Michael Scott | September 22, 2019
2019 Aragon MotoGP Results and News
Sunday
It was a one-man show at Aragon. Marc Marquez overshadowed a fine race for second in his wake. To say the Repsol Honda man now has one hand on his sixth championship in seven years understates the case. All he needs to do now is finish two points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in two weeks in Thailand and he will be champion with four races to spare.
2019 Aragon MotoGP Results and News
Marquez had dominated from the first free practice session, and was a second clear after the first of 23 laps of the 5.077 km Aragon circuit. Next time round he set fastest lap, marginally short of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo’s 2015 record. From there he remained in complete control, and could slow over the line and still win by almost five seconds.
A strong ride from Maverick Vinales (Monster Yamaha) saw the Spaniard move into second on lap eight, and push valiantly but in vain. Then by the end the Yamaha, short of top speed, succumbed first to Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Ducati, and then to Jack Miller’s satellite Pramac-team bike, in each case the riders able to power past on the track’s long straight of almost a full kilometre.
Front-row starter Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) was outpaced but held a worthwhile fifth.
By the end, he was only 1.5 seconds clear of a duel for sixth, which was won by Cal Crutchlow (LCR Castrol Honda) from Aleix Espargaro, whose usually disadvantaged Aprilia was able to salvage some pride for the marque, at a track where acceleration matters less than a strong top speed.
Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha) had a disappointing race, dropping back throughout after starting well, in a lonely eighth.
Five seconds down, Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) had a battered bike, a long-lap penalty and an apology to make to Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha), after knocking him down on the first lap.
He had come through and outpaced a big fight for tenth, won at the last gasp by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Idemitsu Honda) from Andrea Iannone (Aprilia), Danilo Petrucci (Ducati), Miguel Oliveira, on the top Red Bull KTM and Joan Mir, on a second battered Suzuki, who had caught up in the final laps.
Lorenzo’s nightmare continued in his first Repsol Honda year, though he narrowly recovered to beat Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM) tor a distant 20th and last place.
Marquez has a 98 point advantage, 300 to Dovi’s 202; then Rins taking third from Petrucci, 156 to 155; and Vinales fifth on 147.
Moto2 – 21 laps
On Saturday Brad Binder forced one fast lap out of the reluctant Red Bull KTM to make it to the front row. On Sunday, he managed 32 of them, to claim an unexpected second win of a difficult season for the Austrian manufacturer.
Binder led from the first corner to the last, finally seven tenths ahead of Jorge Navarro’s Speed Up. The Spaniard had taken the position from compatriot Alex Marquez (EG-VDS Kalex) with three laps left, but his efforts to close the gap were thwarted with a last-lap slide.
“My strategy went out the window after three laps. I’d wanted to sit behind the guys and wait, but thanks to my team my bike was insane in the early laps. I had a small gap, so I thought: just do my best every lap and limit the mistakes,” said Binder.
Marquez was happy enough to accept third, with his recent title challenger Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40 Kalex) robbed of the chance of a third win in a row when he slipped off on the first lap.
They had outstripped early challenger Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Kalex), who had his hands full at the end fending off Sam Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex).
Earlier title challenger Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kalex) dropped away in sixth, but still clear of the closing group behind, led by Iker Lecuona (American Racing KTM) from Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP40 Kalex).
Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM) got back ahead of Xavi Vierge (EG-VDS Kalex) on the last lap, with Misano winner Fabio Di Giannantonio (Speed Up) 11th.Bulega, Gardner, Manzi and Bezzecchi wrapped up the last points.
Marquez stretched his advantage over new second-placer Navarro, 213 points to 175, Fernandez stuck on 171. Luthi has 169, and Binder 160.
Moto3 – 19 laps
Aron Canet took a rare runaway win in the smallest class, and the Sterilgarda KTM rider’s third win of the season put a Bunsen burner under his title hopes, with his closest rivals mired in a huge support group.
“I had to push hard from the beginning,” said Canet, who received a mid-race track-limits warning, “because the KTM couldn’t fight the other bikes on the straight. I had to push and keep the rhythm.”
Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Honda) still leads, but by just two points after placing tenth; while a Tony Arbolino (Snipers Honda) was stuck in the same group 11th. Then a second successive track-limits penalty for Dalla Porta meant they swapped positions.
