Michael Scott | September 24, 2017
The vexed question of dangerous dawdling in Moto3 qualifying will be raised again at yet another “summit meeting” between teams and Race Direction at Motegi, after yet another rash of penalties for the offence at Aragon.
Increasingly severe punishments, ranging from fines to the as yet unused threat of race suspension, via frequent 12-place grid penalties, have failed to curb the practice, where huge groups of riders form up on track or latterly in pit lane, waiting for a fast rider to follow.
Understandable, since (as rider John McPhee explained) “a slipstream can be worth one second a lap”. This in turn might be worth more than the loss of 12 places.
While all concerned agreed that a new solution needs to be found, suggestions ranged from much larger fines to the introduction of a Superbike-style “Superpole” qualifying. This, however, would take an awfully long time – well over an hour-and-a-half; while conditions might change over that period.
Another suggestion would be to split the 32-strong field into two groups; perhaps with a similar Q1 and Q2 system borrowed from MotoGP – although this would simply switch the slipstreaming search for a fast lap to the free practice sessions.
Pablo Nieto, managing the race-winning SKY VR46 team, summed up the general feeling. “We need something completely different … it is becoming really dangerous.”
There were multiple sanctions for offences during Moto3 qualifying, with four riders docked 12 grid positions, two fined 500 Euros for a second slow-riding offence, and 13 more hit with 1,500 Euros fines as repeat offenders.
Those put back on the grid were for riding slowly in more than three sectors: Migno, Dalla Porta, Binder and Masia.
The fines were for slow riding, waiting for other riders. It was a second offence for Di Giannantonio and Ramirez. The 13 repeat offenders included title leader Mir, and such notables as Rodrigo, Guevara, Bezzecchi, Bendsneyder and Antonelli.
Morning mist played havoc with the race schedule, after unexpected drizzle had done the same for Friday’s MotoGP sessions.
The first warm-up, for Moto3, got under way ten minutes late, but was promptly red flagged … visibility on the higher parts of the long and hilly circuit a problem for the riders, but more so for marshal posts, each of which needs clear sight of those either side.
Eventually all classes managed abbreviated warm-up sessions; while the opening race, again Moto3, was scheduled to start 40 minutes late, and cut from 20 to 13 laps.
The Moto2 race was also delayed, by 20 minutes, but to run full length; all so that MotoGP could start at the normal 2pm time, to fit all TV schedules.
American racer Joe Roberts, who claimed a top-ten finish in his first Moto2 outing at Brno earlier this season, will be back full time next year, alongside South African Steven Odendaal on the new NTS chassis.
Roberts got a four-race sojourn in Moto2 this year, substituting for Yonny Hernandez in the AGR team, after the Columbian rider was dropped.
The Japanese bike and pair of riders will run in the RW Racing team. NTS will make it six chassis constructors in the class, alongside Kalex, Suter, KTM, Speed Up and Tech 3. The NTS made a 24th-place grand prix debut at Aragon, ridden by wild card Steven Odendaal, who won the 2016 CEV title on a Kalex and is currently third overall, with two races to go, on the NTS.
Also in Moto2 next year, Fabio Quartararo has confirmed he will move to the Speed Up team, where he will join former Moto3 champion Danny Kent.
With the provisional calendar announced after Misano, 19 races have been confirmed, with the addition as expected of the Thai GP at the Chang circuit at Burirang.
With the season starting at Qatar as usual, on March 18 (a week earlier than this year) and finishing one week later at Valencia on November 18; but the running order is as this year.
The Thai round is slotted in between Aragon in Japan, with a weekend off on either side. The other flyaway races, Japan, Australia and Malaysia, are on consecutive weekends, as this year.
The calendar is provisional, but the major uncertainty concerns the British GP, with no venue announced. As reported from Silverstone, Donington Park is anxious to regain the prestigious race, and discussions with Dorna are continuing.
The calendar is:
18 March |
Qatar (night race) |
Losail International Circuit |
08 April |
República Argentina |
Termas de Río Hondo |
22 April |
Americas |
Circuit of the Americas |
06 May |
Spain |
Circuito de Jerez |
20 May |
France |
Le Mans |
03 June |
Italy |
Autodromo del Mugello |
17 June |
Catalunya |
Barcelona – Catalunya |
01 July |
Netherlands |
TT Circuit Assen |
15 July |
Germany |
Sachsenring |
05 August |
Czech Republic |
Automotodrom Brno |
12 August |
Austria |
Red Bull Ring – Spielberg |
26 August |
Great Britain |
TBA |
09 September |
San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini |
Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli |
23 September |
Aragón |
MotorLand Aragón |
07 October |
Thailand |
Chang International Circuit |
21 October |
Japan |
Twin Ring Motegi |
28 October |
Australia |
Phillip Island |
04 November |
Malaysia |
Sepang International Circuit |
18 November |
Comunitat Valenciana |
Comunitat Valenciana – Ricardo Tormo |
Cal Crutchlow was rising a second race with his left index finger pointing straight forward in a cast, as he recovers from severing a tendon in a cheese-cutting mishap before the last race at Misano. And the injury led directly to a race mishap.
