Latest / Pit Talk / Chaos in COTA and The Wild Ride of the Americas GP: MotoGP Pit Talk

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Chaos in COTA and The Wild Ride of the Americas GP: MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Moto GP met the wild West, and while the King
0:03
Speaker 1: of Coda, Mark Marquez rolled the dice in Texas, Lady
0:07
Speaker 1: Luck wasn't on his side, making way for a new
0:10
Speaker 1: cowboy in town. I'm your host, Rinita Vanmullin and writing
0:14
Speaker 1: Shotgun with me, as always is my co host, the
0:16
Speaker 1: sheriff of a Moto GP stats himself, mister Matt Clayton.
0:21
Speaker 1: Matt the drama in Texas. What a wild ride. I
0:25
Speaker 1: don't even know where to start, but I feel like
0:28
Speaker 1: we have to start with Mark Marquez, right.
0:30
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we need more than a sheriff to unpack
0:32
Speaker 2: this one and throw the appropriate people in the slammer
0:35
Speaker 2: or not. But man, what a Monday morning that was
0:38
Speaker 2: for us here in Australia. And just when you think
0:41
Speaker 2: you've got MotoGP worked out, Oh we're in Cota. Mark's
0:44
Speaker 2: on pole, Marks on the sprint. Mark always wins in Kota.
0:47
Speaker 2: Strange things happen, and it doesn't get a lot stranger
0:50
Speaker 2: than what happened before the race, did it.
0:52
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that, because even before the Marquez drama,
0:56
Speaker 1: I want to take it back to Fabio Cordoraro crashing
0:59
Speaker 1: on the side lap as well, when I saw that,
1:02
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, Okay, we're going to be in for some
1:04
Speaker 1: tricky situations here because he doesn't normally crash on a
1:07
Speaker 1: sighting lap. What was going on there? Was it just
1:09
Speaker 1: the wet weather? Was electronics? Was it just because of
1:13
Speaker 1: what we we got about to go into.
1:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit.
1:16
Speaker 2: I mean he doesn't crash full stop, let alone on
1:18
Speaker 2: sighting laps. But this is the thing with the motor
1:21
Speaker 2: GP starting procedure, Like that sighting lap is thirty odd
1:24
Speaker 2: minutes before the race starts. You think how quickly the
1:27
Speaker 2: weather can change in thirty minutes. They come around, they
1:30
Speaker 2: sit on the grid, they go through all the ceremonial
1:32
Speaker 2: stuff and anthems and what have you. Fabio just got
1:35
Speaker 2: on a white line and chucked it on a pair
1:37
Speaker 2: of on a set of slicks, and some of the
1:39
Speaker 2: riders were saying the backstraight was just completely aquiplating in
1:42
Speaker 2: a straight line. So the senseible option at that point was, yeah,
1:45
Speaker 2: if this race starts right now, we all need to
1:48
Speaker 2: be on wets. But the problem is the race didn't
1:50
Speaker 2: start right now, and it's that gap, that half hour
1:52
Speaker 2: gap between sighting lap and race start that because it
1:56
Speaker 2: didn't rain anymore and it dries pretty quickly. There you
1:59
Speaker 2: could like, oh, this is one of those not quite
2:02
Speaker 2: like neither answer was correct. It was sort of in
2:04
Speaker 2: that weird space in the middle. And I think the
2:07
Speaker 2: Quaharero crash a because it doesn't happen to him very often.
2:10
Speaker 2: B because it sort of was a bit of a
2:13
Speaker 2: portent of the madness that was to follow, because no
2:16
Speaker 2: one seemed to have the right answer, and in a
2:20
Speaker 2: situation like this, knowing that Marquees is so good around
2:23
Speaker 2: Cota and knowing also that he's so good in judging
2:25
Speaker 2: these conditions, whether it's you know, full wets or whether
2:27
Speaker 2: it's strives or somewhere in between, people were watching to
2:31
Speaker 2: see what he was going to do. Pedro Acosta said
2:33
Speaker 2: afterwards that he instructed his crew to do whatever Mark did,
2:37
Speaker 2: So they were all clearly looking at what Marquez was
2:39
Speaker 2: going to do. But I'm pretty sure none of us
2:41
Speaker 2: expected Marquees to do what he actually did.
2:45
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that because we were in a chat.
2:47
Speaker 1: We always chat while the racing's going on, just find
2:49
Speaker 1: out what news is happening. And I remember saying to you,
2:53
Speaker 1: why did Marquez look like he just like fell over
2:55
Speaker 1: or jumped off the screen right as they went into
2:58
Speaker 1: the opening credits. Then we get like what one or
3:01
Speaker 1: two writers into the opening credits, and it's like cutaway
3:04
Speaker 1: to Marcus rinting off the grid down pit lane and
3:07
Speaker 1: then you just see half the grid follow What a decision.
3:11
Speaker 1: Because also you can see in the footage that DAWNA
3:14
Speaker 1: and MotoGP posted it after, you can see Mark constantly
3:17
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and now that you look back you
3:19
Speaker 1: can see it on his face. He was focused on
3:22
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the right option is there,
3:25
Speaker 1: but for him to take that risk and take that gamble,
3:28
Speaker 1: and then I know you posted an article about it
3:30
Speaker 1: saying he quoted himself saying I really understood the rules, right,
3:36
Speaker 1: do you well?
3:37
Speaker 3: To an extent.
3:38
Speaker 2: So he's sitting there on the grid before they're about
3:41
Speaker 2: to go out on the warm up lap, and he
3:43
Speaker 2: clearly knows I'm on the wrong tires here, and you know,
3:47
Speaker 2: the information would be going up and down a grid,
3:48
Speaker 2: who's a wet, who's on sleecks, who's on the correct tires,
3:51
Speaker 2: who's not?
3:51
Speaker 3: And there were only.
3:52
Speaker 2: Three writers on Slicks at that point, Brad Brenda and
3:57
Speaker 2: a Bastinini and Ayagura. That's an easy gamble. You can
4:00
Speaker 2: take a if you're Brad Binder and you just ride
4:02
Speaker 2: around on slicks in the way anyway, we've seen that
4:04
Speaker 2: story before. But also all three of those guys are
4:07
Speaker 2: on the sixth row of the grid, So when you're
4:09
Speaker 2: way back there, you may as well throw the hail Mary,
4:11
Speaker 2: because frankly, what have you got to lose if you're
4:13
Speaker 2: all the way back there. But you could see Mark
4:16
Speaker 2: calculating like, Okay, I've got to get off these I've
4:20
Speaker 2: got to get off.
4:21
Speaker 3: These wet weather tires. This is not the tire to
4:23
Speaker 3: be on.
4:25
Speaker 2: And it was so premeditated. He had completely planned what
4:30
Speaker 2: he was going to do, how he was going to
4:31
Speaker 2: do it. Apparently seven minutes prior, he's basically saying to
4:34
Speaker 2: his chief mechanic, make sure the bike's got the dry
4:37
Speaker 2: weather tires on in the pit box because I might
4:40
Speaker 2: decide to go here. And of course, because everyone's watching
4:43
Speaker 2: what Mark does and he's reading of the conditions. As
4:47
Speaker 2: soon as Mark decided he was leaving the grid, there
4:50
Speaker 2: was this fantastic shot of Peckerbanos on row two, a
4:53
Speaker 2: bit further back than he normally would be, and he's
4:55
Speaker 2: not looking at anything else as the time, sticking down
4:58
Speaker 2: before the start of the races, looking directly to he's right,
5:01
Speaker 2: and he's looking at Mark, and he's like, if Mark goes,
5:03
Speaker 2: I go. And it was one of those things that
5:06
Speaker 2: Mark triggered all of the craziness that followed by standing
5:10
Speaker 2: beside his bike not sitting on it, which is the
5:12
Speaker 2: biggest tell at the end of the day. When you
5:13
Speaker 2: look at these replays, you can see he's planning on
5:15
Speaker 2: doing something and then once he was out of there,
5:18
Speaker 2: it was just complete chaos. And what Mark in effect
5:23
Speaker 2: was trying to trigger here was this goes back to
5:27
Speaker 2: Argentina twenty eighteen. For those of you listening that remember that,
5:30
Speaker 2: I'm sure you remember it, Rnita, when one of the
5:33
Speaker 2: weirdest Murtor GP photos I've ever seen with Jack Miller
5:36
Speaker 2: on the grid on pole position, and then you'd need
5:38
Speaker 2: a pair of binoculars to see the rest of the
5:40
Speaker 2: field because they're off the back of the grid, all
5:42
Speaker 2: lined up where Jack was the one that had gone
5:44
Speaker 2: to the grid on slicks. Everyone else had gone to
5:46
Speaker 2: the grid on wets. They realized that it was Slicks.
5:48
Speaker 2: Everyone piled into the pits. It was clearly unsafe for
5:51
Speaker 2: them to start all together from twenty three bikes starting
5:54
Speaker 2: from Pitlan would have been completely crazy. So they basically
5:56
Speaker 2: sent them all to the back of the grid and
5:57
Speaker 2: a bought and the start allowed everyone to change. So,
6:00
Speaker 2: you know, Jack got royally screwed in that instance because
6:03
Speaker 2: he'd read it correctly. But Marquez knew that if more
6:07
Speaker 2: than ten bikes leave the grid and I've emphasized the
6:10
Speaker 2: words more than because there are two key words in
6:12
Speaker 2: this if more than ten bikes leave the grid, then
6:14
Speaker 2: it can trigger an a border start. And so once
6:18
Speaker 2: he went, it was just how many of these guys
6:19
Speaker 2: are going to follow him? And what was interesting was
6:21
Speaker 2: that if you look at the riders that did follow
6:24
Speaker 2: Marquez into the pits and the ones that didn't, the
6:27
Speaker 2: ones that did were all the ones that were closest
6:28
Speaker 2: to him on the grid because they could see what
6:30
Speaker 2: he was doing. It was mostly the riders down the
6:32
Speaker 2: back that did not. And so there's q this mass
6:35
Speaker 2: stampede off the grid. And I think what we saw
6:40
Speaker 2: was Mark knowing more how the rule book worked than
6:44
Speaker 2: the actual people that enforced the rule book. In that
6:46
Speaker 2: Mark was trying to trigger this aborted start, and I
6:49
Speaker 2: mentioned the words more than before. They're exactly ten riders
6:52
Speaker 2: who left the grid, not more than ten riders. So
6:56
Speaker 2: the race actually should have gone ahead as planned with
6:59
Speaker 2: those riders starting from the pit lane and then having
7:03
Speaker 2: to either join the back of the grid or if
7:04
Speaker 2: they were going to do a restart, they would have
7:06
Speaker 2: had to have done a ride through penalty. So in
7:09
Speaker 2: the end, there was so much chaos as people running
7:12
Speaker 2: down the grid, there's mechanics everywhere, there's grid girls virtually
7:15
Speaker 2: getting run over. Maverick Gugnalez is staggering around on the
7:18
Speaker 2: grid without a bike, which is about the most Maverick
7:20
Speaker 2: videalest thing ever. It's like, you did realize you have
7:23
Speaker 2: to ride? What are these things to actually start the race?
