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Post by hoskotafe3 on Feb 29, 2020 19:41:57 GMT
I'll be talking about the two premier bike classes here: Superbikes and MotoGP. Mainly for my own enjoyment but anyone else can feel free to join in.
Phillip Island Superbikes this weekend.
In my very brief season prediction offered on this board I said I thought that defending 5-time World Champion Jonathan Rea's reign would come to and end and that I hope it's the Turk Razgatlioglu who ends it.
Well, the Turk won race one at Phillip Island after two uncharacteristic errors from Rea. While leading on lap one, the Irishman failed to turn on the 5th corner and instead rode straight into the gravel after some contact from Tom Sykes. 5 laps later he crashed out completely after over steering.
The rest of the race was fun with the Turk, two Brits Redding and Lowes and dutchman van der Mark trading the lead for most of the last 10 laps. Eventually Raz triumphed by just 0.007 of a second from Lowes. As a matter of fact only 0.137s separated 1st from 4th. Tom Sykes did what he often does, riding a dominant pole qualifying lap and then gradually falling back in the pack to finish 9th. Brazilian Bautista, also a world title contender, finished 6th after crashing in qualifying.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 1, 2020 4:31:28 GMT
Rea bounced back in Race Two the 10 lap Super Pole defeating the Turk by .067s. Redding grabbed 3rd ahead of Lowes.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 1, 2020 4:38:08 GMT
Another thrilling race with Jonathan Rea leading nearly the entire race before Lowes takes the lead on the penultimate lap and just holds off the world champion to win by .005s. What a great bloody round of racing!
Raz didn't finish.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 22, 2020 5:46:57 GMT
MotoGP started up this weekend. Apologies for the late post, but I've had the week from hell.
My prediction in this was another dominant season for World Champions Marc Marquez, a prediction that now looks in severe jeopardy.
MotoGP back and what a sensational race it turned out to be! Marquez nearly crashed out on the third lap after hitting the gravel, fought his way back to 2nd and then crashed out hard on the 22nd lap! Looks like a serious injury too...He was very entertaining to watch, but there's a fine line between brilliance and arrogance. I don't think he needed to push so hard early as Vinales in 2nd didn't have much pace, and again neither Miller or Vinales had pace when he caught them later. Would have been a comfortable 2nd.
Happily it was the extremely talented and previously winless Frenchmen Fabio Quatararo who capitalised picking up his first career win from pole. Vinales was in the top 3 the entire race and earned a well deserved 2nd. Andrea Dovivioso picked up his first career podium after catching Australian Jack Miller, who was 2nd for most of the race, on the 23rd lap.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 22, 2020 6:01:12 GMT
In the minor classes we had Albert Arenas winning a fun Moto3 race, making it 2 from 2 for him. Most impressive ride was from Ai Ogura, who looked well out if it with a few laps to go but fought his way to second. Arbolino finished 3rd after leading several times. Scot John McPhee looked certain for a place but crashed out on the very last corner. South African Darryn Binder also impressed for most of the race, but crashed out in the 16th lap as he is wan to do.
Moto2 went similar to the Qatar race with Italian Luca Marini leading Tatsuta Nagashima fir much of the race, but rather than crashing out Luca stayed on the grey stuff to win by 1s. Tatsuta's Red Bull team mate Jorge Martin held on for third after spending much of the latter half of the race under enormous pressure from Sam Lowes. Wayne Gardner's son Remy finished in 7th.
Nagashima's got a big lead over Marini now, but the first two races show the Italian has the pace to hang with him. 20 points to make up in 12 races: not impossible.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 22, 2020 20:02:20 GMT
Marquez has successful surgery on his broken right arm. He'll be back this year, but in a shortened season missing 3 or 4 races probably ends his title hopes.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 25, 2020 22:43:10 GMT
Fresh off his maiden win, Quatararo has taken pole at the Andalusian Grand Prix ahead of his main rival while Marquez is not riding Mavrick Vinales. Bagnai and Rossi qualified 3rd and 4th. Nakagami had the best time in Q2 but could only finish 8th.
Marc Marquez gave it a try had some strong practice laps, but didn't survive the outlap in qualifying before withdrawing.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 27, 2020 6:54:57 GMT
A real battle of attrition with 7 bikes either crashing out or having engine failure in oppressive conditions. Quatararo broke away early and was never troubled winning by a staggering 8s. Ride of the day was Rossi. He was in the top 3 the whole race. Limited pace and worn tires no problem. He's an old pro who knows the angles and was a pleasure to watch. Heartbreak story of the day was Bagnai, who looked guaranteed 2nd, his first career podium, before his bike started smoking up. Morbidello also looked like getting his first podium until his bike just stopped.
Your top 3
1. Fabio Quatararo
2. Mavrick Vinales
3. Valentino Rossi
Sets up the season beautifully with Marquez's two main rivals 50 and 40 clear ahead of his return. Any further slip ups from the World Champion and there'll be no way back.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Jul 27, 2020 7:00:20 GMT
In the minor classes. A superb ride from Suzuki in the Moto3. Won from pole and led every lap, though he did lose the lead several times. Points leader Albert Arenas had a sick spill and didn't finish, blowing the title race wide open.
