:08
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's one of those tracks that you look at
31:10
Speaker 3: how much faster the lap times are now compared to
31:14
Speaker 3: the old days. It's quite a narrow track when you
31:17
Speaker 3: look at it on TV, it looks narrow for bikes,
31:19
Speaker 3: and you know there's not too many tracks these days
31:21
Speaker 3: where we go, well, this looks a little bit narrow
31:23
Speaker 3: and a bit one line, and sometimes the racing there
31:25
Speaker 3: can be pretty processional because it's very, very hard to
31:29
Speaker 3: pass at this particular track because the performance of the
31:31
Speaker 3: bikes is such that the breaking distances are less the
31:34
Speaker 3: corner entree. What you can do on corner Eytree has changed.
31:37
Speaker 3: So it's one of those ones. Look, it's super popular.
31:40
Speaker 3: They've got a massive crowd over the weekend, and it's
31:42
Speaker 3: Rossy territory, so many riders come from around this area.
31:45
Speaker 3: But it kind of feels to me that, you know,
31:47
Speaker 3: we were talking earlier this year about the twenty seven
31:50
Speaker 3: rules and trying to slow the bikes down a little
31:52
Speaker 3: bit and make the water down the performance to a point,
31:55
Speaker 3: this is one of those tracks that I don't think
31:57
Speaker 3: motor GP's outgrown it, but it's one of those one
32:00
Speaker 3: where it does look a little bit too big and
32:02
Speaker 3: a little bit too fast these days. And look, it's
32:06
Speaker 3: an amazingly popular venue, hugely atmospheric. It's a great one
32:09
Speaker 3: to have on the calendar, and I'm glad that it's
32:11
Speaker 3: going to stay on the calendar. But yeah, it is
32:14
Speaker 3: one of those circuits that for different reasons. You look
32:17
Speaker 3: at a place like Migello because of the high speeds
32:19
Speaker 3: and how close the walls are at the end of
32:20
Speaker 3: the start finished straight there. There's a few tracks that
32:22
Speaker 3: come into that category. For me, this is kind of
32:25
Speaker 3: one of them. But you look, sometimes you need a
32:28
Speaker 3: bit of a randomness to spice up the race there.
32:30
Speaker 3: We certainly got that on Sunday because a lot of
32:31
Speaker 3: the time at Massano it can be a bit processional.
32:34
Speaker 3: A typical Massano race tends to be a bit like
32:36
Speaker 3: the sprint B was on Saturday, and that whoever gets
32:39
Speaker 3: the first lap, and particularly those first couple of quarters,
32:41
Speaker 3: which are very very sketchy on a motor GP race,
32:44
Speaker 3: whoever gets those right once Orje Martine got into the lead,
32:47
Speaker 3: that was kind of it, and that tends to be
32:49
Speaker 3: the way racing goes there. So you need a little
32:51
Speaker 3: bit of randomness. But look, I'm glad the track's still
32:53
Speaker 3: on the calendar because in terms of atmosphere and the history,
32:57
Speaker 3: what have you, I think it's one of the better ones.
32:59
Speaker 2: It was cooline start on the TSO sprint where he
33:02
Speaker 2: just got there before the first corner, Like watching that
33:06
Speaker 2: replay was just he knew the line, he took it.
33:09
Speaker 1: Off, he went.
33:11
Speaker 3: I actually thought he'd jumped the start because he was
33:13
Speaker 3: basically in front before anyone had got out of about
33:15
Speaker 3: second gear. I actually had to rewatch the start and
33:17
Speaker 3: whether he tried to time the lights or whether he
33:19
Speaker 3: just got it completely hooked up. But it was almost
33:21
Speaker 3: like he'd started before the rest of them, because he
33:23
Speaker 3: was well in front before they got to the apex
33:26
Speaker 3: of turn one from the second row of the grid.
33:28
Speaker 3: Given all the bikes have got these ride height devices
33:30
Speaker 3: and launch procedures these days, that's not something you often see.
