Though it is hard to see Assen without remembering the old a painful reminder of the old six kilometre long layout, we’ll still be glad to watch the Moto3 bikes racing for first time at Dutch TT this weekend. Especially if you are still thrilled by the action seen at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago -with up to eleven riders fighting for a place on the rostrum-, you just can’t wait to watch a new chapter of these young lions racing and writing Moto3 history in its debut season.

Maverick Viñales is the new leader in the standings after the British Grand Prix (105 points) with Sandro Cortese in second place (103). Luis Salom stands third (75 points) thanks to his fighting spirit and getting best out of his Kalex KTM, exactly the same bike Aspar riders Héctor Faubel (28 points) and Alberto Moncayo (36) are riding nowhere near the front at this moment of the season. Kalex riders have been progressively provided with a new frame since the Barcelona race, but Faubel and Moncayo still have problems in finding the speed the new class demands. It’s a hard situation for a team which dominated the series in four of the last six seasons of 125 class history, until its end in 2011.

Behind Viñales and Cortese, Salom, rookie rider Romano Fenati (61 points) and Louis Rossi (45 points) are waiting for a chance that could very well come again in the next race. Meanwhile, Álex Rins (44 points), Zulfahmi Khairuddin (44 points) and Alexis Masbou (42), Oliveira (33), Sissis (31) and Vázquez (15 points) will keep riding like a soul escaping from Hell to grab a place on the rostrum. Silverstone was an amazing battle, with three riders totally focused on winning (Viñales, Cortese and Salom), and a long list of outsiders ready to die if needed to get a place on the rostrum (Masbou, Vázquez, Kent, Rossi, Fenati, Sissis, Khairuddin and Oliveira).

I’m sure you believe me if I say I don’t really like the deep hum of the 250 cc four-stroke single-cylinder engine, but I must recognize that, even knowing that Moto3 four stroke technology was already available since the first few decades of 20th Century –so, no big technical deal for a road racing world championship almost hundred years later-, the action on the track is still great to watch thanks to similar machinery and the indomitable spirit of the riders in the junior class.

The spring of 1990

Whatever kind of engine you prefer, what we get today from Moto3 class is about similar level of technical performance, also a legacy of the former two-stroke 125 class too. We all know that 125 was a category where having a true two-stroke technician and a genuinely fast rider used not to be enough to become world champion, or even to win a single race. Actually, in addition to these things, a 125 winner needed to be half clever strategist and half merciless hit man too. But it has not been always like that. The ultra competitive atmosphere in the 125cc class probably has a starting date, a day when everything changed in the spring of the1990 season and the races with more than several potential winners were born. But let’s go back further in the past to understand some facts.

In the glorious decade of the1960’s which featured the screaming Japanese multicylinder engines, the 125 class became so expensive in technical development that new technical regulations limited engines to two-stroke twins from the 1970 season. For almost two decades, European manufacturers got back in on their golden era. Derbi’s twins won the 125 title twice in the hands of Ángel Nieto at the start of the 70’s, and later, Italian bikes like Morbidelli, MBA, Minarelli or Garelli twins won every world title in the class from 1975 to 1987. But technical rules were about to change once again for 1988 and the 125 class was then limited to two-stroke single-cylinder engines.

After dominating the 80 cc class since 1986, Derbi and Spaniard Jorge Martínez were ready to win the first 125 World Championship for single-cylinder engines in 1988. The following season the championship went to rising star Álex Crivillé on the Spanish framed JJ Cobas/ Rotax. But those two different 125 twins and single-cylinder eras had something in common. In the last years of twins and those two first of singles, European manufactures produced a very small series of their fastest machines for their factory team riders, so races used to be dominated by just a very few fast riders and the fight for victory on every race used to be a matter of three or four riders per season at a maximum.

On the other hand, since the last days of twins Honda was back in the 125 class developing their two stroke single engine based on their motocross racers. Those exclusive machines were again in the hands of a few riders, such as Italian rider Ezio Gialona in 1988 and Dutchman Hans Spaan in 1989, but even they could do nothing against Derbi and JJ Cobas small but highly experienced teams in Grand Prix racing then.

At the same time that HRC were providing new parts and technical development for their fastest riders, the Japanese company was ready to sell the RS125, a cheap production racer available anywhere, destined for anything from small teams in club racing to private teams with real aspirations of success in the world championship using A, B or whatever lettered kits, always looking for higher performance. I still remember during those years some European privateers travelling to Japan for the first race of the season carrying no bikes. Those bikes would be bought at Suzuka racing shops for around 5.000 € -at the time-, plus the parts the rider was going to need for racing –the bikes themselves were sold with spoked wheels!.

But all this opened a new field for privateers and non-factory riders. Even if your rider did not have the most powerful spare parts kit at his disposal, a good technician could tune engines and make them be extremely fast anyway. Honda’s production racers filled a massively competitive 125 grid, so the prize of a single point became harder and harder to achieve on track, never mind winning a race or the championship. Honda finally won its first two-stroke 125 world title thanks to Loris Capirossi in 1990, but that was also a season of transition in more than one sense. With more bikes with similar performance and a new generation of Japanese riders becoming more and more competitive, we all got used to watching up to ten riders fighting for a place on the rostrum. The most bizarre scene of this came in Yugoslavia, when the first nine riders (Stefan Prein, Loris Capirossi, Bruno Casanova, Ralf Waldmann, Doriano Romboni, Fausto Gresini, Adi Stadler, Maurizio Vitali and Alessandro Gramigni), crossed the finish line at Rijeka in less than one second.

Nobody had seen such close Grand Prix racing in any class until then, and the tradition continued during the following decades. During those years Italian manufacturer Aprilia was already close to becoming competitive in 125, and its policy of selling production bikes was also a success. As time went by, Aprilia managed an expensive policy with its best satellite teams, and that meant a way to establish new differences between factory and privateers riders, but the 125 never lost again its high competitive spirit until the end of its life in the 2011 season.

Waiting for Assen 2012

Coming back to the present season, Moto3 was born with that same spirit, equalizing bike performance even more than it was in 125 thanks to some very detailed technical rules on 250 cc four strokes engines. Races like Silvertone is when we all enjoy the fruits of that approach and watch Viñales, Cortese and company fighting for the rostrum against lower profile riders. Where race leaders get caught up fighting and exchanging positions among themselves -wasting their precious lead-, then the second group has a strong chance of catching them, making possible that eleven-rider battle at the front front we all enjoyed at Silverstone two weeks ago.

Coming to Assen for the Dutch TT, we expect to see Viñales chasing his fourth victory of the 2012 season –He already won here last year on the 125-, and it may be a good chance for Salom to get his first GP win at the home race of the Dutch RW Racing GP team. Cortese finished off the rostrum in 2011, something he cannot afford to do again if he wants to stay among the title contenders at midseason. But we all wish to see another thrilling battle with Fenati, Rossi, Masbou, Vázquez, Khairuddin, Faubel and Moncayo, if the latter two finally find their way. I, for one, will not be able to resist the temptation of imagining how it would have been to watch these wild riders fighting on the older Assen layout. The world changes, and it seems not to matter when business takes over from passion and tradition.

After the announcement of Casey Stoner's retirement a few weeks ago and Jorge Lorenzo’s confirmation recently that he will be staying with Yamaha for the next two seasons, everybody is trying to guess the answer to the million--dollar question: which factory will Valentino Rossi be riding for next season?.

But none of this has anything to do with the real interest of the World Championship, where Moto2 and Moto3 classes show the real thrilling action on the track, and we all expect more of the same from a new edition of British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Even though the Silverstone racetrack has a great tradition and long history in British Grand Prix racing, I must confess that I still miss the technical and demanding layout of Donington Park. But business is stronger than passion or any other influence in motorsport in recent times, just as it is everywhere else. With Donington gone since 2009 -after hosting 22 rounds of the British Grand Prix-, at least the speedy Silverstone is still a great place for racing, as we will all enjoy this weekend.

The Moto2 Class was born in 2010 at the same time as the Silverstone racetrack was coming back to Grand Prix racing, after dropping off the calendar in 1986. Even if we would have loved to watch Andrea Iannone, Thomas Luthi, Marc Márquez or Pol Espargaró coming down the hill on their Moto2 bikes at Craner or saving braking slides coming into the Melbourne Hairpin at Donington Park, Silverstone’s ultra fast layout still ensures amazing races too.