Another highlight was victory in a huge and highly heated battle for second by Japanese rookie Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda), the 18-year-old’s first podium.
By the end, a group that had been 15 strong had broken up, but there were still eight riders swapping paint. Second to eight was covered by 1.6 seconds, positions changing constantly.
Ogura had most of the front time, but had to fight to regain second from Dennis Foggia (SKY VR46 KTM) on the final lap.
John McPhee (Petronas Honda) clung on to fourth, ahead of Alonso Lopez (EG Honda), Misano winner Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Honda), Sergio Garcia (EG Honda), Albert Arenas (Gaviola KTM) and Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Honda), over the line in much less time than it takes to read their names.
Dalla Porta and Arbolini led the next quartet, from brand-new Red Bull Rookies champion Carlos Tatay (KTM), in only his second GP, and ahead of some seasoned rivals.
Dalla Porta has 184 points, then Canet (182), Arbolino (155), McPhee (126) and Ramirez (123).
Saturday
After dominating free practice, champion elect Marc Marquez and his Repsol Honda powered to his ninth pole position of the season, at an Aragon circuit where he has won for the past three years in a row.
2019 Aragon MotoGP Results and News
The Spaniard, now 93 points clear and on course for a sixth MotoGP championship in seven years, was enjoying his preferred anti-clockwise layout with predominantly left-hand corners, and had set an unequalled marker in FP1 on Thursday. He didn’t need to go faster than that so far all weekend to remain three tenths clear of Fabio Quartararo’s independent-team Petronas Yamaha, the young Frenchman’s eighth front-row start (including three poles) in his rookie season.
Filling the front row, less than 0,15 of a second down, was Maverick Vinales on the factory Movistar Yamaha … replicating the finishing order of the San Marino GP last Sunday.
Marquez explained that after overnight rain and a damp morning, the track didn’t have the same feeling as in FP1, and “in the end, the risk … you have to control it.”
Quartararo had been less conservative. “I set a good time on my first run, so for the second I said – I crash, or I make the front row. Marc was very fast, so second was the best position.”
Vinales also spoke about changing track conditions on a difficult day. “I think we did quite well, but we have a lot to learn, and we can improve.”
Quartararo’s late run pushed Jack Miller to fourth, to head the second row – the Pramac rider top Ducati … with the next best factory rider Andrea Dovizioso in tenth, 1.6 seconds away from pole, and his team-mate Danilo Petrucci unable to make it out of Q1, and mired in 15th.
The big winner, following Marquez, was Aleix Espargaro in a best-this-year fifth; with Aprilia team-mate Andrea Iannone 11th, having made it out of Q1 for the first time this year.
Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha) was sixth, completing row two; Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) led the third from Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha – also through from Q1) and Joan Mir (Ecstar Suzuki).
Dovi leads the fourth from Iannone and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM), who didn’t take part in the session after a heavy fall in FP4 left him with painful wrist injuries … though no fractures had yet been found.
Silverstone winner Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) was a big loser, narrowly unable to make it out of Q1, with a potentially very costly row-five start.
Moto2 – Marquez Record for Pole Number Three
Younger brother Alex Marquez smashed the 6.077-km circuit record to set his third pole of the year, outpacing his latest championship challenger Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40 Kalex) by less than a tenth at the head of a batch of close times, with the top 16 all within one second.
The EG-VDS Kalex rider heads the championship by just 26 points after five wins, but triple-winner Fernandez has been more successful in the last three races, and is closing the gap.
“Tomorrow is a really important day,” said Marquez; while Fernandez admitted “It will be really hard to beat him here tomorrow.”
Completing row one after earlier languishing was Brad Binder on the Red Bull KTM. “We’ve been struggling all weekend, but I had to put one fast lap together. My rhythm is not so bad, and if I can hook on to the guys I’ll fight like crazy at the end.”
Luca Marini leads fellow Kalex rider Thomas Luthi on row two, from Jorge Navarro’s Speed UP; behind them an all-Kalex gang – Xavi Vierge, Nicolo Bulega and Sam Lowes; with Iker Lecuona’s KTM completing the top ten.
Misano winner Fabio Di Giannantonio (Speed Up) made it out of Q1 to place 12th, one place ahead of Remy Gardner (Kalex).Thai rookie Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Kalex) was another to graduate, but placed 18th and last in Q1.