7:25
Speaker 2: So that was all going on. I think race direction
7:29
Speaker 2: realized that they've been caught out by the craziness of
7:31
Speaker 2: all of this, and they said we decided to abort
7:35
Speaker 2: the start and have a new start on safety grounds.
7:38
Speaker 2: And on safety grounds is kind of the impeachable. You
7:43
Speaker 2: can't question that if you're a fan or anyone else
7:45
Speaker 2: that's like, oh, we're doing this for safety reasons. It's
7:47
Speaker 2: like when you ask a little kid while they did
7:49
Speaker 2: something and they say, oh, just because they don't actually
7:51
Speaker 2: give you they don't actually give you an explorations, like
7:54
Speaker 2: just because you go, okay, I'm going to have to
7:56
Speaker 2: wear that for safety reasons.
7:57
Speaker 3: It's kind of the Mordor GP.
7:58
Speaker 2: Race direction equivalent of because because I think they've realized
8:01
Speaker 2: they've lost control of the situation, and so you ended
8:04
Speaker 2: up having a restart one lap less everybody else on
8:06
Speaker 2: slick tires, and we thought, well, this will be a
8:08
Speaker 2: predictable race then, but we'll get onto that.
8:10
Speaker 1: But that's the thing is, like you think, for the
8:12
Speaker 1: race director Mike Webb, it kind of did fluster him,
8:16
Speaker 1: and he almost admitted that in the video that we
8:19
Speaker 1: saw online. He said, you know, Mark thought if he
8:21
Speaker 1: could get these riders through, then maybe he might only
8:25
Speaker 1: have to do a start from the back of the
8:27
Speaker 1: grid or whatnot. But he goes, no, No, the actual
8:29
Speaker 1: rule is he should have technically had a ride through. Yeah,
8:33
Speaker 1: but because it flustered them, they had to do that
8:35
Speaker 1: delayed start and so worked in Mark's favor. But you
8:38
Speaker 1: could hear in the telecast the whole time them saying,
8:40
Speaker 1: you know, I agree, or they were saying in the
8:44
Speaker 1: gridwarp I Agre is on slicks. I think was Brad
8:46
Speaker 1: Benda was on slicks. There was these writers who went
8:48
Speaker 1: out there on slicks, and it's kind of like, well,
8:50
Speaker 1: they made that decision, like Jack Miller made that decision
8:53
Speaker 1: in Argentina all those years back, so you kind of
8:56
Speaker 1: do feel for them. I wish there was a bit
8:59
Speaker 1: more excite. I meant to it in the fact that
9:01
Speaker 1: maybe we had something, But then obviously we'll talk about
9:04
Speaker 1: marquees and what happened there during the race.
9:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a slight difference with the Augura thing in
9:09
Speaker 2: the Miller thing for me, with Argentina twenty eighteen, which
9:12
Speaker 2: is where this rule came in, because Argentina twenty eighteen
9:14
Speaker 2: was clearly ridiculous, not this is the first time this
9:18
Speaker 2: regulation has been tested. Didn't work, let's be honest. So
9:20
Speaker 2: they're going to have to have a look at that.
9:21
Speaker 2: But the difference then was that Jack was on pole
9:24
Speaker 2: and he had read the conditions correctly that it was slicks, whereas,
9:27
Speaker 2: as I mentioned before, you've got Binda, Bastinini and Agura,
9:30
Speaker 2: they're sixteen seventeen eighteen on the grid. I was actually
9:33
Speaker 2: more surprised that more riders from maybe sort of twelve
9:36
Speaker 2: down didn't just say what the hell and throw some
9:38
Speaker 2: slicks at it, because when you're back there anyway, what
9:40
Speaker 2: have you actually got to lose. But the other point
9:42
Speaker 2: before we move off this start line Shenanigan's nonsense, is
9:45
Speaker 2: that Mark clearly thought that he was going to have
9:48
Speaker 2: to start at the back of the grid, and you
9:49
Speaker 2: can't tell me that other circuits he might not. This
9:53
Speaker 2: is part of the cunning of Marquerez. He's like, I
9:55
Speaker 2: am so quick around here. I know how good I
9:58
Speaker 2: am around here. If I have to start last at
10:00
Speaker 2: the back of the grid because I'm going to have
10:02
Speaker 2: to take a penalty, I'm probably going to win anyway,
10:04
Speaker 2: because we know how good he is at Cota and
10:07
Speaker 2: so many passing opportunities in such a long race there,
10:09
Speaker 2: So he would have backed himself from the rear of
10:12
Speaker 2: the grid to come all the way forward. And that's
10:15
Speaker 2: just not him saying I could possibly do this. We've
10:19
Speaker 2: got proof of concept that he can do this because
10:21
Speaker 2: we had a race at Coda a few years ago
10:22
Speaker 2: where the bike glitched off the start and he was
10:25
Speaker 2: last at turn one by one hundred and fifty meters
10:28
Speaker 2: and he had one and a half working shoulders at
10:30
Speaker 2: that point. He still finished sixth, So a fully fit
10:33
Speaker 2: marquees on the best bike on the grid, starting from
10:35
Speaker 2: the back, he probably would have been in the lead
10:37
Speaker 2: by half distance. And so that's part of the calculation
10:40
Speaker 2: of him saying, well, I can get off the grid
10:42
Speaker 2: and if I do copp a penalty here, then so
10:43
Speaker 2: be it. But in the end we all got everyone
10:46
Speaker 2: on the correct ties for the start. It was fifteen
10:48
Speaker 2: minutes later than we wanted, and so on and so forth.
10:50
Speaker 3: But what looked to be a.
10:53
Speaker 2: Decision that he was going to get away with didn't
10:56
Speaker 2: end up happening. And I know we're going to get
10:59
Speaker 2: into that in a sec, but I reckon a lot
11:00
Speaker 2: of the controversy about this start probably be a bit
11:02
Speaker 2: louder this morning had Mark gone ahead and won that race.
11:05
Speaker 2: The fact that he didn't probably helps to tone things
11:07
Speaker 2: down a little bit. But yeah, there was a race.
11:09
Speaker 3: After all of the silliness at the start, there.
11:12
Speaker 1: Was a race, and obviously Mark Marquez, like you said,
11:14
Speaker 1: dominated he got out the front pretty quickly. The races
11:17
Speaker 1: as we thought, and similar to what we saw in
11:20
Speaker 1: Saturday's sprint. But then all of a sudden, Mark Marquees
11:25
Speaker 1: and that crash that happened in the essays, And I
11:27
Speaker 1: want to touch on that because for me, I didn't
11:31
Speaker 1: expect it and I thought it was kind of unlike Mark.
11:34
Speaker 1: So we could see in the previous laps, you know,
11:37
Speaker 1: Mark was millimeters perfect in those essays. There was a
11:40
Speaker 1: little bit of water on the edge of the curb,
11:43
Speaker 1: but you could see the dry line. He didn't go
11:45
Speaker 1: on the curb, he was still on the asphalt. But
11:48
Speaker 1: then the following lap you can see clearly runs over
11:51
Speaker 1: the curb, tucks the front, and there goes his race
11:55
Speaker 1: and obviously his championship lead. But from you what you
11:58
Speaker 1: know of Mark Marquez, was it a lapse in judgment
12:01
Speaker 1: or was it him becoming too confident that his plan
12:05
Speaker 1: was working in his favor?
12:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, he described it afterwards that he was too optimistic.
12:10
Speaker 2: But what was interesting is when you listen to some
12:12
Speaker 2: of the other writers, they had clearly spotted that that
12:14
Speaker 2: was a problem because there was a lot of rain
12:16
Speaker 2: still sitting in that inside curve there at four and
12:19
Speaker 2: I just think he got a little bit greedy and
12:21
Speaker 2: what was strange about it was that he had done
12:24
Speaker 2: the hard work, he'd won the first lap, he'd had
12:26
Speaker 2: a far more comfortable time of it than he'd had
12:28
Speaker 2: in the sprint on the first lap the previous day.
12:30
Speaker 2: This race was his to lose, and lose it he did,
12:34
Speaker 2: and we've seen this before because he's done it at
12:36
Speaker 2: Cota twice previously. So twenty nineteen the only race that
12:40
Speaker 2: season he didn't finish first or second crash from a
12:42
Speaker 2: pretty commanding lead. Twenty twenty four, extenuating circumstances, he had
12:46
Speaker 2: a break issue after he'd just taken the lead that
12:48
Speaker 2: first time he was there on the Grassini Decadie, but
12:51
Speaker 2: it just seemed a little bit unnecessary and it was
12:55
Speaker 2: strange for me in that. The one thing that he
12:58
Speaker 2: has been this year, as we've seen through the first
13:00
Speaker 2: two rounds and on the sprint, is that he's rarely
13:03
Speaker 2: been really pushed and he's had margin like we saw
13:06
Speaker 2: in Thailand where he just sat by Alex Marquez the
13:08
Speaker 2: two thirds of the race because he was mucking around
13:10
Speaker 2: with hire pressures and what have you, but he could
13:12
Speaker 2: have passed him pretty much wherever he wanted. Argentina, he
13:15
Speaker 2: had that mostly under control. It was a little bit
13:18
Speaker 2: more of a harder fight. But it just seemed to
13:20
Speaker 2: be a little bit unnecessary to me. And it was
13:23
Speaker 2: really funny, like before the race, I was just reading
13:26
Speaker 2: some of the comments from the riders after Saturday, and
13:29
Speaker 2: Juan Miir had been speaking to the Spanish press and
13:32
Speaker 2: set along the lines of the only person that can
13:35
Speaker 2: bete Mark for this year's title is Mark and you know,
13:38
Speaker 2: with self inflicted wounds. And that was so interesting because
13:41
Speaker 2: this is a circuit where he was bidding to win
13:43
Speaker 2: for the eighth time. He's been unbelievable there, but the
13:46
Speaker 2: last three times he could have won this race, he's
13:48
Speaker 2: crashed and it's becoming a bit of an unwanted trend
13:51
Speaker 2: for him there. But I don't know about you, but
13:53
Speaker 2: it just to me it seemed a little bit he
13:55
Speaker 2: had the lead, he had the measure of the field,
13:57
Speaker 2: it just seemed a little unnecessary, like was he trying
14:01
Speaker 2: to push too hard just to assert his dominance, like
14:04
Speaker 2: I can just crush you guys whenever I want, or
14:06
Speaker 2: did he go for a bit much too soon. It
14:09
Speaker 2: was a strange one because yeah, like you said, he
14:11
Speaker 2: threw away race win. He's now not leading the World Championship.
