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There is a MotoGP race at Le Mans this weekend, but to be honest, it is hard to concentrate on the race. A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, which has shaken up MotoGP to a degree we hadn’t expected even as late as two weeks ago.

Suzuki’s withdrawal blows the MotoGP silly season right open, with not just rider seats up in the air, but grid slots and bikes too.

Then there’s the controversy over tire pressures being routinely under the minimum allowed, and whether that is even an issue or not, given the MSMA have agreed not to do anything about it.

Long-time readers of Asphalt & Rubber will know my love of endurance racing motorcycles – there is something about these purpose-built race bikes that have to perform reliably hour-after hour that strikes my fancy.

So, upon hearing that the Suzuki Endurance Race Team (SERT) won the 24-Hours of Le Mans this weekend, it was all the excuse I needed to post up some photos of the Yoshimura-backed squad and their Suzuki GSX-R1000 race bike.

If you want to get an idea of what might happen during the race at any particular MotoGP round, the tried and tested method is to pay particular attention to what happens in FP4.

Watch the session carefully, and then pore over the analysis timesheet carefully, checking to see who was using which tires, how many laps they had on them, and the average pace they were capable of doing.

Disregard the fast laps set at the end of each the three free practice sessions which select who goes through directly to Q2, and take the qualifying results as a guide to be viewed through the lens of a rider’s projected ability to convert a strong grid position into solid race pace.

It was an expensive first day at Le Mans. Bikes in the three Grand Prix classes hit the deck (and the gravel trap) 44 times on Friday, a colossal number, even for Le Mans.

To put that into perspective: at the first race in Qatar, there were 37 crashes over all three days of the first Grand Prix, and 27 over three days of the Doha round at Qatar.

In fact, six of the nineteen rounds held in 2019 had fewer crashes over all three days than Le Mans did on Friday, and another five rounds only had a handful more.

There are some tracks MotoGP goes to where you can pretty sure of what to expect. Jerez will be sunny and warm, though some years are warmer than others. Motegi will be cold, with a good chance of rain.

The heat in Thailand and Sepang will be brutal, with a 4pm downpour in Sepang pretty much guaranteed.

There are other tracks where you are pretty much guaranteed a bit of everything. Sachsenring will invariably have one cold morning and one wet morning, and a sweltering afternoon.

By all fair accounts, BMW Motorrad’s sales drop in 2020 (the first in nine years) should still be considered a positive result considering the circumstances, though perhaps not quite the extent that BMW’s press release would lead you to believe.

This is because the German brand is busy spinning its 2020 motorcycle sales figures with a full-court press, including the caveat that 2020 was the second-best sales result in BMW Motorrad’s history (which they are), though the success of BMW Motorrad varies greatly by region.

If you have read Asphalt & Rubber long enough, then you surely must now our rabid affection for airbag equipped motorcycle gear. I’ve even gotten a little snobby about it.

To reiterate, airbags represent a new generation in safety equipment, and they dramatically reduce the injuries a rider can sustain during a crash or accident.

Right now though, airbag safety technology is limited to motorcycle jackets and racing suits, with protection only available on the torso.

What about south of the belt line though? Truthfully, the current state of airbag technology covers only half of our bodies, leaving out legs (and arms) exposed to harsh impacts.

This is where French upstart CX Air Dynamics hopes to disrupt the space, as they are working on an airbag-equipped set of pants.