Excellent 3 way developing in Moto2 with Bastianini winning from Manini and points leader Nagashima in tenth, there is now only 5 points seperating 1st from 3rd with each of the top 3 winning a race. Bezzechi grabbed his first Moto2 podium to make it an Italian 1,2,3.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 1, 2020 21:44:33 GMT
Superbikes returned in Spain and it was Scott Redding who won from pole, but it was nowhere near as straight forward as that with Jonathan Rea, from 2nd grabbing the lead at the first corner and holding it until the 17th lap. For much of the race Raz was in 2nd and looked the most likely to catch him, but Redding caught him around the 12 lap mark and ultimateky caught Rea also.
The late stages were interesting with Chaz Davies putting immense pressure on Raz for third place, but the Turk held him off. Van der Mark didn't finish due to engine failure. Tom Sykes qualified in 3rd but, as usual, had a poor race falling to 19th. Alex Lowes, the points leader coming in, qualified on the 6th row and finished 9th.
Your top 3
1. Scott Redding
2. Jonathan Rea
3. Raz.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 3, 2020 4:23:43 GMT
Redding made it 2 from 3 in the final race of the weekend, picking up a dominant win from Chaz Davies and Raz. Rinaldi and Lowes both went past Rea who finished 6th. The reigning champion is sitting 2nd in the standings just 2 points ahead of Lowes.
Rea dominated the 10 lap Super Pole race, but Redding was able to finish 2nd. Dutchman Van Der Mark was 3rd. Raz didn't finish. If not his two retirements the Turk would almost certainly be 2nd in the standings.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 8, 2020 21:37:13 GMT
Marc Marquez is officially out of contention for this year's title after re injuring his arm. No way he can give up 4 starts and win the MotoGP Title.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 8, 2020 21:43:45 GMT
If you like Kawasakis and Yamahas you would have loved race one of the WorldSBK in Portugal. Not a Ducati to offend the eye above 6th place.
It was Rea's race. He started from pole, got the holeshot and was never troubled winning by 5s from Raz who himself was a long way ahead of Michael Van Der Mark in third. There was a lit of jostling for third over the early part of the race. Lowes looked the goods early, then Redding for a while after VDM misjudged a corner and fell back to seventh, but once the dutchman got hus bearings he ran away into 3rd comfortably.
Redding had a race to forget, just didn't have the pace late as he gave up 4th to Lowes and then dropped behind Rinaldi and Baz as well to finish 7th, cutting his points lead to a fragile 8 from Rea.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 9, 2020 18:19:09 GMT
While it wasn't a terrible weekend for points leader Fabio Quartararo, who extended his lead over Vinales despite finishing 7th, it was the lion hearted South African who wears his country's flag on his helmet, Brad Binder who won from Morbidelli and Zarco with Rossi 5th.
Morbidelli started from pole ahead of Quartararo and Zarco and led a good portion of the race with Quartararo unable to keep pace and quickly dropping down the field. Binder started from 6th and gradually worked his way up the field, catching the leader around lap 13 and comfortably holding on. It was the KTM team's first MotoGP win coming in their fifth season. Alex Rin put Zarco under a lot of pressure late for third place but the frenchman just held on. It was another good weekend for Rossi who finished in the top 5 from 10th on the grid.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 11, 2020 10:21:22 GMT
Rea won the Super pole race which was quite similar to race one. He started in pe, got the holeshot and was never headed. Raz was a comfortable second with Baz happy for his first podium in years finishing 3rd.
Rea dominated race 2, helped a race endung mistske from Lowes and an error for Raz which saw him come off the bike while 3rd. He dropped to 14th but finished 8th. Redding gave up the points lead but kept the pressure on by finishing 2nd. Van Der Mark was a convincing 3rd. Good track for the Kawasakis which Lowes failed to capitalise on.
Redding 6 points behind Rea but 2 weeks coming up at a track that should suit his Ducati. He's right in this
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 17, 2020 6:54:16 GMT
Austrian MotoGP was won by Dovizioso for the 3rd time in 5 years. There was quite the struggle for second place with Mir catching Jack Miller on the final corner after several laps chasing. Brad Binder followed up his win in the Czech Republic with a 4th place here. But thta was all after a restart. Here is a video of the incident that forced to the race to be red flagged after 8 laps.
Pole winner Esperago had been sitting pretty in first place when the incident occurred. His restart went poorly and, out of frustration, he took too many risks and ended up crashing out, taking Oliveira with him. Rins also crashed out the corner after taking the race lead. Rossi, who's bike was covered in oil following the narrow miss in the incident above, kept his tyres on the track when three in front of him lost theirs to finish 5th. The crashes at the front also helped Championship leader Fabio Quatararo who had fallen to the back of the field after going into the gravel on the 3rd lap. He started 20th on the restart and ended up in 8th. Mavrick Vinales also benefited from the carnage up front, finishing tenth after a poor race.
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