MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The return to Misano has been a return to the current Natural Order in MotoGP. Despite a damp start in the morning, by the afternoon, the timesheet gave a very clear picture of the lie of the land. I will let Marc Márquez explain.

"We know that always in the Covid times, the second GP [at the same track] was always super tight. And in fact everything is very tight, everything is fast, everybody is fast," the Gresini Ducati rider told us.

But that closeness belied the fact that there are two riders who are a cut above the rest at the moment. "It's true that when it's better grip conditions, the pattern of this year is it looks like Martin and Bagnaia do a step, and in fact today, they were much faster than us."

A cut above

The timesheets bear this out. On Friday afternoon, Pecco Bagnaia did a lap of 1'30.902 on a set of medium tires which had 14 laps on them, just over half race distance. Jorge Martin did a 1'30.844 on a set with 12 laps on them.

Nobody else got close. Marc Márquez did a 1'31.3. Enea Bastianini a 1'31.4. Maverick Viñales did a pair of 1'31.6s, and Pedro Acosta matched that on a used soft rear. Bagnaia and Martin have four tenths on the rest of the field, and will be battling for victory at the head of the field. There will be a larger group behind fighting over the last place on the podium, most likely with Marc Márquez at their head.

Another race weekend, another rider announcement, and another step closer to a full grid for 2025. The news that Ai Ogura is to make the step up to MotoGP with Trackhouse Aprilia brings the total number of riders with a contract for next year up to 18. Just four seats remain vacant, and of those four, only two are real unknowns. Or maybe just one. Or maybe we know the names of all 22 riders on the 2025 grid, and we are just waiting for the announcement.

Ogura made his first public appearance as a prospective MotoGP rider at the second press conference at the Red Bull Ring, and he was visibly nervous. Answering questions with the spotlight on him didn't come easy, and struggling in his second language Ogura's answers did not always make sense.

He expressed pleasure at joining Trackhouse on a competitive Aprilia, but then when asked whether he would have considered a spot in the LCR Honda team, and how he felt about not being part of the Honda family, he got flustered and confused. It would have been better for Ogura for someone to prepare him for the press conference, but everything was arranged at such short notice that there was no time. Plus, who should have prepared him, his Moto2 team MT Helmets MSI, or Trackhouse?

Should he stay or should he go?

Who can beat Ducati to the 2024 MotoGP crown? If anyone can, it will be another European manufacturer. Aprilia have been close the past couple of years, but last year, KTM looked capable of toppling Ducati, with Brad Binder finishing fourth in the championship. Especially in the second half of the season, after KTM introduced their carbon fiber chassis, the RC16 looked very strong.

That pattern has continued throughout preseason testing. All four KTMs (the two factory bikes of Binder and Jack Miller, and the rebadged GASGAS machines of Augusto Fernandez and Pedro Acosta) have been equipped with the carbon fiber frame, and the plastic covers used to disguise the frame (and match the original livery design) have been dropped. The carbon fiber chassis is a big step forward, in every area, and comes with very few downsides.

We suspected it might be coming, but it took until the end of Friday afternoon to confirm. As predicted yesterday, Dorna and Race Direction announced that the MotoGP race on Sunday has been swapped with Saturday's sprint race. The full-length 27-lap race will start at 3:10pm on Saturday afternoon, and the 13-lap sprint race will kick off at 2pm on Sunday. If it kicks off at all.

The reason is simple: the weather. Gale force winds are predicted for Sunday, and it is uncertain whether it will be safe to ride. So Dorna made sure that the main event of the weekend, the full-length grand prix race for the MotoGP class, will at least happen.

Dorna have never made a secret of MotoGP being their main priority, and Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta reaffirmed that explicitly in the press conference announcing the new schedule. The most important thing was to hold the full MotoGP race, and reschedule around the rest.