Michael Scott | April 21, 2017
Not wings, Kenny Jnr, Honda motors and marriage proposals!
Marquez the man at COTA (so far)
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez laid claim to day one honours at the CotA circuit where he has yet to be beaten … but under pressure that might disturb his sleep tonight.
The defending champion set top time after the flag in the second free practice session. But three Yamahas were well within sight, and at least one of them a serious threat – for Maverick Vinales had been fastest in the morning, and with two wins in the first two races is riding high.
In fact it was Monster Yamaha rider Johann Zarco who Marquez displaced from the lead, the double Moto2 champion and astonishing class rookie fitting soft tyres front and rear at the end of the session to move briefly to the top. He ended up less than three tenths slower.
Factory Movistar team rider Vinales was another tenth slower, but had yet to use soft tyres. His team-mate Valentino Rossi was fourth, now eight tenths down on Marquez, on a long track with a two-minute lap time.
Marquez’s time of 2’04.061 was almost two seconds off his own best lap of 2015, with major new bumps in heavy braking areas slowing the pace (see separate news story).
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was fifth; then Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) sixth, from Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), rookie Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha) and Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati). Andrea Iannone (Ecstar Suzuki) completed the top ten, with new Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo pushed to 11th, more than two seconds down on Marquez.
Jack Miller (VDS Honda) was 13th.
Alex Marquez stole top spot in Moto2 from VDS Kalex team-mate Franco Morbidelli, in a close finish to a session that saw morning leader Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) dropped to fourth behind Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt) on the best of the returned Suters.
Thomas Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) was fifth.
Moto3 champion Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) and Australian Remy Gardner (Tech 3) were both absent injured, the former after complications to the troublesome arm injury incurred in testing at the end of last year. Gardner suffered a broken ankle when knocked off in the first corner at the last round in Argentina.
Spaniard Aron Canet (EG Honda) was firmly in control of a Honda-dominated Moto3, with title leader Joan Mir (Leopard Honda) closing to within seven tenths of the runaway free practice leader at the end.
Romano Fenati (Rivacold Honda) was third, then Jorge Martin (Gresini Honda). Fifth-placed Juanfran Guevara (RBA KTM) was best of the rest.
Kenny Jnr becomes a Legend
Kenny Roberts Junior became the latest MotoGP legend, joining his legendary father “King Kenny” on the list of 26 names running from Geoff Duke and Mike Hailwood to Casey Stoner in a ceremony on Friday at the Circuit of the Americas.
Junior, winner of eight 500cc races on a Suzuki in 1999 and 2000, and the title in the second year, was the first to secure a father-and-son championship, and likewise the first father-and-son inducted to the official Hall of Fame.
Kenny Senior joined Junior and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta on the stage for a ceremony marked by man-hugs and plentiful new-found goodwill.
Ezpeleta paid tribute to Junior’s influence on safety in the years before the official Safety Commission; and the new legend responded in like style, saying how Ezpeleta had always been ready to listen. “Carmelo was always for the riders. He made it better for us, and safer for us.”
He spoke also about the great two-stroke days, when “the racing line was a foot wide, and you had to be in the right gear and the right revs all the time. When it was right it was great, but when it was wrong you could be at the back and still riding harder than the guys at the front.”
Kenny Senior made a typically penetrating remark, with a twist in the tail. “When he said he wanted to race, I told him: ‘You just have to accept you’ll never be as good as me’.” After the laugh, he explained what he had meant – that outsiders would always be saying: he’s not as good as his father was.
Roberts was Suzuki’s last World Champion, and the company’s first since Kevin Schwantz in 1993. His title year in 1999 was distinguished by eight different race winners, a record that stood until 2016, when there were nine.
Not a wing, or is it?
When is a wing not a wing? KTM appeared to be pushing the boundaries, with the Austrian MotoGP newcomers’ first aerodynamic fairing that made its debut in the second free practice session at CotA.
Add-on wings were banned this year, and the established factories have shown various solutions with vaned ducting through the sides or top section of the fairing.
KTM had been focused on other aspects of their all-new V4 MotoGP racer; but at race three their own solution appeared. This had steeply angled not-wings either side of the air intake. Only the fact that they had a relatively thick base and that they are moulded into the fairing distinguished them from add-on wings.
According to Pol Espargaro’s crew chief Paul Trevathan, the aim was both to reduce wheelies under acceleration “and to keep a load on the front”. So far, he said, “there are no negatives”.
Ducati have yet to homologate a ducted fairing, and the others kept theirs in reserve in Argentina and Texas – with the exception of Suzuki, with both riders Iannone and Rins exercising their downforce bodywork on the first day of practice.
Honda’s new motor
Making the new big-bang 2017 Honda competitive is simply a matter of time, according to riders Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow. Time measured in hours, rather than weeks or months.
With engine design frozen and the new engine once again proving a bit of a handful for a second year in succession, Marquez compared his strong performances at pre-season tests with his greater difficulties in getting up to consistent speed at the races. At tests, he explained, “we are stronger because there is a lot of time to make adjustments. At a race, not so much.”
The weakness is in acceleration, a repeat of last year’s problems, though for different reasons. 2016 was the first year of the reverse-direction crankshaft; and riders were stuck with an unruly unit with a too-light crankshaft, eventually tamed by electronic improvements.
For 2017 firing intervals have been radically revised to make a big-bang configuration; but riders are still seeking a solution for poor acceleration compared with especially the Yamaha, with better grip and throttle response.
It leaves them, according to LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, having to “take advantage of our best ammunition – braking. But if you are too greedy, you can easily go over the limit”.
This had caused him to crash at Qatar, and Marquez out of an early lead in Argentina.
Now Marquez added: “What I saw in Argentina – we are not ready for the victory”.
Should this prediction be proved correct at Austin, it would be the first time in the past 11 races on US soil that he has not won.
Johann to the rescue
The first-ever double Moto2 champion Johann Zarco spoke up for the smaller classes at the pre-race press conference at Austin.
After leading the early laps at round one in Qatar, he said: “I was almost more famous after six laps than after two World Championships in Moto2.
“But don’t forget the smaller categories.” What happened there was potentially of great significance for the premier class. “They are important to us the riders.
“The world doesn’t know it enough. I will try to use my position in MotoGP to make people look more at that.”
Social media may have made intimate thoughts a thing of the past and condemned confidentiality to history, but nobody expected a marriage proposal at the same pre-race press conference.
Perhaps least of all former 125 champion and current MotoGP racer Alvaro Bautista.
A new-this-year practice has introduced questions from social media to the riders. One for Bautista came from Grace Barroso, and was quite simple: “Alvaro. Will you marry me?”
The ever-grinning Bautista was wreathed in smiles as he explained: “Grace is my girlfriend and before I left for Argentina I asked her to marry me. She said yes. So we will marry.”