Check the SA flags in the opening pic!
By: The Karr report.
If you spotted the black ribbons on the motorcycles this weekend, and were wondering whether the entire field had come out as Black Ribboners (shoutout to the Terry Pratchett fanbase), then allow us to clarify: They were not showing their vegan-vampire status, but instead their support for Valencia where, as many already know, there had been catastrophic flash-floods this past week, turning streets into rivers, and indeed, buildings to rubble.
All our hearts go out to the people stricken by the disastrous weather. For now, however, let us focus on the penultimate race weekend of 2024. A stupendously hot, humid penultimate race weekend.
Moto3:
Muñoz started the race with a Ride-Through Penalty to his name, after his crash-inducing shenanigans on Saturday morning. So much talent, so many mistakes…
The Lightweights kicked off the Sunday proceedings with fifteen laps of fantastic racing.
On the opening lap, just two corners in, Esteban came around the outside of Rossi, but misjudged the room he had to turn and neatly slammed into the side of Ricci, sending the latter into third-person-view mode, while the former tumbled from the pack.
Esteban seemed to be in a bit of pain around the left shoulder after the fall, clutching at it as he stood amongst the carnage.
While trying to overtake Ortolá at Turn Thirteen on Lap Two, Holgado tagged Ortolá’s rear tyre ever so slightly, causing his motorcycle to overreact and toss him like a rag doll. Alonso, completely uninvolved in the scuffle, suddenly found himself heading for a human-shaped speed bump, and did well to evade hitting him. Must’ve used teleportation there.
From the third lap, the nice, new Honda engines started their strike…
First to go up in puffs of smoke was victory-hopeful Fernández, who had to pull over on Lap Three, much to his dismay.
By the end of Lap Five, Fernández’s teammate, Piqueras, peeled into the pits, his Leopard Honda also having mechanical troubles. That would make it two of two Leopards out of action, and an early end to the team’s Sunday shift.
One lap after Piqueras, Ogden, also on a Honda with a new engine, retired to the pits. According to Scott, he’d ‘lost all power’ going down the back straight. He did return to the track, completed about three more laps, then retired for good.
The new engine Hondas weren’t the only ones suffering under the Malaysian heat. Suzuki pulled over on his Husqvarna during Lap Nine, with a mechanical meltdown.
Carraro fell off at Turn Four on the tenth lap, rejoining the action swiftly. Dettweiler did something similar on the same lap, but a few turns further.
While other motorcycles were overheating in the sun, Alonso did what he always does, chill mid top five, until he felt like taking the lead.
Then he won his thirteenth Moto 3 race this season, improving on his week-old record, and threatening more records as he matched Rossi’s six-in-a-row win streak from 1997 in a lightweight class. Can anything stop the ‘Little-Big-Smile’?
Furusato was denied a maiden win, and had to settle for a close second. Even he admitted that Alonso was simply too fast.
Third place went the way of Rueda.
Post-race, while still on the Cooldown Lap, Zurutuza had a spill going down the back straight which saw him holding his bike up with his head as it slid across the tarmac, eventually coming to rest mid-track and leaving Zurutuza in a temporary state of confusion.
He walked off to the edge of the track, where he bent over double like he was about to be sick. We’re assuming he wasn’t, but it’s hard to tell when the person has a helmet on…
Alonso came across the scene, and swiftly offered Zurutuza his Taxi Services at a special rate. Xabi accepted, and was whisked away to the pits by the new Champ.
Speaking of the multi talented young Champion, Alonso pledged his entire race win bonus to the GoFundMe in aid of Valencia. There is very little he could still do to make us love him even more.
Moto2:
No Sasaki this Sunday, the Japanese rider had a nasty high-side on Friday, suffering a fractured right wrist and two broken bones in his foot. Heal up soon, Ayumu.
Öncü’s dog died on Thursday, leaving the rider distraught and unable to sleep that night. Big hugs, Deniz.
Substitute rider, Pawi, wouldn’t be racing on Sunday due to injuries sustained in his Qualifier-clash with teammate Azman.
Prior to the race, we always see some interesting, and some normal, warm-up rituals. Air-humping the trackside grass was a new one; Dixon, are you okay there?
On the opening lap there occurred a three-rider slide-off at Turn Two, veiled in much secrecy, involving Surra, Agius, and Van den Goorbergh. Not even the replay later on shed much light on the incident, simply showing two riders tumbling past the camera in the foreground, as the third seemed to trip on air and join them on their gravel-destined slide.
Van den Goorbergh did remount, but ended up calling it a day by the end of Lap Three.
Voight was also lost somewhere on Lap One.
We lost Binder at Turn Fifteen on the eighth lap. We were informed he was alright, with no injuries to mention.
Ogura’s feud with the Sepang circuit continued when his motorcycle straight up shut down exiting Turn Nine on Lap Eleven, causing a mild heart attack for Dixon directly behind him, who somehow managed to avoid colliding with Ai’s rear end by the skin of his ass. You could hear his yelled expletives all the way to the grand stands.
As Dixon approached the Start/Finish line at the end of the penultimate lap, he seemed to abruptly have encountered a technical issue, as he slowed down completely. But oh, woe, it wasn’t a technical glitch… Perhaps the near-miss involving Ogura affected Dixon’s ability to count down the laps. Perhaps it was the heat. But he rapidly realised that he’s blundered when his teammate shot past him, still in full race mode
More cussing ensued as he opened up the throttle, but the damage was done, he’d gifted third place to Guevara. Post-race, Dixon flew off his bike and stormed through the garage, not giving anyone a chance to speak to him…. Jake, you chop.
