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Friday MotoGP Summary at the Valencia GP: The Big Goodbye

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There is a surprisingly celebratory atmosphere at Valencia for the final round of the 2021 MotoGP season. In part because it is a celebration of career for the greatest icon of motorcycle racing.

But also because, unlike previous years, it really is the end of the season: we are not stuck in Valencia for another three days for test.

That test always cast a pall over proceedings, no one daring to look beyond Sunday, for fear of encountering another three days of continuous grind, on top of the entire year which they had just passed.

Instead, on Sunday night, the season finishes. 2022 starts three days later, at a different track, giving us all room to catch our collective breath, relax for a moment, and start the new season with some semblance of renewed energy.

That respite, brief as it is, lightens the mood considerably. It feels like a weekend where we can enjoy the racing.

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MotoGP

Friday MotoGP Summary at the Valencia GP: The Weather Throws a Curveball & The VR46 Mystery

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The danger with making predictions is that it can go horribly wrong. Yesterday, I confidently predicted that it would remain dry all weekend. That prediction lasted until the end of Moto3 FP1.

As the final minute approached, the dark clouds which had been slowly creeping up on the Circuito Ricardo Tormo started to sprinkle the track with rain. Just a little at first, then growing heavier once MotoGP got underway.

The rain stopped during the Moto2 session, leaving the track wet throughout (and giving Sam Lowes the opportunity to suffer a horrible highside and injure his right foot), the cool, overcast weather meaning the track dried out quite slowly.

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MotoGP

MotoGP Preview of the Valencia GP: The Last Chance, And The Fondest of Farewells

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It is a strange weekend, the last race of the season. For all intents and purposes the season is already over, the championship is done, officially in MotoGP and Moto3, and as good as in Moto2 – Raul Fernandez can’t afford to throw in the towel, but he has to win the race, and the chances of Remy Gardner finishing lower than 13th are pretty small. But not zero, of course, which is why they will line up on Sunday.

The constructors’ championship was settled at Portimão last week, and the odds of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli outscoring Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller by a combined 28 points on Sunday is pretty low (but again, not zero), which will hand the team title to the factory Ducati Lenovo squad.

So why are we bothering to race at Valencia? Well, apart from the contractual obligation – Dorna has promised TV broadcasters 18 races, Valencia has a contract to host a grand prix, and sponsors have backed teams on the basis of a full season, not knocking off early just because the title is wrapped up.

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WSBK

Tom Sykes Remains in Hospital After Race 2 Crash at Barcelona

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Tom Sykes will remain in the Hospital General de Catalunya in Barcelona, for further examination, after his Race 2 crash at the WorldSBK round this past weekend.

The BMW Motorrad rider was involved in a Turn 1 crash on the second lap of Race 2 at Catalunya, where he lost consciousness and suffered a severe concussion.

Accordingly, the doctors at the Hospital General de Catalunya are keeping Sykes for observation, and he is expected to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. Sykes is unlikely to race this coming weekend at Jerez.

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MotoGP

Saturday MotoGP Summary at the Aragon GP: “Ordinary” Marquez

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Marc Marquez arrived at Aragon as the clear favorite to win. Based on his record – five wins from seven races, and crashing out of the lead in a sixth – and on the fact that this is a counterclockwise circuit, like the Sachsenring.

Before the Sachsenring, Marquez had a seventh, a ninth, and three DNFs, but he went on to win the race in Germany with ease, despite still not being completely fit.

Marquez arrived at Aragon – his third most successful circuit – with a seventh place, an eighth, a fifteenth after a fall, and a first-lap crash with Jorge Martin. If the pattern is to repeat itself, then surely Marquez is on for another win at the Motorland Aragon circuit?

Two crashes on the first two days suggest that may be harder than we all thought.

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MotoGP

Friday MotoGP Summary at the Aragon GP: Maverick’s Debut, Again

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With 21 riders covered by less than 1.3 seconds at a track over 5 km long, it is hard to pick a winner after Friday.

Take Jack Miller’s stellar lap out of the equation, and it’s even closer: the gap between Aleix Espargaro in second place and Joan Mir in 21st is precisely 1 second; Espargaro to Enea Bastianini in tenth is exactly two tenths of a second; Espargaro to Danilo Petrucci in fifteenth is half a second.

If ever you needed an example of just how close the current era of MotoGP is, Friday at Aragon delivered.

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MotoGP

MotoGP Preview of the Aragon GP: Quartararo’s Challenge & Viñales’ New Challenge

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These past two pandemic-stricken season have been strange years for me as a journalist. Instead of heading to race tracks almost every weekend, I have been sat at home, staring at a computer screen to talk to riders.

There have been ups and downs: on the plus side, we journalists get to talk to more riders than when we were at the track, because computers make it possible to switch from one rider to another with a couple of mouse clicks, rather than sprint through half the paddock from race truck to hospitality and back again.

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