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Delayed, Dangerous & Dramatic: Brazil GP Recap · Pit Talk

0:08
Speaker 1: So between floods, sinkholes and the track coming apart like
0:12
Speaker 1: a dodgy ikea table, somehow we went racing in Brazil.
0:17
Speaker 1: Was this iconic? Was it a disaster or is it
0:20
Speaker 1: just Brazil saying welcome back, we missed you. This episode
0:24
Speaker 1: a bit Talk sponsored by Shannon's Insurance. Joining me Rinita
0:27
Speaker 1: Vmulan is our Fox Sports resident Moto GP editor Matt Clayton. Matt,
0:33
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do a funny intro because in
0:35
Speaker 1: all seriousness today there's been a lot that I don't
0:39
Speaker 1: necessarily think has passed the safety aspect for a Moto
0:42
Speaker 1: GP race.
0:44
Speaker 2: Was there anything that passed the safety aspect? Grenada? I've
0:47
Speaker 2: been doing this as I always make a joke on
0:49
Speaker 2: this podcast. I am very old and I've been seeing
0:51
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of things because of my age.
0:53
Speaker 2: I have never in my life written a headline with
0:55
Speaker 2: the words prisoners and sinkholes in it. So that's a
0:59
Speaker 2: first for me in thirty something years as Burger journalists.
1:03
Speaker 2: This shouldn't be happening in professional sport. I guess that's
1:06
Speaker 2: the short form souvation of what happened over the course
1:09
Speaker 2: of the weekend. But we did get a motor GP
1:11
Speaker 2: race off, so that was good. We had a very
1:15
Speaker 2: interesting race and I am going to take a massive
1:17
Speaker 2: victory lap a little bit later of a juge Martine,
1:20
Speaker 2: mind you, But we will get to that because the
1:22
Speaker 2: story of this entire weekend, it sort of began really
1:25
Speaker 2: on about Wednesday when we saw pictures of the track,
1:27
Speaker 2: go there's how much flooding going on at this circuit?
1:30
Speaker 2: And then that was just the tip of the iceberg,
1:33
Speaker 2: because every day something a little bit different happened, didn't it.
1:36
Speaker 1: Oh, the stories, the things that I've heard from people
1:40
Speaker 1: in the Padding just about the setup and the location.
1:44
Speaker 1: Some friends over at the Paddock past podcast. They were
1:47
Speaker 1: saying things I don't necessarily want to repeat, but just
1:50
Speaker 1: saying how like the cleanliness and the bathrooms and a situation.
1:53
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, you kind of expect that from those locations.
1:56
Speaker 1: But then we had the flooding. Then we had that
1:59
Speaker 1: scenkhole that I opened up, and We're on the chat
2:01
Speaker 1: the whole time, going are they even going to be
2:03
Speaker 1: able to raise? How are they going to do that?
2:05
Speaker 1: And I'm watching on Twitter seeing what everybody's saying. Mindude,
2:08
Speaker 1: this is at like four thirty Queensland time, so five
2:11
Speaker 1: thirty Melbourne time, so I'm half asleep as it is.
2:14
Speaker 1: And then yesterday with the track coming apart, same thing
2:18
Speaker 1: I'm starting to see on Twitter from some of the
2:20
Speaker 1: journalists like Simon Patterson posting photos Alex Rinn's finger, Alex
2:26
Speaker 1: Marquez's arm you posted in the article. Yeah, so yeah,
2:31
Speaker 1: this is not like the level of Moto GP said
2:34
Speaker 1: that we wanted to bring in. But I mean put
2:37
Speaker 1: all of that aside, the fact that you wrote about
2:40
Speaker 1: it in your article, and I think you need to
2:41
Speaker 1: mention it. Prisoners were helping fix this situation.
2:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's a good Romoto GP weekend where
2:50
Speaker 2: the word see Cole is like the third weirdest thing
2:53
Speaker 2: that's happened over about five days so apparently, I think
2:56
Speaker 2: it was Thursday when the track was still flooded. They
2:59
Speaker 2: didn't have enough resource was to clean up all the debris,
3:01
Speaker 2: and there were a bunch of prisoners that were supervised,
3:05
Speaker 2: you know, out on a bit of I don't know,
3:06
Speaker 2: day release, rehabilitation, whatever you want to call it. They
3:09
Speaker 2: were out there with some brooms and mops and doing
3:10
Speaker 2: a little bit of cleaning up work on a bit
3:13
Speaker 2: of a day expedition for some of the local types
3:16
Speaker 2: that were locked up over there, So that was just
3:18
Speaker 2: add it to the basket of weirdness over the course
3:21
Speaker 2: of the weekend. But as I was preparing for this,
3:23
Speaker 2: my first thought was this all seemed like the byproduct
3:28
Speaker 2: of being just a little bit rushed, right And then
3:31
Speaker 2: so my first thought was, all right, when was this
3:34
Speaker 2: race actually announced? And to my great surprise, it was
3:37
Speaker 2: December twelfth, twenty twenty four, So we've had sixteen months
3:42
Speaker 2: knowing that this race track was going to be on
3:44
Speaker 2: the calendar, and the whole thing. It was that classic
3:48
Speaker 2: case of you know, sometimes motorsport turns up at new
3:50
Speaker 2: tracks and things aren't necessarily ready or to the level,
3:54
Speaker 2: and we see that from Sometimes it could be some
3:56
Speaker 2: marshaling And I remember famously, and I probably shouldn't. I
3:59
Speaker 2: won't be this journist names I'll get him in trouble
4:01
Speaker 2: the very first Korean Formula One Grand Prix in twenty twen,
4:05
Speaker 2: there was no security at the track after about ten pm,
4:07
Speaker 2: so he bet one of us that he could drive
4:09
Speaker 2: his higher car around the entire track with no one noticing,
4:11
Speaker 2: with the lights off in the middle of the night
4:14
Speaker 2: and managed to fill the entire thing. So that was hilarious.
4:16
Speaker 2: For twenty ten. I do remember that very very clearly
4:18
Speaker 2: did a very very slow lap in his high unda
4:20
Speaker 2: or whatever it was. So look, these things can happen, right,
4:23
Speaker 2: But the whole experience of Brazil with motor GP is
4:27
Speaker 2: that is this a country that deserves to have motor
4:30
Speaker 2: GP return after twenty two years. By virtue of the
4:33
Speaker 2: crowd that was there over the weekend, you'd have to
4:35
Speaker 2: say absolutely yes. Massive fan base, sixty odd thousand there
4:39
Speaker 2: on race day, really just a really into it crowd,
4:42
Speaker 2: really lively. You know, during the race you had the
4:45
Speaker 2: big Marquees de jan Antonio battle. You could hear the
4:47
Speaker 2: fans over the top of these bikes. So in terms
4:50
Speaker 2: of the enthusiasm and the interest in the sport, absolutely
4:54
Speaker 2: a great place to be going. But I go back
4:56
Speaker 2: to that December twenty twenty four day, we had sixteen
4:59
Speaker 2: months to get this thing right. For three days or
5:02
Speaker 2: five if you want to go back to when everyone
5:04
Speaker 2: starts arriving, and the whole thing just felt like, you know,
5:08
Speaker 2: it's like a new build that's just totally not ready,
5:10
Speaker 2: and everyone's already moved in and it's like, you know,
5:12
Speaker 2: light light socket's not fixed and no shower heads and
5:14
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, and that's what the whole
5:16
Speaker 2: thing felt like. It wasn't ready. And my question would be, Okay,
5:19
Speaker 2: it wasn't ready. We know that. Why wasn't it ready?
5:22
Speaker 2: Because we had so much time to get this right.
5:25
Speaker 2: And look, we got away with a race weekend where
5:28
Speaker 2: no one got seriously injured, and we got the races
5:31
Speaker 2: away late or truncated, but we got races away. It
5:35
Speaker 2: didn't need to happen. And in twenty twenty six with
5:39
Speaker 2: a liberty owned Motor GP, this is not the image
5:43
Speaker 2: that the sport would want to project. And I guess
5:46
Speaker 2: if you're any of the promoters of some of the
5:48
Speaker 2: other tracks that have to jump through a million hoops
5:50
Speaker 2: to get these races over the line, you're probably thinking
5:53
Speaker 2: to yourself, you allowed them to have a race and
5:55
Speaker 2: they were this underprepared, So there's going to clearly be
5:59
Speaker 2: some sort of an inquest into this. They needed just
6:01
Speaker 2: to get the race weekend done and get out of there.
