MotoGP

[Joe]

On 4/3/2025 at 10:13 AM, GuzziMoto said:

I believe Marc misunderstood the rules and thought he would have to start from the back of the grid. But he was banking on another mis-understanding of the rules, hoping ten other racers would follow him off the grid. He was confusing the situation with another situation, if more then ten racers pull down pit lane at the end of the warmup lap the rules say the race start will be postponed. That rule was added after most of the grid pulled into pitlane after the warmup lap at, I think, Argentina a couple years ago (but I could be wrong about the specific location). However, that rule was strictly about riders pulling down pitlane at the end of the warmup lap, to prevent a debacle like that from happening again.

The rules Marc did not know as well as he thought actually meant he would go out on the warmup lap and start the race from his original grid spot, but then have to do a drive down pitlane to add to his race time the equivalent of lost time as if he had swapped bikes to his other bike to get off the rains and onto slicks. This article covers the various possible scenarios pretty well; https://www.crash.net/motogp/feature/1066604/1/marc-marquezs-cota-motogp-grid-gamble-wrong-reasons-right-decision

I don't see what happened as a sign of Pecco getting on equal footing with Marc. What happened was Marc made a few mistakes, the new Marc we have seen went away for that race and the old Marc surfaced. He outsmarted himself trying to outsmart everyone else, and was lucky he didn't face the consequences he was supposed to. And he wanted to crush the field to show his dominance, but he failed. He had the win, the race was his to lose, and he lost it. I hope at the next round Pecco pulls himself up on equal terms with Marc and beats him straight up. Then it will really be on.

 

Love Pecco and glad he won the race, but Marc was legitimately the fastest Factory rider on the track.

[GuzziMoto]

On 4/4/2025 at 10:25 AM, Joe said:

Love Pecco and glad he won the race, but Marc was legitimately the fastest Factory rider on the track.

No argument here on that. But you do need to be more then the fastest guy, you also have to be smart. And while Marc of late has been smart, he clearly wasn't in that race. He had a decent lead but was still pushing, still riding at and over his limit. And it led to his crash. Pecco has done similar in the past, but seems to have learned. Marc has done similar in the past (at that very track no less) and while mostly he seemed to have learned, that time he threw that out the window in what seemed like an attempt to dominate the race and show everyone that he is the superior racer. And that failed. They don't pay points based on how much you win by, or even how many laps you led. That was Marcs track, that was not a race Pecco was expecting to win, or probably even challenge Marc. The race was Marc's to lose, and he did.

It will be interesting to see how things go now that we are getting to tracks that don't favor Marc like the first few races have, now that we are getting to tracks that may even favor Pecco. Will the Marc of old surface? And how will Ducati deal with that? Or will he rise above his old ways. He didn't at COTA.

[p6x]

32 minutes ago, GuzziMoto said:

He had a decent lead but was still pushing, still riding at and over his limit.

I really have a hard time believing that he was pushing. There wasn't any reason to justify that he had to.

One of the (plausible?) explanation was that he lost the bike by going over the curb, which (according to pundits) in the USA are not coated with anti-skid paint.

Now, I completely trust that he is quite the astute man, on top of being an incredible pilot. The way he did a 180 degrees with his career, by leaving mighty Honda (including an even higher salary to stay) for a second fiddle team. this was a very bold move.

I am not underevaluating Francesco Bagnaia, but when it comes to being a snake, Marc Marquez will prevail. It is being whispered that Valentino Rossi is 100% mentoring Francesco on what traps may lie ahead of him.