It was a sunny, rainless race-day for the Jerez Moto GP. Nearly three-hundred-thousand fans in attendance absolutely shattered the All-Time records! You could hear the crowds above the noise of the bikes.
It was flippen amazing!
By Karien Pretorius.
Moto3:
In terms of Moto3 races in general, this one was pretty calm.
Everyone’s money was on Alonso to win it, because he dominated the entire weekend. Much to our dismay then, was the moment he crashed out of the lead at the final corner of Lap One. Muñoz, who was close behind, received a showering of sparks which made for one epic slo-mo shot.
Sparky Award to Alonso.
He remounted rapidly to join the race in twenty-sixth, or dead last. Credit to Alonso: he ended the race up in eleventh place, after a handful of very aggressive, barging moves.
The Timing Tower suffered a seizure during the first lap, disappearing for a moment to regain its composure.
At the end of Lap Three, Suzuki’s machine suddenly picked up a technical gremlin, forcing him to limp around for the full fourth lap before he could pop into the pits. Apparently, his steering had gone No Left Turn.
About two laps later, he rejoined the race. Hey, you never know when chaos could hit and send you back into contention.
Esteban was doing a great job of entertaining us with his stellar riding shenanigans, until he did a Zarco-in-Sprint move, crashing on the final turn of the race. He was so furious with himself, he had to take out his frustration on something – that something turned out to be the tarmac, which he double-punched so hard, dents remain.
Having basically led the race ever since Alonso crashed, Veijer managed to stay on top right up to the checkered flag, winning the race by a gap of nothing. This was because Muñoz had been so close to his rear wheel, they could’ve been on a tandem motorcycle. Failing to catch Veijer, Muñoz had to make do with second in front of his home crowd; Ortolá, meanwhile, took third.
Fans around the track were showered in gloves. Many happy people at Jerez.
Moto2:
On the other side of the spectrum, Moto2 delivered more crashes and action than the Juniors; another unusual turn of events.
Was it just us, or did the lap-counter go all wonky? It confused the heck out of us, so, just to be safe, almost no mention shall be made of laps throughout this section.
For those who don’t know about Canet’s crash-and-crunch: honestly, where have you been? Arón crashed violently in practice, resulting in a fracture in his left leg. Or ankle. Somewhere over there. Our best wishes for a rapid recovery.
Sasaki has also been deemed unfit to race due to his injuries.
Dixon’s woes started as early as his sighting lap, turning up on the grid with a complaint of Slav Virus causing his motorcycle to squat all the time. The rear shock was yanked out on-grid. At least his team managed to put his bike back together before the race started.
Early in the race, Agius found himself tripping over the rear of Baltus due to hyperfixating on Van den Goorbergh who was closing the gap on him from the right. Agius’ head got curbed hard as he was tossed from the seat. Zonta was later handed a Long Lap Penalty for his part in the incident.
Not long after, Bendsneyder became turn thirteen’s first victim with a high-side of impressive height. Artigas suffered a similar fate about a lap later, checking his gloved hand as he walked off, an act that made him look a lot like a girl coming out of the salon with a fresh set of nails.
It didn’t take much longer for Foggia to slide off at Turn Thirteen as well; his crash appeared to be mild, yet the facial contortions witnessed in the pits later on told of deathlike pain. Likely cause: haematoma to the ego.
Somewhere along the line, Darryn Binder fell off at Turn Six. Yes, we know: not Turn Thirteen? Incredible!
Baltus crashed quietly soon after Darryn.
Turn Thirteen continued its streak by separating Dixon from his spinning motorcycle, leaving a dazed Jake mid-track.
Moreira got his turn to slide off at Turn Thirteen a short while later, nearly doing the splits as he went.
But the award for most exciting crash at the thirteenth turn had to go the way of Escrig – the Spaniard was launched with incredible velocity over the handlebars, falling on his head while his bike turned into a raging bull charging back across the track in order to go scare a few mechanics at the pit wall.
Thankfully, all the riders in its path managed to evade its assault, and the wall proved a tad harder to break through than the machine had anticipated.
Ramírez also suffered the wrath of Turn Thirteen, sliding off holding on tightly to the handlebars. Was that the end of it? Had Turn Thirteen had its fill?
Of course not, don’t be daft. Nearing the end of the race, López copied Ramírez’s fall at the Corner of Doom.
But Turn Thirteen didn’t have the final say in the crashing mayhem – that honour went to Turn Ten and its leather-shredding rock tumbling of Masià during the closing lap.
Oblivious to the chaos behind, Aldeguer was cruising to a home victory, with his lead more than adequate to allow fore a wheelie all the way from the exit of Turn Thirteen and across the finish line. Roberts made a few daring moves on González, and vice versa, which resulted in Roberts taking yet another second place while González had to make do with third.
Fermín: climbs tyre wall, egging on his Fan Club.Nearly falls twice while on said tyre wall. He then climbed the fence; that shoulder cam footage reminded of a GoPro strapped to an adventurous cat. We approve.
The real reason Roberts pushed so hard to be on the podium? To say ‘Happy Birthday, Mom!’ live on air. Awwww.
MotoGP: Saturday Sprint Race:
What happened here? Where do we start?
Utter mayhem, and it didn’t even rain.
On Lap One, Espargaró Senior’s Aprilia shook him off at Turn Eight, before making a run for it. Aleix stood kneeling in the gravel, glaring at his right knee like it was somehow to blame.
