It was an almost perfect lap. Pecco Bagnaia had sat at the top of the timesheets for a good chunk of Q2 after beating Maverick Viñales’ best time up to that point by three tenths of a second.
As the final minutes of qualifying ticked down, his rivals closed in, Viñales snatching back top spot with five minutes left to go.
But Bagnaia wasn’t done yet. He had been fastest in FP3, then set a withering pace in FP4, and came into qualifying brimming with confidence.
Just how close is MotoGP at Misano? The gap between Brad Binder in first and Taka Nakagami in second is just 0.002s, two thousandths of a second.
The top five are all within 0.071, just over seven hundredths of a second. The top ten are within half a second, and there are eighteen (18) riders within a second. It seems fair to say it is insanely close.
Or it would be if that were an accurate reflection of the actual state of the MotoGP grid. But the combined standings at the end of the first day of practice at the second MotoGP round at Misano in two weeks is rather deceptive.
Precisely because it is the first day of practice for the second race on consecutive weekends at the same track.
We are in the toughest stretch of the punishing 2020 MotoGP schedule, ahead of the second race of the first of three triple headers – 9 races in 11 weeks, in three sets of three.
It is a brutal start to this stretch, with last Sunday’s race followed by a test on Tuesday, then practice starting again on Friday. Over the course of 10 days, the MotoGP riders will have been riding for 7 of them.
What will the second race at Misano look like, after the MotoGP riders have already have 4 days of riding at the track?
It should come as no surprise that in a paradoxical 2020 MotoGP season in a year full of paradoxes, a new surface at Misano should have simultaneously both improved the track and made it much worse.
Yet the paradox is relatively easy to understand: the tarmac chosen for the new surface has a lot more grip, but it is also softer when it gets hot, deforming more and producing more and bigger bumps. The additional grip is great, but you can’t always benefit when your wheels are being kicked up into the air.
“There’s more grip than last year but the track is similar to motocross!” Fabio Quartararo told us. “A lot of bumps. Positive that there is more grip but we need to adapt because honestly the first exit in FP1 was really difficult to manage the bumps.”
One of the things making the bumps so difficult to manage is where they are. “It’s bad,” said Jack Miller, “especially in the fastest sector, it’s really quite bad. That back section, the bike just starts shaking and bouncing, and one lap you can get through there semi OK, and the next lap you’re just bouncing around and you can’t really get back on the track.”
“Down to the back straight, before the first fast kink, on the dead straight piece it’s bumpy, the bike is going like that,” Miller said, waving his hands about to indicate just how much the bike moves. That was tricky as you approach the fastest part of the track. “You’re trying to get the bike settled as much as you can to tip it in. It doesn’t feel great.”
A couple of days before the Misano MotoGP round – that is, the Gran Premio Lenovo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, not the Gran Premio TISSOT dell’Emilia Romagna e della Riviera di Rimini, or Misano 1 and Misano 2 as most people without photographic memories or a contractual obligation to use their full names will call them – kicked off, there was a flurry of rumors and excitement over possible announcements ahead of the race.
Thursday could see important news made, people whispered.
Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider Jorge Martin has tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the resumption of racing this weekend at Misano.
The Spaniard, currently third in the Moto2 standings, tested positive for the virus during the standard testing procedure put in place as part of Dorna’s COVID-19 protocol, and as a result, was not allowed to travel to Misano for the race.
Martin has been in quarantine since receiving the test results. Martin is now awaiting the results of a second test, to confirm the first test.
Just 10 days ago, we had to bring you the sad news that the INTERMOT show in Cologna, Germany would not be held in 2020, with the show’s organizers looking to 2022 to resume the trade show’s biannual schedule.
With INTERMOT arguably the second-most important trade show for the motorcycle industry, eyes then moved to Milan, to see if the EICMA trade show would follow suit, and today we have our answer.
Because of COVID-19 concerns, and perhaps due to a mild mutiny from participating brands, the EICMA trade show in Italy has announced that this year’s edition would be canceled, with aims to resume in 2021.
Testing has concluded at the Misano private test, with a few changes to the riders present on Thursday. KTM skipped the final day, while a group of WorldSSP riders entered the fray.
Aleix Espargaro was the fastest rider on the final day, getting to within a couple of hundredths of Miguel Oliveira’s best time from the day before, demonstrating the potential of the 2020 Aprilia RS-GP.
Espargaro was happy with both the speed and the pace of the bike, though the reliability of the bike remains a question mark, which will only be removed once the racing begins.
It has been a busy couple of days at Misano, with the KTM and Aprilia MotoGP teams, and test teams from Suzuki and Ducati, joined by WorldSBK representatives from the KRT Kawasaki squad, and a small army of Ducati teams.
The MotoGP and WorldSBK riders have been able to try out the new asphalt at Misano in the blistering heat of an Italian summer.
Miguel Oliviera is fastest after the first two days, the Red Bull Tech3 rider just a couple of tenths faster on Wednesday than Pol Espargaro had been on Tuesday.
World championship motorcycle racing takes another step back to the season returning at Misano.
The next three days sees both MotoGP and WorldSBK teams testing at the Italian circuit, preparing for the resumption of hostilities at Jerez in July and August.
Present are the MotoGP teams of KTM and Aprilia, allowed extra testing due to their status as concessions teams. Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith are riding for Aprilia, the second test for the Italian factory.
Those two-wheeled smut peddlers in Bologna are at it again, bringing you more NSFW content that will have you diving for the power switch should anyone walk by your workstation.
Releasing a video today that shows extensively the build process that goes into making a Superleggera V4 superbike, Ducati is promoting the fact that the carbon-fiber-everything machine has started production.
We also get word that Asphalt & Rubber will be swinging a leg over this bike in about a month’s time, and putting the Ducati Superleggera V4 through its paces at the Laguna Seca circuit in California.
Until that time, we can enjoy this not-so-short video that Ducati has produced.