33:33
Speaker 3: So yeah, he was pretty awesome on Saturday, and of
33:37
Speaker 3: course we've not talked about that because of what he
33:39
Speaker 3: did on Sunday, but he was very, very good on Saturday.
33:41
Speaker 3: It was outstanding.
33:42
Speaker 2: What do we say, Matt, You're only as good as
33:44
Speaker 2: your last race. And unfortunately we're going to talk about
33:46
Speaker 2: Sunday a lot more than we asked Saturday, but to
33:49
Speaker 2: continue on with Sunday, we'll always have to touch on
33:52
Speaker 2: our Aussie, So let's talk about Sena. Ags made his
33:55
Speaker 2: way from Q one into Q two, qualified sixteenth on
34:00
Speaker 2: the grid and then he finished in P eleven, so
34:04
Speaker 2: not bad for Center.
34:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, decent race for Center. I thought he seems to
34:09
Speaker 3: be around this tenth eleventh, Like I was just looking
34:11
Speaker 3: back before. He's finished tenth or eleventh four times now,
34:14
Speaker 3: so that's on a decent weekend. I mean, we've seen
34:18
Speaker 3: him break into the top ten, he's had a fifth
34:20
Speaker 3: at Catalonia, but on a decent weekend, he tends to
34:23
Speaker 3: be around that, just at the back end of the
34:25
Speaker 3: top ten. Pretty decent result. I thought. Fifteenth in the
34:28
Speaker 3: World Championship now, and look, he was pretty competitive after
34:32
Speaker 3: having to fight his way through and get into Q two,
34:34
Speaker 3: but he did finish one place ahead of Sergio Garcia,
34:37
Speaker 3: who's lost the championship lead in Motor two now to
34:40
Speaker 3: Agua after Agura won that race on Sunday. But I
34:43
Speaker 3: don't know about you, but what did you think of
34:46
Speaker 3: the post race with Garcia where the cameras were hanging
34:49
Speaker 3: around in the garage where he was clearly pretty distraught
34:51
Speaker 3: after another really terrible weekend. Because my thoughts were I
34:56
Speaker 3: wasn't as anti showing a writer being upset from a
34:59
Speaker 3: bad result, but I thought that camera shot lingered a
35:01
Speaker 3: little bit too long. It was a little bit uncomfortable
35:03
Speaker 3: wasn't it.
35:04
Speaker 2: I agree, and I think you know we spoke about
35:07
Speaker 2: it before. We're seeing this where Sergio's results are maybe
35:12
Speaker 2: lacking a little bit, purely because of the stress that
35:15
Speaker 2: he's been going through, where he thought he had a
35:17
Speaker 2: man a GP right, he didn't. Same with Joe Roberts, right,
35:20
Speaker 2: but for him to be so visibly destrayed the poor thing.
35:25
Speaker 2: I'm a very empathetic person, and for me, I'm going
35:28
Speaker 2: leave him alone. He needs to process what is going on.
35:32
Speaker 2: I get it, it's entertainment, it's TV show, But at
35:35
Speaker 2: the same time, leave the poor kid alone because he
35:38
Speaker 2: is only just a kid. Still.
35:40
Speaker 3: To me, it was a five second TV shot, not
35:42
Speaker 3: a thirty second one like show that he's upset, he's disappointed,
35:45
Speaker 3: he's finished twelfth, that's not gone very well. And then
35:47
Speaker 3: let's move on. Let's not watch a guy suffer on
35:49
Speaker 3: live TV. I think he can suffer in private. I
35:51
Speaker 3: think everyone can see how upset the guy is. But
35:53
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what the viewers get from just this long,
35:56
Speaker 3: lingering shot of watching a guy visibly distraught after the race.
35:59
Speaker 3: I thought that probably crossed the line, to be honest, and.
