MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

As wonderful as the layout of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is, the track surface is something of a disaster. Or perhaps the surface is itself is OK, but the combination of this surface with a lot of corners that seem to go on forever mean that the edge of the tire overheats quickly, instantly destroying any grip the track might have had.

Most likely, it is a combination of the two: the track surface has no grip, and to add insult to injury, the bikes are spending a lot of time on the edge of the tire, where they have least grip, with a touch of throttle egging the rear tire on to start spinning, and the Mediterranean sun heating the asphalt to make things even harder.

Whatever the explanation, the MotoGP riders really don't like the lack of grip the track has. "I think this track is over the limit by two or three years," Pecco Bagnaia said after practice on Friday. "It is already very slippery and a bit dangerous in some parts because you can’t find the traction. You are there spinning a lot and you cannot find the traction. It is very difficult to manage it, impossible to manage it actually if you want to go fast."

On Friday it was clear that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was an Aprilia track. Aleix Espargaro smashed the pole record on Friday afternoon, and he and factory Aprilia teammate Maverick Viñales ended the day first and second, with Espargaro well clear of the rest.

Come qualifying, and Miguel Oliveira got himself into the mix. First with a blistering lap in Q1 to get through to Q2, then an impressive lap in Q2 to put himself on the front row, his first since taking pole at Portimão in 2020. Aleix Espargaro looked to be on course for pole position, and Maverick Viñales was close to making it a clean sweep of the front row for Aprilia.

Aleix Espargaro may have had his sights set on pole, but Pecco Bagnaia had other ideas. "This morning was a bit bitter because I finished second, which is great for the two races, but I felt a little bit like I lost," the Aprilia rider said after the sprint race. "I gave everything, but Pecco was better. It was an amazing lap record. I was a bit angry." Bagnaia had added insult to injury by slicing five hundredths of a second off Espargaro's lap record from Friday to take the pole record for Ducati.

Motorcycle racing is a career of sliding door moments. Everyone has a 'what would have happened if...' moment in their career. For Andrea Iannone, there’s been probably more of those moments than for most racers.

The biggest of those moments was Argentina 2016. When he clattered his Ducati teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, out of the way it left his future with Ducati untenable. Given that Dovi went on to spearhead the Ducati revival in the premier class it’s very easy to forget that Iannone had been the chosen son for that role. Moving up through the ranks from Pramac to the factory seat his ascension to the top table in Bologna was smooth and a podium on his debut with the red bike in 2015 was proof his potential.

His career never quite hit the highs that were expected of him and moving to Suzuki and then Aprilia he slid down the grid. His doping ban at the end of 2019 hammered the final nail into his MotoGP coffin. His unravelling was all his own doing, and the ban, for the use of an anabolic steroid, was plainly warranted.

Back to Bologna

MotoGP championships are hard to win and incredibly easy to lose. Yesterday, Pecco Bagnaia rode a stupendous race to finish second behind an unstoppable Aleix Espargaro in the sprint race. Today, Bagnaia took off at the start, and saw his race finish after just two corners. He highsided in front of a storming pack, lucky that his teammate Enea Bastianini had messed up the first corner and wiped out five other riders, clearing out the field somewhat and putting the rest on a state of high alert.

The fates smile on Bagnaia on Sunday at Montmeló. Brad Binder was unsighted by Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira, and so had no warning that Bagnaia had crashed in front of him. Yet he managed to deflect his bike just enough that he merely clipped Bagnaia's leg, rather than hit the Italian. Amazingly, though Bagnaia was removed to the medical center by ambulance and examined both there and in a local hospital, he came away with no fractures, just a lot of bruising.

Nothing ever stays the same in racing. There are too many variables at play in a dynamic sport at the best of times. In a production based series this is even more the case. A new model of machinery from a rival manufacturer can suddenly be a game changer. Overnight the benchmark can be obsolete.

This is what happened with Kawasaki when Ducati unveiled the V4R ahead of the 2019 season. Kawasaki and Jonathan Rea went on to win another two titles, but the tide had clearly turned red. Over the last two years this has become even clearer. For Rea, a six times World Champion, this has become untenable.

The Northern Irishman is addicted to winning. And like any addict he’ll do whatever it takes to get what he needs. Switching from Kawasaki to Yamaha is a clear indication that the only thing that matters is winning. In Rea’s mind there is more chance to win on a blue machine, and he was willing to move heaven and earth to make it happen.

