Latest / Pit Talk / Unpacking the Austrian GP: MotoGP Pit Talk

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Unpacking the Austrian GP: MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Only five points now separate our championships title contenders, and
0:04
Speaker 1: while Bielberg didn't provide us with the Hollywood blockbuster we anticipated,
0:08
Speaker 1: there's always more than meets the ie At the Red
0:11
Speaker 1: Bull Ring, I'm your host, Ronita Vanmillen, and here is
0:14
Speaker 1: the man who can make any Motor GP drama worthy
0:17
Speaker 1: of an Oscar nomination. Matt Clayton, Matt Tartans and I
0:21
Speaker 1: Pekervanaya not being the star this weekend.
0:25
Speaker 2: He's just too good when he's in a mood like this.
0:27
Speaker 2: Rerenda is knee. You know what he's going to do,
0:30
Speaker 2: and it's the thing with him, you know his m
0:32
Speaker 2: at this point. Knowing what he's going to do and
0:35
Speaker 2: then attempting to prevent it are two totally different things.
0:37
Speaker 2: But that bike, that rider, and this particular circuit we
0:41
Speaker 2: kind of saw it coming ahead of the weekend. It
0:44
Speaker 2: did live up to expectations. But he's just so relentless
0:48
Speaker 2: when he gets in a mood like this that even
0:50
Speaker 2: Jorge Martin with two working thumbs would have been struggling
0:53
Speaker 2: to stop him this weekend, but with only one of them,
0:55
Speaker 2: that made things a little bit more difficult, didn't it.
0:57
Speaker 2: But you certainly can't deny the guy's class. And I
1:00
Speaker 2: don't know about you, but the thing for me is, I'm
1:02
Speaker 2: kind of still stunned that he's only five points in
1:04
Speaker 2: the Leader of the Championship because it feels like he's
1:06
Speaker 2: been dominant now for probably the second half of this
1:10
Speaker 2: first half of the season, if that makes sense, and
1:12
Speaker 2: you look at the standing because he's only five points
1:14
Speaker 2: in the ascendency, So there's still hope for everybody else,
1:16
Speaker 2: but maybe a little less hope as we go.
1:19
Speaker 1: Rice by Rice, I agree. I think you know, we
1:22
Speaker 1: see Peco Bannoy as he is, you know, a two
1:24
Speaker 1: time world champion, the reigning world champion, we do expect
1:27
Speaker 1: him to be that bit further along in a championship.
1:30
Speaker 1: But Bohe Martin is pushing Peco this year. They're both
1:34
Speaker 1: working on themselves. They're both working those those millimeters and
1:38
Speaker 1: that's literally what we're talking about is like the smallest
1:40
Speaker 1: amounts that they can improve each track each weekend that
1:43
Speaker 1: they go to. And that's why it's such an epic
1:46
Speaker 1: battle within the championship. Maybe not so much on track
1:49
Speaker 1: this weekend, but where these writers are going, it's going
1:53
Speaker 1: to be one of those two that I don't think
1:55
Speaker 1: in any Bashnini's definitely in this title content engine anymore.
2:00
Speaker 1: We know Mark Marquez, he can push and we might
2:04
Speaker 1: see a win or two from him this year, but
2:06
Speaker 1: he's definitely not going to be on that top step
2:09
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. But it's out of
2:11
Speaker 1: Jorge and Peco and it's whoever's going to come out
2:13
Speaker 1: strongest at the end of the year.
2:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think you've nailed
2:17
Speaker 2: it with an Ara and with Mark there I can
2:19
Speaker 2: see them having the speed on a particular weekend to
2:21
Speaker 2: maybe sniper win here and there, so they could change
2:25
Speaker 2: the complexion of the championship fight. But it's very hard
2:28
Speaker 2: to look past either Bagnyai or Martine and the standard
2:31
Speaker 2: these two guys are operating at the moment. We saw
2:33
Speaker 2: that in qualifying at Spielberg, where Jorge Martin just absolutely
2:37
Speaker 2: annihilated the circuit record in qualifying to get to the
2:40
Speaker 2: twenty sevens. Bagnai was right there with him, and the
2:43
Speaker 2: stat that showed just what a level these two are
2:46
Speaker 2: operating on. Mark Marquez was third on the grid. He's
2:48
Speaker 2: about five and a half tenths back from Martin. That's
2:51
Speaker 2: the biggest gap between second and third on the grid
2:53
Speaker 2: in seven years, and so you can see how these
2:56
Speaker 2: two are just in this class of their own. At
2:58
Speaker 2: the front, they're pushing each other to new heights. They're
3:01
Speaker 2: smashing circuit records all over the place, and someone as
3:03
Speaker 2: good as Marquez with the risks that he will take
3:06
Speaker 2: over one lap, he's over half a second a drift.
3:08
Speaker 2: He's just kind of nowhere. And there's this real fight
3:11
Speaker 2: at the top between the two of them because they're
3:13
Speaker 2: pushing each other and the sport to times and boundaries
3:16
Speaker 2: we haven't really seen before. So full credit to both
3:19
Speaker 2: of them. But yeah, it's going to be one of
3:21
Speaker 2: those two, isn't it. But the best part about it
3:23
Speaker 2: for us and all the fans, of course, it's still
3:25
Speaker 2: so close with nine rounds to go, despite how dominant
3:28
Speaker 2: Vanya has been on Sundays lately.
3:30
Speaker 1: Exactly, I think that this track it suited Peco. Like
3:34
Speaker 1: you said, we knew that going into this weekend, But
3:37
Speaker 1: what I found so fascinating was he actually had the
3:39
Speaker 1: traction control turned down this weekend. He wanted to really
3:44
Speaker 1: ride the bike how he felt comfortable, and classic Peco
3:47
Speaker 1: is to slide the rear. That's how he loves riding
3:50
Speaker 1: his bikes and his Jew caddie this track because the
3:53
Speaker 1: breaking is so heavy. The Jew Caddies and the GP
3:57
Speaker 1: twenty fours in particular, they love the Michelin rear tire.