Looking forward to the Moto2 British Grand Prix, on the sporting side Swiss rider Thomas Luthi is leading the standing thanks to a smart season. Being on the rostrum in four of five races, plus a psychological win at a wet Le Mans, Luthi is now the leader of the series with 88 points after the last race in Catalonia, just two points ahead of the flying Spaniard Marc Márquez -86 points-. Behind them Andrea Iannone -71 points-, is showing again his mighty talent, although it is been mixed with some poor performances as seems to happen every season. Pol Espargaró -71 points-, went to his local race in Catalonia and after his encounter with Marquez left Barcelona with an injured ankle and no points for him, and is now fourth in the standings.

Because of this last affair, the intermediate class is taking a strange atmosphere to Silverstone, as an air of bureaucracy hangs over the race. The fact in this case is that those last sixteen points earned by Márquez from his third position in Barcelona are still up in the air, after Espargaró's 40 HP Tuenti team lodged an appeal with the FIM, to have the points taken away from Márquez due to his risky action with Espargaró, especially when all this ended in disaster for Espargaró while fighting for third place behind Luthi and Italian Andrea Iannone.

Race Direction decided to apply a one minute penalty to Márquez in Barcelona, but that decision was soon revoked by FIM Stewards later the same day. Espargaró’s team then appealed, understanding that their rider had lost a serious amount of points and many of his options in the championship due to the Montmelo crash. So, we do not exactly know at this moment if Márquez is second in the standings –with 86 points behind leader Luthi-, or if he stands fourth after Luthi, Espargaró, Iannone with just seventy points.

At least this is happening during the early part of the season. Otherwise, a situation like this later in the year could likely give an surreal view at the end of the season for riders, teams and viewers alike. Hopefully, we will soon find out the final decision of the FIM, something more significant than just a different point of view between such important racing institutions as the FIM and Race Direction.

Whatever it is, it is not going to finish at Silverstone this week. Marquez and Espargaro meet each other again at the same track where the pair fought tooth and nail for victory in the 125 class in 2010. Marquez beat Espargaro then, after a thrilling and eventful last lap full of contact between the two riders, something similar to what they did a few weeks ago in the last lap of the Portuguese or Catalonian races.

Espargaro was injured after his crash in Barcelona, suffering a sprain in one of his ankles. His team has sent out a press release interviewing him about this round at Siverstone. The sprain seems to be OK, but his extremely nice words towards Márquez reveal a maybe not so clear attitude. HP Tuenti team boss Sito Pons must have been clear on this affair, forbidding any pugnacious words from any of his crew. From the side of Márquez, silence seems to be the main priority too. Either way, both riders will surely be fighting for victory at Silverstone. We’ll find out once they are back on the about the real lessons learnt by each rider in Barcelona.

Guessing the winner of the Moto2 race at the British Grand Prix a very difficult task at this moment. 2011 British race winner Stefan Bradl won’t be among the fastest riders of the 2012 season –Luthi, Márquez, Espargaró and Iannone-. Looking back at the 2011 race, of these latter four, only Luthi was able to earn a disappointing single point by finishing 15th in the wet. Marquez crashed again during the race after smashing up his Suter in the warm up session on Sunday morning, so no points for him. Nor for Espargaró either –also crashed - or Iannone –finished out of the points, in 16th.

So, what can we expect from the Moto2 race this time? For sure, we’ll enjoy an amazing race with the four fastest guys out on the track in almost physical perfect conditions, plus some local riders like Scott Redding, Bradley Smith or Gino Rea, and some inspired guests in the front like Claudio Corti, Mika Kallio, Toni Elías or Tito Rabat.

Last year’s MotoGP British Grand Prix was held under the rain. Some predictions say that weather will be fine this weekend, others predict cold rainy days like 2011. For those disappointed if rain finally falls, we all know dry racing is always faster and safer too. But we all surely recognize that the seemingly mutually exclusive concepts of heavy rain and riding a motorcycle very fast takes talent and sensitivity to a higher level of perfection.

For the last couple of days since the Catalunya Grand Prix, I have been wondering and trying to find out why the FIM did not confirm the one minute race time penalty given to Marc Marquez by Race Direction, awarded because of the Catalunya Caixa rider’s risky action over Pol Espargaro during the last few laps of Moto2 race at Montmeló.

As everyone knows by now the Moto2 class continues to provide some of the closest battles for victory in Grand Prix racing history and, even more today than in the past 250 class times, the price paid by riders for this show is still living on the edge of disaster if they chase any chance of glory.

Maybe that was the main reason why Marquez decided to come back to the inside line of Turn 10 as soon as possible after a massive slide on his Suter, which looked to leave him out of the race or at least out of fighting for a place on the rostrum.

