Michael Scott | June 11, 2017
Photo by Gold & Goose
A week, they say, is a long time in politics. A tenth of a second a long time in grand prix racing. And eight days? All the same, for Ducati and Andrea Dovizioso. That’s just how long it took to climb onto the top step of the podium … twice.
Heat and tyres were helped by a worn-out track to continue playing havoc with predictability in MotoGP 2017. While the Ducati’s sheer speed and Dovi’s calm competence lifted him to second in the championship, the formerly dominant Maverick Vinales had a dire weekend. The Movistar Yamaha top dog only just made it into the top ten, losing ninth place on the last lap to down-table Ducati rider Hector Barbera.
All the while, defending champion Marc Marquez could hardly stop falling over. He crashed four times on Friday and Saturday, then tripped himself up in pit lane on Sunday morning before falling again in warm-up. Doubtless it is the mark of a great rider that when it mattered he stayed wheels down, and saved 20 points with a worthy second place.
The weekend had started in some confusion, when riders en masse rejected a new chicane that they had asked for. After last year’s fatal crash for Luis Salom, use of the slower F1 layout was thought a stop-gap; but a supposedly safer final chicane installed for this year was dropped on Friday night, reverting to the F1 track.
It was also blazing hot; and while Michelin had brought special harder tyres – both front and rear asymmetric – fast lapping remained a balancing act. Riders were forced to choose between grip and endurance, with no clear-cut decisions or obvious answers. And very little grip whichever they chose.
“It was a strange race,” said Dovi. “From the first lap it was impossible to push. But I could stay constant and my bike had the speed.” And he had the patience: sticking with the Repsol Hondas, then powering past down the long straight on the 17th of 25 laps of the 116.375-km race of the day.
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) had claimed pole ahead of the Ducatis of Jorge Lorenzo and Pramac rider Danilo Petrucci; with Marquez, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Barbera (Avintia Ducati) on row two, and Dovi heading the third. Pedrosa was favourite to win in front of a crowd of 99,.000 , having taken a pole to flag victory in the heat at Jerez, another low-grip track.
The Yamahas were struggling, with independent Monster rider Jonas Folger the best, qualified eighth. Vinales, complaining of poor front grip and persistent wheelspin, was ninth; team-mate Valentino Rossi and second Monster rider Johann Zarco 13th and 14th on the grid.
Tyre choice was varied. For the front, eleven riders chose the hard, and eleven the medium – all Honda riders, plus Dovizioso and Lorenzo were in the hard camp, all four Yamahas going soft. For the rear, only five chose the hard, significantly Lorenzo, Petrucci and Crutchlow.
Off the line, Petrucci cut across and collided with Marquez. Both stayed on, but the Ducati rider lost all his front-row advantage, dropping to ninth.
For the first five laps it was Lorenzo making the running, confounding critics of his hard tyre choice. But then he dropped to fourth in one lap, and steadily back to eighth for the middle of the race. It seemed his race was run.
It was Marquez who took over, and two laps later Pedrosa went to the front.
Dovizioso had finished the first lap fifth, behind Aleix Espargaro, whose Aprilia would drop back to tenth, before a smoky mechanical failure on lap eight. Now with Lorenzo gone, he put the Ducati between the Hondas.
By now, fast-starting Folger was on his tail in his best ride yet in his rookie season, making it four up front.
All were concentrating on saving tyres. Pedrosa led from lap eight to lap 16, but knew he couldn’t escape as he had at Jerez. “Many times Dovi came by but shut the gas, not to pass me.”
For his part, Dovi was watching how well Dani was saving his tyres, but understood “I could save my front better, because I never braked hard, because I had the good acceleration.”
His overtake on lap 17 was a simple one down the straight. Next time round Marquez pushed past Pedrosa to give chase, but after three laps, unable to close the gap, “I said – OK, if I push more I will crash again.” It would have been his sixth of the weekend. “We were losing on the straight, but because of the tyres we couldn’t catch on the corners.”
Folger stayed with the leading trio impressively, only beginning to lose touch well after half distance. By now Petrucci had been harrying him constantly, and as the gap to Pedrosa in third grew to two seconds he pounced at the tight left-hand Turn 5. Clearly Folger was now battling sliding tyres – but it was no better for Petrucci, who had punished his hard rear catching up from his bad start.