14:14
Speaker 2: I don't think it's too many people that think he's
14:16
Speaker 2: not still the favorite for the World Championship. But it
14:18
Speaker 2: seemed a little unnecessary and sort of old school Mark
14:21
Speaker 2: and that he didn't need to do it. I don't
14:24
Speaker 2: think he was under a massive amount of threat, just
14:27
Speaker 2: a bit too optimistic, too early in the race, still
14:28
Speaker 2: half the race to go. Just a strange one. Whether
14:31
Speaker 2: it's the lapse of judgment or whether he's being a
14:33
Speaker 2: bit optimistic. Only he truly knows that. But he wasn't. Well,
14:36
Speaker 2: the only person that was going to beat him in
14:38
Speaker 2: that race was him, and that's what happened.
14:40
Speaker 1: Looking back at it, now, do you think that, you know, Friday,
14:43
Speaker 1: we saw him have the first tumble on the red
14:46
Speaker 1: Black that we have seen this season. Is that kind
14:48
Speaker 1: of like like twenty twenty vision of hindsight. There's always
14:51
Speaker 1: what you want, right, But now you think back to
14:53
Speaker 1: the weekend, Yeah, he was dominant, Buddy did have that
14:56
Speaker 1: first crash. Was there all these little telltale signs that
14:58
Speaker 1: maybe Mark is going to ge beaten by himself?
15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah?
15:01
Speaker 2: Perhaps, I mean this is one of those circuits. It's
15:03
Speaker 2: here in Saxon Ring, isn't it where before we all
15:06
Speaker 2: turn up to either of those two races, Well, Mark
15:08
Speaker 2: all either win this or lose it himself, Like he's
15:10
Speaker 2: not going to get beaten by anywhere anybody else. It's
15:13
Speaker 2: just one of those tracks. So yeah, perhaps, Look, Friday
15:16
Speaker 2: was super sketchy and super wet, so perhaps not surprising,
15:19
Speaker 2: and you know, preseason was mostly dry. We haven't had
15:22
Speaker 2: a lot of wet running for guys in new teams
15:24
Speaker 2: on new bikes, which is, you know, something we'll get
15:26
Speaker 2: to with Jack Miller a little bit down the track.
15:28
Speaker 2: But you know, perhaps just a bit too much too soon.
15:31
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just think there was a there was
15:33
Speaker 2: an impatience to what he did on Sunday in that
15:37
Speaker 2: he's had Bannay's measure on the sister bike. He knows,
15:40
Speaker 2: I mean, Alex Marquez has been incredibly good this year,
15:43
Speaker 2: but he Mark also knows that at the end of
15:46
Speaker 2: the day he's going to have Alex's measure. It just
15:47
Speaker 2: seemed a little bit unnecessary. I'm also going to predict
15:51
Speaker 2: that any sort of overconfidence that might have been creeping
15:54
Speaker 2: in this is one of those little reality checks that's
15:56
Speaker 2: not a bad thing to happen this early in the
15:58
Speaker 2: season because I think Mark, when he has some margin,
16:01
Speaker 2: he's not going to be the twenty three year old
16:03
Speaker 2: Mark of ten years ago where he's taking crazy risks
16:06
Speaker 2: all the time. But this is one of those ones
16:08
Speaker 2: where it's like, all right, sometimes you just need to
16:10
Speaker 2: ride at nine and a half tenths and not ten tenths,
16:13
Speaker 2: and if that's good enough to win the race, not
16:15
Speaker 2: stress the machinery. If you win by three quarters of
16:18
Speaker 2: a second and not two point one because you're just
16:20
Speaker 2: trying to crush everybody, it's still twenty five points, And
16:23
Speaker 2: to me, that was the thing he just threw needlessly
16:26
Speaker 2: through twenty five points away. I don't think we're going
16:28
Speaker 2: to see that from him in a similar situation again,
16:30
Speaker 2: because I think he might have learned his lesson on
16:32
Speaker 2: that one.
16:33
Speaker 1: Well, considering all the drama did come from Mark Marquez,
16:36
Speaker 1: I feel like we need to talk about our race winner.
16:38
Speaker 1: The first victory for Peko Vannyaya in twenty twenty five. Gosh,
16:43
Speaker 1: this must be that booster confidence that he just needs,
16:47
Speaker 1: especially because he's talked so publicly, publicly sorry about his
16:51
Speaker 1: struggles that he's had so far this year. In twenty
16:53
Speaker 1: twenty five.
16:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit before we touch on peckout. Isn't
16:56
Speaker 2: it funny how we talk about Mark when he wins,
16:58
Speaker 2: and then when he doesn't wear we still talk about
16:59
Speaker 2: Mark just the way this sport works. But look, Pecko,
17:04
Speaker 2: Pecko's he's a He's such an interesting character as a
17:09
Speaker 2: rider in that his whole thing is he needs to
17:13
Speaker 2: understand everything, and he needs to be everything needs to
17:17
Speaker 2: be in its right place. Like He strikes me as
17:19
Speaker 2: the sort of guy that if he went into his house,
17:21
Speaker 2: like everything it'd be perfectly symmetrical on tables and everything
17:24
Speaker 2: at right angles. It'd be very neat, Like he's sock
17:26
Speaker 2: draw would be very neat. He's just a guy who
17:28
Speaker 2: likes order, and once he understands something and gets it
17:31
Speaker 2: to a place that he likes, he's got this amazing
17:33
Speaker 2: ability to repeat what he's doing time after time after time.
17:38
Speaker 2: So to me, he's he's, if you're going to go
17:41
Speaker 2: sort of slightly old school the previous generation, he's more
17:43
Speaker 2: Whohy Lorenzo than he is Casey Stoner in that I
17:46
Speaker 2: always used to laugh with Wohay back in the day.
17:48
Speaker 2: If you could race every race in the laboratory where
17:50
Speaker 2: the conditions were perfect lap by lap and he knew
17:52
Speaker 2: what was doing. He would basically win every single race.
17:55
Speaker 2: It was the variables at Tripjohey up and so Pecko's
17:58
Speaker 2: a little bit like that. But you could you'd see
18:00
Speaker 2: over the course of the weekend there were a few
18:02
Speaker 2: tells for me that he was starting to get back
18:04
Speaker 2: into a sweetest spot with the bike. He was much
18:07
Speaker 2: more feisty than he has been. Like at the start
18:09
Speaker 2: of the sprint was he put a couple of serious
18:12
Speaker 2: moves on Mark in that first lap, and I'm like, oh, okay,
18:15
Speaker 2: because that's the first time they've really actually disputed anything
18:17
Speaker 2: in these first three rounds, and Pecko saw a gaps
18:20
Speaker 2: like I'm putting my bike there now. It took a
18:22
Speaker 2: couple of absolutely crazy Marquees moves to sort of put
18:25
Speaker 2: him back in his place, But there was a little
18:27
Speaker 2: statement of intent there. It's like, all right, I'm kind
18:29
Speaker 2: of here and I'm going to up my aggression. So
18:33
Speaker 2: that was really promising for me. And then what he
18:35
Speaker 2: did on Sunday, Yes, he was the beneficiary of Mark
18:38
Speaker 2: foleig Off, and he said that after the race, but
18:41
Speaker 2: as what he had done in the lead up to
18:43
Speaker 2: that lap nine crash for Mark, he had had a
18:45
Speaker 2: better start that he'd had probably on Saturday, and he
18:48
Speaker 2: dismissed Alex Marquez pretty comfortably and was just sitting there
18:51
Speaker 2: in a nice, fairly untroubled second place bike looked like
18:55
Speaker 2: it was on rails. He was very, very perfect, as
18:58
Speaker 2: Peco likes to be, so the body language of him
19:01
Speaker 2: on the bike and the fact that once he got
19:03
Speaker 2: to the front is like, Yeah, he's just going to
19:04
Speaker 2: win this and he's not going to.
19:05
Speaker 3: Trip himself up.
19:07
Speaker 2: He looked far more like Pecko to me this weekend.
19:09
Speaker 2: Now there's eleven points I think between Mark and Pecko
19:12
Speaker 2: and the championship statues, which sounds silly given the level
19:15
Speaker 2: of dominance of one over the other in these first
19:17
Speaker 2: three rounds. But if Peco learned anything from last year,
19:20
Speaker 2: it's no point being perfect most of the time and
19:23
Speaker 2: incredibly fast if you're going to kill yourself in the
19:25
Speaker 2: championship by making terrible mistakes. I think we're going to
19:28
Speaker 2: see a reduction of that this year. It's the only
19:31
Speaker 2: way he can hang in this championship with Mark is
19:33
Speaker 2: to make fewer mistakes than Mark and absolutely capitalize on
19:36
Speaker 2: the days where Mark drops the ball and so you've
19:39
Speaker 2: got a twenty five point swing because of one Marquez
19:42
Speaker 2: mistake and Pecko's farc lives that have marked the championship.
19:45
Speaker 2: Then he probably deserves to be on pace so far.
19:47
Speaker 2: But three rounds in, here we are that's what he's
19:49
Speaker 2: got to do. It was nice to see him back
19:53
Speaker 2: up the front and just looking far more confident again
19:55
Speaker 2: because over the course of the season. I don't about you, you,
19:58
Speaker 2: but I think the rider that can really challenge Mark
20:03
Speaker 2: as the season goes on is probably longer term going
20:06
Speaker 2: to be Peko. I think Alex Marcus has been fantastic.
20:09
Speaker 2: I still have my doubts whether it's sustainable. Across twenty
20:11
Speaker 2: two rounds, it's been really good, don't get me wrong.
