MotoGP:Brno - Upsetting the Apple Cart

If you thought qualifying would indicate a rider's fortunes come race day on the Sunday you'd be wrong... dead wrong!

It was a day that saw plenty of twists and turns and eventually one winner that wouldn't have surprised many and would have elated even more as his ever impressive form continued now that the season was well and truly back underway again...
QUALIFYING

This was one for the underdog as both Tech III Yamaha & Go&Fun Honda Gresini both had excellent showings from their riders Cal Crutchlow & Alvaro Bautista respectively.

The qualifying looked set to be another pole position for current championship leader, Marc Marquez only for Bautista to outqualify him by 0.109 of a second & then Crutchlow, after fitting a new tank supposedly to help with the stability of the bike for the earlier part of the race, set a blistering time of 1:55.527; a full 2 tenths of a second ahead of Bautista.

Struggling again were Dani Pedrosa & Jorge Lorenzo who each managed rather disappointing affairs by their own standards; the former was fourth, whilst Lorenzo clocked in one place behind him in fifth.

Special mention at this point goes to both Bradley Smith (the Tech III rider clocked in behind Lorenzo by only .065 behind) & a resurgent Colin Edwards, who brought his NGM Mobile Forward Racing machine home in 12th position to start at the end of the fourth row of the grid and therefore be the highest qualified CRT machine.

Onto the race...

THE RACE

So, with Cal Crutchlow on pole position, this was hopefully going to be the time when he could finally, finally bring that bike home where he starts, right?

Well not if the start was anything to go by, as Lorenzo got an absolute flier of a start, slingshotting through the entire field to come up trumps at the first corner. This was not, in my opinion down to a particularly bad start by Crutchlow, it was simply that he got outdragged along with Bautista by Lorenzo & then bumped back behind Marquez and Pedrosa who both managed to get the better of the front two.

A start like Lorenzo's is what the term 'taking off like a scalded cat' was made for!

So with Crutchlow & Bautista being the major losers in that start, though not of necessarily their own doing as I've said, it would be likely that they would be battling for the rest of this race as only they could; tooth and nail for every second they could get over one another.

Valentino Rossi meanwhile, having qualified in seventh, managed to pass Smith early on to state his intent to defy his poor qualifying and make up for it in sheer race pace.

The first casualty of the race came after the first lap where Hector Barbera unfortunately collided with and took out the NGM Mobile Forward Racing of Claudio Corti. Team-mate to Edwards, it was a sheer slice of unfortunate luck that ended Corti's race and was hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Whoops!

The next casualty came further round that lap, the seventy odd metre drop from lowest to highest point on the circuit, proving more difficult for some than others to deal with as the Came IodaRacing Project machine of Lukáš Pešek came unstuck in a rather messy crash that saw, thankfully, more damage to his bike than to his own self... phew!

Now, at this point I saw Bradley Smith falling through the list of riders still on the track, leading me to believe that something untoward had befallen him and the moment it was confirmed by Steve Parrish's surprised reaction not finding him in the classifieds, suggested he'd crashed out. Sure enough, that was confirmed a short time later when he was there at the side of the track looking rather crestfallen at his misfortune, unfortunately down to a slight mishap with the bike.

Wow! Did all that really happen within a single lap?

The following lap gave a clue as to what was to come on catching up with the Bautista/Crutchlow battle followed by Marquez setting a brand new lap record, 1:56.135, eclipsing Lorenzo's 2012 time of 1:56.274; that's a full tenth off the record, bro's!

It has to be said at this point that the battle with Crutchlow & Bautista with Rossi now dragging himself into the mix as well to mix it up with these two bro's, was definite shades of the last race at Indianapolis where everything unfolded on the final corner of the final lap!

With 18 to go, Crutchlow got the better of Bautista for yet another switch in position before disaster struck four laps later as his bike let go in a 'low-sider' incident that saw a spanner well and truly thrown in the works. Credit to him though as he pegged it back for the bike and with some assistance from the marshals, he was able to jump back on the machine and try and make up for that mishap that would ultimately cost him a chance at chasing down the points.

Up at the pointy end of the grid, Pedrosa was pushing Marquez all the way as the two of them squabbled over who would get the chance to overtake Lorenzo and take further advantage of the race lead.

With Crutchlow now out of the picture, it was down to Rossi to squeeze home any advantage he could get over Bautista now that there was one less rider in the fight.

Entering the second third of the race, the front three of Lorenzo, Marquez & Pedrosa had managed to pull out over 3 seconds from the rest of the field.

Further down the order, the Power Electronics Aspar of Aleix Espargaro was ahead of Edwards, who'd slipped down to second in terms of the CRT championship in the race. This was definitely a statement of intent for the rest of the season from the Spaniard who was going to be joined by his brother, Pol, next season.

8 laps were now remaining on the counter and it was looking increasingly likely that it was going to be business as usual for Lorenzo until Marquez tries to stuff his bike down the inside of Lorenzo's on approaching one of the circuit's fast downhill sections. He went with that much pace that he actually went sideways for most of the approach... what a hardcore sonuvagun!

Marquez had clearly recognised by this time that the laps were running out and with them the chances to get even further ahead on reigning champion Lorenzo, so he waited until the following lap to get the job done.

Further back, Bautista traded places with Rossi and it looked like finally this could be his time to come out victorious in the battle with 'The Doctor'.

Did you really, honestly think that was that as far as the front three were concerned? Nope? Neither did I!

With four remaining, Lorenzo managed to get the better of Marquez only to get mugged back again a couple of corners later, which gave Pedrosa (who all this time had been sitting quietly close behind Marquez waiting to pounce!) ample opportunity to try and get one over on Lorenzo too.

He did it too!

Wow! What a race this was turning out to be and the man that made the electric start from fifth to first, was now fast heading back to where he qualified from, with only that over three second gap being the safety cushion making sure he couldn't go any further back as Bautista and Rossi were too busy squabbling with each other (and the latter going on to take 4th position).

So, then, with Lorenzo getting overtaken by both Repsol Honda's, it was looking increasingly likely now that it would be theirs to lose in terms of the manufacturer's championship.

Which brings me onto 'Rider of the Day' and though I sensibly opted not to pick one out of the last time at Indy, this one has to go to the race winner, thus bucking any trend of backing the man that arguably should have won the race, but didn't...

Marc Marquez

On breaking yet another record (he was the first since Valentino Rossi to get as many podiums as he has this season) in this, his record-breaking debut season, what's left to be said about the young Spaniard is that he might end up becoming the World Champion, thus wresting the crown from its current owner, Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo it is who's another Spaniard and it has to be said that he must really tighten it up that little bit more in order to reel both Repsol Hondas in of Marquez and Pedrosa in.

Oh to have seen Marquez up against Casey Stoner, bro's; now that would have been a frickin' cherry on top of the pie for this race!

There was little doubt in my mind that Marquez's triple wins in America wouldn't be a sign of things to come and I'm glad to say that this is one bro' who seriously now can be talked about as a potential World Champion in the making!

Though to do it in his maiden season would really be something, wouldn't it, bro's?!

So, next time out, a mere matter of days away, is a trip to Silverstone and the British GP.

This is, for sure, one where all eyes will especially be on Cal Crutchlow & Bradley Smith to see if they can equal Barry Sheene's record of the last time there was a British winner at the British GP. It is said that they must better themselves than their current situations which is 5th and 11th places respectively.

Until next time...

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin