Ducati is “five steps ahead” of Suzuki-Rins in MotoGP

Bagnaia stormed to a first MotoGP victory two weeks ago in Aragon when he defeated Honda’s Marc Marquez in an exciting duel and defended championship leaders Fabio Quartararo the following week in Misano.

This was Ducati’s fifth win in 2021, after consecutive wins for Jack Miller at Jerez and Le Mans and a famous first win for Pramac rookie Jorge Martin in Austria.

In addition to the five victories, Ducati has also achieved podium results with all of its teams and five out of six drivers. Rookie Enea Bastianini led his two-year-old Avintia bike to third place in Misano.

Only Yamaha have surpassed Ducati’s winning streak with six this year – though five of them were in the hands of Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales secured the others.

In a difficult title defense season, Suzuki has yet to win a Grand Prix for the reigning driver and team champions, a consequence of a GSX-RR package that has barely developed any further than its 2020 predecessor.

After losing fourth place at Misano when trying to chase Bastianini, Rins said he believes Ducati made a big leap forward in 2021 – underscoring how it managed to address its traditional weak point of turning to improve.

“I’ve certainly seen the Ducati five steps ahead,” said Rins.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I mean, they’re pretty strong. This crash may have happened because I was trying to keep up the pace [as Bastianini].

“Joan [Mir] and me, we’re trying to do our best with the Suzuki.

“Joan is definitely fighting for the World Championship, I have nothing to lose, so I tried not to be a little aggressive but pushed myself to the limit.

“Sometimes I pass [the limit] and I crashed.

“You are much better than us. I want to say in all races because in the past the Ducati was a motorcycle that only worked well on stop-and-go tracks.

“Now they work well on almost all tracks.

“In Aragon, Pecco drove a fantastic race and overtook Marc, the bike turned really well. This track too [Misano] is a very short route and they could turn well. “

Team-mate Mir admitted after finishing sixth at Misano that his title chances were all but gone and said he was “angry” about it as he felt he would be doing much better in 2021.

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From the driver’s point of view, Fabio Quartararo wants “more support from Yamaha”

Since the start of the season, Yamaha has only seen Fabio Quartararo, constantly battling for podiums and victories as he competed against the various Ducati. With 14 laps already completed, the Frenchman leads a championship with 48 points for Francesco Bagnaia, in which Johann Zarco and Jack Miller occupy the last places in the top 5. At the same time, Franco Morbidelli is 17th in the overall standings and Valentino Rossi is at the gates of the top 20.

Given that Quartararo is the only Yamaha to compete for the Desmosedici, the rider was asked if that fact could change the course of the championship against him. The # 20 started by talking about the Misano race and eventually admitted that it would be an advantage if the other Yamahas had better racing pace a little apart from what happens to the Ducati.

“That’s right, because in the beginning when I saw Pecco go, I fought Jack” [Miller] and [Jorge] Martin. It wasn’t easy, because overtaking a Yamaha – Yamaha versus Yamaha – is one thing, we have more or less the same acceleration, but when you have different bikes … I caught «Pecco» in sectors one and four, but it was like that I after sector one he moved away from sectors two and three. Not just because of the engine, because on turns 11 and 12 the “Pecco” was better than everyone else. This is not about power and that was it [a race] Run a little, catch, run and catch. It’s true that more support would be from Yamaha … I don’t mean from a technical point of view, but from the riders. Let’s see we have a few things to try in the test. We’re fighting so hard to overtake and it depends on the corner. Bends like five and six, where you change direction, are good, but they are bends that you normally cannot get past, ”said the driver at a press conference after the race on Sunday.

Ducati and Honda: The news for the second day of testing in Misano

While on the first day of testing at Misano Honda and Ducati were the factories that made the most attention with changes to their prototypes, on the second day the other manufacturers also showed some of their innovations for 2022.

After the new fairings, both Honda and Ducati have again shown new possibilities on their machines for the next season. Let’s start with the Italians.

A different disguise than the current one and the one revealed in Misano gave their first meters in public on Wednesday. A new front air intake was seen on the track, not as high and also wider than the one seen on day one, reminiscent of Yamaha’s air intake in 2019, according to MotoGP Tech. In addition, Ducati debuted with two new fairings on the second day at Misano. One had changes in two sets of ‘wings’. The second fairing was discovered on Jack Miller’s Desmosedici and divides one of the wing assemblies in two, increasing the number of additional components added to the motorcycle’s base fairing to four.