Maybe that was also the reason why Pol Espargaró decided to take as much advantage from his arch rival’s mistake on his over-geared Kalex. There are lots of things to have in mind before getting a conclusion on who was right or who was wrong; like each rider’s actions and the timing of those actions, and also the key decisions taken by Race Direction and soon later by FIM Stewards. But prior to expose a particular point of view on this critical question, let us have a look a race’s final contenders for victory, Andrea Iannone and Thomas Luthi.

Since the Moto2 class started in 2010, Andrea Iannone has been one of favourite riders for victory in every race. For some observers, even, the Italian is the fastest rider in the class. But he seems to need every aspect of racing in to be perfect in order to win –perfect settings, a good qualifying lap time and a perfect start of the race too, among several factors.

Once Iannone was on the track and felt comfortable as he did at Montmeló, it was clear that victory was going to him rather than to the more conservative Thomas Luthi. The Swiss rider may not usually fight for victory as hard as Iannone, Marquez or Espargaró do, but he combines consistency with being extremely fast too. Though Luthi is not a Red Bull sponsored rider, his second place in Barcelona “gave him wings” to leap into the lead of the championship standings. While Marquez was still off the podium because of the decision of Race Direction, Luthi was even further ahead on points from Márquez, but even the decision by the FIM Stewards to put Marquez back to third still leaves Luthi as leader of the series.

Crimes remain the same

No matter how long time passes, if you look back 25 years in Grand Prix racing, you’ll find that things may have changed a lot technically, the minds of the riders have done so too. As with Andrea Iannone in 2012, back in the 1990 season there was another flying Italian rider, Luca Cadalora, not a true world championship contender at the time –still riding Giacomo Agostini team’s works Yamaha YZR 250, before joining Honda in 1991-, but for sure a challenging rival capable of winning anywhere, at anytime. As Ianonne seems to be today, Cadalora needed everything right to be competitive.

However, it all came together for Cadalora once he joined the Rothmans Honda squad run by Erv Kanemoto in 1991. Cadalora won the title then and he repeated his performance in 1992 as the strongest rider on the track. He got it thanks to the Honda NSR 250's greater potential and also due to Erv Kanemoto’s experience giving the right help to a rising star, as he had done with Freddie Spencer a few years earlier. Cadalora also found with Kanemoto the calm and peace needed to become a fast and safe rider capable of winning at every race, and maybe something similar is what Andrea Iannone needs now to become a real championship contender in Moto2.

While Cadalora was still struggling on Agostini’s Yamaha in 1988, Jacques Cornu was the Swiss rider who, like Luthi in 2012, was fighting for victory against not only Cadalora, but also against the Spaniards Sito Pons and Juan Garriga, Frenchman Dominique Sarron and the reigning 250 world champion of 1987, the German Anton Mang.

Cornu won in Austria and France in 1988 and was finally third on points after Pons and Garriga at the end of the season, but never fought for the title against them. Sarron was leading the French connection at the time, but today France’s latest hopes in Moto2 are focused on young man Johann Zarco, so France will have to wait its moment in the new intermediate class.

Curiously, there is no German reigning champion at this time because 2011 Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl has already gotten involved in a bigger MotoGP survival experience, but those two Spaniards Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaró are a throwback to Sito Pons and Juan Garriga at a time when their duel divided the Spanish fans like only the Spanish Civil War had done before.

When Spaniards Marc Márquez and Pol Esparagaró got a win each in the first two races of the present season, Spanish fans and media started to dream about a no mercy duel like Sito Pons and Juan Garriga had in 1988, chasing Spain’s first ever 250 world championship. The main difference between Pons and Garriga’s duel and Marquez and Espargaró’s is that Pons and Garriga never crashed together throughout the entire 1988 season –although they came close to after smashing each other’s bikes in the last two corners of Sweden Grand Prix at Anderstop. But the 1988 season it self was full of incidents like those may change the course of the season several times in 2012.

You’ll find some examples of all this in the first lap of 1988 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, when a hurried Pons charged Alberto Puig’s production Honda NS 250 –also nicknamed “diesel”- and both riders crashed. Later in the season, Honda satellite riders Pons and Sarron were fighting for victory in the last lap of Dutch TT at Assen when Sarron tried a desperate braking maneuver at the last chicane that ended in disaster for both riders. After crashing, Pons restarted the race, finished sixth and earned the same ten precious points that gave him the title over Garriga at the end of the year in Brazil.