Riding slipstream in a big pack, his front brake started overheating. Normally he would give it some slack by reaching across and adjusting the lever … but the injury meant he couldn’t do that.
“With the lever very far away, I grabbed the brake and locked the front, and ran wide.”
Rossi’s trip from the operating table to the front row of the starting grid in just 23 days sets a new record for recovery time from a double leg fracture.
The same rider set a record in 2010, coming back within just over 40 days after a single break, after snapping his right tibia at Mugello. That however was a compound fracture (bone through the skin). This year’s break was both tibia and fibula, but less serious and more readily repaired without complication.
Rossi’s 2010 record was swiftly broken later that same year by tough Frenchman Randy de Puniet, who broke both tibia and fibula at the German GP, but returned at Brno just 26 days later.
Rossi had now taken four days off that record, starting practice 22 days after the fracture, and 21 days after the surgery, which was performed in the small hours of the next morning.
De Puniet crashed again in practice at Brno, qualified 11th, and finished tenth on the LCR Honda.
Rossi would qualify on the front row, and finish a close fifth.
Rossi revealed that it had only been last week that he thought he might be able to race at Aragon, having at first planned to return for Motegi in three weeks.
On Monday, “I did some laps on the R1 at Misano, and I understood that I can ride, but with a lot of pain.”
But with intensive physiotherapy, the injury improved day by day, and was continuing to do so; while the M1 MotoGP Yamaha was more comfortable “for my size” than the R1 road bike.
“At the beginning, we made the seat higher and the footpegs lower, but from today I used the normal position – for sure it is a better way to ride the bike,” he continued.
He had taken a single painkiller, he said, “because it is difficult to put on my boot”; and experienced some pain and awkwardness while riding. “On the bike, I feel some pain, but not too much, so I can concentrate on riding.” The most awkward thing was torsion on his leg, making it difficult to get his right foot in the correct position for right-hand corners.”
He was walking without crutches, but was notably slow in the practice bike-swap at the end of GP2.
After the first practice, padding was added to his leathers, in the shape of a foam cushion around a slightly protruding bolt fixing the top end of the pin in his leg, after some pain and a little swelling after the morning run.
He had an amusing way of describing how this injury was much less troublesome than that in 2010. “Last time I could go to the toilet by myself after five days. This time, after one day.”
As for race distance: “On Friday morning I woke up with some pain. Today, with less pain. If it is the same [improvement] tomorrow it will be easier. I will try.”
Moto3 fast guy Jorge Martin is the latest to suffer injury away from the track while training – although fortunately without lasting effects.
The Spaniard was taken to hospital, though not admitted, after a road accident following the Misano round. “A car hit me while I was riding my bicycle,” he said.
The paddock was filled with the sound of dominoes falling into place, as the last vacant MotoGP berth was filled, and the knock-on effect filtered down to Moto2 and beyond.
The 24th rider to be confirmed was, as long expected, Xavier Simeon, who takes the second seat at Avintia Ducati, alongside Tito Rabat.
The decision had been flagged up, but was still somewhat surprising, given the stature of the rider. The Belgian, first from that country in the premier class since late-1980s star Didier de Radigues, is fresh from a lacklustre Moto2 season, with seventh at Assen his only top ten out of just five finishes in the points. In seven years in Moto2, Simeon has a single win (Germany, 2015), and four other podium finishes.
This ends the hopes of French Avintia rider Loris Baz, who has now set his sights on a return to World Superbikes. Current team-mate Hector Barbera will move back to the intermediate class that he left when it still ran 250 two-strokes, on which he achieved four race wins.
Barbera will join Italian Lorenzo Baldassarri in Sito Pons’s HP40 team.
In more Moto2 contract news, Remy Gardner has had his contract with the Tech 3 team renewed for a second season. The son of 1987 500 champion Wayne Gardner has had a difficult first season with the team after suffering a badly broken ankle in round two, through no fault of his own.
Over in the Italian camp, Rossi’s half-brother Luca Marini is to join the SKY VR46 team alongside Pecco Bagnaia. He displaces Stefano Manzi, who will simply take Marini’s place on the Forward Kalex.
Misano winner Dominique Aegerter confirmed he will stay on riding a Suter for the Kiefer Racing team; while current Pons-Kalex rider Fabio Quartararo is earmarked for a switch to Speed Up.
Suzuki’s MotoGP riders Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins reverted to the “standard” chassis at Aragon, after plans to test revised equipment after the last race at Misano were thwarted by bad weather.
“We had a lot of things to test, but in the end it was wet, and only Sylvain Guintoli rode,” said team boss Davide Brivio.
The Ecstar-backed factory team shifted the test until after the Aragon race. “We will stay on and test on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Brivio.
Maria Herrera pulled out of the Aragon GP before Moto3 qualifying, after a moment in FP3 aggravated the fresh collarbone fracture that was plated after the Misano GP. Livio Loi was also absent, the Leopard Honda rider nursing a similar injury.