• Source: MotoGP
• Source: MotoGP

Honda surprised already on Tuesday with a fairing tested by Stefan Bradl and Marc Márquez. The Spaniard tested a version of the fairing with a new air inlet, which is different from the one on Tuesday. Another different fairing shows two ‘wing’ attachments further forward than usual. In the picture of the RC213V with the number 93 we can see a version of the air intake tested in Barcelona, ​​which is slightly different from the versions tested in Misano.

• Source: MotoGP
• Source: MotoGP
• Source: MotoGP
• Source: MotoGP

Keywords: Ducati Lenovo TeamMotoGPMotoGP MisanoRepsol Honda Team

Jack Miller does not deny protecting Francesco Bagnaia in the race and “taking on the role of blocker”

Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller will start the race on Sunday on the first two grid positions. When asked by Motorcycle Sports whether this was a team race or a rider’s race for himself, Miller made it clear that he always drives for himself.

However, the Australian didn’t deny protecting his teammate from the competition, although one must first understand where the race is:

– I mean, there is always a “Jack Race” on my mind, but we’ll see how the race plays out. On paper, of course, Pecco is the strongest in the field. So if he wants to take a look, I’m only too happy to sit behind him and take on the role of blocker as best I can. However, I think there is no point in talking about such things now. I think we’ll have to wait for the lights to go out tomorrow [today] And when that happens, understand where you are, understand the race, how it feels, how the bike reacts, and ride from there.

MotoGP how Quartararo became this year’s favorite

Although Fabio Quartararo led the MotoGP standings before round 12 of MotoGP at Silverstone, he left the legendary British circuit three days later in an even stronger position with almost one hand on the title. So great was his dominance in the race, journalists from France24 got a little upset when their compatriot smashed his rivals to extend his lead at the top of the premier class.

However, Leading the championship standings is not a premiere for Quartararo as it was in 2020, after winning three of the first eight rounds of the campaign. But just as he was considered the favorite for the world title, doubts crept in from some corners that suggested that he could come under pressure. It turned out that his third win in Catalonia would be his last of the season – the doubters were probably right. Ultimately, his battle for the MotoGP crown ended in disappointment. Moving up from the top of the overall standings to eighth overall, and ironically, the eighth was his best-placed race in his last six attempts.

This year, however, the 22-year-old appears to have a new maturity, now in his third season as a MotoGP rider. After Quartararo completed his climb from a seat with the Petronas satellite SRT team to the factory-backed Monster Energy Yamaha team, Quartararo’s reaction was that it was a dream.

This dream move spurred him on immediately and reality quickly looked bright for the French when the season kicked off in Qatar in March. For someone who is young and using all their experience, the consistency of Quartararo’s results is amazing. After four wins and three podium visits later, the paddock traveled to four other points in Great Britain, where the aforementioned victory occurred.

Quartararo’s fifth win of the season at Silverstone in late August in front of nearly 70,000 fans was just one more indication of his growing maturity in the MotoGP class. But it was the kind of victory that was just as striking. After taking the lead on lap five, he pushed forward and at some point improved to four seconds, which gave him the opportunity to save his tires and cross the finish line relatively comfortable 2.6 seconds ahead of second-placed Alex Rins. The decisive factor is that the victory extended his lead in the overall standings ahead of current world champion Joan Mir and pacemaker Francesco Bagnaia at the beginning of the season.

Quartararo was visibly confident after his win when he said, “It’s funny because I’ve read a lot of comments about being under pressure and making mistakes, but the opposite is the case. I’ve never felt so good on the bike and Yamaha has never put me under any pressure. “

That confidence is also shared as Quartararo is ranked as a clear favorite by Bwin Sports ahead of Mir and Bagnaia. Although his rivals have stated that El Diablo will begin to feel the pressure to lead the title race, the man at the top of the tree seems to feel the exact opposite, and he seems absolutely to love the responsibility.

Bagnaia leads Ducati 1-2 in qualifying

Just like a week ago at Aragon, Bagnaia led his Ducati team-mate Jack Miller to take his third pole of the season, while championship leaders Quartararo retained third place despite a late fall at Turn 1 in an accident-riddled qualifying.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir set the initial benchmark with 1: 33.151 minutes, although this was immediately exceeded by Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati with 1: 32.844 minutes.