Moto3 – Rookies on Front Row in Smallest Class
Title hopeful Aron Canet (Sterilgarda KTM) made it through from Q1 to take pole position in Moto3, his first since the opening round in Qatar.
But there were surprising names alongside him – two Red Bull Rookies Cup graduates with circuit knowledge and the power of teenaged youth.
Rising Japanese star Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia), nearing the end of his rookie season, was second, seven tenths slower. Alongside him was Spaniard Carlos Tatay (Fundacion Andreas Perez KTM), in only his second GP, one week after being crowned Rookies Cup at Misano, two races before the end of the series.
Tatay was also through from Q1; likewise another rookie Celestino Vietti (SKY VR46 KTM), placed fifth in the middle of the second row, between Jakub Kornfeil (Redox KTM, veteran of the class) and another rookie, Alonso Lopez (EG Honda).
Title contender Tony Arbolino (Snipers Honda) was seventh; points leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Honda) 12th.
Saturday News
Pol Out
Red Bull KTM rider Pol Espargaro is out of tomorrow’s Aragon GP, after fracturing his wrist in a heavy fall in the final free practice session.
The Spaniard did not take part in the following qualifying session, after having been one of the top ten in free practice going straight into the “senior” Q2 session – but would still have started from 12th on the grid.
However, contrary to the first findings, subsequent investigation revealed a fracture to the radius bone in his left wrist, and he was ruled out of the race.
This promoted Suzuki’s Alex Rins to 12th, on the fourth row of the grid, and left the factory Red Bull KTM team with just one rider – Mika Kallio, in his first GP of the season. Full-time test rider for the Austrian marque, Kallio was drafted in to this race at the last minute, after troubled former full-time factory rider Johann Zarco was released early from his contract.
More Fallout from Misano Moto2 Controversy
Was this the last word on the Italian Moto2 GP controversy? The FIM Stewards doubtless hope so, after issuing “new guidelines … for infractions on the last lap”.
The furor was set off after race winner Augusto Fernandez strayed well out of track limits – normally a punishable (or at least notifiable) offence – before putting a tough block-pass to deny long-time leader Fabio Di Giannantonio victory.
A body of opinion believed this move, at the very fast Turn 11, had given the Spaniard extra impetus to attack his fellow Kalex rider at the subsequent much slower Turn 14. The Stewards took no action at the track, and after a protest from Di Giannantonio’s team their decision was upheld. Appeal Stewards said that data showed Fernandez (who claimed his transgression was to avoid collision) had lost rather than gained time.
Now, after angry words at the Riders’ Safety Commission meeting and elsewhere on Friday, the FIM issued a formal statement to clarify the issue.
Previously, it read, track limits had been defined by a wall or barrier, giving no margin for error. With time, they had been defined by kerbs, and more recently with artificial grass beyond the kerbs. This had however proved dangerous, especially when wet, and was nowadays replaced with green-painted hard standing.
“However, there are clear advantages to exceeding the limits of the track, and therefore it must be discouraged.”
The offence of “exceeding track limits” is defined as a rider having both tyres outside the track simultaneously. In practice and qualifying, the lap time is cancelled; but if in a race, “there can be a number of different outcomes.
“If the rider loses time and is clearly disadvantaged, no action is taken.”
If a rider gained advantage, three infractions earn a warning; two more a long lap penalty; while even a single move that gives a clear advantage can also earn a penalty – change of position, a time penalty, or a long lap.
At Aragon, “following consultation with the Safety Commission, it has been decided to update the protocol … on the last lap.
“From now on, an infraction on the last lap that has affected a race result must indicate that the rider in question was disadvantaged by exceeding track limits. If the Stewards deem there is no clear disadvantage, the rider will be penalized with a change of position or a time penalty. This is to ensure that any rider exceeding track limits on the final lap must be in a worse position than the rider or riders with whom they are directly competing.”
More Silly Season Updates
With contracts for next year almost all settled in MotoGP – bar speculation on Lorenzo’s future and the second spot at KTM – attention has turned to 2021, by when Fabio Quartararo’s challenge to the dominant Marc Marquez will have reached full maturity.