By the end of Lap One, Miller’s weekend got even worse when he crashed at the last turn.
But the true chaos kicked off when Lap Three started…
A three-way bomb fest between Bezzecchi, Binder, and Bagnaia ended up in a Pecco-sandwich into turn one. The outer ‘bread’ layers were squashed together a little too hard, resulting in the Bagnaia-filling being pushed out – Bagnaia and Binder rubbed elbows, whereafter Pecco’s spooked bike tripped over Bezzecchi.
Pecco, out.
DiGi upheld his Sprint tradition when he tucked the front going into Turn Thirteen for the fourth time; the Junior Fabio punched the tarmac while his Ducati laid down to rest in the pebble-bed.
On the seventh lap, we lost Savadori, and shortly after that, Rins binned it at the last turn, narrowly missing out on taking Augusto Fernández along for company.
Roll on the ninth lap, and queue the Synchronised Slide Team.
The fifth turn played host to a crazy three-rider show when Binder, Bastianini, and Márquez (Jr.) all slipped and slid off in near-perfect synchronicity. Alex had to do a little improv two-step in order to avoid getting dozed by an oncoming riderless KTM, and by some luck none of the trio were walloped by flying machines and debris.
Moments after, Márquez – Senior, this time – went sliding out of the lead he’d just inherited, his hands never leaving the handlebars. He quickly lifted his Ducati from Turn Nine’s gravel, and rejoined the race. Sparky Award earned, as a consolation prize.
On the next lap, Viñales tried to audition for the Turn Five Synchronised Slide Team, though he was one lap too late.
A moody Marc Márquez punted his former teammate, Mir, out of his way during his eleventh-lap onslaught, something Race Direction did not approve of, and subsequently made him drop a position as a penalty.
Bradl and Marini crashed out of the very last lap, while Zarco left his retirement to the very last corner, completing ninety-nine-point-six-seven-nine percent of the race – corner wise – only to show up a DNF’er.
Somewhere amongst the carnage, we also lost Bezzecchi in a rock-tumble that’d leave anything polished to a gleam.
Everything aside, Martín won by a massive margin, wheelieing across the finish line. Acosta got second, something his home crowd fans were delighted with, if such a light word could describe the destructive celebratory forces. And even more of an unpredicted result came in the form of Quartararo taking third place**.
**More stars relating to Dani…el Pedrosa: due to Quartararo’s rubber being underfilled, he was later penalised by eight seconds, promoting Pedrosa into third.
Post-race, the crowds were hanging on the fences, nearly toppling them over, roaring at their young Sharkboy.
Side note: if he gets himself a girlfriend, do we call her Lavagirl?
Acosta, during his Parc Fermé interview, on Turns Five and Eight: ‘…the wet spots were quite, eh… wet…’ Yes, very observant.
Main Race:
Sweet mother of racing! What a show that was. These boys showcased why they are the very best in the world.
Pre-race, Borsoi noted in a quick chat with Master Crafar that they simply had to ‘make no stupid mistakes.’ He said this multiple times.
Did Martín listen?
Augusto Fernández jumped the start, and was told to do the Long Lap Loop twice. This he ignored, and was subsequently upgraded to a Ride-Through Penalty.
At Turn Five on the first lap, Zarco got shovey with Acosta, shouldering the youngster out of his way.
On Lap Four, Pedrosa was ejected from his seat on the horizontal at the eighth turn.
Zarco was again involved with some contact sport on the tenth lap, getting rough with Aleix through Turn Eight. Aleix’s Aprilia went cartwheeling through the gravel, violently demolishing itself in the process, while its rider tumbled through the same gravel in the foreground. Zarco shot past behind the carnage, ploughing a straight line from the tarmac to the wall.
Recall Borsoi’s casual note (read: warning) pre-race? Evidently, Martín did not get that memo; while leading the race on Lap Eleven, Martín went sliding off at Turn Six. He kept his gaze firmly fixed on the racing line, possibly hoping that enough denial would make the fall go away. Unfortunately, that isn’t how life works. Martín went off to sit on a wall, his head hung low, to sulk for a while before returning to his box.
Three laps shy of the chequered flag-drop, Morbidelli made an aggressive launch down the inside of Miller at Turn Five, lost it, and wiped the Australian clean off the track. During their tumble through the pebbles, Jack’s KTM used him as a human ramp, getting some impressive airtime.
One very pissed off Miller gave Morbidelli a vicious talking-to, while one marshal tried to distract him by waving his arms in front of Jack’s face. Need to add a beer or something to those waving hands if you want to distract a furious Aussie, mate.
After a final couple of laps which not even the brassiest of the Ducati brass could bear to watch, where Bagnaia deposited half his front tyre on Márquez Senior’s right arm, it was the red Ducati that reached the finish line first. If you missed it – well! What can we say?
Bagnaia was the victor in Jerez; Marc took second – the crowds roared even harder. Bezzecchi broke his drought by clenching third and making it an all-Ducati podium.
Brad Binder, having not quite had the impeccable start off the line he had in the Sprint, finished a very respectable sixth.
Nice one!
Márquez – the podium-er, duh – fell to his knees, bowing to his fans before climbing the fence to celebrate. This time the fence did indeed break. Fans didn’t breach the sanctum of track-space. Weird.
In Parc Fermé, Bezzecchi jumped Pecco, sending them both to the floor. Good times.
For the fourth time this year, we were treated to some spectacular action.
These boys have massive skill!
We can’t wait for the next one!
~ Karr
