Pedro comes of age…
It’s been ten years since MotoGP was held at the iconic Red Bull Ring.
How fitting, then, that an Orange Champion was crowned there this weekend, amidst leagues of drama throughout all the classes.
This victory broke a winless drought of 1,449 days for KTM, ending a streak that stretched back to Miguel Oliveira’s win at the Thai Grand Prix on October 2, 2022.
Moto3:
Rammerstorfer started the race with a Long Lap Penalty; so did Ogden, for being a slowpoke. Fernandez went one better, earning himself two Long Laps for riding like a ‘Nana on Friday.
After the Warm-Up Lap, Bertelle lined up in his grid slot, only to immediately jump out of his seat and push his bike off the grid. He ended up joining the race way behind everyone else from pit lane.
Almansa, having swept into the lead via a naughty cut across the green paint on Lap One, was ordered to drop one position. He managed to do this, then recovered the lead in short succession.
Before Lap One was over, we noticed Ogden tumbling down the Timing Tower.
At first, we expected to see him somewhere on the side of the track, covered in dust. Very rapidly we realised that he’d taken his Long Lap Penalty prematurely, not waiting for the official order from Race Direction. What this meant was that he’d effectively given himself an additional penalty, because he still had to complete a Long Lap trip once the command from Race Direction did come through.
Quiles, on completion of Lap Five, broke not only the Race Lap Record, but also the All-Time Lap Record.
Not to be outdone, Almansa bettered it one lap later.
These riders have skills!!
Allow us a moment to go over the ballad of Esteban:
Esteban touched green too often, and had to visit the Long Lap Loop to atone;
Some laps go by, he repeats his offence! Another Long Lap trip loomed.
This time ‘round, poor Esteban failed to stay within the lines, and had to try again.
His story was not done, oh no – at the end of the race he’d done it once more;
Time was added as punishment.
And a colouring book was issued consisting of many tracks, and but one crayon: Tarmac black.
On Lap Eight, the intense pace at the head of the race took its toll on Almansa, as he threw his bike into the kitty litter at Turn Two after having led most of the race. He hit the gravel running, sprinting to where his bike lay motionless. Reaching the stricken machine, and realising his chances of rejoining were nil, Almansa went full-drama, falling forward onto the gravel, before lifting himself up on one arm in order to punch a hole in the ground with the other.
Carraro, after being handed a Long Lap Penalty (likely for Track Limits), decided to go in the total opposite direction to Esteban, ignoring the penalty until it was doubled, whereafter he continued to ignore it, which resulted in a Ride-Through Penalty being added in the last laps of the race.
During the ninth lap, Salmela and his bike left the track at Turn Six, drawing perfectly synchronised, parallel lines of dust in the gravel trap. Ten out of ten for neatness.
Having run a commendable race, Munoz was picked up through a corner by an overly enthusiastic Pratama, sending Munoz on a trip straight through the gravel trap. He managed to keep it upright until he realised the wall was about to slap him across the face, at which point he opted to bail.
While Munoz limped his bike back to the pits, nursing his freshly-healed left arm, Pratama was ordered to do one trip through the Long Lap Loop, which he fumbled, meaning he had essentially turned his single Long Lap Penalty into a double.
We lost Rios somewhere along Lap Eighteen.
Shortly after Rios, Fernandez dumped his bike at Turn Ten, opting to walk briskly down the track instead…
By this time, the top three were so far ahead, Effectively running in a different timezone. The real battle was happening behind them. By some miracle, nobody took anyone else out for the rest of the race.
Quiles claimed another win, with Uriarte (Brian) taking second, and Carpe third.
Moodley finished nineteenth.
Congratulations to KTM, on officially becoming the 2026 Constructor’s Champions in Moto3!
Moto2:
Veijer’s absent – broken collarbone.
Piqueras’s absent – broken wrist.
Ferrandez’s absent – broken collarbone.
While the race started off absolutely chaoticaly (in a good, non-crashy way), it calmed down noticeably by the fifth lap.
By this time, Guevara had started running away with the lead firmly tucked into his pocket…
After having taken an alternate route through the Turn Two chicane in the opening lap, Escrig returned to the scene of the crime on Lap Ten, this time falling over on the hard shoulder, where he assaulted his stricken machine, slapping its screen to smithereens before walking off. We have to wonder what his team thought about that…
Agius, who’d been clearly struggling with something, finally peeled into the pits at the end of Lap Fourteen. He returned to the track by about Lap Sixteen, stayed out for one lap, and promptly returned, retiring from the race.