6:03
Speaker 2: But the list of things that need to be fixed
6:05
Speaker 2: before Motor GP returns in twenty twenty seven is very,
6:08
Speaker 2: very long. It starts with a resurfacing the track for sure,
6:14
Speaker 2: but it will extend to things like I don't know,
6:16
Speaker 2: having actually flushing toilets in the paddock and other such
6:20
Speaker 2: because the whole thing was completely shambolic, and you know,
6:24
Speaker 2: we sort of harkened back to oh, it was like
6:25
Speaker 2: this when they went to Gania and went to Rio
6:29
Speaker 2: in the late eighties and the early two thousands. That's fine,
6:32
Speaker 2: it's also twenty five to forty years ago, and professional
6:35
Speaker 2: sport should have moved on, and that's not what we
6:38
Speaker 2: saw this weekend.
6:40
Speaker 1: I think for me, looking at what Brazil was like,
6:43
Speaker 1: I already go okay. Everybody was complaining about Adelaide and
6:46
Speaker 1: what Adelaide going to be Like, Adelaide is going to
6:48
Speaker 1: be chalk and cheese compared to Brazil. If you look
6:52
Speaker 1: at that, the fact that we know Carlos Spiletta has
6:54
Speaker 1: been going there for ages ahead, you would assume that
6:58
Speaker 1: there's something like that happening with mzeg as well, where
7:01
Speaker 1: they were going backwards and forwards and doing something, but
7:04
Speaker 1: obviously not. I don't know the ins and outs of it,
7:07
Speaker 1: but I just think for everybody saying okay, Adelaide, Adelaide,
7:09
Speaker 1: Adelaide clearly, if that's Brazil, I think Adelaide's going to
7:13
Speaker 1: be fine.
7:14
Speaker 2: I think the only question with Adelaide is, and we
7:16
Speaker 2: sort of know this because of just the nature of
7:18
Speaker 2: what the track probably is going to be functional and
7:21
Speaker 2: fine and probably not super exciting, which is a shame
7:25
Speaker 2: in some respects, but it's also not really the point
7:28
Speaker 2: that they're bringing motor GP to an urban audience to
7:31
Speaker 2: almost like a test case to see how this could
7:33
Speaker 2: work for the future. I'm sure that the operation and
7:37
Speaker 2: the actual event will get away really really well in Adelaide,
7:40
Speaker 2: because a Australia does these events well. It's not Adelaide's
7:44
Speaker 2: first rodeo in terms of running motorsport. They had f
7:46
Speaker 2: one there for years. They've still got the supercars there now,
7:49
Speaker 2: the actual event and the proximity of the city, I'm
7:51
Speaker 2: sure that's all going to go off really really well.
7:54
Speaker 2: Track probably a little bit boring, I would say, but
7:56
Speaker 2: it's a means to an edge. You can't have absolutely
7:58
Speaker 2: everything we saw in Brazil was just not motor GP
8:03
Speaker 2: standard in twenty twenty six, and I guess the positive
8:08
Speaker 2: you could take out of it was that yes, there
8:09
Speaker 2: was a fan base. The actual track layout was a
8:12
Speaker 2: little more interesting than I was expecting with the undulation,
8:14
Speaker 2: and it was quite a decent, if short, Motor GP track.
8:16
Speaker 2: But the writers seemed to like the track, and they
8:18
Speaker 2: seem to like the atmosphere. They liked the track when
8:20
Speaker 2: it wasn't pelting stones at them. But that's another story.
8:23
Speaker 2: But there was so much about this weekend that just
8:26
Speaker 2: wasn't Motor GP in twenty twenty six. I hope they
8:28
Speaker 2: get it right for next year.
8:30
Speaker 1: No, that's what I was thinking, Adelaide. I'm fairly certain
8:33
Speaker 1: that the track isn't going to just tear up under
8:35
Speaker 1: them while they're racing. I think they've got that covered.
8:40
Speaker 1: I wanted you just to clarify with everybody. Obviously we
8:44
Speaker 1: know that the race was cut short and that was
8:46
Speaker 1: due to the track degradation.
8:49
Speaker 2: Degradation, Yeah, that was degradation.
8:51
Speaker 1: Yes, I had to get that word out. None was
8:53
Speaker 1: obviously because we saw that you wrote about it in
8:56
Speaker 1: your article. And then I don't know if everybody's seen
8:58
Speaker 1: the photos that have come out where you know, the
9:01
Speaker 1: bits of debris that's actually flicking up, and we've posted
9:04
Speaker 1: photos on the socials I think bearing in mind there's
9:07
Speaker 1: that they're in a new country, it's a new track. Yeah,
9:10
Speaker 1: the positive reinforcement of the circuit. I think Jack Miller
9:13
Speaker 1: was saying, like, you know, there's positive camber and corners.