Vietti, returning from a nasty injury and still very much on the mend, managed to lead just about the entire race, and clench victory. We’re greatly impressed.
Also returning to the Moto 2 grid as a stand-in rider, Navarro wasn’t about to just cruise around, instead, he took second place.
And on the final podium step, making his debut in the Top Three, was Guevara.
Navarro’s bike stopped while on the cool down lap, and Navarro decided to use this opportunity to demonstrate the lesser-known thousand-point-turn while not mounting the bike.
A few local fans were left grinning as Azman chucked his gloves into the crowds. Possibly other bits of equipment, too.
MotoGP:
We saw Iannone return to the MotoGP grid, standing in for DiGi, who was cut open and sewn back together on Saturday in, we’re informed, a most satisfactory manner.
Sprint Race:
A minute of silence was announced (more than once, notably) before the Sprint Race on Saturday, for the people of Valencia.
It was rather sad to hear the handful of Ignoramuses (or is it ‘Ignorami’?) still shouting and cheering throughout the otherwise silent minute pause.
Less than five minutes from race start, the rain began falling, though lightly, across the grid. We feared a delayed start, but just as teams began scurrying around, the rain withdrew from the race.
The Sprint commenced. All eyes were on the two Championship hopefuls, expecting a battle worth watching… Yoh, yoh, yoh – were we in for a shocker!
While chasing down Martín’s rear wheel on Lap Three, Bagnaia committed the most-replayed blunder of his blunder-riddled season as he slipped and slid out of second place going through Turn Nine. His Ducati was so embarrassed, it abandoned him on the track, trying to bury its own face in the grass.
His wife had her face buried in her hands; his team, as well as Martín’s, were shell-shocked. The fans nearly fainted, and his sister restrained herself from bashing in the closed garage door.
Bagnaia took a moment, standing with his hands rested on the tyre wall and his head bowed, trying to wake up from this obviously a pre-race-nightmare. When that didn’t work, he resigned himself to a scooter-taxi ride back to the pits.
On another note, Zarco’s Honda decided it identified as a diesel truck ‘rollin’ coal’, spewing clouds of smoke from its exhaust as he bailed out of Lap Eight.
At the end of probably the longest Sprint Race of his career, Martín managed to heed his team’s advice, staying focused and clenching the victory. Márquez Senior took second, while Bastianini came in in third.
Binder kept it clean, ending the race in seventh.
Marc was so hot in Parc Fermé, that he stripped off the top of his leathers in order to don an ice vest. Bugger the sponsors, they’ll get over those thirty seconds of non-exposure. After all, it’s Marc Márquez.
Main Race:
Sunday’s main race started off with a massive coming-together involving Miller’s head, Quartararo’s rear wheel, and Binder’s flight skills.
Contact already occurred in the first turn, but the true chaos only erupted through Turn Two when there was more contact, which toppled Miller over on the inside of Quartararo, at which point Jack suddenly found himself staring at the underside of the Yamaha’s tail as his helmeted head got wedged between tyre and bodywork. Binder, meanwhile, was sent skyward for a bird’s eye view of the carnage below.
It took a few seconds, but before Lap One was completed, the race was stopped, Bagnaia’s hand shooting up as he got the message moments before the Red Flag jumped up on screen.
Back at Turn Two, Binder was able to walk away, Quartararo hobbled a little, but Miller was left lying mid-track, swarmed by marshals and medical personnel. No lies, everyone was worried.
Later, Miller was carted off by two ambulances, and we saw the reason for that while the rest were lining up for the restart: Miller came walking down pit lane, completely fine, like nothing’d happened. That second ambulance was clearly to hold his massive…bravery.
Unfortunately, after setting off on his Sighting Lap, Binder popped back into the pits, his shoulder giving him gip from the impact to the extent that he couldn’t race.
Malaysian GP, take two: a Quick Start followed by a nineteen-lap race filled with drama. More like this, please!
The first three laps of the restarted race involved an all-out brawl between Martín and Bagnaia, seeing more overtakes made by either of them than a slammed Polo on a solid line doing ten over the speed limit.
It was glorious. Heart-stopping, but glorious.
Eventually the battle died down, with Bagnaia drawing out a lead of over a second, which shrunk momentarily, but quickly grew again until it was over three seconds.
During the sixth lap, Mir dropped it at Turn Nine, whereafter he quickly remounted and sped off.
One lap later, Morbidelli did the Denial Slide at the same corner, remaining in the seat and apparently not realising that he wasn’t racing anymore until his motorcycle stopped against the edge of the track. He, too, got back on his wheels and continued his race.
Márquez – the Marc one – was sitting pretty in third, with a front-row seat to the epic opening battle ahead. That is, until he slipped off at Turn Fifteen; having strapped himself to the Ducati, Marc was able to simply stand up and return to the action.
The second half of the race was relatively incident-free, most of the action happening further back in the lesser-covered areas.
Bagnaia claimed the win with a lead of over three seconds, while Martín had settled into second. After Marc’s earlier crash, Bastianini was promoted into a very lonely third, his fiftieth podium appearance across all three classes.
Yes, we shall have a final round! It was confirmed that the Grand Finale for the MotoGP season would be hosted in Barcelona, on the same weekend as the Valencian round was scheduled.
Will Martín take the Championship in the Sprint Race? Or will there be more plot twists, leaving it down to the final race? You’ll have to wait and see, like the rest of us.
~ Karr