Rossi’s future is open to question, though the rider has indicated that if he was still enjoying racing and still felt competitive, he might decide to continue. Yamaha willing, of course.
With Quartararo by then ready for the factory team, however, there may be no place for him … unless Vinales complies with some rumours that suggest a move either back to Suzuki or over to Honda.
There are rumours also of an upset in the smaller classes, with the youngest-ever GP winner Can Oncu set to quit not only Moto3 but the whole series for a year or two in the Superbike paddock, where his manager Kenan Sofuoglu hopes he can gain big-bike experience in the 600 World Supersport class before returning to Moto2. Sofuoglu is a five-times former WSS champion.
Mugen Helps Struggling Moto3 Squad
Mugen Racing has stepped in to help see the troubled WWR Moto3 team through the season, after the high-level KTM squad unexpectedly lost backing from sponsor Bester Capital Dubai.
Riders Jaume Masia and Andrea Migno appeared on Saturday morning in new yellow-and-black livery, with large Mugen logos. The Japanese automotive and motorcycle company already back Kazuki Masaki and Makar Yurchenko in the BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race team in the same class, also riding KTMs.
Masia won the Argentine GP and is seventh in the championship; while former GP winner Migno is a frequent front runner, who was on the podium in the USA this year – but after being let down by Bester there were doubts over whether the squad could finish the year.
Mugen is a supplier of both OE and performance parts for cars and motorcycles, and the company was founded and is run by Hirotoshi Honda, son of Soichiro Honda, founder of the eponymous motorcycle company.
Friday
Fears of rain forecast for tomorrow put special emphasis on MotoGP free practice at Aragon today, with the need to get into the top ten to ensure a move straight into Q2 – and in the afternoon session a trio of Yamahas set the top times … factory riders Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi narrowly ahead of satellite-steam star Fabio Quartararo.
2019 Aragon MotoGP Results and News
But the day still belonged to multiple Aragon winner Marc Marquez, in spite of a fall off the Repsol Honda in the afternoon. In the morning the champion-elect’s time was a massive 1.6 seconds clear of Vinales, best of the rest; and that time was good enough to keep him on top on combined times … still better than a second ahead of the improved Vinales and co.
The weather threat follows heavy rain in the days leading up to this race, with thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow and more rain for Sunday.
Should the rain come, this will leave British GP winner Alex Rins(Ecstar Suzuki), factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci and second satellite Petronas Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli out of the top ten, thanks to a fast late laps by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), and an earlier run by Joan Mir (Ecstar Suzuki).
With Quartararo fourth on combined times, Pol Espargaro was fifth, another impressive run on the Red Bull KTM after his front-row start at Misano; and Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller sixth.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Castrol Honda) was seventh, enjoying the return to a grippy track after Misano difficulties – he was less than half-a-second slower than Marquez.
Dovizioso slotted into a late eighth, ahead of Mir; while Aleix Espargaro followed Marquez to oust Rins frome tenth by three hundredths.
Petrucci was 12th, then Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Idemitsu Honda), after running off on his fast lap; then Morbidelli.
Mika Kallio, riding the second factory Red Bull KTM in place of the dispossessed Johann Zarco, was 17th, ahead of satellite KTM riders Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin.
The still-tentative Jorge Lorenzo was 20th, almost three seconds slower than his Repsol Honda team-mate, at a track where he twice won on a Yamaha.
Moto2 – Fernandez Fastest
Three-times race winner Augusto Fernandez underlined his growing championship challenge to current leader Alex Marquez at Aragon, the Flexbox HP40 Kalex rider claiming top time in the morning, fast enough to stay there without speeding up in the afternoon.
Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Kalex) likewise failed to improve, but managed to stay in second on the important combined times.
Fernandez’s team-mate Lorenzo Baldassarri was third; then Sam Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex), with Marquez fifth.
The EG-VDS Kalex rider, Marc’s younger brother, saw his championship lead shrink to 26 points after Fernandez’s controversial win at Misano a week ago, and needs to regain race-winning form.
Nicolo Bulega (SKY VR46 Kalex) was sixth; erstwhile title challenger Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kalex) eighth, one place ahead of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), but one behind Iker Lecuona’s American Racing KTM, which was narrowly top non-Kalex.
