The
French GP is infamous for a wild campsite enjoying every aspect of
motorcycle racing, but the action was just as wild on track.
One Mistake Apiece
For the second time in 2016 only 13 riders finished a MotoGP™ World
Championship race. Before the 2016 Argentina GP the last time only 13
riders finished in the premier class was at the 2012 race in Malaysia, a
race that was eventually red flagged due to the torrential rain. Of the
13 riders who finished the race, one had fallen and re-mounted: Marc
Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). He, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)
and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) have now made a mistake
each, creating a more or less even playing field once again.
“The way the Championship runs these days, it’s who gets their stuff
together at the beginning of the season--and who doesn’t make
mistakes--you make one mistake these days and it’s very hard to come
back from,” said Casey Stoner back in 2012.
These will be very wise words for the likes of Marquez, Lorenzo and
Rossi to follow for the remainder of the season. Each of the trio has
proved that they’re untouchable when everything is going well but
they’ve also shown cracks in their armour. Patching up these cracks will
be critical, every rider and team only getting stronger and stronger
with more time on the new electronics and tyres.
A second mistake might not be the end of the world however; Marquez,
Lorenzo and Rossi have all taken a MotoGP™ title after failing to score
twice. In 2004 and 2009 Rossi lifted the crown despite issues, as did
Marquez in 2013. During the 2012 season Lorenzo suffered two DNFs,
although his second came at the final round of the year after he had
already secured the title. The last rider to win the premier class title
with more than two race finishes outside the points was Mick Doohan in
1998, but he took eight wins and three second place finishes out of 14
race starts.
Lorenzo and Marquez have now each won twice, Rossi forced to continue
to play catch up to his teammate. But the gap from first to third is
only 12 points, the tightest the MotoGP™ World Championship has been
after five rounds since 2009 when Stoner, Lorenzo and Rossi left Mugello
divided by only nine points. Back then both Lorenzo and Rossi had each
failed to score in a race while Stoner had never stepped outside the top
five. Stoner’s season would unravel due to illness. Fans around the
world stayed glued to their seats for every round of the ever changing
2015 World Championship, but 2016 is so far even tighter and the new
regulations have filled each race to the brim with surprises. Mugello
might be Rossi's backyard, but Spaniards have won the last six races
there. All Rossi wants to do is break the streak and return to the top
stop, but both Lorenzo and Marquez are guaranteed to do everything they
can to beat him to the line.
Ducati’s Difficulties
The Monster Energy Grand Prix de France was another disastrous
weekend for the factory Ducati Team, neither of their riders finishing.
Phillip Island in 2015 was the last time that both factory bikes
finished together in a race. Their lack of results shows not just for
the rider's championship but also for the team, the factory team is
fifth in the standings and only a single point ahead of Avintia Racing,
who are using the GP14.2 which first debuted back in 2014. Both Andreas
were in podium position when they fell, Dovizioso's fall coming out of seemingly no where. Ducati have the pace to battle at the front but have so far struggled to find the consistency to do so over race distance.
With 39 points, Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) is the leading Ducati
rider in the MotoGP™ World Championship standings, Eugene Laverty
(Aspar Team MotoGP) is the second highest in ninth place. Andrea Iannone
is 14 points behind Barbera, a bigger gap than that of the championship
contenders. Meanwhile Andrea Dovizioso’s ever-increasing bad luck has
him two points behind Iannone and 11th overall. At this stage in 2015’s
championship Dovizioso was third with 83 points and Iannone was fifth
with 61, almost three times the points they have now.
Ducati are the only factory team who have their satellite riders and
teams ahead of them in the championship. Both Andrea Iannone and
Dovizioso need to start finishing races, especially as there will only
be one seat open at Ducati in 2017 after Lorenzo’s signing.
Just Deserts
MotoGP™’s hottest property, Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was
finally able to end on the podium he had been so close to achieving
throughout 2016. In Argentina he passed his hero Valentino Rossi for
what could have been second place, but then fell form what looked to be a
guaranteed top three. No such issues in France as Viñales proved he can
handle almost everything that is thrown at him, learning from each and
every mistake. He may have benefitted from the falls of several riders
ahead, but he still held off Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), a rider
with three World Championships and 100 MotoGP™ podiums. As Lorenzo,
Rossi, Stoner, Iannone, Dovizioso and many more have all found out,
beating Pedrosa, even on a bad day, is no fluke.
Viñales was the first rider to take a debut premier class podium
since Scott Redding defied the odds in Misano back in 2015, taking third
despite crashing mid-race. He also became the first rider to stand on
the podium riding a bike other than a Yamaha, Honda or Ducati since
Aleix Espargaro’s second place on the Forward Yamaha in Aragon in 2014.
Before that, the last non-Yamaha, Honda or Ducati podium came at the
hands of Marco Melandri on the Kawasaki back in 2009, also at the French
GP. Viñales has now definitively proven that both he and Suzuki are
contenders, but where does his future lie?
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