Running dead last, Garcia was handed a Long Lap Penalty for what we could only assume had to be either exceeding Track Limits, or for going far too darned slowly.
While comfortably leading, Guevara’s bike decided its rider needed a bit of a wake-up call, just in case he dosed off or lost focus. So, approaching Turn Nine on Lap Eighteen, his bike tucked in its front wheel, essentially sending Guevara straight towards a crash.
He did not crash – instead, Guevara executed a save worth a ten-out-of-ten, and Save of the Day Award.
Vietti was handed a Long Lap Penalty near the end of the race for, you guessed it, Track Limits.
One epic save successfully completed, along with twenty-three laps of neat racing, Guevara claimed victory. ‘Look ma, no hands!’ – Guevara across the finish line.
A little later, Salac came past to take second, while third went the way of Alonso.
On the Cooldown Lap, Guevara and Alonso pulled alongside one another for a chat, during which Guevara indicated something to Alonso, who then proceeded to go into Alonso Tow Mode.
Yes, Guevara had run out of fuel. Cue the slowest Cooldown Lap ever recorded as he first held on to Alonso’s shoulder, then Alonso pushed his bike from the back, and so on and so forth. At one stage Guevara hopped off to try and run-push the dead bike; he didn’t get very far. Eventually the marshals began lending a hand, at which point Alonso terminated his services, and disappeared in the direction of Parc Fermé.
It Took Guevara another three business days to coast into pit lane, nearly toppling over upon entering Parc Fermé.
Entertainment value? Tons!
MotoGP:
With Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin level on points in the Championship, speculation and statisticalisation ran rife prior to this weekend’s racing action.
Marc’s right arm, and his doctor’s alleged statement that it was working at fifty percent functionality, was the topic of far too many comments, brought up so many times that the drinking game we’d linked to its mention unravelled – mainly because the participants were unable to keep up…
Sprint Race:
As Marquez (Marc, duh) and Martin battled for the race lead off the line, one commentator tried to sound hip and up-to-date with the younger generation’s terminology, referring to the two riders as ‘two Alpha males’. Dude. No. Please.
Two riders were caught out trying to sneak off the line before the lights went out, and were handed a Double Long Lap pass each, namely Moreira and Fernandez.
So many Track Limit Warnings! Again!
Amidst their tussle for first, Marc diverted Martin onto an alternate path through a corner, which resulted in Martin rejoining the fray around eighth place. Not to worry, though: by Lap Eight, Jorge had managed to rise through the ranks once again, all the way into second.
Meanwhile, Acosta had snatched the lead away, and by Lap Nine he was over three seconds away from anyone else, and going strong. Surely, nothing could stand in the way of him and a race win!
Right?
On Lap Eleven, Morbidelli decided to use his bike as a bowling ball, sending it sliding across the tarmac and gravel at Turn Two until it came to rest against one of the trackside bollards.
Three laps from a Sprint victory that seemed signed, sealed, and already on the delivery flight, Acosta went flying off as he overshot the entry into Turn Two. Such was his exit speed that his KTM ploughed a furrow through the gravel, exiting on the other side before toppling over and dragging it’s rider a further mile until finally coming to a stop.
Though Acosta remounted faster than he’d unmounted, his race was shot, and by the end of the lap he slunk into pit lane in order to give himself fifty lashes.
After the race, in an interview, Acosta admitted that he’d been distracted, looking at his dash and his fuel consumption, resulting in him missing his braking marker entirely, or as he put it: ‘My f@*kup…’
After Acosta’s blunder, not much else happened to make us sit up in our chairs and bite our fingers.
Martin took the win gifted to him, while Marquez (Marc) held out for second, and Bezzecchi took third.
Brad Binder finished a decent ninth.
Main Race:
The main MotoGP race was… not overly eventful.
We were treated to some initial battling for the lead, which ended with a lovely move by Acosta on Martin by Lap Nine, after which the young Spanish Shark Boy was never touched again.
Quartararo was ordered to drop a position early in the race, after cutting across the green at Turn One and gaining a clear advantage.
During Lap Thirteen, Marquez (the Alex one) went tumbling sideways through Turn Two after the front end of his Ducati folded.
With that, he became the sole crashee of the entire race. How unusual is that?
Everyone was rooting for Acosta. Many were peeking through their fingers at the screens, afraid of events repeating themselves.
Much to our relief, nothing catastrophic happened, and Acosta finally took his maiden MotoGP win. What better place to do so, than at KTM’s home race?
He was so elated, he set off his airbag as he crossed the finish line!
Second place went to Martin, and Bezzecchi took another third.