Remy Gardner scraped into the important top 14, the ONEXOX Kalex rider one place down on Jorge Navarro’s Speed Up. Notable Thai rookie Somkiat Chantra just missed it in 15th, two places ahead of Misano pole starter and race runner up Fabio Di Giannantonio (Speed Up).
American Joe Roberts was 21st.
Moto3 – Slipstream City
Big groups and canny slipstreaming was key in Moto3, with WWR KTM rider Andrea Migno playing it best to oust Misano pole-to-flag winner Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Honda) by 0.086 of a second at the hectic end of the afternoon session.
Migno’s 1m 58.566 was exactly 1.5 seconds off the circuit’s record, and headed 14 riders within the same second.
Title contender Tony Arbolini (Snipers Honda) was third; then Jaume Masia (WRR KTM) and Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Honda); with rookie, Filip Salac (Redox KTM) sixth, the former Red Bull Rookies Cup rider able to benefit from circuit knowledge.
John McPhee (Petronas Honda) was eighth, between Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Honda) and impressive rookie Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda).
Points leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Honda) was 11th; rival Aron Canet (Sterilgarda KTM) hoping for good weather tomorrow morning – as it stands, he failed to improve his morning time, and ended up 16th, and out of the top 14 going straight to Q2.
Friday News
Zarco Out, Kallio In at Red Bull KTM
In a surprise move by the KTM factory, erstwhile rider Johann Zarco’s tenure was abruptly cut short, in the four days between the Misano and Aragon GPs.
The Frenchman was already en route to the Spanish circuit, after finishing 11th in Italy – his second-best result of the season – when he was informed of his early bath.
His place for the rest of the season has been taken by factory test rider Mika Kallio, who had several strong wild card rides last year before suffering a serious leg injury in practice for the German GP.
Double Moto2 champion Zarco finds himself out in the wilderness, hoping to secure a test-rider role back with Yamaha, for whom he made a stunning satellite-team debut in 2017, and continued to threaten for race wins through 2018.
By then he had already turned his back not only on a potential MotoGP ride for Suzuki, but later also with Repsol Honda. He signed for KTM even before the first race of 2018, though it was not announced until the start of the European season.
Hopes were high and he was expected to outrank incumbent Pol Espargaro. The opposite has happened, with the smooth-styled Zarco at odds with the V4, which has been responding ever better to the more aggressive style of Espargaro. The Spaniard has been a regular top-ten finisher with a best of sixth at Misano last week. Zarco squeaked into the top ten just once, among nine points-scoring finishes.
Instead, he was captured on camera complaining lewdly in Jerez that the KTM chassis and power delivery were “shit”; and although a front-row qualifying position in the wet at Brno was a brief respite, by the time they reached Austria a week later he requested early release from his two-year contract.
KTM were happy to oblige, though most expected he would see out the season.
Instead, he has been summarily let go, although he will be paid not to ride for them for the rest of the year, and the Austrian firm have said they will not stand in the way should he find a role with another manufacturer.
His replacement for next year remains a vexed question, with Kallio looking increasingly likely to step into the breach after KTM have been turned down by both Jack Miller and rising Moto2 star Remy Gardner.
Misano Moto2 Results to Stand
The results of last Sunday’s controversial Moto2 race will stand, after a belated protest by the defeated Speed Up team was turned down by the FIM Appeal Stewards at Aragon on Friday.
But while the particular case was settled, the controversy rumbled on, with teams and riders hoping for some clarification regarding over-track-limits transgressions and other last-lap shenanigans.
The protest was belated, said an FIM statement, “due to a miscommunication” which meant the Speed Up team heard of it only on Thursday, on arrival at Aragon. The Italian team’s appeal was thus accepted long after the usual time period had expired, following the on-track Stewards decision to take no action.
The original investigation followed a dramatic last lap of the race, after eventual winner Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40 Kalex) had run wide on the exit of the high-speed Turn 11, well over the white line and onto the green-painted verge.
It was contended that he had gained speed as a result, which enabled his subsequent block-pass at the crucial tight Turn 14, where he finally secured the lead from Speed Up’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had led every lap until then.
Usually, such transgressions – especially if repeated – earn a penalty of a long-lap, or a time sanction. One such dropped Moto3 title leader Dall Porta from fifth to eighth earlier that day.