20:14
Speaker 2: But to me, Peko's a god that's got the staying
20:16
Speaker 2: power and so for the sake of the championship, I
20:17
Speaker 2: think it was good that he won the race.
20:19
Speaker 1: I think he kind of hit the nail on the
20:21
Speaker 1: head there. And when you were talking about Saturday's sprint,
20:23
Speaker 1: I had flashbacks to Barcelona the season ending last year,
20:27
Speaker 1: where the flight was happening and he said, I'm going
20:30
Speaker 1: to send it and he did that and it was
20:32
Speaker 1: the same thing on Saturday Sprint. I'm going to send
20:34
Speaker 1: it and try and challenge Mark. But also then what
20:37
Speaker 1: you're saying is about consistency is key, and I think
20:40
Speaker 1: he's really learnt the lessons he needed to from twenty
20:44
Speaker 1: twenty four in that battle with Jorge Martin all throughout
20:47
Speaker 1: the year to attack this season differently. So yeah, I
20:50
Speaker 1: think we are seeing a different Peko, but it's still
20:53
Speaker 1: the professor Professor. It's still someone who's very clinical, analytical,
20:58
Speaker 1: trying to figure out everything. But he's taking it on
21:01
Speaker 1: board and that's what's so exciting, and that's why I
21:04
Speaker 1: think he is going to be the one, like you said,
21:06
Speaker 1: to challenge Mark the rest of the year because Kate,
21:08
Speaker 1: the first few circuits we know weren't his strong point.
21:10
Speaker 1: But now we're heading into Katar he won there last year,
21:13
Speaker 1: he is quite stronger that. Then we go back to
21:15
Speaker 1: his home ground and obviously Marks, but the European races,
21:19
Speaker 1: so that's where I think we're really going to see
21:21
Speaker 1: the battle commands between the two of them.
21:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed.
21:24
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously they had that enormous battle at her
21:26
Speaker 2: Wrath last year, which Pecko won and really sort of
21:29
Speaker 2: bloodied Marx nos and that one, which is not something
21:31
Speaker 2: you see with Mark much in a head to headfire anywhere,
21:33
Speaker 2: but certainly at her wrath. But I do like the
21:36
Speaker 2: fact that you've got two guys coming at it from
21:38
Speaker 2: different approaches, in that Mark isn't as just crazy, live
21:41
Speaker 2: on you wits as it used to be when he
21:42
Speaker 2: was young and a bit bouncy here, and he's obviously
21:44
Speaker 2: had a load of injuries, so that will temper your
21:47
Speaker 2: aggression a little bit. But Pecko's kind of you're thinking
21:49
Speaker 2: man's rider, and Pecko like to sort of pulled back
21:52
Speaker 2: the curtain for people that are listening. Pecko's always him
21:55
Speaker 2: and Luca Maroni, I reckon, are the two guys that
21:58
Speaker 2: whenever you have these press opportunities at the end races
22:00
Speaker 2: where you get a chance to talk to guys, I
22:02
Speaker 2: like to sort of do at the end of these
22:04
Speaker 2: things what I sort of call the you know, the
22:05
Speaker 2: sideline light. You basically wait for them to head back
22:08
Speaker 2: to the garage or to their next engagement. And Pecko's
22:11
Speaker 2: the guy that you can have that little loft of
22:12
Speaker 2: the side chat with about something and if you ask
22:14
Speaker 2: him a sensible question where he gets to think about
22:16
Speaker 2: the answer and perhaps, you know, verbalize something that's been
22:19
Speaker 2: buzzing around in his head. He's very happy to talk
22:21
Speaker 2: about it because there's an intellectual approach to the way
22:24
Speaker 2: that he rides. You wouldn't want twenty two riders like that,
22:27
Speaker 2: nor would you want twenty two riders who are just lunatics.
22:29
Speaker 2: You know, A nice mixture of the two is good.
22:32
Speaker 2: But Pecko's a guy that once he feels that he
22:34
Speaker 2: understands things and things are right, he actually gets quicker
22:37
Speaker 2: and quicker because he's got the confidence in his head.
22:39
Speaker 2: It's like, I can trust this, I know the results here,
22:43
Speaker 2: I know what I can do. So I think it's
22:45
Speaker 2: a good sign for the championship that he's got the
22:48
Speaker 2: win drought of three.
22:50
Speaker 3: Races off his back.
22:51
Speaker 2: We know that if you're on a to caddie, you're
22:53
Speaker 2: probably gonna win a race this year because no one
22:54
Speaker 2: else seems to be capable of doing it. So he's
22:57
Speaker 2: the guy who's going to be in the fight with
22:58
Speaker 2: Mark if we get one.
23:00
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of other duke caddies, and let's talk about
23:02
Speaker 1: our championship points leader Alex Marquez. That was another thing
23:06
Speaker 1: on my bingo card this season. I didn't expect to say, nope,
23:10
Speaker 1: let's talk about Alex. The key for him here, I
23:13
Speaker 1: just feel is going to be consistency. Like you said,
23:17
Speaker 1: it's very rare that I think this year that will
23:20
Speaker 1: have a non factory du Caddi win the World Championship.
23:23
Speaker 1: But what's it going to take for Alex Marquez to
23:26
Speaker 1: stay up there? Because now we're starting to see the
23:28
Speaker 1: VR forty six is make their way through.
23:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed, And it's funny like you do. It becomes
23:33
Speaker 2: a process of elimination at this point, right. So to
23:35
Speaker 2: Caddie's won twenty straight Grand Prix, there's six of them
23:38
Speaker 2: on the grid this year. Of those six fermin Aldgeza rookie.
23:41
Speaker 2: So you know, nice to have a good result every
23:43
Speaker 2: now and then. He's not winning a World championship. I'm
23:45
Speaker 2: still a more Bidelli skeptic to a degree because you know, yes,
23:49
Speaker 2: he's up there to a degree, but I reckon there's
23:51
Speaker 2: a limited ceiling there with how he could do. Degen Antonio,
23:55
Speaker 2: who I'm sure we'll talk about, is probably still no
23:58
Speaker 2: where do you fit?
23:58
Speaker 3: Well?
23:59
Speaker 2: He is no where do you fit? I reckon he's
24:01
Speaker 2: got a massive amount of upside. To my mind, I
24:04
Speaker 2: reckon there's a race for third in the Championship and
24:06
Speaker 2: it's been it's going to be between Alex Marques and
24:08
Speaker 2: de Janatonio. To me, they're the two guys that could
24:10
Speaker 2: potentially flip flop between third and fourth, because I think
24:12
Speaker 2: Digit has got much more potential. Alex is in the
24:15
Speaker 2: absolute form of his life right now. And you know
24:18
Speaker 2: when you said that before, World Championship leader Alex Marquez
24:22
Speaker 2: is like, whoh, it just sounds weird to say. I
24:24
Speaker 2: wrote it a couple of times yesterday that it did
24:26
Speaker 2: a double takers, like, yeah, he really is leading this
24:28
Speaker 2: World Championship in his sixth season. But every single race
24:31
Speaker 2: we've had this year, he has finished second and he's
24:33
Speaker 2: not been a threat really to win any of them.
24:36
Speaker 2: But he's also not been a threat to be beaten
24:38
Speaker 2: by anyone.
24:38
Speaker 3: He's just been this.
24:39
Speaker 2: Incredible, methodical model of consistency so far. It's impressive that
24:45
Speaker 2: it's lasted this long. I mean six races, that's a
24:47
Speaker 2: big sample size now, so you know, best we've ever
24:50
Speaker 2: seen of Alex Marquez and Motor GP keeping it going
24:53
Speaker 2: is going to be the hard thing. But let's give
24:54
Speaker 2: the guys flowers. He's in the leader of the motor
24:56
Speaker 2: GP World Championship by a point over his brother because
24:59
Speaker 2: he hasn't made mistakes and he's been second on the
25:01
Speaker 2: grid every front row of the grid rather every single weekend,
25:04
Speaker 2: and he's just been incredibly impressive. And I know about you,
25:07
Speaker 2: but when you get six years into a motor GP career,
25:10
Speaker 2: I kind of feel like you are who you are
25:12
Speaker 2: at that point. Like very few people surprise you, you
25:14
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like a few people surprise you
25:16
Speaker 2: once said this deep into their career, they kind of
25:18
Speaker 2: are what they are. He's the guy who's defying that.
25:20
Speaker 2: And look, full credit to him because he's been given
25:23
Speaker 2: obviously a very good bike, but he's risen to the
25:25
Speaker 2: level of what he's writing, so you know, full power
25:28
Speaker 2: to him.
25:29
Speaker 1: And then speaking of you are who you are, like
25:31
Speaker 1: Digia my thoughts on that because obviously P three this weekend,
25:35
Speaker 1: and then I read a quote on I think amotogp
25:37
Speaker 1: dot com he said, I started to write in a
25:40
Speaker 1: completely different way. Is it the same sort of thing?
25:42
Speaker 2: There?
25:43
Speaker 1: Is he changing up now? He's obviously a veteran in
25:46
Speaker 1: motor GP he's done a few seasons. We're seeing what
25:48
Speaker 1: we have from him, the injuries everything. Is he changing
25:52
Speaker 1: his mindset? Is he changing his outlook because I mean
25:55
Speaker 1: P three and Koda such a demanding track, especially having
25:58
Speaker 1: that shoulder injury, which is the easiest crash that we
26:01
Speaker 1: can talk about. Oh man, is this what like starting
26:04
Speaker 1: to connect together for him?
26:06
Speaker 2: I don't think he's the sort of guy, particularly as
26:08
Speaker 2: he gets fitter as the year goes on. Obviously, you know,
26:11
Speaker 2: busted his collar boat in pre season testing by doing
26:14
Speaker 2: it WHEELI at the end of the day, the dumbest
26:16
Speaker 2: injury of all time. And I don't think he's going
26:18
Speaker 2: to duck that. But he's super super quick, And I
26:22
Speaker 2: think a lot of it with him is once his
26:24
Speaker 2: body starts to play ball. You can see there's a
26:26
Speaker 2: shift now with him. It's like I'm not just satisfied
26:28
Speaker 2: to finish in the top five, like that's nice anymore.
26:31
Speaker 2: It's like, no, No, I'm on a really good bike.