36:02
Speaker 2: Same with one of the other writers. I can't remember
36:04
Speaker 2: if it was Moto two or Moto three. I think
36:05
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be Moto.
36:06
Speaker 1: Three, where one of them had a.
36:08
Speaker 2: Bit of a wedgy situation going on and they just
36:11
Speaker 2: seem to want to play.
36:12
Speaker 1: Him sorting that out.
36:14
Speaker 2: That's fine, you can move on from that now, we
36:16
Speaker 2: don't need to see this exactly.
36:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got the gist. Let's go to the next shot.
36:22
Speaker 2: Well, let's go to the next category and talk about
36:24
Speaker 2: Moto three. So we have Ozzie, Jacob Rulestone and Joel
36:28
Speaker 2: Kelso who both made their way into Q two, And
36:33
Speaker 2: let's talk about Rulestone to start with. It's good that
36:36
Speaker 2: we're seeing him in Q two, but it seems like
36:40
Speaker 2: at this point in the year now he had such
36:42
Speaker 2: a good run up to that summer break and then
36:45
Speaker 2: even just after that not too bad, but it seems
36:47
Speaker 2: like now he's struggling with something there.
36:50
Speaker 1: What's what'ts your take on where Rurlestone's at?
36:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting, Like so he was twelfth on Sunday.
36:56
Speaker 3: It was a little bit better because he'd only scored
36:58
Speaker 3: four points in the previous five races. And you mentioned
37:01
Speaker 3: that first half of the year he fell off at
37:03
Speaker 3: Saxon Ring and since then he's not quite managed to
37:06
Speaker 3: get back to where he was at the start of
37:07
Speaker 3: the year. It's so hard to see in Moto three
37:10
Speaker 3: because of the complete chaos of the opening couple of laps,
37:12
Speaker 3: but something I have been noticing he seems to get
37:15
Speaker 3: beaten up a little bit off the start, where the
37:17
Speaker 3: aggression is absolutely over the top for the most part,
37:20
Speaker 3: but that's the way it's got to be in Moto three.
37:22
Speaker 3: It's just the jungle out there. I do wonder if
37:25
Speaker 3: there needs to be a bit of a more aggression
37:28
Speaker 3: in the opening laps. And it's interesting with riders will
37:31
Speaker 3: notice the tendency of other riders. There's certain guys you
37:33
Speaker 3: don't want to be anywhere near at the start of
37:34
Speaker 3: the race. He's like, well, this guy's going to put
37:36
Speaker 3: a move on me and not think about it. I
37:38
Speaker 3: wonder if he's being seen as soft target is harsh,
37:42
Speaker 3: but I think you know what I'm getting at. Maybe
37:44
Speaker 3: some people think he's a guy we can maybe try
37:46
Speaker 3: and take advantage of a little bit here because he's
37:48
Speaker 3: maybe not as feisty on the first lap. To me,
37:51
Speaker 3: he does a lot of the damage in his race
37:53
Speaker 3: tends to be early. He races well after that. He's
37:55
Speaker 3: very decisive with his passing once the race settles down,
37:58
Speaker 3: But early in the races I reckon he gets beaten
38:00
Speaker 3: up a little bit, and it's interesting herbe Polceress mentioned
38:02
Speaker 3: this a couple of times. We also have to remember
38:05
Speaker 3: that he's a rookie and incredibly difficult and competitive championship.
38:10
Speaker 3: But if there was one thing he'll take out of
38:12
Speaker 3: this year, it's the aggression of the first lap. That'll
38:15
Speaker 3: come with experience. But you also don't want to be
38:18
Speaker 3: painted as someone that's a bit of an easy mark
38:21
Speaker 3: at the start of a race, and I think that's
38:22
Speaker 3: where a lot of the damage is being done at
38:24
Speaker 3: the moment, someone who's.
