Michael Scott | May 11, 2022
Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
The Big Beasts Are Back
One moment said everything about the Spanish GP. And potentially about the whole of the 2022 season.
It was the moment when a motorcycle magician did one of his best tricks. Perhaps you’ve seen the picture of a genius at work. If not, it is worth hunting it up.
A moment when, single-handedly, Marc Marquez transformed a tense but entirely processional Sunday afternoon at Jerez into a thriller.
Above all, it demonstrated the message of the second race of the European season, and the first one not to be badly affected by the weather. After the topsy-turvy phoney war of the first flyaways, the big beasts are back.
The “anyone-can-win” mantra took a severe beating.
The resumption of Bagnaia/Quartararo hostilities was another proof. By the end of last year, these two defined the championship. In the Spanish sunshine, they also defined the weekend, qualifying and finishing first and second, and with the French defending title-holder extending his championship lead.
There’s every chance the same pair will end up contesting the crown, just like last year. Parvenus will have to wait their turn.
But how about the guy who came fourth? More specifically, how about the way he came fourth.
The most significant moment of Marc’s race came after he had seized a rostrum place in the closing stages with a daring overtake on Miller with five laps to go, only to run wide into the final hairpin later that same lap. The front slid; the rear gave way. The bike was almost horizontal. It should have been all over. He’d crashed again.
Instead, in a trademark Marquez move not seen since before he broke his arm at the start of 2020—a miracle save. Knee dug into the asphalt, elbow helping out, and sheer willpower dragging the bike back onto its wheels.
Or, as he rather winsomely put it after the race: “Fortunately, the Spanish fans were there to pick me up and save the crash.”
The crash-without-crashing was a sign of the eight-time champion’s recovery of fitness and speed of reactions, and willingness to take risks. As the weeks roll by, he will only keep getting better.
Will the same be true of the Honda?
So far, the bike hasn’t been helping much.
Marc had to suffer the indignity of following faster riders in qualifying at Jerez. With 62 poles in 146 starts, it was the only way he was able to manage even a second-row starting slot. Good-natured Jack Miller had been his high-speed guide and had no complaints about it. Others, especially Aleix Espargaro, have been miffed about this, at previous races as well. But Marc was not fazed by the criticism. “A lot of times in the past people have followed me in qualifying. If I follow someone now, they should be flattered.”
The crash-without-crashing was a sign of the eight-time champion’s recovery of fitness and speed of reactions, and willingness to take risks. As the weeks roll by, he will only keep getting better.
Struggling for the right feeling at the twisty Andalucian circuit, his own pre-race prediction was that fifth place would be the most he could hope for. He only exceeded that by one place, but the way he did it should strike fear into his rivals. With 15 races and a total of 375 points still to come, it’s worth noting that Marc is now only 45 points off leader Quartararo. A highly recoverable margin. If the bike will cooperate and his comments after post-race Jerez tests were not particularly encouraging.
He placed only 15th, nine-tenths off the day’s leader, Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco, and commented: “We found some small things that are working better … but our weak point is still there.”
The 2022 Honda, fully redesigned, has a questionable chassis balance and queasy front-end feeling that has affected all four riders. At Jerez, his favourite circuit, Taka Nakagami managed a best-so-far seventh, but Pol Espargaro (11th) and Alex Marquez (13th) weren’t really in the game.
The short pre-season testing schedule, bad weather in Indonesia and Portugal, and Marc having missed two races due to double-vision problems have conspired to leave the all-new RC213V short of development.
It is still early enough in the season for the bike to catch up. It took five races before the 2022 Ducati to prove clearly better than last year’s model. The Honda still has time.
But not very much time, and not that much in the way of opportunity. Dorna lay two one-day tests after races. That at Jerez was the first; there is another after the Catalunya GP. In addition, there is a two-day test at Misano in September. Honda also has the services of test-rider Stefan Bradl, although these are of limited value to Marquez in refining his feel at the giddy limit.
Honda need every chance they can get to show that like their rider, they are ready to regain Big Beast status.CN
Click here for all the latest MotoGP news.