9:15
Speaker 1: It's exciting to have that again. Take all of that away.
9:20
Speaker 1: We've got a prilli As leading the championship. Now we
9:23
Speaker 1: had a Prillier one two. You were right, you get
9:26
Speaker 1: to take the crown. With Jujan Martine getting back on
9:29
Speaker 1: the podium twice this weekend, Digia was on poll. It
9:33
Speaker 1: wasn't just a Mark Marquez is going to dominate because
9:35
Speaker 1: it's a Mark Marquez. It's a new track, it's a
9:37
Speaker 1: mixed conditions. In that side of things. The racing was
9:41
Speaker 1: actually exciting this weekend.
9:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, a really fascinating race weekend with the way that
9:46
Speaker 2: it played out. And you know, we talked about Marco Betzeki.
9:49
Speaker 2: That's stat that he's now. Well, the two things that
9:51
Speaker 2: impressed me. He's led the last one hundred and one
9:55
Speaker 2: race lap, so no one's been in front of Bears
9:57
Speaker 2: in a race. It's Malaysia last year, which is crazy.
10:00
Speaker 2: So he led every lap in Portugal, he let every
10:02
Speaker 2: lap at Valencia, and this year he's done the same
10:04
Speaker 2: in Thailand and in Brazil. That was one thing, the
10:07
Speaker 2: fact he's now one of five riders in the modern
10:09
Speaker 2: motor GP era to have won four consecutive races. The
10:12
Speaker 2: others are called Valentino Rossi, Bark Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and
10:15
Speaker 2: Pecovanyaya decent Quintet to be part of. But the thing
10:20
Speaker 2: for me, this was the most impressive of the four
10:21
Speaker 2: of them, and the reason being is that on Friday
10:25
Speaker 2: rain hit second practice, everyone's trying to get into Q two.
10:29
Speaker 2: He was out there at the wrong time. It was
10:31
Speaker 2: nothing particularly that Beslaprillia did wrong. He was twentieth on Friday,
10:35
Speaker 2: absolutely positioned nowhere for him to rescue his way through
10:40
Speaker 2: Q one, to qualify on the front row and then
10:42
Speaker 2: to win the Grand Prix like that. That's not a
10:45
Speaker 2: thing that I think Aprillia or Berzeki would have done
10:48
Speaker 2: in the past, and that just shows the evolution of
10:51
Speaker 2: that team and that bike he's operating. And we've said
10:54
Speaker 2: this a couple of times now, he's really sort of
10:57
Speaker 2: relished this leadership role that he's kind of falled into
10:59
Speaker 2: almost by accident there. It's really unlocked a new level
11:02
Speaker 2: in him, but a Prillier right now just to engineer
11:05
Speaker 2: their way out of a really tough Friday. It's like
11:08
Speaker 2: everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and
11:11
Speaker 2: I guess the only sort of well, it's not even
11:14
Speaker 2: for a Prillier. It's more the sad story of the
11:16
Speaker 2: entire thing is that Juge Martin's electing to leave this
11:20
Speaker 2: manufacturer and this team at the end of this season
11:22
Speaker 2: to go to Yah baha, let's not talk about that.
11:25
Speaker 2: I hope the bank balances get is going to look
11:27
Speaker 2: better as a result of that. But you look at
11:29
Speaker 2: where a Prillier are right now, the fact that they
11:32
Speaker 2: had a one too, the fact they had three top
11:34
Speaker 2: five finishes. Again, it's not a surprise anymore, right which
11:39
Speaker 2: would have been a result in the past, we would
11:40
Speaker 2: have gone, Wow, three aprili is in't the top five,
11:42
Speaker 2: that's super impressive. Now we're just like, eh, that's just
11:44
Speaker 2: motor GP right now, And that's the biggest credit you
11:47
Speaker 2: can give a prillion right now. None of this is
11:49
Speaker 2: particularly surprising. It's really sustainable. I still suspect Mark Marquess
11:54
Speaker 2: is going to win the World Championship this year, but
11:56
Speaker 2: it's not going to be a walk in the park,
11:57
Speaker 2: which last year was. I think a Prillier aren't going anywhere.
