2018 Austin MotoGP Qualifying Result: If It’s Too Easy, Build Yourself A Challenge *UPDATED*
Submitted by Zara Daniela on
Results and summary of qualifying for the MotoGP class at COTA:
MotoGP
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 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.
2018 World Superbike Championship Standings After Race 7, Assen, The Netherlands
Submitted by David Emmett on
WorldSBK standings after race 1 at Assen:
Round Number:
4
Year:
2018
2018 Austin MotoGP Friday Round Up: Bumps And Dirt, Marquez' Superiority, And New Rules Incoming
Submitted by David Emmett on
There was good news and bad news for the MotoGP paddock after the first day of practice at the Circuit of the Americas. The good news is that the work done to the track to try to remove the bumps had not made the track much more abrasive, as some had feared. Tires are wearing normally, so pit stops or worse will not be needed.
The bad news is that the work done to try to remove the bumps has not done anything to remove the bumps. It has moved them about a little, improved them in some places, made them worse in others, but the net effect has been zero, or worse than zero. What's worse, the process used has generated a huge amount of dust, bikes coming down the back straight billowing clouds of dust in their wake.
"It's worse than Qatar," Jack Miller said. "I said to the guys, 'I hope you've got the air filter in from Qatar, because you're going to need it'." At the first race of the season, the teams have to run a special air filter to prevent the desert dust from entering the engine and causing excessive wear. "The dust is far worse than Qatar, it's that crappy concrete dust," Miller explained.
2018 Austin MotoGP FP2 Result: Iannone Fast, Marquez Ominous
Submitted by Zara Daniela on
Green light, Marquez unleashed, business as usual. The Repsol Honda man had a pretty standard session, jumping to the top of the timesheets right away, sliding out in turn 11 halfway through the session and then resuming action on a used hard rear tyre to post an even faster time. The Spaniard would’ve had the perfect day if Andrea Iannone had not put on new tyres at the right time to snatch one of the rare sessions held at the circuit not to be topped by the reigning world champion.
2018 Austin MotoGP FP1 Result: Predictably Marquez
Submitted by Zara Daniela on
Who is that making his way through dust as dense as a rainstorm faster than anyone else? Well it is Marc Marquez of course, dancing with arguably his favourite piece of tarmac. The Spaniard comfortably put a second into his pursuers as soon as the light went green and supervised the rest of FP1/track cleaning operation from the top of the timesheets. While his occasional rodeo did come with impressive pace at a track where he always seems to be one step ahead, the gaps throughout the field will come with a pinch of salt, as the morning session did not serve for much else than dealing with a very dirty track.
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2018 Austin MotoGP Thursday Round Up: Handling Shenanigans
Submitted by David Emmett on
The announcement that the official MotoGP.com website were to stream the Thursday media debriefs of Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi live raised some hackles in the paddock. The objections to the move differed with the interests of those complaining. The print media complained that there was no point in flying half the way around the world to cover the series if everything was going to be streamed live anyway. Rival factories complained that the media debriefs of their riders were not being streamed live. Some fans and journalists complained that by showing the debriefs, Dorna were merely fanning the flames, where they should be trying to calm the situation down.
In the end, there wasn't much of a situation to calm down. Sure, the media debriefs of Márquez and Rossi were streamed live. But both men went out of their way not to say anything of interest. The feud lives on, but we didn't notice because we lost interest in what the protagonists were saying about halfway through. There is much to be said for trite media speak.
To an extent, this is probably a good thing. Aleix Espargaro, whose media debrief really should have been streamed live, as it was a great deal more entertaining than all the other rider press conferences put together, pointed out the irony of the situation. "Everybody is talking about the Argentina clash and nobody is talking about the tarmac of America, which is more important!" the factory Aprilia rider complained.
Guest Blog: Mat Oxley - Bike racers were never choirboys
Submitted by Mat Oxley on
Just in case you think motorcycle racers used to be different, here’s something I wrote back in 2003
“This is bike racing, not classical music,” opined former 250cc world champion Max Biaggi after Doriano Romboni accused him of dirty tricks on the last lap of the 1994 250cc German Grand Prix.
Pretty obvious, really, because there’s not a half-successful racer in the world who doesn’t get up to some kind of mischief in his quest for glory.
2018 Austin MotoGP Preview: Breaking Marquez' American Win Streak
Submitted by David Emmett on
Normally, the Grand Prix of the Americas, as the MotoGP round at COTA in Austin is known, is a straightforward affair. 24 MotoGP riders line up on the grid, and 23 of them stage a fierce battle over who is going to come second behind Marc Márquez. The Repsol Honda rider has won every single one of the five editions staged at the Circuit of the Americas. In fact, the Spaniard has never been beaten in any of the nine MotoGP races he has contested on American soil, at Laguna Seca, Indianapolis, or in Austin.
Will someone finally break Márquez' winning streak in the US? On the evidence of the 2018 season so far, the only person capable of beating Márquez at one of his strongest tracks is Marc Márquez himself. In Argentina, the Repsol Honda rider managed to thoroughly sabotage his own race. First by stalling his bike on the starting grid – a grid already thrown out of kilter by the changing weather. Then by trying to make up for the time he lost serving a ride through penalty for a multitude of infractions at the start by charging through the field like a wrecking ball, slamming into one rider after another, taking out his arch nemesis Valentino Rossi, before being hit by another penalty, this time adding 30 seconds to his race time and demoting him out of the points.After the race and in the intervening days since, Rossi has gone on the attack, calling Márquez a dangerous rider who is a threat to everyone on the track with him. He doesn't feel safe on the track with Márquez, Rossi said. Rossi's remarks, while understandable, should be seen within the wider context of his vendetta with Márquez, after he lost the 2015 championship, which Rossi blames entirely on deliberate interference by Márquez. Further stoking the fire, Rossi was pictured in a social media post with a framed picture of the Argentina incident lying on a sofa at his dirt track ranch.
Whatever the root of Rossi's remarks, there can be no doubt that they are a distraction, both for Márquez and for Rossi himself. When the pair arrive at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, they will face questioning on one subject only. And that won't be Márquez' chances of winning on Sunday.
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