26:33
Speaker 2: I should be challenging for a podium most weekends. Now
26:37
Speaker 2: I actually really rate him. I think he's had a
26:40
Speaker 2: he's had a weird motor GP career that he was
26:42
Speaker 2: almost out of the sport and then took a podium
26:44
Speaker 2: at Philip Island in twenty three and then one two
26:46
Speaker 2: races later in Qatar, and that was the turning point
26:49
Speaker 2: of his career. But he's still young, he's still super
26:53
Speaker 2: super fast, and I think as that, you know, like
26:57
Speaker 2: you said, if you can do nineteen laps at with
27:00
Speaker 2: all those direction changes. He was absolutely shattered after that race.
27:04
Speaker 2: You could see it when he got to Park Fermey
27:07
Speaker 2: in the cool down room before they went on the podium,
27:09
Speaker 2: he asked someone to hand him a drink because he
27:11
Speaker 2: could not move his right his left arm rather, because
27:14
Speaker 2: it was just completely frozen, and he said, yeah. The
27:17
Speaker 2: last half of the race, he said, he came across
27:19
Speaker 2: the start finish light at one point and looked at
27:20
Speaker 2: his pitboard to see how many laps there were to go,
27:22
Speaker 2: and it said eleven. And he's like, you are kidding me, Like,
27:26
Speaker 2: I am absolutely cooked already and I've still got to
27:28
Speaker 2: do eleven laps of this race and my shoulder is
27:30
Speaker 2: absolutely killing me. So you know, it's amazing what the
27:34
Speaker 2: lure of a podium does. He's a really, really good rider,
27:37
Speaker 2: and I think if you can survive that test, he
27:39
Speaker 2: would have been a very very sore boy for more
27:41
Speaker 2: reasons than one. He did say he was going to
27:43
Speaker 2: have two hundred beers after finishing on the podium, so
27:45
Speaker 2: he might have a sore head as well as a
27:46
Speaker 2: sore shoulder. But if you can do what he did
27:50
Speaker 2: at Kota, it's the most demanding track on the calendar,
27:54
Speaker 2: and you know, you look at what's coming up Katar
27:56
Speaker 2: herez a bit more time. His shoulder is going to
27:58
Speaker 2: get better. I think he's this is not the last
28:00
Speaker 2: time we're seeing him on the podium. I think he's
28:01
Speaker 2: a genuine threat at most. Grom Bruno, Well, he was on.
28:04
Speaker 1: The podium Qatar when it was moved to the end
28:06
Speaker 1: of the calendar, when.
28:07
Speaker 3: That's the one that he was.
28:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, so surely we're going to see him closer to
28:11
Speaker 1: the front, like you said. But absolutely Aussie Jack Miller
28:15
Speaker 1: P Five on Sunday, I don't know about you. I'm
28:19
Speaker 1: actually so impressed this year with Jack in his mindset.
28:23
Speaker 1: It feels like we've said it every time, and I
28:26
Speaker 1: think I'll continue to say it. He seems like a
28:28
Speaker 1: new writer. He seems refreshed, but also best result on
28:32
Speaker 1: the Yamaha equaling his best result last year on the KTM.
28:36
Speaker 1: I believe you might have to fact check me on that.
28:38
Speaker 3: No, are you correct?
28:39
Speaker 1: Okay? What does this do for him? His confidence and
28:43
Speaker 1: just the momentum moving forward? Because oh, I'm just I'm
28:46
Speaker 1: so happy for him.
28:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, looking nothing like a bit of research on the fly.
28:50
Speaker 2: When you were talking before, I was just ripping through
28:52
Speaker 2: a bunch of bunch of stats. I thought, when was
28:54
Speaker 2: the last time we had a Yamaha finish in the
28:55
Speaker 2: top five. It's been a while. Malaysia twenty twenty three
28:59
Speaker 2: was the last time we had a finish in the
29:00
Speaker 2: top five in a Grand Prix. So yeah, quite in
29:04
Speaker 2: Malaysia that year. So it shows you how good Jack's
29:07
Speaker 2: ride was. And he you mentioned before the mindset, I
29:12
Speaker 2: think he stared his career mortality completely in the face
29:17
Speaker 2: last year and that there was twenty one riders have
29:19
Speaker 2: been signed, there was it didn't really feel like he
29:23
Speaker 2: was going to stay on the grid. He had no
29:24
Speaker 2: results that he could look at on the KTM where
29:26
Speaker 2: you could justify him being on the grid. And it
29:29
Speaker 2: was this confluence of circumstances where Pramak was moving to Yamaha.
29:33
Speaker 2: He'd written for Pramak before they knew who he was
29:36
Speaker 2: and what he would be. He's pretty Jack doesn't surprise
29:39
Speaker 2: you at this point, like he is what he is.
29:41
Speaker 2: They know that he's going to be a good, developmental
29:43
Speaker 2: and hard working rider. He's going to be a good
29:44
Speaker 2: team player, and Yamaha and needed someone with experience of
29:48
Speaker 2: other manufacturers, which Jack had with Honda and Dukadi and KTM,
29:51
Speaker 2: So it was this kind of marriage of convenience and
29:55
Speaker 2: the fact they only signed him for one year was
29:57
Speaker 2: a bit of a like, look, we're kind of admitted
30:00
Speaker 2: to you because you're you know, you're the least worst
30:02
Speaker 2: option of what there is out there, but you kind
30:05
Speaker 2: of need to prove it to us. And what he's
30:08
Speaker 2: done so far this year, like I said, best result
30:11
Speaker 2: fore y Abaha in twenty six Grand Prix or something.
30:14
Speaker 2: But it's what he's doing, you know, getting into Q two,
30:17
Speaker 2: and you know, it was really interesting on Friday at
30:19
Speaker 2: Cota when it was soaking wet. Everyone's looking at Jack
30:22
Speaker 2: because they know he's got this kind of supernatural feeling
30:25
Speaker 2: when do you switch to slicks. He made the rest
30:27
Speaker 2: of them look utterly ridiculous in that practice session for
30:30
Speaker 2: half of it because the track was still sketchy. It's like, oh,
30:33
Speaker 2: I'm fine, I'm out on slicks and everyone else is
30:35
Speaker 2: plodding around or falling off, and he's just really off
30:38
Speaker 2: laptops at are two and three seconds faster than everybody else.
30:40
Speaker 2: And I think we mentioned this on last week's pot.
30:42
Speaker 2: He gets that project to its sealing really quickly. It's
30:45
Speaker 2: just something that Jackie is. It's just the natural talent
30:47
Speaker 2: that shines through. They're wrapped with what he's doing. And
30:52
Speaker 2: I know we're only three races into a twenty two
30:54
Speaker 2: round calendar. I will be shocked if they don't resign
30:57
Speaker 2: him for next year, because you think, okay, so what
30:59
Speaker 2: are the other options? Do you bring Abellino or Guevara
31:03
Speaker 2: up from Moto two. It's the last year of this
31:05
Speaker 2: current rule set in twenty twenty six. All the reasons
31:08
Speaker 2: to make a change are sort of dissipating by the week.
31:12
Speaker 2: I'll be shocked if he doesn't get another gig for
31:14
Speaker 2: next year. And look, it might only be a one
31:15
Speaker 2: year deal, but that's kind of what he's going to
31:17
Speaker 2: get at this stage of his career, in his thirties.
31:19
Speaker 2: But in terms of what Yamahar expected from Jack and
31:22
Speaker 2: what Jack expected from himself in these first three rounds,
31:25
Speaker 2: It's hard to see how it could have gone much
31:27
Speaker 2: better than this. And it was one of those fifth places,
31:30
Speaker 2: you know, first non duc caddy across the line, which
31:32
Speaker 2: is something we have to always caveat these days. Who
31:34
Speaker 2: was the best non duc caddy? It was Jack on
31:36
Speaker 2: this weekend. We know that he's good around there, but
31:38
Speaker 2: it just looks so assured, you really really good start.
31:41
Speaker 2: Really he learned the lessons from the sprint race to
31:45
Speaker 2: previous day where he'd left a gap on the inside
31:47
Speaker 2: at turn white up the hill there at Kota, Brad
31:49
Speaker 2: Bender had stuck his bike in there and smacked into
31:51
Speaker 2: Jack and lost his momentum, broke some body work and
31:54
Speaker 2: Jack sort of plummeted back down the field. Jack hugged
31:56
Speaker 2: the inside line into turn one, let everyone else go
31:59
Speaker 2: too white, and then slotted in there. Was fighting with
32:01
Speaker 2: Morbidelli for a little bit, but you're never going to
32:03
Speaker 2: win that fight on the back straight against the Ducati.
32:05
Speaker 2: But with what he's riding and where that project is,
32:08
Speaker 2: I thought it was a massive box tick, and I
32:10
Speaker 2: know we did. Pramac particularly, they are super happy with
32:13
Speaker 2: what he's doing.
32:15
Speaker 1: Going into this weekend, though for him he seems so confident.
32:18
Speaker 1: Is this because it's a circuit that just suits him
32:21
Speaker 1: as a writer in his riding style, compared to Argentina,
32:24
Speaker 1: where we know that circuit just doesn't even suit the
32:26
Speaker 1: Yamahas at all. Or was it just the progress he's
32:29
Speaker 1: made everything's kind of coming into alignment for him.
32:33
Speaker 2: It's funny Koda because it's twenty corners and the majority
32:37
Speaker 2: of them are places where Jack can make a difference.
32:39
Speaker 2: But I was watching the speed trap figures because I
32:42
Speaker 2: get granular about these things, is what I do, and
32:45
Speaker 2: I was looking at the speed trap figures in the
32:46
Speaker 2: race betweens turn eleven and twelve. At the end of
32:48
Speaker 2: the back straight there, the Yamaha was anywhere between eight
32:51
Speaker 2: to ten k's an hour slower than the other bikes
32:54
Speaker 2: down that back straight.
32:54
Speaker 1: Which you could see in the Sucrea.
32:56
Speaker 2: Just see correct and you can know so Fabi, I
32:59
Speaker 2: was doing it amazing job in the sprint, but you'd
33:01
Speaker 2: get to that. I'm not saying it requires no skill
33:04
Speaker 2: to go down a straight on a motor GP bike,
33:06
Speaker 2: but it's the least skillful part of the job either
33:08
Speaker 2: you are pointing the bike out of the corner, and
33:09
Speaker 2: then it's up to what your machinery can do. You
33:12
Speaker 2: can only break so late, you can only accelerate so hard.
