Once again, Mandalika delivered heaps of drama on the utterly gorgeous hunk of land that is Lombok Island.
And it was hot. The weather, not the drama. Well, the drama, too.
Moto3:
The math:
In order to become Moto3 champion, Quiles had to 1) not score more than two points less than Almansa, not more than ten less than Carpe, and not more than fourteen less than Uriarte; 2) finish on the podium with Almansa behind him; or 3) simply win the race.
Across the grid, there were many tributes to one Christian Daniel Senior, father of junior racer Christian Daniel Junior, who’d lost his life in the recent Barcelona floods. Our condolences to his family.
Back to the race at hand, and a whole bucketload of grid penalties.
Munoz was dropped three spots for causing contact with Moodley, while Danish was sent straight to the back of the grid, having been caught cruising on the racing line moments after setting his personal best lap.
An impromptu Dawdler’s Club meeting during Qualifying saw multiple riders being shunted twelve positions backwards. The offending members were, in no particular order, Ogden, Moodley, Mitani, Rammerstorfer, and O’Shea.
The opening lap was a real nerve-wracker, with Lap Two not falling far behind. Miraculously, there were no mass-offings in these laps.
First to fall was O’Gorman on Lap Three, who became the latest rider to join the MotoGP low-orbit space program as he was launched out of his seat at Turn Four. After crash-landing, O’Gorman took a moment on all fours to regain his bearings.
Split seconds after O’Gorman, his teammate Rammerstorfer tumbled by in the background.
And a few seconds later, Ogiwara followed O’Gorman’s example, flying through the air just to fall chin-first into the gravel just like a cartoon character.
Munoz was handed a Long Lap Penalty for taking a shortcut at Turn Five.
While leading the race by a good three seconds, Quiles decided to take a short, scenic detour. He did this again on Lap Nine.
By the end of Lap Ten, Munoz retired to the pits, the reason being the return of the ghost of an old arm fracture.
While trying to cut down the inside of Fernandez going through Turn Ten on the eleventh lap, Carpe slipped, his KTM rolling over the tail of Fernandez’s bike like it was trying to catch a lift before both rider and machine clattered off into the gravel. Fernandez, surprisingly, did not join in on the crash, his bike wagging its tail as he continued to race.
One lap later, Cruces’ bike lost contact with the tarmac, sliding off at Turn Sixteen and clipping both Bertelle’s and Salmela’s rear wheels along the way. Luckily neither of them accepted the candid invitation to crash.
More than once, we caught a glimpse of Mama and Papa Quiles gnawing off their fingers in the garage, watching the screens with eyes wide as saucers.
Nearing the end of the race, Moodley crashed at Turn Sixteen.
A ghost allegedly crashed at Turn Ten on the final lap.
His lead again at a comfortable three seconds, Quiles risked a few waves at the crowd through the final few corners, before wheelieing past the checkered flag to claim the race win.
Almansa put in a good effort, finishing second, while third place was eventually nicked by Uriarte.
Queue the celebrations, Quiles was officially Moto3 World Champion!
He became only the fifth rider to win a World Championship with five rounds still left on the calendar, and the first rider in history to do so in Moto3.
Trackside celebrations took on a gladiator-theme, Quiles being greeted by helmeted men and handed a decorated shield, before making his way to the centre of a circle of more helmeted people bearing shields. Each shield bore the name of a World Champion who’d claimed their title while riding for the Gaviota Aspar team. We liked this celebration.
Having knelt in the middle of the circle, Quiles received his Champion’s helmet – a midnight-navy blue unit with golden flourishes. Ten out of ten, would wear.
His bike’s number was stripped off, and replaced by a mirror-finish ‘1’ and laurel leaves.
Upon arrival at the main straight, Quiles was mugged by the Marquez brothers, who eventually let him proceed to the Champion’s podium that had been erected in record speed in the middle of the straight. There, he was given his own, unique gladiator helmet, along with his shield.
He is a World Champion. Congratulations!
Moto2:
For a moment, we thought we’d somehow teleported a few hours into the future, missing the Moto2 race entirely and waking up at the start of the Grand Prix. Why, you ask? Because the opening commentary revolved around Marc Marquez and the Grand Prix championship.
The heck, guys?