12:00
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be really, really difficult to beat,
12:03
Speaker 2: and Bazeki's on this level now and Martine is starting
12:07
Speaker 2: to show for a guid's what nine Grand Prix on
12:10
Speaker 2: that bike. If you date back to last year, he's
12:12
Speaker 2: looking and sounding and acting a bit more like the
12:16
Speaker 2: old Jupey Martin who was good enough to be world
12:18
Speaker 2: champion two years ago. So I think it sets the
12:21
Speaker 2: rest of this season up really really nicely in that
12:23
Speaker 2: Brilli is clearly the best manufacturer right now. They've got
12:26
Speaker 2: a super informed writer and another writer who's proven that
12:29
Speaker 2: he's good enough to be a world champion. Decattie's got
12:31
Speaker 2: to really work for this and I think that's going
12:33
Speaker 2: to be good for all of us.
12:35
Speaker 1: Let's talk Pedro Acosta really quick, because in preview you
12:39
Speaker 1: did a little Pedro for the win, la la la.
12:42
Speaker 1: I posted on socials like, yeah, Pedro's gonna win blah
12:44
Speaker 1: blah blah. Next minute. Okay, he's obviously not had the
12:48
Speaker 1: best weekend and best results for him, but then you
12:50
Speaker 1: look at where he is compared to the rest of
12:53
Speaker 1: the Tea tam Oh my god, Radbinda didn't even finish, right,
12:56
Speaker 1: and then Maverick Vignalez was eighteenth in Abashnini fifth in
13:00
Speaker 1: Sunday's Grand Prix. I think this is where we're really
13:04
Speaker 1: starting to see, and it's the whole Marquez effect, right,
13:07
Speaker 1: who can ride the bike and get the most out
13:09
Speaker 1: of it? Fabua Couaduroro is same thing and qualifying, Yeah,
13:12
Speaker 1: and then everybody else is elsewhere.
13:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, you weren't supposed to mention my predictions that don't work.
13:17
Speaker 2: You're an't supposed to mention the ones that do. That's fine,
13:19
Speaker 2: we can edit this out afterwards. No, I mean it's
13:23
Speaker 2: completely true. And that two tier thing that you talked
13:25
Speaker 2: about there, we've seen this, you know, Mark and Honda
13:28
Speaker 2: is the classic example of this, right. It got to
13:30
Speaker 2: the point where he was the only one that could
13:32
Speaker 2: play a tune out of that thing. Quatro is just
13:35
Speaker 2: to qualify where he did on a yabajave for that's
13:39
Speaker 2: so undercooked. Is just just subs quatrero up. But KTM's
13:43
Speaker 2: got this kind of a problem now in that they've
13:45
Speaker 2: got four guys who on paper are very very competent riders,
13:48
Speaker 2: but you've got the Acosta KTM and you've got the
13:50
Speaker 2: other ktms. Seeing bastin Ani last on the grid for
13:53
Speaker 2: a guy that's one multiple Grand Prix a little bit sad,
13:56
Speaker 2: also very keeping in character, and we know that he
13:59
Speaker 2: is a bit much better racer than he is a qualifier,
14:01
Speaker 2: but the extremes of his qualifying right now are pretty bad.
14:06
Speaker 2: The whole Maverick Vinalez thing just continues to be a
14:09
Speaker 2: bit of a mystery. But by the way, j Hale
14:10
Speaker 2: Rinso was not there this weekend, so he can't even
14:13
Speaker 2: talk about that as big a fact. I think he's
14:14
Speaker 2: in Switzerland or something, so that's nice on.
14:17
Speaker 1: His socials and I was like, what's happening there? Is
14:20
Speaker 1: like is the honeymoon period over? But I mean, maybe
14:22
Speaker 1: he'll be back for Coder. We'll see.
14:24
Speaker 2: I thought they were joined at the hip and they
14:26
Speaker 2: were never going to be seen apart again. But there
14:28
Speaker 2: you go. That lasted all of one race weekend, didn't it.
14:30
Speaker 2: But they it's a KTM thing is a little bit baffling,
14:34
Speaker 2: and I think my optimism was more. I didn't think
14:37
Speaker 2: that Burram was a fantastic KTM track either, but I
14:40
Speaker 2: thought I really liked what a Costa did in Thailand
14:43
Speaker 2: in that you know, he obviously won and I won't
14:45
Speaker 2: use air quotes because he was the winner when Mark
14:47
Speaker 2: was panalized in the sprint, and he was right there
14:49
Speaker 2: in the in the Grand Prix as the only real
14:51
Speaker 2: challenger for Apulia, and he's talked about being a bit
14:55
Speaker 2: more mature and a bit more calm and that sort
14:56
Speaker 2: of thing. I just think they got a little bit
14:58
Speaker 2: wrong footed on Friday. See this as being the start
15:01
Speaker 2: of some dramatics at a downturn for KTM. But I
15:05
Speaker 2: think the alarming thing for them is that Acosta is
15:07
Speaker 2: clearly the only guy that can really ride that bike
15:09
Speaker 2: right now, and he's probably leaving if we believe everything
15:12
Speaker 2: that we believe, So that's an issue for them, So
15:16
Speaker 2: they're on their back foot a little bit. I was
15:17
Speaker 2: a little surprised they weren't more prominent, but dou Catti
15:21
Speaker 2: were probably a little bit better this race weekend than
15:24
Speaker 2: maybe we had expected, not from the usual source. Interestingly enough,
15:27
Speaker 2: Mark was good but not great. Fabio de Gernatonio had
15:32
Speaker 2: a fantastic weekend and as someone who I still think
15:35
Speaker 2: is a little bit underrated in the Paddic, but that's
15:36
Speaker 2: another story. But yeah, the Acosta KTM thing, it's a
15:39
Speaker 2: little alarming for them because he's the best asset you've
15:43
Speaker 2: got to making that bike go fast. But he's also
15:45
Speaker 2: at the door, so you know, how much do you
15:48
Speaker 2: place him his feedback and prioritize him with what he's
15:51
Speaker 2: doing if he's waving goodbye to you anyway. So that's
15:54
Speaker 2: a developing story, as they say.
15:57
Speaker 1: I also just want to say, I think Diego Morera
15:59
Speaker 1: for his first home Grand Prix in Brazil, dealing with
16:02
Speaker 1: all that pressure. You said, the security thing. I don't
16:05
Speaker 1: know if you saw on the broadcast when Mark Marquez
16:07
Speaker 1: was trying to get into the garage and the security
16:09
Speaker 1: guard was just standing there, and then you see Gigi
16:13
Speaker 1: was like going to come out. Davide said he was
16:15
Speaker 1: going to come out and get him. It was like, clearly,
16:17
Speaker 1: there's a lot and then we heard that, you know,
16:19
Speaker 1: Diogo needed a security guard the whole weekend as well.
16:22
Speaker 1: To get tenth in Saturday's sprint and then obviously not
16:25
Speaker 1: the best result, not what he was hoping for, but
16:28
Speaker 1: a decent result still nonetheless, to get thirteenth on Sunday
16:32
Speaker 1: points in the bag. I think that's brilliant for the
16:35
Speaker 1: rookie in his home Grand Prix.
16:37
Speaker 2: Well, you are never going to have more pressure than that.
16:41
Speaker 2: You have to remember see second Motor GP race weekend.
16:44
Speaker 2: He's a very very young kid like probably never thought
16:47
Speaker 2: that there was going to be a Brazilian Grand Prix.
16:48
Speaker 2: Little I make it into Motor GP. This would have
16:51
Speaker 2: been a weekend that he would have dreamed of since
16:53
Speaker 2: he was old enough to understand what it was, so
16:55
Speaker 2: he was aiming towards. I actually thought he handled all
16:57
Speaker 2: the off track and all of the attentions and stuff
17:00
Speaker 2: really really well for someone who can you imagine the
17:02
Speaker 2: demands on his time and it's all coming from the
17:05
Speaker 2: right place with the fan furvor and that sort of thing.
17:07
Speaker 2: But that stuff's exhausting for a veteran ride let alone
17:10
Speaker 2: someone that's been in it for ten minutes like he has.
17:12
Speaker 2: So I think his promotion I don't think there was
17:16
Speaker 2: any really big questions whether he was the right guy
17:19
Speaker 2: to be promoted for Katie on the other but he
17:23
Speaker 2: looks legit from day one, and I think they've got
17:26
Speaker 2: themselves a good one there because all these manufacturers now
17:30
Speaker 2: are trying to sort of thread, this needle of You
17:32
Speaker 2: want the experience of the thousands, but then you also
17:35
Speaker 2: want the developmental ability as you go into the eight fifties,
17:38
Speaker 2: but you also need that fast young guy. And they've
17:41
Speaker 2: got their fast young guy, like they've got their future
17:43
Speaker 2: sorted now. I kind of love the fact that you've
17:46
Speaker 2: got the oldest writer on the grid in Zarko and
17:48
Speaker 2: the youngest writer in Marera together in the same team.