4:01
Speaker 1: How that works is he could turn the traction off,
4:03
Speaker 1: really ride that rear tire, slide it into those corners,
4:06
Speaker 1: get that corner entry, and that's where we found that
4:08
Speaker 1: he was just so much stronger than Jorge Martin going
4:12
Speaker 1: into literally every corner on this track. I think that
4:17
Speaker 1: we're seeing now the difference a lot more between the
4:21
Speaker 1: GP twenty fours and the GP twenty threes. The GP
4:24
Speaker 1: twenty fours they love the new Michelins, they love the
4:27
Speaker 1: Michelin rear. This weekend, Peco being him his riding soul,
4:31
Speaker 1: it just everything matched up perfect for him. Apart from
4:34
Speaker 1: that qualifying lab where jo Hey Justice snubbed him for
4:37
Speaker 1: that whole position, Peco was really really on the mark.
4:42
Speaker 2: Well, and you know the way he operates too. I
4:45
Speaker 2: love the fact that he will explore every possibility in
4:49
Speaker 2: a chance to try and get that little sliver of
4:52
Speaker 2: an advantage over Martin. I think we've said this on
4:54
Speaker 2: previous podcasts. If I had to pick one of these
4:56
Speaker 2: guys to ride a lot for my life, I'm still
4:57
Speaker 2: probably picking Martine because I think he's a fast the
5:00
Speaker 2: naturally quicker of the two. Banyaira is this perfect combination
5:04
Speaker 2: of He's like the ultimate sort of thinking person's Ridery
5:07
Speaker 2: analyzes every possibility of how to go about extracting a lap,
5:11
Speaker 2: even if it means riding in a style that's maybe
5:13
Speaker 2: contrary to what he would prefer to ride. He will
5:16
Speaker 2: change what he's doing based on the circuit, based on
5:19
Speaker 2: the tire construction. Obviously, Austria is such a one of
5:22
Speaker 2: one in terms of the track layer, heartbreaking slow corners
5:25
Speaker 2: is basically seventy five percent of the lap. Probably not
5:28
Speaker 2: the way he would prefer to ride, but he's so
5:31
Speaker 2: adaptable now and so smart, and what I thought was
5:34
Speaker 2: really interesting in addition to what you were saying there,
5:37
Speaker 2: he said after the race he's done heaps of work
5:40
Speaker 2: on riding with a full fuel tank to try and
5:42
Speaker 2: understand how the bike feels when it's its heaviest at
5:45
Speaker 2: the start of the race, because the start of the
5:47
Speaker 2: race is where he feels he can make a difference
5:49
Speaker 2: against Martine because they're so evenly matched in other aspects
5:54
Speaker 2: that what he does in those first two or three
5:56
Speaker 2: laps when the bikes super heavy and the tires are
5:58
Speaker 2: super fresh. He's done a lot of work on that
6:00
Speaker 2: through practice sessions, and you look at the way both
6:03
Speaker 2: the races played out over the course of Spielberg weekend.
6:06
Speaker 2: He didn't lead the first lap in either, but he
6:09
Speaker 2: was ahead after he said, on lap two in both
6:11
Speaker 2: races and didn't get challenged for that top spot for
6:14
Speaker 2: the rest of the weekend. And that's riding a bike
6:16
Speaker 2: with brand new ties on a very very heavy fuel tank.
6:18
Speaker 2: Obviously less in the sprinks, you don't have to carry
6:20
Speaker 2: as much. But it's interesting that he's drilling down on
6:23
Speaker 2: these most minute of details in an attempt to get
6:26
Speaker 2: an advantage over Martin, because there is so little to
6:29
Speaker 2: choose between these two. They're clearly in a class of
6:32
Speaker 2: their own. But Banyayi is just pulling up every rock
6:34
Speaker 2: that he can to try and find you a meta
6:36
Speaker 2: here at a meter there. You add that up over
6:38
Speaker 2: twenty eight laps and you get what we saw on Sunday.
6:41
Speaker 1: It's a shame that Johe Martin kind of gave Peckert
6:44
Speaker 1: Vagnay his own advantage this weekend with that bizarre cut
6:49
Speaker 1: on his hands that happened in the shower. You don't
6:53
Speaker 1: hear of these weird injuries very often. Think about I
6:56
Speaker 1: think about Alex Rinz when he crashed his push by texting,
6:59
Speaker 1: broke his arm or his wrist. Valentino Rossi's stepping through
7:03
Speaker 1: a glass table. Like, there's weird accents that happen, but
7:06
Speaker 1: then there's cutting your hand in the shower and requiring stitches.
7:10
Speaker 1: Of those who don't know you might just think, oh, well,
7:12
Speaker 1: he can just use his right hands. It's so different
7:14
Speaker 1: on a MOTODP bike because they use their left hand
7:17
Speaker 1: for so many things. Joe Martin he uses a rear
7:20
Speaker 1: thumb brake, okay, instantly, that's his left hand. They have
7:23
Speaker 1: to change engine mapping things like this while they're writing.
7:26
Speaker 1: That's with their left thumb as well. Plus the rear
7:29
Speaker 1: right height device, which you guys would have seen a
7:31
Speaker 1: lot this weekend because they can manually use that on
7:34
Speaker 1: tracks and they use it a lot here. So my
7:37
Speaker 1: thought is how much did this really effect je Martin? Hey,
7:44
Speaker 1: he got second On Sunday, he wrote, incredible was Peco
7:48
Speaker 1: really in a class of his own, or did this
7:50
Speaker 1: thumb injury really kind of just give Peco that advantage.
7:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't that? The Alex riddswad. It makes
7:58
Speaker 2: me giggle every time I think about it. It's like
8:00
Speaker 2: every bizarre misshappeno GP. We should have like the Rins scale,
8:03
Speaker 2: and you know, you rate things on like the Richter
8:05
Speaker 2: scale for earthquake. Nothing's ever going to beat the Alex
8:07
Speaker 2: Rins running into texting and running into a stationary vehicle.
8:11
Speaker 2: But it's interesting because I'm not sure necessarily that Martin's
8:16
Speaker 2: result or his whole weekend would have changed that much
8:18
Speaker 2: had he have had two operational thumbs rather than one,
8:21
Speaker 2: because you would back him to get pole in a
8:23
Speaker 2: straight fight, but over a race incidence at that track
8:27
Speaker 2: against Banyaira, I kind of feel that second was the
8:29
Speaker 2: best it was ever going to be. Maybe the margins
8:32
Speaker 2: would have been a little bit smaller. We saw what
8:34
Speaker 2: happened in the sprint where he made a mistake because
8:37
Speaker 2: he was so desperate to stay in front on lap
8:39
Speaker 2: two and then didn't drop far enough behind, got hit
8:41
Speaker 2: with a long lap and managed to get himself back
8:43
Speaker 2: up to second anyway, So I'm not sure if the
8:45
Speaker 2: points that he would have got out of this weekend
8:47
Speaker 2: would have changed necessarily. Would he have challenged vanyay more? Probably,
8:52
Speaker 2: but I don't think at this particular circuit that he
8:55
Speaker 2: necessarily had an answer for Vanyayra over a sprint or
8:58
Speaker 2: race distance. But yeah, of all the injuries we hear
9:01
Speaker 2: in Moto GP, falling over in the shower is a
9:03
Speaker 2: new one. Godlan knows what he actually cut himself with,
9:06
Speaker 2: because it certainly wasn't for the squeamish. I did see
9:09
Speaker 2: the social post that he put up on I think
9:11
Speaker 2: it was Saturday morning, and it was not one you
9:14
Speaker 2: wanted to see why you're eating anything? It was pretty gruesome,
9:16
Speaker 2: wasn't it.
9:17
Speaker 1: It was not funny. If you want to go check
9:19
Speaker 1: that out, head to Jues social media. You can see
9:22
Speaker 1: that for.
9:23
Speaker 2: I've seen it once and that was enough.
9:25
Speaker 1: I think he did require stitches, so if you can't
9:28
Speaker 1: see it, just know they it needed stitches. So it's
9:30
Speaker 1: a big injury, right, But in the shower, Abiza, but
9:34
Speaker 1: what about you could just see how sore it was.
9:36
Speaker 2: But when he was trying to get his glove on
9:38
Speaker 2: and off for qualifying on Saturday. It was excruciating watching
9:42
Speaker 2: it because he was having to like bide his tongue.
9:44
Speaker 2: All Right, I've got to get this thing off, but
9:46
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to put some pressure on it. It
9:47
Speaker 2: was awful just watching it. So trying to manhandle a
9:50
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty kilo motor GP bike and using
9:53
Speaker 2: the thumb break, as you said, around a track that's
9:55
Speaker 2: got such extremes stopping and starting characteristics the Red Bull Ring. Yeah,
10:01
Speaker 2: certainly a bit of adrenaline and a little bit of
10:04
Speaker 2: pinkillers probably helped. But yeah, I think you'll be very,
10:07
Speaker 2: very glad that we don't have a back to back
10:08
Speaker 2: this coming weekend.
10:10
Speaker 1: I'll tell you someone who is glad on the upcoming
10:13
Speaker 1: race is going to be Mark Marquez. And let's not
10:15
Speaker 1: talk about Arragon just yet. Let's talk about this weekend,
10:19
Speaker 1: not the weekend he wanted. In the sprint, he did
10:23
Speaker 1: crash out, but he said that was him pushing. He
10:26
Speaker 1: said he felt comfortable, felt confident, just wanted to have
10:29
Speaker 1: a go. He's very adamant that this weekend, h sorry,
10:32
Speaker 1: this year is all about him understanding the ju caddies.
10:36
Speaker 1: He's learning, he's not going out there to try and
10:38
Speaker 1: smash records, and we can see that. But what happened
10:42
Speaker 1: on Sunday was just crazy and it's something that you
10:46
Speaker 1: kind of don't really expect, but you forget that he
10:50
Speaker 1: is still part of a satellite team. He's not part
10:52
Speaker 1: of the factory Jucaddi garage, right, so for those who
10:56
Speaker 1: don't know, he couldn't engage the right high device. But
11:00
Speaker 1: why that was because when they were on the start
11:04
Speaker 1: line prepping, you know, doing everything, the front tire valve
11:07
Speaker 1: had actually broke, so that the team you could see
11:10
Speaker 1: them scrambling around, they had to go and get another wheel.
11:13
Speaker 1: What happened with this was the new tire wasn't heated up,
11:16
Speaker 1: so when Mark went out on the outlap, he had
11:18
Speaker 1: to do some heavy braking essentially to drive heat into
11:22
Speaker 1: that front tire. But at some point coming back onto
11:25
Speaker 1: the grid, he grabbed too much front break to get
11:27
Speaker 1: heat into that front tire. He engaged the whole shot
11:30
Speaker 1: device too early, right, so then he's had to let
11:32
Speaker 1: that go and as he's coming back onto the grid,
11:34
Speaker 1: you can see him really trying to grab that front
11:37
Speaker 1: break to him re engage front whole shot device. Just
11:40
Speaker 1: wasn't happened, which is why he had that terrible start.
11:44
Speaker 1: I want to talk about though, his progression because starting
11:47
Speaker 1: from p. Three on the grid, once the lights went out,
11:52
Speaker 1: I can't even use my words today, Matt. Once the
11:53
Speaker 1: lights went out, he was back into me fourteen, had
11:56
Speaker 1: that close collision with Morbidelli, and somehow made his way
11:59
Speaker 1: back into p.
12:00
Speaker 2: Four.
12:01
Speaker 1: Not the weekend he wanted, but Ladiel, where Mark is
12:05
Speaker 1: on it, he is on it.
12:07
Speaker 2: It's like a dog with a bone is near in
12:08
Speaker 2: a situation like that. But you could see that he
12:11
Speaker 2: knew that he was in trouble before that start happened,
12:13
Speaker 2: because he pulled up in his grid box and he
12:15
Speaker 2: was looking at the front of the bike and looking
12:17
Speaker 2: and looking and looking. He's like, oh, I know that
12:19
Speaker 2: this thing hasn't engaged properly. So obviously the front wheel
12:21
Speaker 2: came up off the start, had a Jack Miller behind
12:25
Speaker 2: him on the KTM. The KTM's like a scalded cat
12:27
Speaker 2: off the line. That thing's unbelievable. So Jack was passed
12:29
Speaker 2: him really quickly. And you know the way that first
12:33
Speaker 2: corner is at Austria, very sort of quite tight ninety
12:35
Speaker 2: degree right. He was always going to make contact with
12:38
Speaker 2: somebody and probably get pushed out to the long lap
12:40
Speaker 2: and the runoff area there. So by the time he
12:42
Speaker 2: got to sect to one on the first lap, he's
12:44
Speaker 2: gone from the front row of the grid to I
12:45
Speaker 2: think he was fourteenth at that point, finished the first
12:47
Speaker 2: lap in thirteenth and once you know, the bike was fine.
12:51
Speaker 2: Once everything was as it should have been, the main
12:55
Speaker 2: intrigue in the race was all right. We know that
12:57
Speaker 2: he's not on a GP twenty four, but it's not
13:00
Speaker 2: really a circuit. He's had a great amount of success
13:02
Speaker 2: at as we were saying in our preview pod, but
13:04
Speaker 2: how far up the order could he get and from
13:06
Speaker 2: how far back he was? It was pretty awesome to
13:08
Speaker 2: see him coming through, taking on some of the GP
13:10
Speaker 2: twenty fours, like going past Marco Pozeki and these sorts
13:12
Speaker 2: of guys. And there's not too many left handers on
13:15
Speaker 2: this track as we know, but Mark in left handers
13:17
Speaker 2: is absolutely awesome. And watching him through six and seven
13:21
Speaker 2: and eight, you know, the real sort of high speed,
13:24
Speaker 2: high speed inverticomas corners of note on this particular track,
13:27
Speaker 2: watching the ground that he was making up on guys
13:30
Speaker 2: lap after lap was pretty awesome. So he's about six
13:33
Speaker 2: seconds off the podium there with Bastinini in third. You
13:36
Speaker 2: would have to think with a less compromise start that
13:39
Speaker 2: he would have been probably third and maybe challenging Martine.
13:43
Speaker 2: It's hard to say really with the way his race
13:45
Speaker 2: panned out, but he definitely injected a bit of intrigue
13:48
Speaker 2: into that race because there wasn't much of it up
13:50
Speaker 2: the front after about the first ten laps. But every
13:53
Speaker 2: time you look at the timing tower, he was just
13:54
Speaker 2: climbing further and further and further towards the top. And now,
13:58
Speaker 2: as you said before, this is a year that he's said,
14:00
Speaker 2: it's a year of learning. He's not expecting, not expecting
14:02
Speaker 2: to win things and what have you. If this is
14:04
Speaker 2: what we've got when Marcus is a little bit half
14:06
Speaker 2: cooked by back that he doesn't really know, well, there's
14:08
Speaker 2: a lot to look forward to next year, isn't there.
14:11
Speaker 1: I found it so fascinating, like you said, watching his progression,
14:14
Speaker 1: but watching how much thought he was putting into literally
14:18
Speaker 1: every overtake, every corner, what was happening. So he did
14:22
Speaker 1: most of his overtaking into the chicane into two A,
14:25
Speaker 1: but he would actually start to set up his overtakes
14:28
Speaker 1: back at turn ten. He would try and get as
14:31
Speaker 1: close as he could to the person who was in
14:33
Speaker 1: front of him right just purely so that they could
14:36
Speaker 1: hear him. So as he's coming down the street, they're like, oh,
14:38
Speaker 1: he's right behind me, I'm going to or he's going
14:40
Speaker 1: to make a turn overtaken to turn one, but he
14:43
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it, so then they're going, oh, something's happened,
14:46
Speaker 1: maybe he's gone. They'd relax a bit. Then he'd go
14:48
Speaker 1: straight into the chicane, and because the chicane is such
14:51
Speaker 1: a slow area, by the time he's overtaken them, he's
14:55
Speaker 1: already got so much momentum that they can't fight back.
14:57
Speaker 1: And I'm going, this is the smart mark. We haven't
15:00
Speaker 1: seen this from him in so long. But it was
15:03
Speaker 1: so interesting that. Okay, he didn't get the race he wanted,
15:06
Speaker 1: but seeing these little moves happen throughout the race, Okay,
15:09
Speaker 1: he is learning, he's growing. Next year on that GP
15:11
Speaker 1: twenty five, it is going to be something phenomenal. But
15:15
Speaker 1: you mentioned Jack Miller there, so we need to talk
15:17
Speaker 1: about Ozzie Jack Miller because best qualifying or equal best
15:21
Speaker 1: qualifying he's had all year on the grid and he
15:24
Speaker 1: was on his way to an amazing, incredible result and
15:29
Speaker 1: just a silly mistake once again.
15:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Look, I think it's one of those
15:33
Speaker 2: weekends that even listening to him afterwards, you know, you're
15:36
Speaker 2: not going to get too excited when you finished nineteenth,
15:38
Speaker 2: are you? But I think it was the pace and
15:40
Speaker 2: the fact that it felt like it was achievable and
15:43
Speaker 2: pretty repeatable over the course of the weekend. You he
15:45
Speaker 2: came through Q one, remember, to get to fifth on
15:47
Speaker 2: the grid and you know, really really strong, they're really
15:50
Speaker 2: good sprint. The only you know, it's only he and
15:52
Speaker 2: Alasia Spargo that were sort of in that mix of
15:54
Speaker 2: to Catt. He's in the sprint and he ran fourth
15:57
Speaker 2: of the first seven laps of the race and dropped
15:59
Speaker 2: behind Bender and bet Sat and had that little brush
16:01
Speaker 2: with Mark Marquez as well, where Mark's arm hit Jack's
16:04
Speaker 2: reattire there at the Chicune at two A and two B,
16:07
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, but disappointing. He was trying to obviously
16:11
Speaker 2: preserve the rear tire by carrying a little bit more
16:13
Speaker 2: entry speed into those corners and you know, maybe not
16:15
Speaker 2: cooking the rear tire on the way out, and even
16:18
Speaker 2: his pace, his lap times after a crash, right, he's
16:20
Speaker 2: still really good. He just shipped so much time at
16:22
Speaker 2: that point. So I think in isolation, it's another difficult
16:27
Speaker 2: Sunday for Jack, but I think his pace over the
16:29
Speaker 2: course of the weekend was pretty good. It looked pretty
16:32
Speaker 2: believable and repeatable. Obviously very very costly mistake, but he
16:36
Speaker 2: wasn't as downcast about a result like that as he
16:39
Speaker 2: normally has been in the past, because I think he
16:41
Speaker 2: feels that there was something there this weekend that he
16:45
Speaker 2: had found. He's talked about getting more confidence that was
16:47
Speaker 2: pretty battered around after a couple of DNFs that he'd
16:49
Speaker 2: had earlier in the season. So the pace was good.
16:52
Speaker 2: The performance or the result sorry, was not. But you'd
16:56
Speaker 2: have to say that things are looking up for Jack
16:58
Speaker 2: on track in the short term, perhaps certainly longer term
17:01
Speaker 2: with what's possibly going to be happening next year for him,
17:03
Speaker 2: which we may know before the next race. But look,
17:06
Speaker 2: it was a positive weekend despot the result, but it
17:08
Speaker 2: was just such a shame because I think he had
17:11
Speaker 2: enough in reserve to probably hold off the likes of
17:13
Speaker 2: Vignalees and Morbidelli's sixth, seventh, eight that sort of range,
17:17
Speaker 2: and if he'd managed to finish probably six or seventh,
17:20
Speaker 2: I think that's a really really good result given where
17:22
Speaker 2: he has been this year. But just a shame it
17:24
Speaker 2: didn't work out for him well.
17:26
Speaker 1: This weekend, guys, you would have seen an extra KTM
17:29
Speaker 1: on the grid with Paula Spargaro back, and surprisingly in
17:34
Speaker 1: the earlier practices, even in qualifying, he was fast. Now
17:38
Speaker 1: they did say he had the new spec engine and
17:40
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen that Batman inspired erro
17:43
Speaker 1: that was coming off the back. I didn't quite understand that,
17:47
Speaker 1: but it seemed to work for Pol the race, he
17:51
Speaker 1: said that, you know, he's been doing a lot of
17:54
Speaker 1: testing at Austria because the KTM head office is basically
17:58
Speaker 1: just down the road right, and they were saying that
18:00
Speaker 1: when he does his testing there he's setting some incredible
18:03
Speaker 1: lap times. But his words were, I've forgotten what it's
18:06
Speaker 1: like to race in a pack of a group of writers,
18:09
Speaker 1: and that.
18:09
Speaker 2: Is so true.
18:10
Speaker 1: You know, you could see him on the site line.
18:12
Speaker 1: He's really focused because it's not just him he has
18:15
Speaker 1: to think about. It's everybody else. But it seems like
18:18
Speaker 1: katm with having Pole there, they've obviously got Danny Padrousa.
18:22
Speaker 1: They're starting to head in the right direction.
18:24
Speaker 2: Now. Yeah, he was impressive the entire weekend, but I
18:28
Speaker 2: think you hit the nail on the head there where
18:30
Speaker 2: you just get ring rusty after not doing it for
18:33
Speaker 2: a while, even someone who is as experienced as Pole is,
18:36
Speaker 2: you know when you haven't. You did one race start
18:38
Speaker 2: earlier in the year at Magello, but you do get
18:40
Speaker 2: out of the habit of these things, and particularly a
18:42
Speaker 2: track like this that you know, because of the nature
18:45
Speaker 2: of the breaking zones, there is a lot of you know,
18:47
Speaker 2: handlebar to handlebar, side by side stuff, which you know
18:50
Speaker 2: you're not a soft target when you're not a full
18:51
Speaker 2: time racer, but you're never going to be as sharp
18:53
Speaker 2: as the guys that are doing this week in and
18:55
Speaker 2: week out, And it's just so different to being able
18:58
Speaker 2: to take whatever line you want when you're testing, churning
19:01
Speaker 2: out lap times, lap after lap after lap. But I
19:03
Speaker 2: thought he was actually pretty impressive. He was probably more
19:06
Speaker 2: competitive than maybe we would have thought he would have
19:08
Speaker 2: been heading into the weekend. I don't think too many
19:10
Speaker 2: people would have had him beating Pedro Costa on the
19:12
Speaker 2: similar bike over the course of the weekend, so that's
19:14
Speaker 2: probably testament to the quality. But it was a stronger
19:17
Speaker 2: weekend for KTM this weekend in Austria. Now how much
19:20
Speaker 2: of that's down to the home track all the characteristics
19:22
Speaker 2: of it, but Brad Bender was the leading non Ducati
19:25
Speaker 2: in the race. He was the only Jucadi in in
19:26
Speaker 2: the top six finishes. Obviously Jack was very good in
19:28
Speaker 2: the sprint. So pretty positive weekend for KTM because there's
19:33
Speaker 2: this weird chasm at the moment. I was going to
19:36
Speaker 2: say it's the second tier, but I actually think it's
19:37
Speaker 2: the third because you've got the GP twenty four ducaddies
19:40
Speaker 2: in Tier one the twenty three decadies in Tier two.