Though there were not nearly as many penalties as in Moto3, there still were a few. Lopez had to start six slots backwards, after he stopped trackside with a technical issue, causing ‘unnecessary yellow flags’. Apparently, he’d run out of fuel.
Both Canet and Baltus were punished for going slow in Practice, Canet getting a nine-position shunt towards the back, while Baltus had to start last on the grid.
Lap One. Total chaos erupted at Turn One as Holgado, seemingly distracted by the rider to his inner right, ran into Alonso’s rear tyre, sending Alonso into stratospheric orbit while his motorcycle was torn to pieces, scattering across the track.
Suddenly, Veijer was confronted by a tail-fueltank chunk of bike directly ahead of him, which he was unable to dodge since he did not possess magical levitation powers. while Veijer crashed down over the tank, Roberts was collected in the mayhem as further collateral.
Amidst the confusion, Holgado received a mean uppercut from Alonso’s rear tyre, leaving a thick coating of rubber across his chest, and a goatee-shaped scrape on his chin.
Before the end of the lap, the Red Flags were thrust into the air.
Alonso, in obvious pain – physically as well as emotionally – was scootered back to his garage as marshals and team members carried the shards of his bike back.
Even though it was announced that everyone was eligible to take the restart, there was no level of insane mechanical Lego-building that would’ve put that machine back together in time.
Inside another garage door, a right pissed-off Veijer tossed his gloves on the floor. At least he would end up racing again in the restarted race.
Did Sasaki crash after the Red Flag? No? Oh, okay then. Carry on.
A quick restart with the original grid – minus Alonso – lining up for fourteen laps of racing soon commenced.
After the Warm-Up Lap, Roberts peeled right back into pit lane, something clearly not fixed on his crashed machine.
Vietti used his bike as a bowling ball at Turn Ten on the third lap, whereafter he chose to stand at the edge of the track, holding his bike, staring forlornly across the circuit at the distant waves.
Canet parked his bike next to the track on Lap Eight, after it suffered a mystery technical illness.
After trying to take a shortcut at Turn Nine, Aji was slapped with a Long Lap Penalty.
Meanwhile, Escrig had been lovingly nurturing the lead of the race, and it seemed inevitable that he would finally be taking home a Moto2 trophy.
Then, less than two laps away from crossing the finish line, Escrig took Turn Thirteen – and abruptly sat up, his hand in the air, and the machine underneath him, for all intents and purposes, dead. The heartbreak was tangible through our screens, as Escrig coasted down into pit lane, his hopes of a race win dashed by no fault of his own.
Escrig’s sudden retirement meant that Guevara was gifted the race win, celebrating with a stand-up wheelie across the line. Gonzalez minimised the damage to his championship campaign by taking second, while Holgado recovered from the earlier mayhem to take third.
In Parc Fermé, Holgado tripped over the number three board, and would reveal in his interview later that his bike was not functioning at hundred-percent, describing it going ‘bhoop-bhoop, bhoop-bhoop’ on the throttle down the straights all race long.
As things stood after the race, the Moto2 championship was ridiculously close. It is promising to be an interesting fight, all the way to the end of the season, if we’re lucky!
MotoGP:
Aleix Espargaro made a return to the grid this weekend, standing in for the injured Mir.
Sprint Race:
Before we touch the Sprint controversies, allow us to wish DI Giannantonio a very happy birthday!
On the grid, Martin instructed his lady to fix his eyelashes, after which he gave her a kiss that warranted censoring.
The race started, with Fernandez (Raul, in case you were unsure) pulling off well from his maiden pole.
We saw the catastrophe coming the moment four motorcycles lined up like a firing squad before entering Turn One. Sure enough, as they leaned into the curve, Marquez – Marc, second from the curb at this stage – had to check up a smidge in order to avoid running into Di Giannantonio’s rear wheel ahead of him, after a gentle nudge from Marc’s knee had caused DiGi to accidentally gear down an extra gear, breaking his speed a bit more than anticipated.
This set off a domino effect, Bezzecchi’s Aprilia getting spooked by Marc’s move, resulting in it losing its footing and toppling over, collecting Raul at the same time and both riders going dirt-bathing.
A sarcasm-laden round of applause from Raul was somewhat misdirected at Bezzecchi, the virgin pole-sitter out of the race before he could get warmed up. Or perhaps he was applauding Bez’s brilliant breakdancing moves?
