Words: Karrbon Copy
Pics: MotoGP.com
Parking lots filled to the brim with motorcycles, neatly squeezed into rows, and equally packed grand stands – Andalusian fans never disappoint. In the crowd, Yoda was!
Speaking of which, it was confirmed to be a capacity-crowd at Jerez, the first in quite a few years. Traffic jams were at the order of the day. We reckon it’d be easier to just sleep on your bike for the weekend.
Moto 3
As the grid filled up for the Lightweight Class’s race, one might’ve noticed a slight change in the front row. This was because Muñoz had been sent to the back of the class for going too slow during Q2, and getting in the way of a few riders who were actually trying to go fast. More than once.
This meant that Piqueras was now promoted up into the third slot.
A handful of other riders were also caught cruising on the racing line during Qualifying; they were given a Long Lap Penalty each: Roulstone (who disagreed but will take his penalty), Dettwiler, and Perrone.
Things started off with a bang. We had to wait only six corners from the race start for chaos to erupt. Three riders tumbled off the track at Turn Six, caked together like the mascara on that one aunt of yours’ lashes.
Muñoz and Almansa made contact first, rubbing fairings and elbows towards the outside of the pack. Behind them, Moodley appeared to overshoot the corner, carving a bee-line from the inner corner outward, somehow missing all the riders – except for the previously mentioned entangled duo.
Moodley went piling into Muñoz and Almansa, and the three tumbled off amidst a storm of body parts. Motorcycle body parts…. you sick buggers – motorcycle body parts.
Muñoz was the only one to remount and rush off, clearly unharmed. However, he finally called it quits just shy of half race distance.
*Post-race update: Moodley had suffered a fracture to his right radius.
At the start of the second lap, Rossi went down at Turn One. Marshals lifted his bike by the tail and pushed it through the gravel, while Ricci trudged along after it.
Not long after Rossi, both Buchanan and Esteban crashed, each on their own. Esteban was the first, falling off at Turn Nine.
Buchanan managed to get his bike back on the tarmac, where he received a helpful push-start from some marshals. Gravel littered the track, but at least not where it mattered…. Apparently.
Meanwhile, the three riders at the front of the race were steadily pulling away from the rest. Things settled down a little. Perhaps a little too much. It became far too monotonous for a Moto3 race.
During the eleventh lap, Carraro disappeared at Turn One.
As the race neared the last quarter or so, Rueda pulled the pin. He dropped a gear, and disappeared – He really vamoosed…. skedaddled. By the time he passed the checkered flag, the gap between Rueda and the next motorcycle on-track was four eons. O’Shea ended up in the gravel as he neared the end of the penultimate lap, sliding off at the last corner. To reiterate, Rueda won the race with ten country miles of clear air behind him. Piqueras took second, and Kelso third.
During the cooldown lap, Rueda and Piqueras came together in a celebratory wall-climbing excursion in front of the ecstatic home fans, but only Rueda climbed the actual fence as well. Fence successfully climbed, Rueda was shown to where he had to light the ten metres of firecrackers, before jogging back to his bike.
Kelso arrived to his Parc Fermé interview clutching shyly at a piece of paper. On it was the photo of a bulldog, and the caption ‘Javi the Bulldog’. It turned out that Kelso was promised Javi the Bulldog if he finished on the podium at Jerez. Welcome home, Javi.
Moto2:
No Aji – he’d dislocated a shoulder.
López gently slipped from the pack at Turn Two on the opening lap, rejoined, and crashed once again come lap Eighteen, though the latter occurred at Turn Six. He opted to again remount, but the Black Flag was soon waved in his face, and he was forced to call it a day.
We would like to award him the Sparky Award for the second slide. As a small consolation.
At the end of the first lap, Holgado dove up the inside of teammate Alonso going through the final turn; there was contact, Holgado’s motorcycle lifted, and his right foot somehow set itself down on Alonso’s rear tyre, twisting in such a way that we felt it where we sat and observed. It looked painful, no lies. While Alonso managed to remain upright, Holgado was not as lucky. Not the ideal way to spend your twentieth birthday, Daniel. Happy birthday?
Four laps later, and again at Turn Thirteen, Alonso was involved in another incident. This time, he was the instigator.
First, Alonso’s front tyre let go, sending him sliding into the rear of Guevara. Guevara was flipped over, disappearing momentarily behind his motorcycle while Alonso kissed said motorcycle’s rear wheel, whether he wanted to or not.
Both riders and the bikes went tumbling off; Alonso – sans visor – had to hold on for dear life to a marshal as he tried to walk away, about as steady on his feet as the alcoholic beggar on the street corner.
Sasaki went off at Turn One on Lap Twelve.
Much like Rueda earlier, González took his lead and bolted. By Lap Nine, he was already over two seconds ahead. By the fourteenth lap, he was gone.
The real action transpired behind González, as Agius and Moreira went at one another in an epic final lap battle to decide who would finish third.
González took the win by wheelieing across the finish line. Baltus snatched up second, while Agius won the fight for third.
Binder ended the race in nineteenth.
During his cooldown lap, González escaped onto the service road beyond the tyre walls, where he got mugged and his boots pulled from his feet. By the time he returned to the circuit, Manuel was bootless and gloveless. And shortly after mounting his bike again, he flung his chest protector up at the fans. We feared he would arrive in Parc Fermé in his boxers.