33:15
Speaker 2: So given that Jack was shipping time down that back
33:18
Speaker 2: straight the entire race for nineteen laps and they're making
33:22
Speaker 2: the difference elsewhere. What the interesting stat for me was
33:25
Speaker 2: that he was eleven seconds off the win at Cota.
33:28
Speaker 2: The leading Yamaha twelve months ago at Cocha was Quator
33:31
Speaker 2: he was twenty two seconds off the win. So in
33:34
Speaker 2: twelve months, Yamaha's half their margin to the front of
33:39
Speaker 2: the field at a track that's absolutely not suitable for
33:41
Speaker 2: their bike. So if you ever wanted a statistical revelation
33:46
Speaker 2: on it, how much Yamaha's improved, you're on y That's
33:48
Speaker 2: it to me, because you know, you look at you
33:51
Speaker 2: can only be judged against what the standard is. Who's
33:54
Speaker 2: finishing first and in twelve months have half the gap
33:57
Speaker 2: to the front at a circuit that's not really for them. Yeah,
34:00
Speaker 2: it does show you that making progress, doesn't it.
34:02
Speaker 1: How is that reflecting then for Fabio on the factory Yamaha,
34:06
Speaker 1: Because like I said, I pointed out that that battle
34:08
Speaker 1: that he had with the VR forty six is and
34:10
Speaker 1: where he was losing, and it was so clear. Is
34:13
Speaker 1: are we seeing this stuff trickle down what Jack's doing
34:16
Speaker 1: and how he is improving? Is that going to the
34:18
Speaker 1: factory Yamahas.
34:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I think Fabio's race Grand Prix was difficult
34:22
Speaker 2: to judge because with all the bikes, what madness and
34:25
Speaker 2: putting sleeks on, and he had a bike that had
34:27
Speaker 2: the wrong electronic map and it was all a bit crazy.
34:29
Speaker 2: There were a few guys that got caught out, so
34:31
Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to judge what Fabio did on
34:32
Speaker 2: Sunday at Kota. But to my mind, that factory team,
34:36
Speaker 2: in particular, particularly Fabio side of the garage, is going
34:39
Speaker 2: to be the biggest beneficiary of what Jack's doing with
34:41
Speaker 2: Pramac because they're saying this four equal bikes. We know
34:44
Speaker 2: Prama's had a bit of a few issues with Miguel
34:46
Speaker 2: Lavera being injured, so he was out on the weekend.
34:48
Speaker 2: Alex Reads, as we've discussed, is three quarters fit on
34:51
Speaker 2: a good day, so he's not a great challenge for Fabio.
34:56
Speaker 2: Within that team, you can just see that what Jack
34:59
Speaker 2: is doing and is more attitude and approach, and that
35:03
Speaker 2: Yamaha has almost been a bit apologetic for being at
35:05
Speaker 2: the races the last few years, like you look down
35:07
Speaker 2: the order and go, oh, and there's a Yamaha. Like
35:09
Speaker 2: that's they were kind of an afterthought. They're not an
35:11
Speaker 2: afterthought anymore because they are making Q two and in
35:15
Speaker 2: this battle for whoever the second best manufacturer is because
35:19
Speaker 2: Ja Caaddi's in a class of its own, it's super
35:22
Speaker 2: open because katm keep tripping over themselves. Honda are making
35:25
Speaker 2: progress to a degree, but I think their rider lineup
35:29
Speaker 2: is hampering them a little bit because at the moment
35:31
Speaker 2: Chantra is just not really at the races. That's one
35:34
Speaker 2: of their four bikes and not really getting anything out
35:35
Speaker 2: of and Aprilia has this huge asterisk on it because
35:38
Speaker 2: we haven't seen Juge Martin yet. So you look at
35:41
Speaker 2: what Yamaha is doing in this who wants to be
35:44
Speaker 2: a distant second but second nonetheless to Ducaddi, what Jack
35:48
Speaker 2: is doing and the way that's feeding back up to
35:50
Speaker 2: the factory team. I just can't see how you could
35:53
Speaker 2: have thought this had got any better than it has
35:54
Speaker 2: these first three rounds.
35:56
Speaker 1: Do you then think that the way that Jack's attacking it,
35:59
Speaker 1: and also so how we are seeing Fabio having to
36:03
Speaker 1: really override the bike, especially into breaking corner entry, to
36:08
Speaker 1: try and make up for that lack of what we're
36:09
Speaker 1: seeing down the streets. Is that able? Are they able
36:13
Speaker 1: to withstand that throughout the season.
36:15
Speaker 2: It's going to be one of those things. It's going
36:17
Speaker 2: to take time. And you know, I mentioned that twenty
36:20
Speaker 2: twenty six is the last year of this rule set.
36:22
Speaker 2: Jack mentioned after the race that you know, look, yes, Yamaha,
36:25
Speaker 2: look we're coming. It's definitely getting better. But he cited Ducadian.
36:29
Speaker 2: So it kind of took Ducaddi ten years to really
36:32
Speaker 2: get there, get themselves together because they had the Casey
36:35
Speaker 2: Stoner era, and then it wasn't until like the mid
36:37
Speaker 2: twenty tens. It was I think it was that the
36:40
Speaker 2: Yanoni win in Austria. I reckon it's like fifteen or sixteen,
36:43
Speaker 2: as long after Casey had left, and then the Ducadi
36:46
Speaker 2: was only good at particular tracks for a while, like
36:48
Speaker 2: anything that had a massive log straight not too many quarters,
36:51
Speaker 2: Ducati fantastic. It really took until what's seventeen eighteen when
36:55
Speaker 2: Daviciosa started becoming more of a championship contender those ten
36:58
Speaker 2: years after Casey won that well, y Agibino seven, So
37:01
Speaker 2: these things do take time. What will be interesting for
37:04
Speaker 2: me next year? And this is something that all the
37:05
Speaker 2: manufacturers are going to have to think about. You've got
37:07
Speaker 2: these sort of two seasons in parallel for twenty six
37:10
Speaker 2: and seven, because yeah, you want to make the most
37:13
Speaker 2: of twenty six and try and advance forward, but then
37:16
Speaker 2: so many of the rules and regulations and the bikes
37:18
Speaker 2: will go in the bin at the end of twenty
37:20
Speaker 2: six because you've got this brand new rule set for
37:22
Speaker 2: twenty seven. So someone like Yamaha, they've got a balance between, yeah,
37:26
Speaker 2: it's great that we're improving, how much can we challenge
37:28
Speaker 2: towards the front? But this twenty seven regulation changes like
37:32
Speaker 2: a hard reset for the entire series. There's no guarantee
37:36
Speaker 2: Decadi's going to come out and twenty seven and just
37:38
Speaker 2: wipe the floor of everybody, which they are going to
37:40
Speaker 2: do this year and more than likely are going to
37:42
Speaker 2: do for next year. Twenty seven is this level playing
37:45
Speaker 2: field hard reset And we see this in motorsport all
37:47
Speaker 2: the time. There'll always be someone that interprets the rules
37:50
Speaker 2: better than the others. And they'll take the lead in
37:53
Speaker 2: this new regulatory set and then everyone else will go, oh,
37:56
Speaker 2: we need to do what they're doing, and then this
37:58
Speaker 2: sort of imitation becomes the most sincere form of flattery
38:01
Speaker 2: type thing, and that you basically follow on from what
38:03
Speaker 2: they're doing. So Yamaha has got this interesting conundrum now
38:06
Speaker 2: and that there's clearly a pathway for them. It's clearly
38:09
Speaker 2: getting better. Does that give you optimism that jack can
38:12
Speaker 2: be involved in what they do twenty seven in the
38:15
Speaker 2: development of what's going on there. He's such an experienced
38:17
Speaker 2: right now. We forget because he's thirty years old and
38:19
Speaker 2: he still acts like he's eighteen.
38:20
Speaker 3: Half the time.
38:22
Speaker 2: He's press debriefs like one of the high comedy moments
38:26
Speaker 2: of the entire weekend because you need the bleep machine.
38:29
Speaker 3: Every third word for jackets always a music.
38:30
Speaker 2: But he's definitely making an impact there, and I'm pleased
38:35
Speaker 2: to see it because he's just he seems in a
38:37
Speaker 2: good space right now, doesn't He seems content, He seems confident,
38:40
Speaker 2: he knows the impact that he's making. And he said
38:43
Speaker 2: on the weekend along the lines of when I'm happy,
38:45
Speaker 2: I'm fast, and I think there's so much of we
38:49
Speaker 2: talk about things in data and technical terms. In this sport,
38:51
Speaker 2: sometimes it's what's going on between the writer's ears that
38:54
Speaker 2: is a determinert of how well they're going to ride.
38:56
Speaker 2: And Jack's a guy who, at the end of the day,
38:58
Speaker 2: Jack needs to feel valued and loved and I don't
39:00
Speaker 2: think he felt that at KTM, and I think he's
39:02
Speaker 2: definitely feeling it.
39:03
Speaker 1: Now let's move on to KTM and the best of
39:08
Speaker 1: the rest. What a mixed bag of results it was
39:10
Speaker 1: across the board for those guys. Pedro Acosta p seven
39:14
Speaker 1: in the sprint and then said he was struggling with
39:17
Speaker 1: brutal vibrations crashing out of also Sunday's Grand Prix. Is
39:23
Speaker 1: this just a one off problem or is this something
39:25
Speaker 1: that KATM really need to be concerned about, because it
39:29
Speaker 1: wasn't just Pedro didn't fish Sunday, it was Brad as well.
39:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, Binda had a technical issue with that. That the
39:35
Speaker 2: vibration thing on the KTM. I think Jackie Look could
39:38
Speaker 2: write you twenty five hundred words on that pretty quickly,
39:40
Speaker 2: because that was Do you remember that round at Motegi
39:43
Speaker 2: last year where there was that super slow mo shot
39:45
Speaker 2: of Jack's bike vibrating like a bucking Bronco going into
39:48
Speaker 2: one of those big breaking zones at Motegi and Jack Slaassey.
39:51
Speaker 2: I'm not making this up. I've been talking about this
39:53
Speaker 2: the whole time. This bike just vibrates like hell underbreaking.
39:57
Speaker 2: So Katm's in a weird position at the moment because
40:02
Speaker 2: you look at their rider lineup. You've got three guys
40:05
Speaker 2: who've won Grand Prix in Vignales, Bastiarditi and Binda, and
40:08
Speaker 2: one guy who's clearly going to win some Grand Prix
40:10
Speaker 2: in a Costa. Really strong rider lineup. We know they
40:14
Speaker 2: had their off season difficulties financially and what have you,
40:17
Speaker 2: but every weekend I and this is maybe, you know,
40:20
Speaker 2: maybe I should expect less from them, but I always
40:23
Speaker 2: think that it's going to be better than it is
40:25
Speaker 2: for them because they've got this great rider lineup. They've
40:28
Speaker 2: got everything you would need, and it's just not happening.