In the next few minutes, the provisional pole went to Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, before Bagnaia returned to the top with 1: 31.664 minutes.

The second stint of the home hero at the top lasted only seconds when Quartararo again moved the goal posts with 1: 31.367 minutes on the factory Yamaha.

Bagnaia lit the timing screens two minutes before the end to set a new lap record of 1: 31.065 minutes and that proved enough to keep him on pole in front of his home crowd.

Miller was able to avoid the late yellow flag and lead his factory Ducati to 1.31.314 minutes for second place.

Quartararo looked like he was the only rider who could challenge Bagnaia’s pole but slipped off his Yamaha at the start of his final flying lap on the first corner.

But his 1: 31.367 minutes was good enough to keep him in the front row for Sunday’s race, while Jorge Martin leads the second row on his Pramac Ducati.

Martin beat his teammate Johann Zarco by 0.173 seconds, with Pol Espargaro the leading Honda runner in sixth after teammate Marquez – who had to get through Q1 – crashed late on the Tramonto right-hander while trying to shadow Bagnaia.

Marquez ended up seventh due to Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who was right in Q2 after resuming a lap after FP3 to ensure his safe passage.

Teammate Maverick Vinales secured 10th place on his second Aprilia appearance, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins between them.

Mir’s sister Suzuki had a nightmare session, a problem with his front tire forced him into the pit lane before his final lap – while Quartararo’s crash just ahead of him meant there was nothing he could do to improve to 11th place.

Avintia’s Enea Bastianini sailed through Q1 – but had a low-speed crash at the end of the session – but couldn’t do better than 12 on his two-year-old Ducati.

Takaaki Nakagami was denied a seat in Q2 after the LCR Honda rider crashed late on the Tramonto right-hander late in Q1.

He leads the Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro, Avintias Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli, who qualified 16th for his first race as a Yamaha works driver and his first race since the German GP in June.

Brad Binder also fell late in the first quarter, which made an already tough day for KTM worse. The South African finished in 17th place ahead of Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl.

For Alex Marquez, who had to break off a fast lap due to Nakagami’s fall, it didn’t work out and ended up in 19th place ahead of Iker Lecuona from Tech 3 and KTM’s factory colleague Miguel Oliveira.

Danilo Petrucci leads an all-Italian last row on the sister Tech 3 KTM, with Petronas SRT duo Valentino Rossi – who crashed early in Q1 – and the returning Andrea Dovizioso on the two-year-old Yamaha completing the field.

Q2 results:

Q1 results:

Zarco pushes bike across line in Misano

Feature image from Gold and Goose / LAT Images

MotoGP rookie Johann Zarco appeared to be finishing seventh at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday until his Yamaha ran out of gas. The Frenchman still managed a 15th place and a GP point by pushing his bike over the line. Zarco remains in sixth place in the championship points classification.

“From the last bend I had to run down next to the bike and run, and it was long,” said Zarco. “I knew there were two lines, the start line and the finish line. The finish line was really far. ”The crowd cheered him on all along the straight.

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Former MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo was less fortunate in the rainy race. The Spaniard had a great holeshot on the Ducati and finished the field until he made a highsider on lap seven, handing the lead over to Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci. The non-works driver held the lead until the last lap when Honda’s Marc Marquez set the fastest race lap and clinched victory. Andrea Dovizioso on the works Ducati came in third and was tied with Marquez for the points lead.

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“In rainy conditions you never know, but I tried to control the whole race, tried to control myself because I could be a bit faster, but I said you have to be patient,” said Marquez. to stay in second place. Then in the last lap I said: ‘I’ll try’. This championship is really close and five points can be a lot in the end. “

Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales finished fourth, finishing third before the next race in his home country of Spain. His teammate Valentino Rossi missed the race because he broke his ankle in a dirt bike accident two weeks ago. Despite speculation that he could return for Round 14 at Aragon, Spain, Yamaha have announced that Rossi will still be recovering from his injuries. While the former champ is making good progress, he is likely to stay away from the bike until Japan’s MotoGP at the Twin Ring Motegi on October 15th.

READ MORE: Broken leg could end Rossi’s title hopes

Rossi’s Aragon plant is occupied by Yamaha’s WorldSBK rider Michael van der Mark. The 24-year-old Dutchman is a three-time winner of the 8 Hours of Suzuka and is very familiar with the Spanish circuit. This will be his first chance in MotoGP and he will be supported by Rossi’s regular crew.