Once again by: The Karr Report
Thailand has delivered, once again, some of the most epic races of the season. ‘Nuff said.Â
Go watch them if you haven’t already. If you have, go watch them again.
Moto3:
This. This was a proper race. Though there wasn’t much along the line of catastrophic crashes, there certainly were enough close calls to inflict serious damage on one’s heart.
The biggest crash of the entire race came as early as Lap Two.Â
Amidst the hundred-bike-fight for the top spot, Muñoz’s bike suddenly decided that he was going way too fast around the corner, prompting it to forcefully slow down. In negative fast.
Behind him, blissfully unaware of the abrupt deceleration of Muñoz’s ride just out of his sight, Sasaki was coming through in full attack mode.
Ayumu didn’t stand a chance. Within a split second, he and Muñoz went from upright to tumbling off the track, while Holgado got forced into a game of dodgem.
What was the cause of Sasaki’s bike rear-ending Munoz’s like a bull in heat?Â
Allegedly, Muñoz’s motorcycle had suffered some type of gearbox gremlin infestation, making it drop a gear and (not) disappear without its rider’s consent.
Both riders later rejoined after a trip to their respective pits, but they were well out of the race by then.
Wildcard rider Buasri, had a small off during the fifth lap, but he managed to rejoin swiftly.
Both Buasri and Keankum ended up getting Long Lap Penalties; both these wildcards managed to bodge their Long Laps. Oh dear.
How could we possibly capture the poetry that was the podium battle in the Lightweight class? There is no way. Nineteen laps of absolutely glorious battling, overtakes, and elbow-rubbing. Not even a psychic would’ve been able to predict the podium-trio.
The lead changed gloves enough times to polish it up nicely for the ultimate winner – which ended up being Alonso. This boy’s this writer’s Moto3 favourite; his fourth victory in his rookie year has already won him Moto3 Rookie of the Year. Well done! Imagine him taking the Championship, too…
Joining Alonso on the podium was Furusato in second, and Veijer in third, both of them experiencing Moto3 Podium Life for the first time.
Special honours to Veijer:Â He still managed to take third after pulling off a heart-stopping Motocross trick just a few turns away from the finish…
Moto2:
Look, Chantra’s home race livery looked fabulous. Loved the helmet, and the intricate paintwork in shades of gold made his motorcycle about as Thai as it could be.
There was a stark contrast between the preceding Moto3 race, and the Moto2 one. Instead of a full-race constant brawl for the victory, the top three pulled away from the pack – and each other – in rather dominating style.
Surra was gobbled up by Turn Five on the first lap; Hada was lost on Lap Three, and so was Roberts.
Poor Canet’s luck simply hasn’t improved, with him jumping the start and thus having to visit the Long Lap loop twice.
On the fifth lap Dixon went in for a kamikaze divebomb on Vietti, whacking Celestino’s rear wheel and getting launched into a temporary seat in the ISS.Â
Will he get a penalty to take to Sepang? We might never know…
Vietti managed to keep it upright for a few corners more before flopping down on his stomach at Turn Five.
Performing the Angry Gravel Stomp after crashing on Lap Eight, GarcÃa made his way off track surrounded by thunder.
Meanwhile, Aldeguer was dominating the race to such an extent that, by Lap Thirteen, his lead over Acosta had stretched to over three seconds. He was so far ahead that he could take a quick tea break and still stay over two seconds away from Pedro’s grasp.
By the time the checkered flag came out, Aldeguer passed it nearly four seconds before Acosta. He did this in a vertical manner. Ten out of ten for that wheelie, for the race domination, and for not falling.
Aldeguer victorious, Acosta had to settle for second, and local superhero Chantra took third.
They say that Chantra has a cult following in Thailand; there’s even an entire grand stand just for him. When he came across the line in third, becoming the first-ever Thai rider to take a podium at his home race, those grandstands moved by ten centimetres.
In Parc Fermé, Aldeguer suffered a mild concussion due to all the congratulatory helmet-slapping.
Darryn had a quiet race, ending up in fifteenth over the line.Â
He kept it clean, and managed to improve on his start position by ten spots. Nice One Daz!
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MotoGP:
If you missed all of this, you missed the best race of the year so far! It was proper!
‘I can’t watch!’ – I watched the entire race as intently as the stewards watch Brad…
Oliveira had the orange-on-black flag waved in his face on Lap Seven, and promptly pulled off the track.
Earning the title of sole crasher for the Sunday race, Márquez – the (current) purple one – continued his crash legacy with a Turn Ten slider which saw his Ducati attempt a fence-jump, and failing.
Viñales popped into Pit Lane on Lap Twenty-Four for a quiet retirement.
But what a splendacious battle that was for the win! The final half dozen laps had us chewing up what was left of our fingers as the trio of MartÃn, Binder, and Bagnaia went at each other with murderous intent.
(No seriously – it was epic! ed)
Brad managed to hold on to the lead for a while. But, in the end, the taste of the Championship had the other two foaming at the mouth, and MartÃn managed to take back and hold on to the top spot.
Initially Brad crossed the line in second, close enough to MartÃn and Pecco for them to hold hands and daisy-chain across it, but he was soon pushed down a step into third for hopping past the curb on his final navigation of Turn Four, very obviously touching the green bits beyond.
To summarize that chaos:Â
MartÃn did win, Bagnaia was promoted to second, Binder penaltied into third.
MartÃn was so ecstatic, he destroyed his bike’s screen moments after confirming the win.
Somewhere along his cooldown, Augusto Fernández had lost his bike, bumming a ride from Bezzecchi back to the pits.
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We’ll say it again:Â
If you missed all of this, you missed the best race of the year so far!Â
It was proper!
The racing deities have been so kind as to grant us a weekend off after Thailand, just to give our heart rates time to return to normal, and our fingers and nails to grow back sufficiently before getting gnawed off all over again in two weeks’ time.
So, we’re off to get some ‘rest’.
~ Karr
My Patreon link. Just, you know, in case one might want to show some appreciation for the hours of toiling over a grubby keyboard: https://www.patreon.com/KarrbonCopy