Binder, meanwhile, snuck up into a decent sixth.
Aldeguer was slapped with a post-race one-position penalty, likely due to Track Limits.
As he arrived at Turn Two on the Cooldown Lap, Acosta made a wide turn off the track, locating the spot where he’d kissed the tarmac on Saturday, and did an over-dramatised mock-crash in the same place. It was all, pretty cool!
Afterwards, he was assisted by Miller Taxis when he needed a push to restart his KTM.
Upon arrival in Parc Fermé, Acosta leapt into the crowd, but was soon dragged back into the box, lest he got carried off prematurely.
During his interview, he reiterated: ‘…when I f@*ked up…’
A person who can laugh at their own ‘f@*k-up, is a strong person.
This time round, Acosta was voted Rider of the Race, and deservedly so!
Both of KTM’s superstars move along next year, Acosta to Ducati and Binder to BMW in world Supes. Just when things seem to be going right for KTM. Let’s see what the rest of the season brings.
Baggers:
It arrived: The sixth and final round of the inaugural Baggers World Cup was upon us! If you’ve never watched it… do yourself a favour!
A certain James Rispoli made his debut in the class, along with a few others, and suddenly we had a second Wyman on our list.
On the flip side, Cory West was in the commentator’s box on Saturday.
Race One:
Toth’s race started off with a Double Long Lap Penalty after he was a little bit over-eager off the line.
Then, on Lap Six, he got a third for playing on the green paint.
Everything else was eclipsed, however, by the catastrophic collision that occurred on the second lap…
While duelling for position, Granado peeled past Iannone, who took it as a challenge and immediately dove down Granado’s inside as they leaned into Turn Six…
And into Iannone.
Iannone and Granado went tumbling off into the pebbles, their Harleys performing a perfect, synchronised ballet act, pirouettes and all, before collapsing from en-pointe to their deaths.
As Granado got up and charged past Iannone, he made a u-turn in order to curse at him the moment he got to his feet. Arms flailed, heads moved angrily, and we pulled the microwave popcorn bag out of the cupboard.
Alas, Granado reined in his fury, and returned to charging off the track after warning Iannone to avoid dark corners behind the pits that evening.
His Championship chances all but destroyed, Granado took a moment to cry profusely over the wall before bothering to return to the pits.
Gutierrez ended up winning the race, with McDonald taking second. Rispoli impressing everyone by taking third place in his first-ever BWC race – on a track he’s never ridden before.
Though Granado’s chances had become unerringly slim in the run for the Championship, there was still a mathematical chance. And so, the battle for top honours was due to continue in the second race…
Race Two:
Early on Sunday morning, with banks of dense mist hanging low to the ground in the background, Race Two commenced.
It was time for the grand finale!
Iannone started Race Two one Long Lap Penalty richer, courtesy of his divebombing escapades in Race One.
For reasons unknown, Wyman 1.0 was shaking his arms and head as the grid filled up after the Warm-Up Lap.
The third time Iannone had to navigate the Turn Two chicane, he decided to try a gravel-track route, just in case it worked out better.
It didn’t.
Overall, the last race of the season went by rather… chilled.
McDonald wasn’t taking any chances. Iannone (mostly) kept himself out of trouble, and nobody went kamikaze on Granado.
Granado ended up winning the race, a small consolation prize. Gutierrez finished second, while Wyman 2.0 took third place, another newbie snatching up a podium finish on his first weekend.
It’s official: Archie McDonald is the first Bagger Champion!
He parked beyond the Long Lap Loop at Turn One, where he bawled his eyes out without shame. He also jumped a lot. His boots must’ve been spring-loaded.
A gilded helmet was produced, which looked pretty cool. Archie made out with it. And then, he struggled to get his Harley fired up again.
Eventually he did though, and proceeded to replace the recently-lifted fog with a dense cloud of tyre-smoke. A Ten out of ten burnout.
Back in Parc Fermé, Granado struggled to enjoy his race win, finding it difficult to let go of what had happened in Race One.
‘Another rider made me lose the Championship’ he’d said in his interview.
On the other side of the coin, McDonald was overcome by emotion as he spoke of his year, of his brother’s unexpected suicide, his family’s support – he also dedicated his Championship to his late brother.
We’re not crying, you’re crying. Oh, who’re we kidding? We’re all crying!
With a bit of mirth, he mentioned that ‘nobody would believe him’ but he had ‘no rear brakes’ that entire race.
The next round will be the first of the fly-away rounds. Get ready for odd hours, and more action!
~ Karr