17:51
Speaker 2: It's kind of like this passing of generations that I
17:53
Speaker 2: quite like. I mean, it's clearly Zarko's closer to the
17:55
Speaker 2: end of the beginning, still a really valuable asset. I
17:58
Speaker 2: think that side of Honda's look up right now is
18:00
Speaker 2: really good in and of itself, but also when you've
18:03
Speaker 2: got this weird sort of split era coming up with
18:05
Speaker 2: twenty six and twenty seven and everything resetting. Yeah, he
18:09
Speaker 2: handled it really really well, and I think he will
18:11
Speaker 2: move forward as that bike does.
18:13
Speaker 1: Last points, I want to bring up Alex re Renz
18:15
Speaker 1: was the top Yamaha and Sunday's Free. When did that
18:19
Speaker 1: ever happen? Clearly in Brazil, and I just want to say, Okay,
18:24
Speaker 1: I love the track house golf livery I've always loved
18:27
Speaker 1: that blue. But how cool was Grassini paying tribute to
18:30
Speaker 1: Alex Barrows.
18:31
Speaker 2: Ah? Yeah, Grassini is always good for a random one
18:35
Speaker 2: off livery. They never let you down when they do
18:37
Speaker 2: their tribute to Fausto Grassini. They've done a couple of
18:41
Speaker 2: times at Massano. That's a great classic livery. Yeah, and
18:45
Speaker 2: everyone wade into the whole Brazilian sporting colors over the
18:48
Speaker 2: course of the weekend. VR forty six did it with
18:50
Speaker 2: the shirts and what have you. I love that, But yeah,
18:52
Speaker 2: the Alex Barros livery was really, really nice. It's a
18:54
Speaker 2: bit of a shame that we didn't see a little
18:56
Speaker 2: bit more of it. Got to give a hat tip
18:59
Speaker 2: to Fermin Aldegere, by the way, for a guy who
19:02
Speaker 2: I think he'd ridden a bike like twice in twenty
19:04
Speaker 2: twenty six, he couldn't basically walk. He's getting around on
19:06
Speaker 2: a crutch after breaking his femur in pre season testing accident.
19:10
Speaker 2: Finished in the top ten in the Grand Prix. Hugely
19:13
Speaker 2: commendable and probably one of those stories that fell to
19:16
Speaker 2: about seventeenth on the priority list because we were talking
19:18
Speaker 2: about sinkholes and other nonsense tracks. Breaking up and what
19:22
Speaker 2: have you. Really impressive by him, But yeah, I love
19:24
Speaker 2: I'm a bit of a sucker for a one off
19:27
Speaker 2: tribute livery or a bespoke livery for they don't always
19:31
Speaker 2: work like I remember the Casey Stone or Australian flag
19:33
Speaker 2: livery at Philip Island that year when he won on
19:35
Speaker 2: the very white to Caddy back then. That was really nice.
19:38
Speaker 2: So some of them land, some of them don't. But yeah, Grassini,
19:41
Speaker 2: big box tick for them, and Alex Marquez was kind
19:44
Speaker 2: of not quite twenty twenty five speck Alex Marquez, but
19:47
Speaker 2: he was pretty decent over the course of the weekend.
19:50
Speaker 2: So yeah, they get a hat tip for sure.
19:52
Speaker 1: I think, you know, with everything, consistency is key. Yeah,
19:55
Speaker 1: we're round two, they're starting to get used to everything.
19:58
Speaker 1: There's obviously drama going on the back end Grassini. We're
20:00
Speaker 1: hearing those rumors about maybe them changing their factors blah
20:03
Speaker 1: blah blah. So there's obviously there's so much going on.
20:06
Speaker 1: It's more than just what's on track. And I mean
20:08
Speaker 1: it helps if the track is actually intact for a
20:11
Speaker 1: race weekend. But fingers crossed, because we're going to Coda
20:15
Speaker 1: next weekend that that is all going to be set
20:17
Speaker 1: in Stone and that is all going to be in place,
20:19
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to see if Mark Marquez is
20:22
Speaker 1: going to be the king of Coet once again. Matt,
20:25
Speaker 1: are you going to put your money on that one?
20:27
Speaker 1: Or am I going to put a post about it?
20:29
Speaker 1: And then then somebody else comes and.