Were Marquez (still Marc) and DiGi a tad over-eager in their divebombing? Possibly.
Was Raul livid to the point where paint peeled off walls as he steamed past them? Judging by his face, we would guess so.
Brivio was asked what he thought of the incident, and, among other things, he noted that Marc and DiGi had been ‘too aggressive’ for the first corner of the race.
There. That was the biggest upset in the Saturday race.
The second big upset came on Lap Nine, when Martin abruptly slowed, handing his comfortable lead over to Marquez (still Marc). One could only assume it had something to do with his front tyre’s pressure.
Acosta was accosted for playing in the Track Limits too often, and had to complete a Long Lap Penalty.
Two laps from the finish, Martin’s race went from ‘meh’ to ‘eish’ as his rear wheel tried to race his front wheel through Turn Fifteen. Somehow, he managed to get them back in line without going for a dip in the kitty litter, but it ended up costing him a podium finish.
Marquez (yes, still Marc) took his gifted victory, while Ogura finished in second, and Di Giannantonio in third.
Binder’s race was rather anonymous, our boy ending it in sixteenth.
With yet another Sprint win under his belt, and with two big contenders in the Championship being eliminated from the race, Marc jumped into the Championship lead for the first time this season.
Main Race:
After the Sprint race crash, Fernandez started the main race with his right index finger tightly wrapped up, broken.
Since the crash on Saturday, tension between Raul and Marco was high, Raul convinced Bezzecchi was solely to blame for him not completing the Sprint. It apparently got to a point where Aprilia and co. sat their riders down like teenagers in a high school disagreement, and gave them The Speech.
May we digress for a moment to talk about Pertamina Enduro VR46’s special livery? It was stunning, like sunshine on a golden beach. And boy, did it stand out on-track.
Marc Marquez celebrated his three-hundredth Grand Prix start this Sunday, too.
Unfortunately, Espargaro decided to withdraw from the main race.
Before the race began, half of the Lombok population poured onto the track for the opening ceremony. It was bright, sparkly, musical and wonderful as dancers, a marching band, singers, flag-dancers, and even a children’s choir provided everyone with a ten-out-of-ten performance.
Returning to the race: Razzledagglegoo was sent three spots backwards on the grid for getting in the way of Bezzecchi during Warm-Up earlier.
This time, the first lap went by without any massive events.
Aldeguer was the first casualty, sliding off smoothly as he leaned through Turn Sixteen on the second lap. His hand shot up mid-slide in the general ‘seriously?’ gesture, and though the playback cut it off, we were certain he punched the passing tarmac directly after.
As further evidence for our claims, we present the post-race revelation that Aldeguer had broken his right hand; so much so that he would need surgery.
During Lap Six, Miller went straight instead of curved at Turn Two, stumbling very cleanly onto his feet in the gravel.
A strong sense of déjà vu hit Bagnaia as he crashed out at Turn Seventeen on the same lap.
Toprak decided to call it a day at the end of Lap Eight, retiring to his garage as he finally acknowledged that a freshly dislocated-and-self-relocated shoulder indeed hurt like a bitch.
The infamous tyre pressure issue surfaced once again, with Acosta and Marquez (Marc) handing fourth position to one another like a game of hot potato.
Mister Broken Finger, Fernandez, managed to lead the race all the way up until Bezzecchi finally caught and passed him on Lap Nineteen. We doff our hats to you, Fernandez.
That was, essentially, all the action the main race had to offer.
Bezzecchi took his first race win in months, Fernandez held on to second, and Martin retook his championship lead by finishing in third.
Binder had a decent race, crossing the finish line in eleventh.
For the first time in MotoGP history, Aprilias occupied the top four positions.
Bezzecchi took the three-hundredth MotoGP win for Italy, and for some reason was handed an overly large salt (or pepper) grinder on his way to Parc Fermé.
In Parc Fermé, Fernandez needed help removing his helmet. In his interview, he revealed that he had, in fact, raced with TWO broken fingers, but ‘didn’t want to tell anyone’ before the race. In his utterly spent condition, Raul seemed like he would, frankly, happily skip the podium celebrations in order to disappear into his bed – after a good dose of painkillers.
Five rounds left – two very close championship battles. We can’t wait for Phillip Island!
~ Karr