More along those lines, in what became a bizarre situation in the last race of the 1988 season at the Goiania race track, Yamaha gave German rider Martin Wimmer some technical updates in order to join satellite riders Carlos Lavado and Luca Cadalora, to help Garriga against the massed ranks of Honda riders: Pons, Cornu, Roth, Sarron, Carlos Cardús and Masahiro Shimizu. What could Wimmer do to help Garriga? For sure, taking Garriga out of the track on the very first lap would not have been the first option, but that’s exactly what Wimmer did as soon as the green light was switched on. Neither Race Direction nor FIM Stewards applied any penalties then, and that also gives an idea about how the perception of things have changed in road racing in these recent years.

One or two guilty riders?

Coming back to the present season, it is difficult to determine if either Marquez or Esparagó did something worse than the other in Barcelona, because maybe both riders did something wrong.

With Iannone and Luthi in front but still very close, the Catalunya Caixa rider was very close to crashing in a way that recalled the kind of scary situations that have taken Shoya Tomizawa and Marco Simoncelli’s lives in recent time: a rider loses grip and gets it back, becoming dangerously exposed to riders and bikes coming after him.

Fortunately, Marquez was lucky enough to not be taken by his Suter into a critical situation –as Tomizawa and Simoncelli did-, and the corner was wide enough for Marquez to try to fix this riding mistake. It was natural to expect Marquez to come back as soon as possible to the inside line and not to lose his third place against Espargaro, and maybe he did not see Espargaro’s bike on his left hand side, but it is also clear that Espargaró is almost at the same level when Marquez hits him.

Marquez’s action may be a little too much in line with the opinion of some people in the paddock about the Spaniard’s riding style. He is an absolute talent when it comes to riding, but actions such as the one last season in Australia –smashing his Suter into Ratthapark Wilairot’s bike after the practice session was over-, the risky movement against Thomas Luthi this season in the last lap of Qatar Grand Prix or coming back to the inside line without checking as he did in Catalonia, reveal a riding character that knows no fear, one that we have all already seen may have a very serious impact in road racing safety matters.

Pol Espargaró’s over-geared Kalex would not give him too many options against Marquez’s better acceleration, and it was impulsive for him to take advantage of Marquez’s mistake. But, as you can see on the broadcast images, he loses a negligible amount of speed when Marquez was almost crashing, and tried to take advantage once the Kalex rider is sure that they are not going to collide.

Of course, doing this Espargaró lost the chance of being much faster than Marquez exiting the corner, which put him again at a position of disadvantage as soon as Marquez gets back on the throttle. Then, the Suter’s better acceleration gave Marquez the hope of not being passed by Espargaró and from the humble point of view of this writer, that was the key to a disaster waiting to happen.

The Superbike and 250 world champion John Kocinski used to say: "If you are going to have hit someone else’s bike, you'd better have your footpegs ahead of theirs if you want to avoid crashing yourself". Maybe the less than 20 centimetres by which Marquez was ahead were what saved him from crashing as Espargaró did.

More important than this, there’s a higher fact that blames both riders. All this did not happen on the last lap. Both riders were aware of that and they still tried a desperate action to keep third position behind Iannone and Luthi, which gives to both the chance of letting the other go. Marquez’s quotes to the media after the race, saying he was not carrying mirrors on his Suter – that’s why he could not know Espargaró was behind him - are just an offense to the intelligence of Espargaró and his audience. On the other hand, if Marquez could not see what was going on behind him, Espargaró had full vision of the situation and could likely have avoided the contact, letting Marquez come back to the inside line without any interference.

What is even more strange is the result of the FIM Stewards' decision to cancel the one minute penalty Marquez received from Race Direction. After HP Tuenti Espargaro’s team announced an appeal to FIM decision, Motomatters.com tried to speak to HP Tuenti and Catalunya Caixa teams, but both refused to make any comments until the FIM has felled its final verdict. It could take up to three months, but we guess it will come much sooner. In the meanwhile, nobody seems to know the basis of FIM’s decision.

As it should be, what was probably the last Portuguese Grand Prix for the foreseeable future left no one indifferent. Torrential storms became almost a tradition at Estoril, so nobody expected this edition to be any different after seeing clouds quickly come and go over the track from Thursday to Sunday. It would hardly have been a surprise to feel the rain start to fall at any given moment of the weekend, but thankfully, it held off.