40:30
Speaker 2: And we remember how good a Costa was at Cocha
40:33
Speaker 2: last year. It was kind of his you know, wow,
40:35
Speaker 2: this guy is going to be a massive force, and
40:38
Speaker 2: he qualified well because he can ring one lap out
40:41
Speaker 2: of the bike. Vinales depends on the week bastidity and
40:44
Speaker 2: binder have never been historically good qualifiers, so Acosta's putting
40:47
Speaker 2: the bike in a position where it probably shouldn't be
40:49
Speaker 2: at the start of these races. So you're always going
40:51
Speaker 2: to look bad if you go backwards, right, So but
40:54
Speaker 2: at the moment there, like I said before, it pribly
40:56
Speaker 2: has got this asterisk because we don't know because their
40:58
Speaker 2: best guy hasn't ridden yet. Katie and I'm always just
41:01
Speaker 2: a bit, like a bit sort of underwhelmed with what
41:04
Speaker 2: they're doing because it just feels like it should be better,
41:06
Speaker 2: and unfortunately for them, this was just a continuation of
41:09
Speaker 2: what's happened in the previous two rounds.
41:11
Speaker 1: What about Honda, I just want to touch on them
41:14
Speaker 1: briefly because it felt like a positive weekend and the
41:17
Speaker 1: fact of Marini and Mere qualified what's seventh and eighth
41:20
Speaker 1: for the grid, which is great and that's what we want.
41:23
Speaker 1: And then Zarko, I read in a post race debrief,
41:27
Speaker 1: said that he feels like they made a huge step forward.
41:29
Speaker 1: That's kind of something they've constantly been saying for such
41:32
Speaker 1: a long time. As they're making steps forward, making step forward.
41:35
Speaker 1: Do you think Honda are heading in the right direction?
41:38
Speaker 1: Or do we need to see some more consistency for
41:40
Speaker 1: them before I.
41:41
Speaker 2: Mean, yeah, I mean Argentina they were fantastic. I mean,
41:44
Speaker 2: Zarko is very good at that track and they were
41:47
Speaker 2: really really good there. I thought Marini had a good
41:48
Speaker 2: weekend at Coda. Juan Mere crash writer, Okay, we've got
41:52
Speaker 2: that box ticked in this podcast. And Zarko just had
41:58
Speaker 2: a bit of a spotty weekend. He was down a
41:59
Speaker 2: couple of time, time got stuck in Q one, didn't
42:01
Speaker 2: really feature Crash towards the end of the race as well,
42:04
Speaker 2: and managed to remount and finish as a last classified runner.
42:07
Speaker 2: So a bit of a bit of a blit for
42:10
Speaker 2: them after Argentina. I don't think it's going to be
42:11
Speaker 2: as good as Argentina was.
42:12
Speaker 3: Every week.
42:13
Speaker 2: They're clearly making progress. I felt the last couple of
42:16
Speaker 2: years that you had this sort of like two tier
42:18
Speaker 2: Motor GP. It was like the old CRT days and
42:20
Speaker 2: that you just have the Japanese cup down the back,
42:22
Speaker 2: and they were so far down the back that you'd
42:24
Speaker 2: look to see, oh, the leading Japanese like rider finished twelfth. Fantastic,
42:28
Speaker 2: You've got yourself four points. So it feels like they're
42:31
Speaker 2: more at the races these days, both Yamaha and Honda,
42:33
Speaker 2: but I reckon after Argentina, Honda got a little bit
42:37
Speaker 2: of a reality check at Cota, but it's clear that
42:40
Speaker 2: they are better than they have been. It's just they're
42:43
Speaker 2: coming from so far back, aren't they.
42:45
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the results from Sunday's race, and
42:48
Speaker 1: so once we get to Jack Miller first Yamaha, then
42:51
Speaker 1: we haven't a Prillia but Zechi Kati and Bashanini HRC
42:55
Speaker 1: Honda Marini. I grew a trackhouse of Frillier Famio Cordro Yamaha,
42:59
Speaker 1: so it's I know we're calling him the best of
43:01
Speaker 1: the rest, but these guys are starting to get into
43:03
Speaker 1: the top ten. Yep, Well what about a Prillier? Are
43:07
Speaker 1: they just missing that one percent because they kind of
43:09
Speaker 1: banked everything on Joge Martin. I know, I just said
43:12
Speaker 1: we had what do we have? I Agura there at
43:15
Speaker 1: ninth and then but second sixth? Is that just a
43:17
Speaker 1: one off?
43:18
Speaker 3: Yeah?
43:18
Speaker 2: I mean, look, until Martin is a back and be
43:21
Speaker 2: anywhere near one hundred percent fit, we're not going to
43:23
Speaker 2: find out where the limit of the bike is. I
43:25
Speaker 2: think for me, Agura has been really really promising, Like
43:30
Speaker 2: he's looked he hasn't looked like a rookie at any point.
43:32
Speaker 2: I mean we saw that in Thailand. He looks like
43:34
Speaker 2: a guy who belongs and there is a different way
43:37
Speaker 2: that he goes about it. I think he's been terrific
43:39
Speaker 2: for these first three grand prior that he could.
43:41
Speaker 3: Have asked for more.
43:43
Speaker 2: But Zeki, for me, he's been a little bit sort
43:45
Speaker 2: of disappointing slash anonymous in that there's he's experienced enough
43:49
Speaker 2: now that I was curious as to, Okay, look, Martin's out.
43:54
Speaker 2: You're in the factory team. Yes you knew because you've
43:56
Speaker 2: been on a caddy, but this is almost like, are
43:59
Speaker 2: you able to take the next step in your development
44:02
Speaker 2: as aarriety or not just a guy who can occasionally
44:03
Speaker 2: snipe for podiums.
44:05
Speaker 3: Can you be a figurehead and lead what's going on here?
44:08
Speaker 2: And it's been like, okay, like a bit sort of blah,
44:12
Speaker 2: and I wondered if there was another level in there.
44:15
Speaker 2: He's another guy who win things are right, is very
44:17
Speaker 2: very good, but there was a leadership piece there that
44:20
Speaker 2: I wondered if it was going to merge And the
44:22
Speaker 2: fact that a priliest leading writer after three rounds. Is
44:25
Speaker 2: Ayagura now great for Iagura, you know in the championship, fantastic,
44:29
Speaker 2: much better than we expected. But to me, that's two things.
44:32
Speaker 2: It's a Aura has been great, Bazeki's just been a
44:35
Speaker 2: bit so far.
44:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of hit the nail on the head,
44:39
Speaker 1: and it is exciting to see Igua, especially Trackhouse, you know,
44:42
Speaker 1: taking that big risk on him, all that drama that
44:44
Speaker 1: it like came out in the off season. But then
44:48
Speaker 1: we hear on Friday that a Prillier are having all
44:50
Speaker 1: this technical drama, technical issues again. We see that so
44:55
Speaker 1: often with a Prillia though it's like I said before,
44:59
Speaker 1: it it's just that one percent of these those little
45:02
Speaker 1: boxes that they're not ticking, and that's not not homeless
45:06
Speaker 1: try again, not one's helping them get to that next step.
45:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you look at Motor GP. You've got
45:12
Speaker 2: to be one hundred percent on one hundred percent of
45:15
Speaker 2: the time, and it feels like they're ninety seven on
45:18
Speaker 2: ninety six percent of the time, like they're there and
45:20
Speaker 2: thereabouts most of the time. But that thing on Friday
45:23
Speaker 2: at Cota where the engine was so cold because it
45:27
Speaker 2: was raining and it wasn't working.
45:28
Speaker 3: Like you remember back to a Prillia in.
45:30
Speaker 2: The past, like that year we went to India, which
45:32
Speaker 2: was what twenty twenty three, and Elisia Spargo is basically
45:36
Speaker 2: getting cooked by his own bike because it was running
45:38
Speaker 2: so hot. So there's little things like that that they
45:41
Speaker 2: only ever seem to happen to a Prillier And so
45:44
Speaker 2: you just wonder like, is that just some coincidence or
45:47
Speaker 2: is there just like that little you know, one or
45:49
Speaker 2: two percent that they might be off operationally compared to
45:52
Speaker 2: everybody else. What we haven't had is an absolute a
45:56
Speaker 2: lister rider on that bike who will be able to
45:59
Speaker 2: perhaps transcend what the machinery is capable of. And look
46:03
Speaker 2: we're hearing jo Hey, Martin should be back for Qatar.
46:05
Speaker 2: What sort of condition he's in is going to be
46:08
Speaker 2: the interesting part. You can't expect him just to come
46:11
Speaker 2: back to Qatar and instantly be on it. I think
46:14
Speaker 2: we need two or three rounds and he needs to
46:16
Speaker 2: probably fall off once or twice and not hurt himself
46:18
Speaker 2: and just you know, get all the cob webs out.
46:20
Speaker 2: You're operating at such a high level. But once we
46:23
Speaker 2: get to like round six, seven eight, that midpoint of
46:26
Speaker 2: the season. We're in Europe for a bit. Then we're
46:28
Speaker 2: going to find out where a Prilier stands relative to
46:32
Speaker 2: its own level of performance so far and also relative
46:35
Speaker 2: to the rest, because I feel that Yamaha's kind of
46:37
Speaker 2: maxing out what they've got at the moment, Honda's kind.
46:40
Speaker 3: Of the same.
46:40
Speaker 2: Katm is just in this underwhelming cycle of whatever it
46:44
Speaker 2: is that they're doing. We just don't know whether Prillier yet,
46:47
Speaker 2: and so I really hope for the sake of the
46:49
Speaker 2: show that we have Martine on some front rows, and
46:52
Speaker 2: we have Martine scrapping at the front with Mark and
46:54
Speaker 2: Alex and Peco. We know the guy's good enough. It's
46:57
Speaker 2: just whether the machinery is going to be capable of
46:59
Speaker 2: a low give to stay there.
47:01
Speaker 1: It was nice for Jorge Martin to make an appearance
47:04
Speaker 1: in Coder. You can see he is determined, and that's
47:06
Speaker 1: what I'm excited to see for him to come back.