Management buy out

With one year left on his contract he has done what he had to do to extricate himself from his commitments in 2024. Paying out a reputed €800,000 is a perfect illustration of how strongly he believes that the ship has sailed from Kawasaki. After six titles, more than 100 victories and over 200 podiums it seems remarkable that it’s come to this.

There was a lot to chew over at the Barcelona round of MotoGP, and Misano is nearly upon us. So here's a few more things that we learned in Barcelona that matter: Maverick Viñales becoming the first rider to break the new tire pressure regulations; Honda's continuing problems; Fabio Quartararo going back to the future; and what the Misano test might bring, and what it definitely won't bring, and what that might mean for the future of Marc Marquez.

There were a number of records broken at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, including the first ever Aprilia 1-2 in MotoGP. But there was also a less commendable record set: Maverick Viñales because the first MotoGP rider to be punished under the new tire pressure regulations. The factory Aprilia rider was found to have completed less than 50% of the race with this front tire pressure above the minimum set by Michelin, nominally 1.88 bar. As it was his first transgression, he received a formal warning. The next time he is found to have broken the tire pressure rules, he will be handed a 3-second penalty.

After a gentle start to 2023, the second half of the MotoGP season is kicking into high gear. A week after the Barcelona round, the paddock is assembled again in Misano. The Gran Premio Di San Marino E Della Riviera Di Rimini is the second part of the first set of back to backs which will see us careering toward the season finale in Valencia.

After Misano, there is a week off before the double header of India and Motegi. Then another week off, and the first of the last two triple headers, the paddock flying from Mandalika to Phillip Island and back to Buriram. Another free weekend, and then the season ends with Sepang, Qatar, and the twentieth and final round in Valencia.

And after Misano, we should hear what the 2024 calendar will be like. That is likely to be even longer, at least in theory. With the paddock abuzz with rumors, it looks like we will have 22 races on the calendar next year, with Kazakhstan now finished, and rumors of Hungary joining the calendar, as Dorna has already signed a multi-year contract with the Hungarian promoter. The circuit which was supposed to host that race, at Hajdúnánás near Debrecen in the east of the country, is still not built, but there is talk of adapting the Hungaroring to make it safe for MotoGP.

The contrast with Barcelona is stark at Misano. Not just in terms of grip – it is absolutely night and day between last weekend and this weekend – but also with the weather. Where in Barcelona the weather was fickle, with spots of rain constantly threatening, at Misano the sun comes out in the morning and the sky stays blue until sunset. The only confounding factor is the wind.

That was causing Luca Marini problems in the afternoon. "I expected a little bit better in FP2, but with the raised temperatures I struggle a lot with the edge grip, and especially also with the wind," the Mooney VR46 rider said. "I made a lot of wheelie, and exiting from the corner for me was really really difficult, and we need to work a little bit if the conditions will be the same tomorrow in the sprint, especially because I think here the wind in the morning is every time a little bit lower and also the temperature will be better. But for the races, we need to find a little bit better compromise."

There are days when you are reminded that racing is not quite as important as we like to think it is. Saturday was one of those days. The news that Mike Trimby, IRTA CEO, had died on Friday night affected everyone in the paddock. To say that Trimby was a giant of the sport is an understatement. The only person who has had a greater impact on the shape of MotoGP and motorcycle racing in its current guise is Carmelo Ezpeleta.

And arguably, Trimby did more to make motorcycle racing safer than Ezpeleta, because he was elected by the riders as a safety representative, and went on to form IRTA, which had the political clout to improve safety because they had the power of collective bargaining. And Trimby had the moral courage to use that power to force race promoters and circuit owners to make drastic changes to make the racing safer. There are riders alive today who probably wouldn't have been if Mike Trimby hadn't taken the stance that he had.

Nearly 80,000 fans (technically, 71,000 paying spectators and 8,000 people in the VIP Village and paddock, some of whom might even have been fans) crammed into the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on Sunday to see a feast of Italian racing. They got what they came for: three Italian bikes on the podium, eight Italian bikes in the top ten, two Italians on the podium.

The only thing they missed out on was an Italian winner. In Moto3, it was the Colombian David Alonso who won a fierce final lap battle to take victory. In Moto2, the Spaniard Pedro Acosta controlled the race pretty much from the start. And MotoGP, Jorge Martin led a replica of Saturday's sprint race podium, the Pramac Ducati rider making it two Spanish wins on the day. Local fans had to make do with hearing Il Canto degli Italiani twice on Saturday, when Mattia Casadei and Nicholas Spinelli took victory in the two MotoE races, and Casadei was crowned MotoE world champion.