Causing a chain reaction…
The Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera, held at the legendary Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli (what a double-mouthful!) once again showed us why this was one of MotoGP’s best-loved venues.
Moto3:
We welcome Belford to the Junior Class for this weekend, standing in for Morelli.
Ruda stepped onto the Moto3 grid as a Wildcard for a second time, too.
‘Cheers legend’ – Kelso finally gave his esteemed greeting to Jack Appleyard during his on-grid chat.
The race started and it went bonkers! Top candidate for Race of the Day.
It was a small miracle that there were no major incidents for a whole four laps. But at Turn Four on the fifth lap, Muñoz was attempting a divebomb down the inside of Perrone, when Perrone closed the door on his nose, properly bludgeoning it as they made gentle contact. Muñoz was sent on a gravelly detour, while Perrone somehow managed to stay upright and within track limits.
Both lost some positions, but miraculously neither had to eat dust for brunch.
Wildcard Ruda suffered a pesky technical gremlin infestation nearing the end of Lap Six, which forced him to park his bike and saunter off in search of something cold.
Aditama mysteriously vanished from the track around this time, too.
In comparison to the number of Track Limits Warnings being handed out, there were relatively few riders who managed to upgrade theirs to a Long Lap Penalty.
The first to do so was O’Shea by Lap Seven. Uriarte got his upgrade around Lap Fourteen.
Carraro, after pitting at the end of Lap Seven, and returning to the race a few laps behind, also received a – rather superfluous – Long Lap Penalty around the fourteenth lap. Or, in his case, his twelfth lap.
During the ninth lap, debutant Belford’s motorcycle discarded him on the hard run-off outside of Turn Fourteen in order to take a quick nap.
Lunetta went down in a cloud of smoke at the fastest corner of the track on Lap Sixteen (that’d be Turn Eleven, if you were unsure). By some luck, Almansa – who’d been riding in very close proximity to Lunetta – did not eat tarmac after hitting the stricken motorcycle careening across his path.
Once the dust and smoke had blown away, Lunetta hobbled off to safety, clearly a little battered.
The battle for the top three positions began heating up exponentially during the final three laps, causing fans to fall off their seats as they shifted to the edges of their chairs in sheer excitement.
The overtaking manoeuvres were in a class of their own, and as a final little plot-twist, pole-starter Perrone went wide through Turn Thirteen on the final lap, killing any last hopes he’d had of a podium finish.
It was Rueda who eventually emerged victorious, closely followed by Quiles and Fernández in a photo-finish for second and third.
Quiles pipped Fernández to second by a whisker, leaving Fernández in third.
Moodley finished the race in sixteenth.
Moto2:
Oh, hello Sam!
Ex-Moto2 rider, Sam Lowes, was spotted prowling around the grid on Sunday.
Surra started this race with a Double Long Lapper, while Navarro had to do one Long Lap.
As the pack evacuated the grid for their Warm-Up Lap, Huertas was left behind, his bike baulking on the grid.
They managed to get him going, though, and he was allowed to continue.
It was a good race.
The Race Lap Record was pummelled to dust within a few laps, and there were overtakes of the highest quality throughout the twenty-two laps.
Just three laps into the race, Huertas had his second helping of disappointment as he went off at Turn Fifteen, his bike filling up its fairings with enough pebbles to pave a driveway. This was revealed as Huertas tried to get the machine restarted in the typical aggressive-seat-humping way. With each downward thump, gravel showered onto the tarmac.
Ramírez got caught shortcutting at the first corner, and was duly handed a Long Lap Penalty for his misdemeanour.
Having already served his Long Lap Penalty, Navarro went tumbling out at Turn Eight on Lap Ten. With a brisk walk, he went to look for the chilled wine booth.
During the same lap, we quietly lost Kunii in an alleged crash.
While still locked in a lively scuffle with his teammate, Agius lost track of the track on the final lap, running a really non-optimal wide line through Turn Eight.
On a side note: We want some of what Baltus had for breakfast.
The Belgian caught speed a few laps from the finish, and was making up time towards the riders ahead of him at such a pace that he made it look like the rest were on a Sunday breakfast cruise.
Had there been one more lap to this race, chances were exceedingly high for Barry to have stormed his way to victory!
But there wasn’t an extra lap so Vietti got the win, making him the record-breaking tenth different race winner in Moto2 this season.
Baltus claimed second, while Holgado just managed to hold out in third.
Binder had a very anonymous ride, finishing in twenty-third.
MotoGP:
A massive crash each saw both Zarco and Mir sit out the Saturday Sprint, with their participation in the Sunday race in doubt.
Some Formula One guy named Norris (Lando Norris, not Chuck) was spotted around the circuit this weekend, fangirling over Rossi (Valentino, naturally).
Sprint Race:
Who ordered the Plot Twist Salad?
On the fifth lap, a hard-barging Quartararo exceeded the limits of his tyres at Turn Two, and toppled out of his seat. He did manage to return to the track a few seconds later, but was nowhere near challenging for the top spots anymore.
