Motorcycle Grand Prix News | MotoGP Motegi Japan roundup

Race report: Karrbon Copy

Welcome, one and all, to one of our favourite places we really ought to visit: Japan. More accurately: Mobility Resort Motegi.

Moto3:

Sit down for this one, folks – it’s a stonker!

We could start this off with a detailed breakdown of all the maths behind ‘if this happens’ then Alonso gets the Championship at Motegi, but we’re not total psychopathic sadists.

The Championship hopeful Alonso managed to bust his bike’s screen during his Sighting Lap, after hopping a curb sent his head forward a little unexpectedly. This was rapidly fixed on the grid, and David was ready to go.

Yamanaka displayed his buttocks (in his leathers, you perverts) to his home crowd, in something that he’d claim was just a stretching exercise.

The race was filled with incidents to distract you from the title race drama, starting with Dettweiler and Buasri suffering two very similar, yet slightly different highside-induced crashes that ended up in Turn Four’s gravel.

Dettweiler’s crash came first, as early as Lap One, and earned him the Sparky Award.

Buasri’s happened during the third lap, when his motorcycle tried to grind his helmet off with its tail.

Lunetta suffered a pointedly anonymous crash on Lap Three.

While on his sixth lap, Kelso slid off at Turn Ten. The Australian tried to rejoin the race, pushing his stricken machine halfway around the track before anyone came to his aid.

A crash at Turn Seven on the seventh lap saw Carraro doing a decent impression of a kangaroo flexing its arm-muscles.

Embarrassment Award went to Piqueras: first, he toppled over while in the lead group battle. Then, he pulled off one of the most impressive high-speed remounts we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, he forgot how to pull off safely, and his motorcycle spun out from underneath him…

The pressure of fighting for the lead got to Ortola when he was running in second and giving Alonso a hard time in the battle for the lead during Lap Sixteen. Ivan went spinning off at the tenth turn, injuring his pride more than anything else.

After a race filled with epic battles and even more epic overtakes, your podium looked like this: Alonso in first, Veijer in second, and Fernandez in third.

But… the podium was just about forgotten, since Alonso had won his tenth race, and even more importantly, he is officially our 2024 Moto3 World Champion!

Alonso also become the first Columbian ever to claim a MotoGP Championship and CFMoto’s first-ever Champion. Watch this brand.

There was a LOT of crying going on. Alonso bawled his eyes out. The commentators were in tears. Fans cried.

While on his cooldown-slash-celebratory lap, Alonso abandoned his bike for a moment to fall to his knees and hug his team. Even more tears flowed.

Holgado was opening the flood gates, too, though for a very contrasting reason.

Meanwhile, Alonso was treated to a short slideshow spanning his motorcycle-racing career, and once it’d been completed, he was handed his very spiffy gilded helmet.

New, shiny helmet on, Alonso set about showing off his skills on the little pocket bike that was – as we found out – the very motorcycle to have started it all. As was befitting Alonso, he made sure to ‘crash’ from said tiny machine, laugh-crying all the way. Race Direction was sharp enough to add a ‘Crash’ graphic and a replay to our screens.

Finally, a shiny golden ‘1’ stuck to his bike’s front end, Alonso managed to get to Parc Fermé. There, his interview started off something like this: ‘…I don’t know what’s happening today…’ The poor child was so overwhelmed, he could barely string together three words at a time.

Nice one!

Moto2:

There would be no Chantra nor Munoz circulating around Motegi this weekend, Chantra still recovering from his leg nearly getting yanked off a week ago, and Munoz having suffered a broken foot on Friday.

This was more of a quality over quantity type of race.

While the race kicked off in what was considered dry conditions, it abruptly changed into a decidedly not dry race when the clouds dropped a sudden bout of rain on the track while the race was still in its first lap.

And so, with there being no Flag-to-Flag in Moto2, the race was given the Red Flag after less than a lap.

Riders peeled into the pits, where they and their teams applied many scientific methods towards deciding what tyres to restart the race on. These methods included copious amounts of boot-scuffing, and the odd hands-and-knees prayer to the local weather-controlling deities.

The race was restarted via the good ol’ Quick Restart Procedure, and would be cut down to twelve laps.

With the vast majority of the riders opting to go out on rain tyres, the fact that Ogura exited the pits on slicks had everyone raving.

In the end, he was not the only one gambling. And boy, did that gamble pay off!

After initially being swallowed up by the pack, Ogura (and other dry-runners) began scything through towards the front, on a track that was far too dry for the rain tyres.

Roberts decided too late to pit for a change of rubber, doing do at the end of the sixth lap.

Mixed conditions and all, no massive crashes happened. Just some very entertaining racing.

