We don’t want to spoil anything with a revealing intro, and thus we merely invite you to enjoy the mayhem described below…
Moto3:
It was not an overly chaotic race, yet it was a most entertaining one nonetheless. Amidst tons of daring overtakes, the pack never really spread out much – just like that cheap margarine on your fresh bread – and nobody appeared to have heard of cruise control. It was hectic, but classy.
So un-Moto3-like.
O’Gorman was shunted back twelve spots on the grid, for being ‘a naughty boy’, according to the commentators.
Salmela was sent into the race with a Long Lap Penalty already to his name, for dawdling in Friday practice.
A few laps in, Pini was handed a Long Lap Penalty, too, allegedly for ‘Causing Contact’ – Frankly, we’re impressed the stewards could single out any punishable contact within that melee of a race.
On Lap Five, Carraro’s bike scraped him off its back at Turn Ten, sliding off to frolic in the dusty gravel fields beyond. Carraro, meanwhile, went skidding over the tarmac while trying to avoid road rash cutting through the seat of his leathers.
We just want to digress for a second in order to mention the grass beside the pit straight – or, the now-deceased strip of grass between track edge and pit boards. May it rest in pieces.
The riders seemed to calm down marginally for a few laps, but when the last third of the race arrived, they all pulled out a secret can of energy drink. Things got spicy once more; Carpe even levitated out of his seat at one stage on the sixteenth lap.
During the penultimate lap, Ríos went shooting out of the lead battle at Turn Ten, barrelling across the gravel like a beach ball caught in a Cape storm wind. We were sure he would blow clean over the fences, that’s how fast he was going. Hardly touched ground, really.
The final lap saw a short bout of Quiles-versus-Muñoz for top honours. It was close, nails were demolished, and in the end, everyone made it across the finish line intact.
Quiles snatched up his third race win in a row, while Carpe picked Muñoz’s pocket for second right on the grass next to the line – it was a four-thousandths of a second gap between them, half a blade of grass wouldn’t even fit in that gap – and Muñoz ended up shellshocked, and in third.
Our boy Moodley had another quiet, unremarkable race, finishing twentieth.
Moto2:
We were informed that Holgado had been disqualified post-race from the previous race, because of his lack of front fender during the race restart. Took them a while there.
Veijer started the race with a Long Lap Penalty to his name.
It was a brilliantly close race. With only a handful of mention-worthy incidents.
By the fourth lap, Vietti – then leading the race – smashed the Race Lap Record into the 1:41-minute territory for the first time ever. He made sure of his record by improving it again one lap later.
Escrig was handed a Long Lap Penalty for causing contact sometime before Lap Six… and promptly pitted. That’s one way to handle that.
A little later, Zurutuza was also given a Long Lap Penalty. Which he ignored. This resulted in his penalty doubling.
At the end of Lap Fifteen, Roberts also peeled down pit lane, though for entirely different woes to Escrig: Roberts’ rear tyre was giving him hell, while Escrig’s hell was coming from his qualifying-crash-bruised body (he claimed).
Veijer went hurtling out of Turn Eight on Lap Seventeen, his bike shedding its skin like a garlic clove being rolled over a chopping board.
The lead battle got truly interesting about three laps from the end, when Vietti finally lost the race lead he’d been holding on to the entire race to González. As the two riders remained close together, both really wanting to see the checkered flag first – though we were sure that by then they were both simply praying to see the checkered flag at all – their respective motorcycles turned into Supermotos, sliding around corners and snaking out of them in most entertaining fashion.
Finally, González rounded the last corner for the last time, claiming the victory, while Vietti had to be content with second. Guevara finished less dramatically in third.
MotoGP:
Following his crash in France, Marc Márquez was ordered to sit the Catalan MotoGP out, too.
Sprint Race:
Acosta on pole? The shark was on a roll.
It didn’t take long for riders to start falling. The first to go were Binder and Mir at the very first turn.
Upon further inspection, it was noted that Di Giannantonio was at the core of it all, him and Binder coming together as the pack pinched itself into the turn. Binder, went skidding, his KTM collecting Mir along the way. For a few seconds, Mir found himself surfing on top of a KTM-branded surfboard, his own Honda clinging to the other bike for dear life, begging its rider not to abandon it.
Martín leaned into Turn Ten on Lap Three. Leaned in… Leaned in… Slipped out of the turn. He quickly picked up his Aprilia, and continued to dig a grave with his rear wheel vast enough to swallow two-thirds of his wheel in its depths. Truly not a great weekend for the Martinator.
By the end of the sixth lap, Viñales peeled into pit lane. No, it wasn’t physical troubles: his bike had peed all over his right boot.
The lead battle promised us an exciting final lap showdown.
It lied.
Márquez (really? We don’t have to specify this weekend, do we?) took a very close victory, at least, likely the closest Sprint win we’ve ever seen with a gap of about 0.014 seconds between him and Acosta, who begrudgingly took second. Di Giannantonio ended up taking a close third.
Main Race:
Right. Where do we even begin? The Sunday race in Catalunya is officially in the running for the most chaotic race of the season. Well, maybe ever…
We’ll do our best to detail the events which brought us to this conclusion. Bear with us. It was insane.
Before the race, things went splendidly: A human pyramid wobbled to life on the Start/Finish straight, two anthems were played beautifully, and everyone took up their positions for what was supposed to be a typical MotoGP race…
Binder arrived on the grid after the Warm Up Lap, and immediately shot through the wall-gap to pit lane, his KTM having decided to die at that moment. Luckily for him, they managed to restart the machine quick enough for him to join the race start, albeit from pit lane.
For the next ten laps, the most interesting incident was Bastianini’s KTM developing a technical flu, forcing him to duck off-track at Turn One. He parked behind the wall, and decided he would just spectate from there for now.
It was on Lap Twelve where things went haywire. One moment we were enjoying a most wonderful battle between Acosta and Márquez – you know which one by now – the next moment, pieces of bike rained down across the track as Márquez piled down the right side of Acosta’s bike in an attempt to avoid fully rear-ending the suddenly decelerating machine.
It appeared that, while doing around two-hundred-and-fifty kilometres an hour down the short straight leading into Turn Ten, Acosta’s KTM inexplicably lost the ability to do the Fast; although Acosta’s right hand was in the air faster than a gunshot, Márquez was too close – he probably didn’t even see the raising hand at all before his Ducati shredded the side of the limping machine ahead of him.
Márquez put in a valiant effort to pull his bike away from the rapidly approaching wall to his right, as could be seen in just how far he was leaning it left in replays, but the moment his wheels touched the dirt and grass, it was over: Álex went tumbling violently in a trajectory that was mercifully parallel to the solid wall, his Ducati performing a death dance behind him that would go down in the records as one of the most insane, no, most destructive crashes ever witnessed in MotoGP.
The Gresini Ducati was ripped apart so fully, pieces of the debris were flung in all directions across the track. This debris-field claimed a few victims of its own: Fernández got whacked on the right collarbone so hard, he needed an entire team to lift him off his bike; Di Giannantonio found himself face-to-face with a disembodied front wheel, wielding one fork like a bat, which knocked him right off and resulted in a painful left arm; Zarco was later seen icing his left foot in the pits, clearly also a victim of the utter chaos.
It was no surprise then when the Red Flags went flying soon after. Riders filed back to the pits, some in pain, some confused, some in shock.
Acosta’s rear tyre had popped from the sheer force of the impact, and since his bike was still limping, he was helped along by multiple members of the unofficial MotoGP Towing Company.
While a mass of marshals and medical staff tended to Márquez trackside, riders sat in their respective garages, each in varying levels of concern and shock.
It was quickly announced that Álex was conscious, though it took some time after that for him to be loaded into the waiting ambulance and be whisked away to a local hospital for further assessment.
Side note: Some absolutely epic photos have already emerged. Once-in-a-lifetime shots. Behind those images, we’d like to bring to your attention, was a line of fecal-stained photographers. Dedication to the job!
Side-side note/update: It was later announced that Márquez had suffered fractures to his C7 vertebra, as well as his right clavicle, and the local hospital would be bolting him back together Sunday evening. All things considered, he came off incredibly lightly.
Since two-thirds race distance had not yet been completed, a Quick Restart was announced, with the new race being thirteen laps long. All the riders were eligible to join the restarted race, safe for Márquez (obviously) and Bastanini, and the grid would be based on the positions at the end of Lap Eleven.
The grid filled up once more for the race start, the lights went out… and que Chaos Take Two.
Zarco came into Turn One utterly hot, piling into the rear of Marini’s Honda, then both bikes and their riders collected Bagnaia on their way off the track.
And Bagnaia’s Ducati collected Zarco’s left leg in retaliation.
Johann found himself flung into the air by a tumbling, vengeful Ducati, before coming to rest in the gravel-dust beyond.
Red Flags got to come out and play for a second time, while the marshals and medical staff earned their keep. Zarco was soon loaded into an ambulance, and taken to the Medical Centre, reportedly conscious.
Minor update on Zarco’s Ducati-chewed leg: According to reports, he’s suffered some fracture(s) to his femur. However, according to a post by Zarco himself, he had some torn ligaments, and a small fracture in his left fibula, NOT his femur. We await further updates.
While a dust-devil shaped like Marini sprinted down pit lane, a new Quick Restart was deliberated, this time over twelve laps.
At this stage, we knew everyone was thinking the same things: 1) please no more maulings! And:
2) we need a drink.
During the opening lap, Fernández and Martín made contact as Martin put the squeeze on Fernández into Turn Five, and Fernández ended up pushing Martín off the track while remaining upright himself. Though both rejoined the action soonest, it was clearer than a newly-polished glass door that Martín was the personification of fury.
A whisp of steam followed him for the rest of the race, and as his team tried to console him after the race, he resorted to pushing them away – literally, and aggressively.
Though he did apologise later, that was not a very mature way to handle your emotions. Poor conduct, Jorge; we’re disappointed.
While still hoping for a podium finish, Acosta went flying off at the final corner on the last lap, after contact was made with Ogura. And though it was of little consolation to Acosta, Ogura was given a three-second penalty – equal to a Long Lap Penalty – for this.
Your podium-trio looked like this across the line: Di Giannantonio in first, Mir in second, and Aldeguer in third.
However, that was not the ultimate final result: Mir was penalised post-race for iffy tyre pressure, which promoted Aldeguer into second, and lifted Bagnaia onto the podium in third.
A little further back, Binder crossed the line in ninth, but courtesy of the two riders who were penalised ahead of him, ended up with seventh. A very good result, all things considered.
We now have a two-week breather to recover from this weekend’s events. We reckon that the ridrers need it more than we do… See you on the other side!
~ Karr