Fernandez asserted that he had swerved only to avoid running into the Speed Up’s back wheel, and the Stewards elected to take no action.
The Speed Up team’s appeal triggered a fresh look at data and other evidence, and determined that in fact running onto the paint had cost Fernandez time rather than gaining advantage, and the original Stewards decision was confirmed.
While many approved that rules might be more loosely applied in the case of a last-lap battle, doubts were aired at the riders’ Safety Commission meeting, led by Marc Marquez, whose brother Alex might have regained five points to extend his lead over Fernandez, had the rider been penalised.
The green section, said Marquez at the pre-race press conference, is out of the limits of the track, and using it was there unfair. Fernandez had already used this several times at the early Turn Six.
It was not fair, he continued, “to use these ‘Jokers’ at the end of the race. The pass at Turn 14 started at Turn 11, and if you ride at Misano this is easy to understand.”
Having seen this in Moto2, he discussed with his crew chief Santi Hernandez and team manager Alberto Puig whether he might avail himself of the same tactics, “but they told me ‘no’, because I would get a penalty.”
But no penalty had been applied in Moto2. “That means a window is opened, and once it is opened a lot of different things can happen in the future. We need to penalise this because in the last lap it is not fair.”
Fill-In Riders Abound at Aragon
The many injurious crashes at Misano left their mark on the Aragon entry lists. Although in MotoGP Andrea Iannone was back – he had pulled out of the Italian GP after three crashes in practice, victims in the smaller classes were paying the price of back-to-back races.
In Moto2, Marcel Schrotter’s place on the Dynavolt Kalex was taken by Swiss rider Jesko Raffin – the German had broken his collarbone in four places; while Mattia Pasini, with a spinal fracture, gave way to rookie Gabriele Ruiu.
Three riders were missing from Moto3. Romano Fenati suffered a scaphoid (wrist) fracture, and his Snipers Honda seat was taken by Julian Jose Garcia. Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Honda) and Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM) also suffered broken collarbones, the former in the race, and were replaced by Davide Pizzoli and Deniz Oncu respectively.
Modified Yamaha for Vinales
Maverick Vinales was exercising the latest Yamaha modifications on the first day of practice – with one of his pair of bikes fitted with the carbon-fibre swing-arm and new twin-exhaust system already used in Italy by team-mate Rossi.
The Spaniard had preferred to concentrate on race set-up for his familiar bike at Misano, but now took the chance for a back-to-back test at the fresh track.
The components are the most visible in Yamaha’s continuing recovery programme, which saw them secure from second to fifth at Misano; and second to fourth in today’s first free practice at Aragon.
2020 Rider Lineup Nearly Complete
Next year’s line-up in MotoGP is all but settled, with only KTM’s second factory seat uncertain; and the entry lists are now becoming clearer in the smaller classes.
Before the Aragon GP, Valentino Rossi’s SKY VR46 team confirmed their line-up for 2020. In Moto2, Marco Bezzecchi will join incumbent Luca Marini, Rossi’s half-brother. In Moto3, fast rookie Celestino Vietti will be joined by former team rider Andrea Migno.
Lorenzo Rumors Continue to Swirl
Jorge Lorenzo was again fending off rumours of an early end to his two-year Repsol Honda contract, after a pain-ridden first season continues to limp along with the triple MotoGP champion struggling to score points at all.
He had no thoughts, he told pressmen, of quitting or retiring, and intended to see the project through. But he could not speak for HRC, whence some Spanish sources expect a cut-off decision. “Anything could happen,” he allowed.
Lorenzo’s progress has been blighted by several crashes and a string of injuries … the first to his ankle after a controversial first-corner clash with Marquez at Aragon one year ago. At the next race in Thailand a mechanical failure threw him heavily off his Ducati, and he missed most of the end of the season.
He broke his scaphoid in a training accident in the close season, then fractured ribs in a fall at Qatar. Then in practice at Assen he sustained fractures to two vertebrae.
“There have been four very important injures, and although the last was the worst, the others have also had an impact on results,” he said.
He returned at the British GP, but finished a distant 14 there and at the next round at Misano. The pain was steadily improving, he said; and he hoped to be significantly stronger for the forthcoming Asian campaign. “The enemy is the stopwatch.”
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