Instead it was Lorenzo taking the benefit. He’d battled his way back past Zarco and Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati) by lap 21, and was soon ahead of both Folger and Petrucci, whose race ended with a crash with two laps to go.
Lorenzo was a lone fourth; behind him Zarco broke team-mate Folger’s heart, catching him on the last lap and leading him over the line for fifth by less than a tenth.
Bautista saved seventh.
Another four seconds away, Rossi had been with Lorenzo, but as his rival moved forward he had been falling back, his tyres having suddenly dropped, and he was somewhat fortunate to take eighth after struggling all weekend. “I was really sad today, because I won here last year and it is one of my favourite tracks,” he said.
Vinales had an even worse time, gradually picking his way into the top ten after finishing the first lap 16th. Finally he had caught and passed Barbera and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), only for Barbera to pass him back on the last lap.
“Some days you just have to get the points,” he said.
Crutchlow was happy to survive in 11th after starting 17th.
Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati), a fading Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati), Karel Abraham (Aspar Ducati) and Tito Rabat (EG-VDS Honda) trailed in for the rest of the points.
Jack Miller had been in the top ten until half distance, but crashed on lap 14 on the same corner as Petrucci.
A race of caution livened up the championship. Early leader Vinales is just seven clear of double winner Dovizioso, 111 to 104; with Marquez (88) back up to third, then Pedrosa (84) and Rossi (83).
Moto2 Race – 27 laps, 107.065 km
Home hero Alex Marquez had set a resounding pole position, with only Mugello winner Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex) able to get close to the EG-VDS rider.
Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Kalex) joined them on the front row; Taka Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda) led the second from Tom Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) and points leader Franco Morbidelli (EG-VDS Kalex).
Marquez remained in total control from the green light, leading Pasini and Morbidelli away and stretching out an advantage of a full second on the first lap. By the fifth his lead was up to 3.4 seconds, and he was able to win at will.
The lap chart tells a story of an austere race behind him, but it was not without plenty of tension.
Morbidelli was second at the end of lap one, but was promptly displaced by Pasini, who also held the position to the end. But Morbidelli was already pressed by Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM); while Luthi was picking up places after having been pushed wide on Turn 1 to finish the first lap sixth.
He took Oliveira on lap six, and now was leaning on Morbidelli – to such effect that the Italian succumbed not only to him but also Oliveira on the sharp left Turn 5.
Luthi stayed third to the end, regretting his bad first lap, because “though Alex was too fast, I think I could have fought with Pasini for second.
Oliveira likewise stayed fourth, just a second adrift at the flag; but Morbidelli was unable to keep up, while Baldassarri was gaining speed after half distance to take over fifth. Class rookie Jorge Navarro (Gresini Kalex) also closed on Morbidelli, but had dropped away by the end, seventh still an impressive finish.
The action was behind all this.
Nakagami had been unable to stay with Baldassarri, and had succumbed to Navarro by lap five. But he wasn’t for giving up eighth in a hurry, and a huge pack piled up behind him, demonstrating how difficult overtaking can be in an intermediate class traffic jam. On lap 15, for instance, eighth to 20th was covered by less than four seconds.
On lap 18 Xavi Vierge (Tech 3) finally nosed ahead; Nakagami pushed straight back past again. Next to attack was class rookie Fabio Quartararo (Pons Kalex), with a fierce tussle over the next two laps finally going the way of the young Frenchman.
On the last lap, both Vierge and Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Kalex – through from 25th on lap one) were ahead of the Japanese. Still close, Corsi (Speed Up), Vinales (SAG Kalex), Bagnaia (SKY Kalex) and Locatelli (Italtrans Kalex) wrapped up the rest of the points, with Hernandez and Aegerter missing out by a matter of tenths.
With the season moving towards the summer break, the championship has closed up intriguingly.
Morbidelli on 123 is just seven clear of Luthi (116); then Marquez (103), Oliveira (83) and Pasini (69).
Moto3 Race – 22 laps, 102.41 km
If results in this closest class are to be considered a lottery, what does it take to keep winning? Clearly something more than luck took Leopard Honda rider Joan Mir to his fourth win of the year, taking control with an incisive and unique last-lap move to displace pole starter and frequent leader Jorge Martin (Del Conca Honda).
Martin has matched Mir’s wins with pole positions, but then lost another place on the run to the line, when Romano Fenati (Rivacold Honda) took advantage to slip ahead as well. Enea Bastianini (EG Honda) moved through in the late stages for fourth ahead of his team-mate Aron Canet.
Marcos Ramirez (Platinum Bay KTM) managed to hang on to seventh, and with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Honda) eighth, it was another Honda whitewash.
It had been an entirely typical tiddler race, with Fenati, Mir and Canet exchanging the lead with Martin throughout, and other riders see-sawing to and fro. By the end a lead group of eight grew to 11 as SKY VR46 riders Nicolo Bulega and Mugello winner Andrea Migno brought Red Bull KTM’s Niccolo Antonelli with them.
First to 11th was spanned by just over two seconds; Migno eighth ahead of Bulega; Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic 58 Honda) dropping behind them at the end; then Antonelli.
John McPhee (British Talent Honda) had been dropped by less than four seconds at the end; Philipp Oettl (Schedl KTM) had come through; while rookie Marco Bezzechi (CIP Mahindra) secured 14th ahead of Bendsneyder and Sasaki with a daring last-lap lunge at Turn 10, where erstwhile rival Jules Danilo crashed out.
J Guevara also knocked Darryn Binder out of a points-scoring position on the final lap.
Mir’s points lead stretched again. He has 133 with his pursuers bunched together almost two race wins adrift: Fenati 88, Canet 85, Di Giannantonio 80, Migno and Martin 76.
GRAN PREMI MONSTER ENERGY DE CATALUNYA MotoGP Race Classification 2017 Barcelona, Sunday, June 11, 2017
1 |
25 |
4 |
Andrea DOVIZIOSO |
ITA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
156.2 |
44’41.518 |
2 |
20 |
93 |
Marc MARQUEZ |
SPA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
156.0 |
+3.544 |
3 |
16 |
26 |
Dani PEDROSA |
SPA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
155.8 |
+6.774 |
4 |
13 |
99 |
Jorge LORENZO |
SPA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
155.6 |
+9.608 |
5 |
11 |
5 |
Johann ZARCO |
FRA |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
155.4 |
+13.838 |
6 |
10 |
94 |
Jonas FOLGER |
GER |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
155.4 |
+13.921 |
7 |
9 |
19 |
Alvaro BAUTISTA |
SPA |
Pull&Bear Aspar Team |
Ducati |
155.2 |
+16.763 |
8 |
8 |
46 |
Valentino ROSSI |
ITA |
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP |
Yamaha |
155.0 |
+20.821 |
9 |
7 |
8 |
Hector BARBERA |
SPA |
Reale Avintia Racing |
Ducati |
154.8 |
+23.952 |
10 |
6 |
25 |
Maverick VIÑALES |
SPA |
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP |
Yamaha |
154.8 |
+24.189 |
11 |
5 |
35 |
Cal CRUTCHLOW |
GBR |
LCR Honda |
Honda |
154.6 |
+28.329 |
12 |
4 |
76 |
Loris BAZ |
FRA |
Reale Avintia Racing |
Ducati |
154.3 |
+33.281 |
13 |
3 |
45 |
Scott REDDING |
GBR |
OCTO Pramac Racing |
Ducati |
154.2 |
+35.200 |
14 |
2 |
17 |
Karel ABRAHAM |
CZE |
Pull&Bear Aspar Team |
Ducati |
153.9 |
+39.436 |
15 |
1 |
53 |
Tito RABAT |
SPA |
EG 0,0 Marc VDS |
Honda |
153.8 |
+40.872 |
16 |
|
29 |
Andrea IANNONE |
ITA |
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR |
Suzuki |
153.7 |
+43.221 |
17 |
|
50 |
Sylvain GUINTOLI |
FRA |
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR |
Suzuki |
153.6 |
+44.655 |
18 |
|
44 |
Pol ESPARGARO |
SPA |
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing |
KTM |
153.4 |
+48.993 |
19 |
|
22 |
Sam LOWES |
GBR |
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini |
Aprilia |
153.0 |
+55.492 |
Not Classified |
|
|
9 |
Danilo PETRUCCI |
ITA |
OCTO Pramac Racing |
Ducati |
155.6 |
2 Laps |
|
|
43 |
Jack MILLER |
AUS |
EG 0,0 Marc VDS |
Honda |
155.7 |
12 Laps |
|
|
41 |
Aleix ESPARGARO |
SPA |
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini |
Aprilia |
155.5 |
18 Laps |