MotoGP:
Last time out, we welcomed Martín back to the mayhem. This time, we again wish him all the best as he recuperates from his new injuries. Someone hexed our reigning Champ, no doubt about it.
Savadori would be filling his seat.
Oh, look – Aleix is back on the grid. The Spaniard would be Wildcarding at Jerez on a Honda.
Saturday Sprint Race:
There was no penalty for Marc by the start of the Sprint. Sorry neh, Pecco.
The race started, Marc took the lead into Turn One, and Quartararo pulled a bold overtake in order to reclaim it. We were set for a fantastic showdown, it seemed.
But oh woe, the second lap!
Marc made his way up the inside of Fabio as they approached Turn Six, but Quartararo refused to relent his lead so easily and tried to defend. And defended a little too hard.
You could almost hear the Yamaha’s tyres screaming for mercy as Fabio tried to ride out the turn on the outside of Marc. Finally his tyres could hold on no more, sending Quartararo into the kitty litter.
*Copy/paste every other Márquez Squared Sprint here*
By Lap Five, Turn Six claimed its second Yamaha in the form of Miller’s ride.
Zarco went flopping down the downhill into the second turn one lap later.
Not much else to report, we’re afraid. Déjà vu set in, with Márquez (Marc) claiming the victory (again), becoming the first rider to ever take five Sprint Race wins on the trot. Little brother Álex again took second, while Bagnaia found himself in yet another third place.
Main Race:
Before the main race action commenced, a minute of silence was called for the late pope Francis.
Then there were planes blasting over the main straight, spewing smoke. It was fantabulous!
This was a MotoGP race for the books. Unpredictable, drama-encrusted, glorious racing through and through.
Right off the starting line, we had a heart-stopping scrap between the two Factory Ducati riders that would last the entirety of the first lap. Multiple Ducati employees had mini heart attacks as the two – very literally – bumped and bashed one another.
Somewhere in the background of the Red Feud, we lost Bezzecchi.
Having survived the opening lap, Marc Márquez found himself chasing Bagnaia from third place. Then, while on Lap Three, Marc tilted into Turn Eight and… slid off into the dust, all the while remaining glued to his seat unit. His team might’ve had mild heart failures, but the fans were in full-on hysterics.
Having been glued to the seat as he was, Marc managed to return to the track in record time, though he still found himself playing catch-up from behind, setting race-winning lap times with a left fairing that resembled poorly-shredded cheese.
During the sixth lap, Aldeguer was halfway through Turn Six when his tyres gave way and he found himself sliding off. Fermín did rejoin, but by the end of Lap Nineteen, he peeled into the pits.
Quartararo managed to hold on to the race lead until the start of Lap Eleven, when Álex Márquez finally lunged past him. And pulled off. Nobody was going to catch him, except himself.
The old fiend Arm Pump forced Chantra to retire to the pits by the end of Lap Twelve.
Miller’s Aprilia picked up an electrical gremlin during Lap Fifteen, making him slow to a cruise and ultimately drop out of the race.
A little later on the same lap, we observed the might of the Commentator’s Curse in real-time; as we watched Mir entering Turn Six, the commentators were debating his race and whatnot, when he abruptly exited stage right, sliding off into the kitty litter. A physically unscathed Mir stood up and paused to look forlornly at the track, before slowly walking away.
A crunching noise in the background of the audio alerted us of yet another crasher. It turned out to be Morbidelli shooting off at Turn Eleven at much speed.
One rider who managed to keep his cool and ride his best race ever in MotoGP, was Álex Márquez. The junior Márquez had finally won a MotoGP race, stepping out of his big brother’s shadow and basking in the roar of the Jerez crowds.
Quartararo somehow held firm in second, while Bagnaia remained stuck in third.
Binder meanwhile crept his way up into sixth, avoiding all the chaos around him in the process. Good job.
Everyone in the Gresini garage were bawling. Álex was bawling. If you looked closely, you could see the wet streaks running off his leathers as he cruised around on his cooldown lap.
When Álex hopped off his Ducati mid-track, we were convinced someone had stuck a bunch of springs to the soles of his boots – he was bouncing around like a kid on a pogo stick. Even across the gravel did he bounce. He looked like a child who’d received the exact toy he’d wished for on his birthday, who was simultaneously on a massive sugar-rush.
He tossed his gloves at the fans, though it looked like his boots remained on his feet.
Lots of celebratory bouncing later, Álex remounted his bike. Which refused to start at first; we were just contemplating whether a marshal relay team would have to push him back to the pits when, thankfully, the Ducati barked to life.
The bouncing continued in Parc Fermé. As did the bawling. This was brought to a climax when Big Bro Marc came clambering over barriers and crowds in order to give his little brother a congratulatory hug in Parc Fermé.
By the time they got ‘round to his interview, Álex could hardly string half a sentence together, half the words that came out were ‘amazing’. Yes, Álex, winning your first MotoGP race after being second to your superstar brother countless times, must feel ‘amazing’, indeed.
Special mention to Quartararo, who became the first fan-voted Rider of the Day, ever. It’s a new gimmick, and it might just catch on.
That is it from Jerez; the queues of traffic out of the circuit grounds must be atrocious. Some things are better watching from afar, sometimes. ~ Karr
