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.

Marc Márquez' return to victory and the collision between Alex Márquez and Pecco Bagnaia ate up a lot of attention at the Motorland Aragon GP. Understandably so. Márquez winning after 1043 days and leaving the safety of the Repsol Honda factory team for the impoverished Gresini Ducati squad is huge. And the 13 or 16 points Bagnaia lost as a result of the crash could potentially end up making a difference in the championship.

But there was a lot more happening during the MotoGP race at Aragon. Pedro Acosta returned to the podium during a sprint race for the first time since Mugello, and for the first time since Austin in a Sunday grand prix. Though Acosta earned his sprint podium, his Sunday podium was gifted to him when Bagnaia and Márquez crashed out ahead of him.

Yet this podium is significant. It is the result of reverting to a setup with which Acosta had booked so many successes earlier in the season. A disastrous outing at their home GP at the Red Bull Ring had convinced KTM that something needed to be done, and by abandoning the changes which offered potential advantages for a setup they understood and knew would be more consistent allowed Acosta to ride like he wanted to again.

Back to the future

It really seems like nobody wants to win a championship any more. The trend started in 2020, with Joan Mir beating Franco Morbidelli despite the pair crashing out of three of fourteen races. 2021 was a little better, Fabio Quartararo and Pecco Bagnaia dominating for most of the year, before giving the how-can-I-find-a-way-to-lose-this approach a proper go in 2022. Bagnaia fell off in the first half of the year, Quartararo fell off in the second, and the factory Ducati rider emerged triumphant with a slim 17-point margin over the Frenchman.

But the new approach to championships - trying to fall off slightly less often than your rival - really stepped up a gear in 2023. Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia fought a thrilling battle all season long, rode some fantastic races, but kept throwing away points like disposable cutlery. Martin ended the season with four no scores, Bagnaia with seven. But Bagnaia was smart enough to crash out of sprint races, while Martin was scoring zeroes in the much more lucrative full-length grand prix races.

Mugello is the most Italian of racetracks. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Tuscan hills, it is a bucolic location. And the 2024 Italian Grand Prix took that to another level: held on June 2nd, the day Italy celebrates the foundation of the Republic, which created the modern iteration of the country after the Second World War. On the grid, the famous tenor Maurizio Marchini belted out Il Canto degli Italiani, Italy's boisterous and rousing national anthem, while Eurofighters of the Italian air force flew so low over the circuit that we saw the hat of someone up on the VIP deck at the top of the building flutter past, blown off as they passed.

On the second row of the grid stood two blue Ducatis. Yes, blue. The factory Ducati Lenovo team were kitted out in the colors of the Azzurri, Italy's national sporting teams. On the backs of the shirts of riders, mechanics, engineers, and managers, their names were displayed in white letters. The Ducati Lenovo team were Italy's national team in MotoGP, was the message they conveyed. And just like Italy's national soccer team, when they turn up for a contest, they come to win.