Near the end of Lap Six, Márquez – Marc! – toppled, legs in the air, out of his freshly-claimed race lead at Turn Fifteen.
After a commendable effort to save his falling Ducati, Marc went slow-twirling off on his stomach, lining up for a perfect head-bonk against the wall. To his relief, the wall was padded, and he managed to get up and walk away briskly.
Binder’s collection of Technical Gremlins continued to grow as he, on Lap Ten, had to bail out of the race, limping his KTM to the middle of the graveltrap before parking the mechanically maimed machine. One could see the flames and thunder emanating from within his normally-cool helmet, which made even the hardiest marshals hesitate in their approach.
So. Many. Track. Limits. Warnings. Yet, such a lack of penalties.
An elated Bezzecchi claimed victory, while the remaining Márquez finished second (as he’d done countless times by now), and Di Giannantonio won the team-fight for third.
Now, a rundown of Bezzecchi-celebrations:
First, he sat up on the ‘tank’, waving at his home crowd. He then conjured up a wooden, boot-wearing leg from out of nowhere, which he paraded around the track like some weird trophy.
We were notified that there was some kind of reference to Italian cinema attached to the detached wooden limb.
He parked on the grass at one stage, where his mom came running up to where he stood, and promptly fell down on her arse, laughing maniacally.
On a side note, though: Bez sure likes to show off his tongue-dexterity…
In between all the celebrations on-track, a fuming Bagnaia stomped into his garage, sitting down so hard that he nearly broke the partition behind him.
Main Race:
Dare we say, this was one of the slightly more interesting Grand Prix races of the year?
Some youngen by the name of Kimi Antonelli was seen prowling about the grid. Apparently, he’s a rookie driver for Mercedes in something called Formula One.
Martín’s woes began early, when his Aprilia gave up the ghost before it could even complete the Sighting Lap. In the end, Martín had to race on his second bike, starting the Warm-Up Lap from pitlane, and the race from his original grid position. Oh, and he had to pass through the Long Lap Loop twice.
On the first lap, Zarco and Mir – two already bruised Frenchmen, whom we had not expected to even race this Sunday – crashed under covert circumstances at Turn Four. Mir vanished to the nearest pizzeria, while Zarco remounted his Honda and tried to finish the race.
Both Rins and Fernández – Augusto, that is – were slapped with Double Long Lap Penalties for jumping the start.
During Lap Three, Ogura crashed somewhere in the third sector. Two laps later, the already hurting Viñales went gravel-diving, too. Neither were deemed important enough to replay.
KTM must’ve angered some local spirits – we went on a deep dive, and found San Marino to have no indigenous mythical creatures, or gods, for that matter – with Binder having had two chain failures and one other mechanical failure (see Sprint Race above) already.
By Lap Eight of the main race, Acosta was spotted coasting off the track. He parked his stricken ride against a wall, gave it the full monty of Spanish curses (both verbally and physically) and stomped away.
A few seconds later, a marshal sprinted onto the track to catch a skinny black snake which was lying in the middle of the track. Only, it wasn’t a snake: It was Acosta’s KTM’s chain! Four broken chains in one weekend?
Something’s wrong, boys. We bet that Someone chewed on a chain for dinner later that evening.
Bagnaia’s woes continued to grow, when he went flailing off the track at Turn Fourteen just a lap later, looking like a turtle that’d been turned on its shell.
He was spotted in his box a while later, silently crying to himself.
By Lap Ten, Rins binned it, something he’s been doing much less of in recent times.
Bezzecchi was leading the race aggressively, until he blundered Turn Eight on Lap Twelve, effectively gifting Márquez (Marc) the lead, with little hope of reclaiming it.
To his credit, however, he kept Marc on his toes for the rest of the race, refusing to give up on potentially getting his lead back.
Bastianini’s abysmal weekend continued with a delicate slide on the twelfth lap, whereafter he had a bit of a scuffle with the marshals in the gravel over ownership of his KTM.
At this stage, all the non-crashers would be earning points in this race, a race that’d turned into a two-horse (or is it bike?) race by then.Coverage was limited to the Marc versus Marco saga up front.
When the checkered flag began to wave, Márquez – Marc, in case you had to be reminded – succeeded in keeping Bezzecchi at bay, claiming the win, and breaking some kind of Championship-points record.
Bezzecchi finished in a close second, and the remaining Márquez came through for a distant third.
Binder, with a little help from others’ poor luck, finished tenth. Good job, Brad.
Was that Jack riding the wrong way up the back straight during the Cooldown Lap? Oi, Miller, where the heck are you going, bud?
Marc might have won the race, but to the local fans, Bezzecchi was The Ma!
Bez jumped onto the tyre wall in front of his delirious fan club somewhere along his Cooldown Lap, much to the delight of all who were present. It took Marco so long to reach Parc Fermé, they had to serve some hors d’oeuvres to those already there while they waited.
When he finally did show up, so did the mysterious wooden leg…
~ Karr
See you in Japan, Sept 28th for the next one! Below: How things stand right now.