By the end of the race, it was Gonzalez who led the rest across the finish line, claiming his maiden Moto2 race win, while leaving local hero Ogura in second. Behind them, a greatly emotional Salac managed to snatch third.

Binder ended up fifteenth, after an initial jump up into ninth.

MotoGP:

Sprint Race:

Saturday’s Sprint Race at Motegi was preceded by much deliberations, and Bagnaia fondling the tarmac surface in pit lane, all because the drizzly rain that’d kept the Qualifiers interesting was persisting – not enough for all-out rain tyres, but just enough to make many doubt whether slicks would be a good idea.

Meanwhile, an aspiring Ducati mechanic was advertising himself by means of a hand-written sign, and lots of enthusiasm. We’re rooting for you, kid!

Remember life-size-stuffed-Bagnaia-Doll-girl? Well, she’s back.

The wannabe-rain decided to withdraw from the race as soon as the Warm-Up Lap had been completed.

On the opening lap, Mir all but walked into the gravel at Turn Eleven, then tried to blunder his way out of it again. We’re not saying you’ve got a problem, Joan, we’re just saying that addiction is a nasty thing to FALL into…

Binder was looking as brilliant as he’d been all weekend, until he unexpectedly stopped racing and began cruising. He got his KTM back to the garage, where he hopped off and headed straight into the box. Was there steam coming from under his helmet, or were we imagining things?

Local hero, Nakagami, unexpectedly found himself under friendly fire as his teammate, Zarco, ploughed down the inside of him going through the first two turns on Lap Five. Unfortunately, Zarco’s aim was terrible, and he side-swiped Taka in the process, sending him tumbling off into the dust.

Johann was slapped with a Long Lap Penalty for his actions quite quickly, though that wouldn’t do much for Nakagami’s Saturday anymore.

Back at the front of the race, little Acosta had managed to bomb past Bagnaia, taking the lead and running with it. Everyone was mightily impressed by the rookie, but as the commentators sang his praise a little too constantly, we began feeling this icky feeling in the pits of our stomachs.

And then, on the ninth lap, while dropping into Turn Seven, it happened: the Commentator’s Curse swooped from the bridge, yanking the wheels from under Acosta, and leaving him to slide and tumble while hopes of a first MotoGP Sprint Race victory were battered out of him by the tarmac.

Acosta had his helmet clenched between his hands even while he was still in the process of crashing, and within the gravel trap, he made all kinds of pained gestures and movements until the marshals gently ushered him away. He even managed to hit himself over the head. This probably would’ve hurt more had he first removed the helmet and glove

During Lap Ten, someone crashed – at first, the graphics that popped up claimed it was Raul Fernandez who’d taken a tumble – even the Timing Tower momentarily showed him as ‘Crashed’ – but very quickly we learned that it was Espargaro (Aleix) who’d bitten the dust.

Though it resulted in no noticeable changes in the race, ‘spits of rain’ were reported.

Bagnaia claimed victory, with his teammate Bastianini battling it out with Marquez Senior behind him, and coming out on top, clenching second and leaving Marc with third.

Main Race:

This would be Nakagami’s final home race as a full-time MotoGP rider. It was an emotional weekend for the Japanese star.

But first.

The race started off with a first-lap incident between Alex Marquez and Mir. This time, Mir didn’t crash under his own strength.

Instead, he was helped along a little when Alex mashed into his rear-end, and his Ducati decided it now identified as a trailer, hitching onto the rear of Mir’s motorcycle and staying there no matter how far Mir rode.

It was one of the more memorable ways to crash into another rider.

At the end of Lap Two, Savadori retired quietly to the pits.

Lightning struck our rookie sensation a second time: this time, Acosta had been running in a steady second, when he lost it through the fourteenth turn during Lap Four. Acosta went sliding off, ending his own trajectory with a mighty headbutt against his fallen machine.

Though he initially rejoined, Pedro eventually slunk to his pit box. We feel for the young man, we really do.

Fernandez – Augusto – had a crash on Lap Seven.

By the tenth lap, the white flags began waving – rain? Apparently, yes.

These flags were also entirely ignored by everyone on the track.

Vinales’ race went from worse to worst with him crashing out at Turn five during Lap Twelve. He was collected and hurried along by one of the marshals, whom he duly ignored and continued walking at his own, demoralised pace.

At the front of the race, things settled into well-spaced top positions. To quote Marquez (Senior) after the race: ‘…super boring race…’

At the front, at least.

Once everyone had ceased their crashing.

During the replays, we found that Quartararo had run such a low fuel load, he ran out while closing in on the finish line, losing one position and definitely not being happy about it.

Bagnaia led the race from the get-go, and ended it in the winning position. Martin had settled for second, while Marc Marquez ended up in third.