Media attention was focused since early Thursday on rumours of Casey Stoner’s retirement published by Spanish magazine Solo Moto a few days earlier, but that turned out to be much ado about nothing, even more so after Stoner’s magnificent victory on Sunday against Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

But leaving aside MotoGP, with its high tech prototype bikes, and riders so close to perfection that it is almost impossible to overtake, the Moto2 and Moto3 classes gave the real action at Estoril with two thrilling races decided in the last few corners.

Waiting for Le Mans

Round four at the hard braking –or heart breaking - track of Le Mans for the French Grand Prix this weekend will see a new chapter added to the 2012 volume of the toughest Moto2 fights, featuring Marc Marquez, Thomas Luthi, Pol Espargaró and Andrea Iannone, the fastest men right now in Moto2.

As expected, Marquez is back again at the front after a worrying preseason with no time spent riding. The Spaniard is, without a shadow of a doubt, the hottest contender for Moto2 crown, but he will not be alone on his way to victory either. Thomas Luthi looks one of the most consistent riders behind Marquez. Marquez left Luthi without a chance at Qatar, with the hard outbraking maneuver on the last lap at Losail, and the Swiss rider also lost any hope of victory in the wet last few laps of the Spanish GP at Jerez. At Estoril, Luthi could not chase Marquez and Espargaro at Estoril in the final laps of Portuguese Grand Prix as his rear tire went off. But he was still on the rostrum in every race.

Pol Espargaro started this season after a tough experience last year as a rookie in the intermediate class, forced to witness how at the same time, his 125 arch rival Marquez was close to glory in similar conditions as him. But he now has the confidence and experience to also be battling for wins in Moto2, helped in no small part by the Pons Racing squad, one of the most successful 500 and MotoGP satellite teams of all time. Espargaro and Marquez’s duel at Estoril was a revival of their old 125 deadly rivalry. They both sounded pleased and happy about that fight when the pair were interviewed by Spanish journo Alberto Gomez on the evening after Portuguese Grand Prix for a radio broadcast, but make no mistake: Marquez did not complain of Espagaro’s risky move at Estoril's chicane, because he was showing the very same behaviour just a few corners before on the same last lap. It’s also nice to see the Pons Racing team fighting for victory again after years of absence, but this could not be the only surprise from the Spanish team this season. Espargaro’s team mate Tito Rabat looks like a strong storm waiting to happen, and it could take only a few races for his talent to come out.

It’s also fascinating to see how the 2012 season is turning out so differently for the last ever 125 world champion Nico Terol and the rival he defeated for the title, Johan Zarco. Terol is just not having fun yet on a Moto2 bike, such a totally different four-stroke machine to the 125 – sometimes he has no confidence in the front end of his Suter - while his French rival Zarco seems to fit perfectly in this class. He fought for a rostrum place at Estoril and his debut in Moto2 has been much better than even Marquez’s in 2011. He may not be close to victory yet, but he will for sure get there before Terol, and this weekend a home race for Zarco at Le Mans could be a great moment to show what he is made of.

On the other side of Terol’s garage, backed by the insurance company MAPFRE, we also find Spaniard Toni Elias, returning in 2012 to the class that gave me him his only world championship title in 2010. Everyone knows that Elias is capable of great things, especially under pressure, but the Moto2 class he left in 2010 to ride a MotoGP bike again in 2011 was quite different to the series he finds himself in in 2012. Moto2 was a new class back in 2010 and nobody knew what to expect from it. A grid filled with 41 new prototype motorcycles with identical engines was unknown territory. And also, for many of the riders, four strokes engines were something new in their racing careers, with some finding it very hard to adapt to heavier weights and different engine and clutch response. Elias was the most experienced rider on the grid then, while today there already are true Moto2 specialists. Not two or three, but more than ten.

Andrea Iannone is once more one of the fastest riders. He can fight for victory at any track at any moment, but the most murderous Moto2 rider does not seem to be as consistent as he needs to be if he is to remain a championship contender. And so Marc Márquez appears to have the magical talent and Espargaro the fighting spirit. Both riders have won at Le Mans in the past and Luthi may be waiting for the right moment – though he had best not take too long. Meanwhile Zarco could finally get the breakthrough that he knows is coming in front of his home crowd. You had better not miss the Moto2 race at the French Grand Prix this weekend!