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2018 Austin MotoGP Saturday Round Up: More Penalties Asked, More Penalties Given

Submitted by David Emmett on

At the core of every great sport is great storytelling. Mighty heroes take one another on, and overcome insurmountable obstacles in pursuit of glory. The leather patches, helmet designs, and in in the current fashion conscious age, tattoos in motorcycle racing bear this out: everywhere you look are nothing to loses, against all odds', and never give ups. Motorcycle racing has so many truly great story lines that it doesn't need any artificial plot twists or turns to hold the viewer's interest.

Sometimes, though, it feels like the script writer for MotoGP gets a bit lazy. The hero whose efforts went unrewarded at one race goes on to win the next race. The villain of the piece one weekend immediately gets his comeuppance the following week. The plot lines are so self-evident and obvious that it they become more cheap made-for-TV melodrama than a grand sweeping blockbuster the sport deserves. It's all just a little bit too obvious.

So it was on Saturday in Austin. The story of the day had been telegraphed two weeks ago in Argentina: the reigning world champion Marc Márquez made a stupid mistake on the grid before the start of the race, then turned into a one-man crime spree trying to make up for the ground he had lost, culminating in a collision with his arch rival Valentino Rossi, reigniting the slumbering war which has existed between the two since the 2015 season.

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2018 Austin MotoGP FP4 Result: The Marquez Show Continues

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

With the surface all dried up after an earlier shower, Marc Marquez took little time to drop into his favourite 2:04s and put a one second cushion between himself and unsurprisingly Andrea Iannone. While the Italian lost some ground to the Yamahas later on, the Repsol Honda man posted very consistent times regardless of the tyre combination he had on throughout the session.

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2018 Austin Moto2 FP3 Result: Pasini Strikes Back

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

The much talked about rain eventually came true just as the premier class was finishing things off and then made an appearance on and off throughout the final Moto2 practice session. Despite the occasional rain flags, track conditions didn’t worsen too much and the intermediate class got very close to bettering the weekend’s best time.

Alex Marquez was the first to attempt that and the Spaniard went on to lead for most of the session before the championship leader took over with seven minutes left on the clock. Mattia Pasini overcame all the troubles of Friday and dethroned Miguel Oliveira from his domination in every other session. 

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2018 Austin MotoGP FP3 Result: Marquez Fastest As Rain Halts Action

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

The premier class joined the party on Saturday morning with the threat of rain looming large over them. The circuit started dry but just as bumpy and it looked like we may get a routine practice session for much of its duration, until rain started falling in the final ten minutes. Marc Marquez led the entirety of FP3, initially about a tenth off the Friday benchmark and cutting that down to a frustrating nine thousandths of a second on his second run. The world champion did not get another proper shot to dethrone Andrea Iannone as the weekend’s fastest man but did put his name at the top of the pile for FP3.

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