47:09
Speaker 1: But like I mentioned earlier, looking at the results from
47:11
Speaker 1: Sunday's Grand Prix, we are having all the manufacturers now
47:14
Speaker 1: in the top ten. Whether that's a one off or not,
47:17
Speaker 1: Like you said, it makes the story. It makes the
47:19
Speaker 1: sport exciting and going into Coder I think, no, we're
47:23
Speaker 1: just do credit. Going into guitar is what I think
47:26
Speaker 1: we need. But let's also quickly touch on our other
47:29
Speaker 1: Aussies in the other classes. Santa Agius in Moroto two
47:33
Speaker 1: took a big gamble because there was that rain. He
47:36
Speaker 1: decided to go on slicks and obviously not the right option,
47:39
Speaker 1: so he was I think twenty fourth.
47:41
Speaker 3: Maybe in Understandable.
47:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's one of those ones where he qualified.
47:46
Speaker 2: He was what sixth row of the Grid's that's the
47:49
Speaker 2: role that ice you make when you've qualified down there,
47:51
Speaker 2: because you've kind of got nothing to lose. So Understandable
47:55
Speaker 2: could have looked like an absolute genius if it had
47:57
Speaker 2: just dried out a little bit more. But shows you
47:59
Speaker 2: how weird that weather was at coder Or. It was
48:01
Speaker 2: almost the reverse weather of MotoGP in that. You know,
48:04
Speaker 2: if he'd been racing two hours later, it would have
48:05
Speaker 2: been an absolutely genious move. But you can completely understand
48:08
Speaker 2: why he did it because it's one of those races
48:11
Speaker 2: that well, if I can just if I do the
48:12
Speaker 2: same as everybody else, I'm going to trundle around and
48:14
Speaker 2: finish you know, eight eighth or twentieth or something. I
48:17
Speaker 2: may as well roll the dice here, so you know,
48:19
Speaker 2: understandable in the circumstances. But it didn't feel like anyone
48:22
Speaker 2: other than Jake Dixon was going to do anything at
48:23
Speaker 2: Coder anyway. It was like a British weather. He was
48:25
Speaker 2: just riding around like for fun. He was just smashing everybody.
48:28
Speaker 1: It's exciting and I think it's good to see Jake
48:31
Speaker 1: doing so well, fitting in at home with Mark VIDs
48:34
Speaker 1: and obviously I think it's it's the bruster confidence he
48:36
Speaker 1: need if he's going to progress in his career. And
48:38
Speaker 1: I mean that's like a whole nother podcast on its
48:40
Speaker 1: own better. Oh yeah, he ends up in mto GP
48:43
Speaker 1: or ends up following similar to like Sam Low's and
48:45
Speaker 1: going to Wilson Bikes. But it's nice and it's good
48:48
Speaker 1: and it's good to have a brit because obviously, like
48:51
Speaker 1: another honorary Aussie, it's someone else we can root for
48:53
Speaker 1: here in Australia. But let's talk about Murdo III. Joel
48:58
Speaker 1: Kelso qualifying third on the grid and then bought it
49:01
Speaker 1: home for second in Sunday's race. When I think about that,
49:05
Speaker 1: I think to last year, and I kind of feel
49:07
Speaker 1: bad for Joel now because we're always like he's just
49:09
Speaker 1: consistently not there. He starts the race, well, he's qualifying well,
49:12
Speaker 1: but then if something just happens, Okay, we know Thailand
49:16
Speaker 1: wasn't the best result for him getting involved in that tangle,
49:19
Speaker 1: then we are Argentina. But now it's like, Okay, I
49:22
Speaker 1: feel like things are starting to click for Joel and
49:24
Speaker 1: he's got big dreams. I heard him openly say he
49:27
Speaker 1: wants to move up to Moto too. So is this
49:29
Speaker 1: what he needs to do consistently beat up the front
49:32
Speaker 1: now fighting and podiuming.
49:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like this is a podium that's been
49:37
Speaker 2: about twelve months in the making. Like it's like, yes,
49:39
Speaker 2: he's gonna o No he's not. Yes, No, it's not.
49:41
Speaker 2: There's a lot of those sorts of experiences watching Joel
49:43
Speaker 2: in Moto three, but there's no doubt.
49:45
Speaker 3: The speed's there.
49:46
Speaker 2: It's just he hasn't had the hasn't been able to
49:49
Speaker 2: really complete the results that he speeds indicated through a
49:52
Speaker 2: lot of these races, and that you would see him
49:55
Speaker 2: right in the front pack, but he'd be finishing seventh
49:57
Speaker 2: at the back of the front pack, so there'd be
49:58
Speaker 2: a lot of those sorts of weekends. So really good
50:01
Speaker 2: result for him. He's clearly stepped up with a team
50:03
Speaker 2: and his physical fitness and his attention to detail. He's determination. Realistically,
50:09
Speaker 2: he does need to get out of Motor three at
50:10
Speaker 2: the end of this year. You would think, get up
50:12
Speaker 2: to Moto two and see how he goes there.
50:13
Speaker 3: So I'm not.
50:15
Speaker 2: Surprised that he's up the front. I mean the key
50:18
Speaker 2: thing now was you know we were saying before how
50:20
Speaker 2: particular Coder is as a race track, particularly on a
50:22
Speaker 2: motor three bike that's straight, must feel like it takes
50:24
Speaker 2: about three hours to get down there on a motor
50:26
Speaker 2: three bike. But we'll get to Qatar, we'll get to
50:29
Speaker 2: her Reth. But it's good that he's got that podium
50:31
Speaker 2: under his belt before we head back to Europe, and
50:34
Speaker 2: he's with a good team and on a good bike,
50:35
Speaker 2: so I don't think it'll be the last we see
50:37
Speaker 2: of him up there.
50:37
Speaker 1: And Jacob Rulstone his first race of twenty twenty five
50:41
Speaker 1: after sustaining that neck injury in the off season. I
50:45
Speaker 1: know he didn't have the greatest qualifying but what did
50:47
Speaker 1: he finish p fourteen on some of these races. I
50:49
Speaker 1: feel like that's a brilliant result for your first race
50:52
Speaker 1: of the year.
50:53
Speaker 2: Almost a victory in some respects because it wasn't so
50:56
Speaker 2: long ago that he had a serious, serious crashing preseason,
50:59
Speaker 2: really hurt himself to come back for round three, And
51:02
Speaker 2: it was actually you that told me that he was
51:03
Speaker 2: going to be back for a round three, and I
51:04
Speaker 2: thought that seems a little premature given how severe that
51:08
Speaker 2: injury was. But this was a weekend where he just
51:10
Speaker 2: needed to be there, get back in the flow, feel
51:13
Speaker 2: the exhaustion. I'm sure everything hurt a lot on Sunday
51:17
Speaker 2: afternover him there in Kota, but just great for him
51:20
Speaker 2: to bank a couple of points, get some laps under
51:23
Speaker 2: his belt, get through a full weekend. We've now got
51:25
Speaker 2: two weeks before Katar so he gets a chance to
51:27
Speaker 2: recuperate a little bit further. That first weekend back was
51:30
Speaker 2: always going to be hard for him. So the fact
51:31
Speaker 2: that he's got that done, he hasn't re injured himself.
51:34
Speaker 2: He scored a couple of points and now he sees
51:36
Speaker 2: and can actually start. So it was nice to see
51:38
Speaker 2: him back up there and just the approach that he took.
51:41
Speaker 3: I thought was absolutely spot on what you just.
51:43
Speaker 1: Said there about him hurting after the weekend, the first
51:47
Speaker 1: weekend back on the bike, and then I think about
51:48
Speaker 1: Joga Martine, and it's something that I don't know if
51:51
Speaker 1: a lot of people understand. There's not much you can
51:53
Speaker 1: do to replicate being what they call bike fitness and
51:57
Speaker 1: be able to maneuver on the bike, and if you
51:59
Speaker 1: haven't done it for a while, like Jacob and like
52:01
Speaker 1: Jorge Martin's going to experience, they're gonna hurt in places
52:05
Speaker 1: they haven't felt it a long time.
52:08
Speaker 2: They're so funny, these guys. I would always go to
52:10
Speaker 2: the Malaysia preseason test because no one have been on
52:13
Speaker 2: a Motor GP tea Moto GP bike for several months,
52:16
Speaker 2: and you would speak to them after day one and
52:19
Speaker 2: they'd all look at you, the riders, like how do
52:20
Speaker 2: I do this every second weekend? Like I was six
52:23
Speaker 2: laps into my first run of preseason testing and I
52:25
Speaker 2: needed like a massage and to sleep. I was absolutely shattered, because, yeah,
52:29
Speaker 2: that thing about being bike fit, you can't. Yes, you
52:32
Speaker 2: can ride superbikes and you can do all the training
52:34
Speaker 2: that you like, but nothing replicates being on a World
52:38
Speaker 2: Championship bike than being on a World Championship bike. So
52:41
Speaker 2: he effectively started his preseason in a race weekend at Cota,
52:44
Speaker 2: so he'll be certainly better for it, but I reckon
52:47
Speaker 2: he slept pretty well, so I.
52:48
Speaker 1: Don't know it. That's what makes METOGP so exciting and
52:51
Speaker 1: so different to Formula one is I know those guys
52:53
Speaker 1: have simulators and whatnot and they're replicating it as much
52:56
Speaker 1: as they can, but with Moto GP, we just don't
52:58
Speaker 1: have that. So when these guys getting on these bikes,
53:01
Speaker 1: they're like Jacob getting on the bike for the first
53:03
Speaker 1: time in twenty twenty five and off you go into
53:06
Speaker 1: a Motor three Moto three World Championship race. So that's
53:09
Speaker 1: all we love about MotoGP. But we've said it a
53:11
Speaker 1: few times. Next race is a guitar in two weekends time.
53:17
Speaker 1: You guys can keep up to date with all the
53:19
Speaker 1: latest MotoGP news though on our website at foxports dot
53:23
Speaker 1: com dot au. For Slash Motorsport, I nearly just had
53:25
Speaker 1: a mind blake then try to remember the website. But
53:28
Speaker 1: we've also got all the social media channels at Fox
53:31
Speaker 1: Motorsport on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Matt, thank you for
53:35
Speaker 1: the catch up for the America's Grand Prix. We're gonna
53:38
Speaker 1: be back real soon with more Moto GP pit talk
53:46
Speaker 1: stop