20:30
Speaker 2: Wins, I mean betting on Mark Marquez. Coda is not
20:34
Speaker 2: exactly going out on a limb, is it. But it's
20:37
Speaker 2: interesting in that he's still hovering sort of dangerously in
20:42
Speaker 2: the championship. I heard a stat and you might be
20:44
Speaker 2: able to back this one up, is that the first
20:46
Speaker 2: time Mark's not finished on a Grand Prix podium in
20:48
Speaker 2: a race that he's actually finished for about twelve I
20:51
Speaker 2: must be like midway through twenty four. I would say
20:54
Speaker 2: I'd have they'ver look at the Grassini do Caddi stats
20:57
Speaker 2: because last year the only times he didn't finish on
20:59
Speaker 2: podiums in Grand Prix if you fought off and then
21:01
Speaker 2: he was coming back through the field like I'm thinking
21:03
Speaker 2: harrass was one of those. So yeah, the fact that
21:05
Speaker 2: he was off the podium, but he's starting to look
21:08
Speaker 2: a bit more like Mark that there was an awesome photo.
21:10
Speaker 2: I'm sure you saw vision rather of the past that
21:14
Speaker 2: he put onto Jan Antonio to briefly take third in
21:16
Speaker 2: that Grand Prix where you could not have put a
21:19
Speaker 2: credit card between those two bikes. The gap was that narrow,
21:21
Speaker 2: and Mark's just like, that's a left hand I'm going
21:24
Speaker 2: through there, And that was a sign like, oh, okay,
21:27
Speaker 2: you're starting to feel pretty confident with your body again
21:30
Speaker 2: and what it is that you're riding. So that's a
21:32
Speaker 2: long winded way of me saying, yes, he is going
21:35
Speaker 2: to win it, coda, and all will be right with
21:36
Speaker 2: the world. And of course if it doesn't happen, you
21:38
Speaker 2: will not mention it on social media and I will
21:40
Speaker 2: deny ever saying it.
21:42
Speaker 1: I think I saw did you say that his shoulder
21:46
Speaker 1: pad got caught or something on Mark's bike as well,
21:48
Speaker 1: which I thought was hilarious. It shows that they were
21:50
Speaker 1: actually rubbing, like they were right next to each other,
21:53
Speaker 1: and that's the real racing. That's what we want. We
21:55
Speaker 1: love it, guys, and more sticking your head into an
21:59
Speaker 1: ice bowl after the Grand Prix because track temperature being
22:02
Speaker 1: north of sixty degrees is bananas. Yeah, insane, Yes, coder
22:07
Speaker 1: is this weekend, so we have Moto GP back to back.
22:11
Speaker 1: We love a double header and you guys can catch
22:14
Speaker 1: all the action live and ad break free on Fox
22:16
Speaker 1: Sports and KO a little bit better for us, I
22:20
Speaker 1: think in terms of visuals. Is not me setting a
22:22
Speaker 1: three am alarm to watch a Saturday sprint or a
22:25
Speaker 1: Sunday morning sprint.
22:26
Speaker 2: In that case seven am Australian Eastern daylight time. So
22:30
Speaker 2: breakfast Moto GP on a Monday morning. It's almost the
22:33
Speaker 2: absolute It's the perfect time slot. Quite frankly, get up
22:36
Speaker 2: ten minutes before, get the breakfast on, and then watch
22:40
Speaker 2: watch the world's greatest riders around a pretty cool track.
22:43
Speaker 1: Oh so good. Make the most of you guys before
22:45
Speaker 1: MotoGP heads back to Europe. But don't forget. You can
22:48
Speaker 1: keep up today with all of Matt's articles and the
22:50
Speaker 1: latest MotoGP news on our website Fox sports dot com,
22:53
Speaker 1: do au forward slash Motorsport and if you want to
22:56
Speaker 1: see if Matt's predictions do come up on social so
22:59
Speaker 1: you can remind him of them, and they are on
23:02
Speaker 1: our social platforms at Fox Motorsport everywhere. Plus we are
23:06
Speaker 1: on YouTube as well at Fox Motorsport on YouTube. But
23:11
Speaker 1: that wraps up everything from this. We're gonna be back
23:13
Speaker 1: real soon, hopefully with some inside goss from CODA, but
23:17
Speaker 1: from Matt Clayton and myself. Ronita Vmuellen will be back
23:20
Speaker 1: real soon with more monor gippit talk