38:25
Speaker 2: Not afraid to be aggressive on the first lap. Joel
38:28
Speaker 2: Calso So he crossed the line in P six this weekend,
38:34
Speaker 2: but he was up the front for a long time
38:38
Speaker 2: that race.
38:39
Speaker 3: Could we just stop for two seconds and say that
38:41
Speaker 3: Motor III race at Mesado was There's some races where
38:44
Speaker 3: you can write thousands of words of analysis and sometimes
38:47
Speaker 3: you just push your chair back and just giggle because
38:49
Speaker 3: it was just funny. It was absolutely absurd that the
38:52
Speaker 3: race was won by a helpercare So who had a
38:55
Speaker 3: top of log lap penalty. It was about five seconds
38:57
Speaker 3: off the lead and still stormed through won the race,
38:59
Speaker 3: but Kelso was seventh on the road. He gained a
39:02
Speaker 3: place at the classification because Staven Alonso had run off
39:06
Speaker 3: track on the final lap. Joel Kelso was zero point
39:09
Speaker 3: nine seconds from winning the Grand Prix, and he crossed
39:12
Speaker 3: the light in seventh place and was classified six. I
39:14
Speaker 3: reckon it's the best race I've seen this year in
39:16
Speaker 3: any category. It was absolutely fantastic. And look, Joel, he's
39:20
Speaker 3: just hanging in there on a bike that probably isn't
39:24
Speaker 3: as good as some of the guys he's racing with,
39:25
Speaker 3: right at the very very front, and he's just constantly
39:28
Speaker 3: up there on the first couple of rows of the grid,
39:30
Speaker 3: finishing top six, top seven. Not quite sure he has
39:34
Speaker 3: that last little bit to push himself up into regular
39:37
Speaker 3: podium contention, But my goodness, you couldn't be much closer
39:40
Speaker 3: than he is. But I don't know about you, but
39:42
Speaker 3: that race was crazy on Sunday.
39:45
Speaker 2: Oh for those of you who haven't watched it, honestly,
39:48
Speaker 2: go back and watch it, because from the start it
39:51
Speaker 2: was just changing leader changing leader. The battle for the
39:54
Speaker 2: front group started with like three or four of them,
39:57
Speaker 2: then it was five, then it was seven of them,
39:59
Speaker 2: and it was just insane.
40:01
Speaker 1: Honestly, it is high quality entertainment racing.
40:06
Speaker 3: I was a little concerned for the commentators. I texted
40:08
Speaker 3: Matt Burr immediately afterwards before Moto two started and said,
40:10
Speaker 3: may are you going to make the rest of the
40:12
Speaker 3: afternoon because you always didn't make the end of the
40:14
Speaker 3: race there because he was just hyperventilating so much. But
40:17
Speaker 3: it wasn't one of those ones where the commentators were
40:19
Speaker 3: putting any mayonnaise on it. He was absolutely crazy. So
40:22
Speaker 3: awesome that we've seen and Aussie up the front. And
40:25
Speaker 3: I still maintain that we will see Joel on a
40:27
Speaker 3: podium or two before the end of the season. I
40:29
Speaker 3: think he's been too consistent and too quick not to be.
40:32
Speaker 3: But my god, what the best race of the year
40:35
Speaker 3: we've had so far, and the Massano and Moto three
40:37
Speaker 3: tends to throw these sorts of races up. The best
40:39
Speaker 3: thing is in two weeks we get another one.
40:41
Speaker 2: We do get another one, and I think that's pretty
40:44
Speaker 2: much it for us today. From the Mazzano one edition
40:47
Speaker 2: of Moto GP Pit Talk. But don't forget guys. You
40:50
Speaker 2: can catch all the action live and AD break free.
40:53
Speaker 2: Plus you can go back and watch the races on
40:55
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40:58
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41:01
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41:05
Speaker 2: Forward slash Motorsport but from Matt Clayton and myself Ronita Vermula,
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Speaker 2: and it will be back soon with more Motor GP
41:13
Speaker 2: pittalk