19:42
Speaker 2: But it's never particularly clear weekend to weekend whether it's
19:45
Speaker 2: going to be a Priller or KTM that are sniping
19:48
Speaker 2: for those back into the top five or maybe the
19:50
Speaker 2: second row of the grid, and this weekend it was
19:53
Speaker 2: much more KTM than Apriller. Despite the fact that Aleish
19:56
Speaker 2: finished third in the sprint, I think KTM looked a
19:59
Speaker 2: little bit more believable with their pace, so perhaps that's
20:02
Speaker 2: a good sign for them. Going forward. But again, Austria
20:05
Speaker 2: is such a weird track. It's such a one of
20:07
Speaker 2: one that once we get to Aragon and then we
20:08
Speaker 2: head off into the flyaways. It'll be interesting to see
20:11
Speaker 2: if that's just a one off thing or whether they
20:13
Speaker 2: can keep that momentum going.
20:15
Speaker 1: Speaking of weird tracks, let's talk about that bizarre crash
20:19
Speaker 1: of Pedro Acossa's that happened on Friday, where he seemed
20:25
Speaker 1: to just lose the front so early, and then afterwards
20:28
Speaker 1: they were explaining that this weekend Michelin, because of this
20:31
Speaker 1: Tyler track, it is they bought a much harder front.
20:34
Speaker 1: We saw Alicia Spargo crash on that apparently, so Alex
20:38
Speaker 1: Marquez went out, did a lap and decided no to
20:40
Speaker 1: go back to a less heavier front. But Pedro Acosta
20:45
Speaker 1: that really interesting crash that you can see on the
20:47
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Socials guys. He went out, did a lap,
20:51
Speaker 1: tucked the front, crash, picked the bike up, did another lap,
20:54
Speaker 1: and then on the flyer as he was going into
20:57
Speaker 1: term four, it's like he breaked earlier than usual the front,
21:00
Speaker 1: but super scary because he went down the hill, over
21:03
Speaker 1: the grass back onto the track. I honestly don't know
21:06
Speaker 1: how he walked away from that, because that was nasty.
21:10
Speaker 2: That was one of those ones when you see it
21:12
Speaker 2: as soon as you see it happening, you sit backwards
21:14
Speaker 2: in your seat, or you know, I'm sitting here in
21:16
Speaker 2: my office, like I literally pushed the rolling chair backwards
21:18
Speaker 2: and went, oh my god, where's he going to end
21:20
Speaker 2: up here? Because, as you said, it's a right angle
21:22
Speaker 2: corner at the bottom of the hill there. You know
21:24
Speaker 2: he's going to slide down the hill. The bike's got
21:26
Speaker 2: a mine of its own. At that point, I'm thinking,
21:27
Speaker 2: I really hope there's no one parked on the apex
21:29
Speaker 2: It turn for as he's sliding down, because he just
21:32
Speaker 2: needed time to scrub off the speed. But that was
21:34
Speaker 2: a terrifying accident because it's not one where there's no
21:38
Speaker 2: warning for it. You've not tipped it into the Chicaine
21:40
Speaker 2: slow and lost the front like a lot of guys
21:42
Speaker 2: sit over the course of the weekend. That thing just
21:44
Speaker 2: went so fast, and afterwards they were saying that it
21:47
Speaker 2: was primarily a cult tire because he'd already had the
21:49
Speaker 2: spill on the previous lap. The arrow on that bike
21:52
Speaker 2: looked a little second hand even before he'd had the
21:53
Speaker 2: second crash, so you do have to wonder whether that
21:55
Speaker 2: was part of it as well. But Pedro being pedro.
21:58
Speaker 2: These twenty year old kids, it's pretty well, don't they
22:00
Speaker 2: renew to he just afterwards, he said, Ah, you know,
22:02
Speaker 2: it's not a big thing that you could walk out.
22:03
Speaker 2: You could get hit by a bus. It's not that bad.
22:05
Speaker 2: I'm fine, but I guess that's the mentality of a racer.
22:08
Speaker 2: But that one was super, super scary. And there's something
22:13
Speaker 2: about that track, and we talk about this last week
22:15
Speaker 2: that you know, primarily it is a car track. There's
22:18
Speaker 2: a lot of arm cauh at that place that is
22:20
Speaker 2: a little uncomfortably close to the circuit. And yes, he
22:22
Speaker 2: was sliding down the middle of the track. He wasn't
22:24
Speaker 2: close to it, but I don't about you. Did you
22:26
Speaker 2: see where his bike went. That thing slid and gain
22:29
Speaker 2: speed as it went down the grass down the hill
22:31
Speaker 2: and then hit the inside of the fencet. That could
22:33
Speaker 2: have gone absolutely anywhere. So you know, we got away
22:37
Speaker 2: with one there, He got away with one. Fortunately the
22:39
Speaker 2: bike wasn't totally trash. But yeah, that was a real
22:41
Speaker 2: heart and mouth moment because I think he was doing
22:43
Speaker 2: the north of three hundred k's when he came off,
22:45
Speaker 2: and yeah, that's pretty scary.
22:48
Speaker 1: One of the I guess side effects to this track.
22:52
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the right word. Either negative
22:55
Speaker 1: to this track is the track limits, right, It's very
22:58
Speaker 1: common that this weekend everybody was having track limits and
23:02
Speaker 1: Jogey Martin in the sprint and why went over track limits,
23:05
Speaker 1: didn't come back, didn't do the one second gap and
23:09
Speaker 1: was penalized with that with the long lap penalty. And
23:12
Speaker 1: it was quite interesting because I was thinking about it,
23:15
Speaker 1: if there was more grass on the side like there
23:17
Speaker 1: used to be a long time ago in racing, the
23:19
Speaker 1: bikes would either pick up speed and the rider could
23:22
Speaker 1: control it and crash, or eventually they'd get into a
23:25
Speaker 1: gravel trap and they would lose a lot of time.
23:27
Speaker 1: And we could clearly see that with Pedro Acosta's crash.
23:31
Speaker 1: Then thinking about Joge Martin and how he just managed
23:34
Speaker 1: to touch it, come back, didn't make enough time, gets
23:36
Speaker 1: that long lap penalty. Are we is it the right
23:40
Speaker 1: thing to have these long lap penalties? Are they putting
23:43
Speaker 1: enough time back in or is it kind of just
23:46
Speaker 1: like the riders should know. What's your take on that
23:49
Speaker 1: map because I'm kind of into mine's here.
23:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a little bit the same in that I
23:53
Speaker 2: think of it. I don't necessarily love it as a solution,
23:57
Speaker 2: But then the question is, okay, so what could you
23:58
Speaker 2: do this better? You've got to do something that's safe.
24:01
Speaker 2: I mean grass, grass and or gravel in certain places
24:04
Speaker 2: is fine, but not at some of those corners at
24:06
Speaker 2: the Red Bull Ring. And it's just a conundrum with
24:07
Speaker 2: that particular track. I think if you don't have the
24:12
Speaker 2: sort of the sword of track limit penalties hanging over
24:14
Speaker 2: these guys next, then people will take liberties because they
24:17
Speaker 2: just will their races. It's the way it works, and
24:19
Speaker 2: so it's kind of it's like the least worst option,
24:22
Speaker 2: if that makes sense. It's an imperfect solution and it's
24:25
Speaker 2: not one that I absolutely love, but I'm yet to
24:27
Speaker 2: think of or hear an alternative from elsewhere that is
24:30
Speaker 2: a better outcome. So we're kind of stuck with it.
24:33
Speaker 2: And it's only something that happens at particular tracks of
24:36
Speaker 2: just the nature of the corner layer, and this circuit
24:39
Speaker 2: is probably the most extreme one for that. But yeah,
24:43
Speaker 2: I look, I can't I don't meet you. I can't
24:44
Speaker 2: think of a better solution to it. So we're kind
24:46
Speaker 2: of stuck with it. But reluctantly you'd have to say, well.
24:50
Speaker 1: Speaking of the long lap penalties, let's talk about Motor
24:53
Speaker 1: two and Motor three because there were so many track
24:56
Speaker 1: limits warnings. I could and keep up, especially in Motor three.
24:58
Speaker 1: If you look to the side of the time, he's
25:00
Speaker 1: green Litule Triangle pretty much all the way down. But
25:04
Speaker 1: Joel Kelso Moto III, we can't talk with it about
25:08
Speaker 1: I want to start that again. We can't not talk
25:10
Speaker 1: about Joel Kelso's qualifying P two on the grid was
25:15
Speaker 1: leading the race, phenomenal. This is the confidence. This is
25:18
Speaker 1: what we need to see from Joel Kelso. It feels
25:20
Speaker 1: like everything's starting to click for him. He just needs
25:23
Speaker 1: to get that mid race distance. Actually, we were talking
25:26
Speaker 1: about it during the race. He needs to get that
25:28
Speaker 1: race distance onwards. There's something that needs to click. Time management.
25:31
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but it seems like he's nailing that start.
25:35
Speaker 1: He's heading in that right direction.
25:37
Speaker 2: It's nice that we're at this point of the conversation
25:40
Speaker 2: with Joel and we're not doing Oh, if only he
25:42
Speaker 2: could qualify a bit better, or if ONDI had the
25:44
Speaker 2: pace he's qualifyings fantastic over one lap, really really going
25:47
Speaker 2: well at the moment. The race pace for certainly the
25:50
Speaker 2: first probably two thirds of the race. We see this
25:52
Speaker 2: all the time with him is really really good. So
25:55
Speaker 2: we're sort of at the final frontier for him. Now
25:58
Speaker 2: he looks like he belongs up the front. Now, what
26:00
Speaker 2: about you. But in the past, when you see him
26:02
Speaker 2: up the front, it'll be like, well, that's nice. You know,
26:03
Speaker 2: he looks like a bit of an interloper up there,
26:05
Speaker 2: but it's nice to see him up there. He looks
26:07
Speaker 2: completely legit up the front now, and it's that last
26:10
Speaker 2: third of the race, whether it's time management or just
26:13
Speaker 2: being able to save a little bit for that last
26:14
Speaker 2: part of the race, and that it never feels that
26:17
Speaker 2: he's on the attack in the last third of races.
26:19
Speaker 2: It kind of feels to me that he's always not
26:21
Speaker 2: on the defensive, but he's kind of treading water a
26:23
Speaker 2: little bit. And we know how motor three races sort
26:27
Speaker 2: of come to the boil towards the end. I mean,
26:28
Speaker 2: there's usually a pack of six or eight of them
26:30
Speaker 2: squabbling on the last couple of laps, and he always
26:32
Speaker 2: seeds to slide down a little bit, but in terms
26:35
Speaker 2: of the pace, the qualifying pace, and the how comfortable
26:40
Speaker 2: he looks running at the front earlier races, I think
26:42
Speaker 2: that's been the biggest thing for him this year. Because
26:45
Speaker 2: he's always been fast. There's never been a question to
26:47
Speaker 2: speed with Joel, but he now looks like he belongs
26:50
Speaker 2: at the front of races, and you get the sense
26:52
Speaker 2: that he feels like he belongs up there now. So
26:55
Speaker 2: it's a big step to make from there to being
26:57
Speaker 2: able to consistently challenge for podiums. But we've got nine
27:00
Speaker 2: Grand Prix to go. I would be absolutely stunned if
27:04
Speaker 2: we don't see him on two to three podiums before
27:06
Speaker 2: the end of the season because the arrow's absolutely pointing
27:08
Speaker 2: in the right direction for him, and if he can
27:11
Speaker 2: get a little bit better at that last third of races,
27:14
Speaker 2: I think we're going to see him turn these seventh
27:16
Speaker 2: and eighth places into third and fourth places and then
27:18
Speaker 2: you know, you know what happens in Mota III. Just
27:20
Speaker 2: got to be in the right place at the right time,
27:22
Speaker 2: and wouldn't discount a big result or two for Joel
27:25
Speaker 2: at the end of the year, and not necessarily in
27:27
Speaker 2: the wet, like it wasn't Philip Island last year. I
27:28
Speaker 2: think there's huge potential there for him. So sort of frustrating,
27:32
Speaker 2: but coming from a good place because we know how
27:34
Speaker 2: well he's going.
27:35
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Jacob Rulestone this weekend as well. Not
27:39
Speaker 1: the best result from him. He seemed okay, but he
27:42
Speaker 1: didn't seem over the moon with the progression that they
27:45
Speaker 1: made this weekend. What was your take on that?
27:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit one of those weekends that kind
27:50
Speaker 2: of felt like it was on the precipice of something
27:52
Speaker 2: more the entire time, never quite reached those heights. But
27:56
Speaker 2: sometimes I think we judge Jacob by such a high standard.
27:59
Speaker 2: He's still and you know, he's ten races into his
28:02
Speaker 2: World Championship career, so you're going to have weekends like that.
28:05
Speaker 2: I guess the expectation being Rebels home race and an
28:09
Speaker 2: Austrian GP for KTM. So slightly disappointing in that respect,
28:13
Speaker 2: but I still can't think you can't fault the way
28:16
Speaker 2: his season has gone. I mean, he's just had a
28:18
Speaker 2: little bit of a down one this weekend, but nothing
28:20
Speaker 2: particularly to worry about. I think there will be tracks
28:22
Speaker 2: that come up that suit him quite a lot better
28:24
Speaker 2: than Austria did.
28:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Red Will Ring. Even though it looks really simple,
28:29
Speaker 1: it is not a simple track. There's so much that
28:32
Speaker 1: just goes into mastering a lap here. So I agree.
28:36
Speaker 1: I think we've seen such a strong Jacob in the
28:39
Speaker 1: first half of this year.
28:41
Speaker 2: It's just going to be time.
28:42
Speaker 1: It's going to be learning. And then next year we
28:44
Speaker 1: discussed in the last part he's resigned again with the
28:46
Speaker 1: Tech three, So next year we're going to see a
28:49
Speaker 1: much much stronger Jacob, hopefully winning some races. But before
28:53
Speaker 1: we finish, we have to talk also about our Assie
28:55
Speaker 1: sener aegis in Moto two, p. Fifteen for him this weekend,
29:00
Speaker 1: and don't know if this is a track that necessarily
29:03
Speaker 1: suited him and his writing stuck where his teammate Darren
29:07
Speaker 1: Bender was much closer to the front leading group all weekend.
29:10
Speaker 1: It just seems it something just didn't quite click for
29:13
Speaker 1: Center No.
29:14
Speaker 2: Certainly in qualify and gave himself a lot to do.
29:16
Speaker 2: He actually raced quite well, you know, all things considered
29:20
Speaker 2: to actually be able to get back into the points
29:21
Speaker 2: from where he was. But you know you mentioned about
29:24
Speaker 2: this track before. It's so particular and I think there's
29:26
Speaker 2: a level of sort of mental stress that comes with
29:28
Speaker 2: this place in that there's so few places you can
29:31
Speaker 2: make up big slabs of time that maybe you can
29:33
Speaker 2: overreach a little bit if you don't have the experience.
29:35
Speaker 2: We know how experienced Darren Bender is. He's been around
29:37
Speaker 2: for ages now, plenty of races on that particular track,
29:41
Speaker 2: so look good to at least move forward in the race,
29:44
Speaker 2: get into the points. But a bit like Jacob Rolson,
29:46
Speaker 2: another one where he'll live to fight another day. He'll
29:49
Speaker 2: be better for the run, as they say in football pilots,
29:52
Speaker 2: and he'll be looking a lot better for Aragon, I
29:54
Speaker 2: would think so.
29:55
Speaker 1: Yes, Aragon is coming up in two weeks. Moto GP.
29:58
Speaker 1: Do you have a weekend. I'm sure there's a Formula
30:01
Speaker 1: one or another version of motorsport if you just can't
30:03
Speaker 1: get enough big guys. I think that pretty much sums
30:07
Speaker 1: up our Austria recap. And that's about all the time
30:10
Speaker 1: we've got for Moto GP Pit talk this week, But
30:13
Speaker 1: don't forget. You can catch all the action live and
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30:22
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30:26
Speaker 1: dot com dot Au Forward Slash Motorsport, but from Matt
30:29
Speaker 1: Clayton and myself, Rinita Vermuellin, We'll be back soon with
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Speaker 1: more motogppit talk