Winners
The top three
Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia on the 2024 Ducati along with Marc Marquez on the Paul Smith ex-museum piece have now elevated themselves to the top of MotoGP. It’s the old guard verse the middle-guard verse the new and annoying guard.
The trio look head and shoulders above their rivals.
Aleix Espargaró
Having announced he will retire at the end of the season in a shock (yet totally expected) press conference on Thursday Aleix Express wanted to go out in his final home race with a bang.
This literally had ‘disappointment’ written all over it.
But instead the elder Asparagus brother snatched pole and a sprint race on Saturday. Sunday’s race saw him just off the podium in fourth – but all in all it was a brilliant weekend for Aleix.
The only disappointment was that because he was always near the front Espargaró was not able to get into another punch-up with Morbidelli.
Sprint races
Like we’ve always said here at MGPN towers Sprint races are awesome. Much better than the boring long races – that’s what we’ve always said. And Catalunya once again proved us correct.
Raul Fernandez
Before the weekend Raul looked set to be thrown on the WSBK scrapheap of obscurity. His results for the Trackhouse ‘Make Aprilia Great Again’ team had been average at best. However, after pulling a few parts off Davide Brivio’s RSV1000 Mille and sticking them on Fernandez’s bike ‘for a laugh’, the Spanish rider suddenly clicked with his bike – a ‘click’ more impressive than the one in Mick Doohan’s knee cartilage.
‘Resting bitch face Raul’ (RBFR) suddenly found himself qualifying on the front row – much to the annoyance of many commentators who wanted to talk about Acosta instead.
More remarkably in the sprint race Fernandez was leading and looked set to take a shock win before falling off on a carelessly discarded chorizo skin. The Spaniard apparently cried like a baby for hours afterwards – even worse, it’s suggested, than what Zarco did when he couldn’t ride the KTM.
Luckily the Trackhouse rider dried his tears and went on to finish a strong 6th place in the main race.
Is this a turning point for the sour-faced Spaniard? Let’s hope so.
Losers
F1
Now we all felt the MotoGP race on Sunday was a bit lame. Not totally lame…but lame enough to have a gammy hip that’s seeping some worrying yellow stuff. Although we had a few lead changes there never seemed to be a real fight for the race victory. It was just a bit ‘meh’.
However, spare a thought for the poor F1 fans. These jumper wearing data-nerds were forced to suffer the brain meltingly dull Monaco GP – the most glamorously pointless parade on the F1 calendar. But even by Monaco’s pathetic standards this ‘race’ was terrible.
Why? Well the only interest in this, or any, Formula One race is when the drivers press the button that automatically brings the car into the pits for a tyre change. Tyre changes are mandatory – to inject life into the corpse. This exciting spectacle, akin to standing outside a Kwik fit garage in the rain, gives an opportunity for the race order to change slightly and everyone to get excited. However a crash, due to someone falling asleep at the wheel, on the opening lap meant that all the remaining drivers came straight into the pits for a tyre change…and reemerged in the same order. And that was essentially the race over. After that the leader, Charles Leclerc drove around slowly at the front in the middle of the track for three hours preserving his tyres knowing no one could overtake.
Initial reports estimated at least 12 people died of boredom watching the event on TV and numerous as still in a coma most of whom are showing little signs of brain activity – see ‘Eddie Jordan’ for further medical details.
Leading a sprint race
Leading a race, especially a short one, seems like a good idea. But not on Saturday. You didn’t want to lead that one.
Maverick Vinales
Remember when we thought he was a title contender?
Enea Bastianini
It was a weekend to forget for the soon to be forgotten Italian. Beforehand Enea, who has a name that’s not a real one, was fighting off comments that he was set to be replaced by either Jorge Martin or Marc Marquez in the factory Ducati team. ‘The Bastard’ was vocal that he also was in contention to keep his seat…but come Sunday night he wasn’t.
So-so performances in both races saw him drop to fourth in the championship and was never at the level of the top three Ducati riders.
Worse still Bastianini refused to take a long lap and subsequent ride through penalty for an incident with Ralf Schumarquez in which he felt he was the innocent party. After the race he was awarded with a 50-hour time penalty which dropped him out of the points and just behind Luca Marini.
Aprilia
With the last Asparagus brother hanging up his helmet at the end of the season Aprilia looked set to get a great replacement rider for 2025. Either Jorge Martin or Marc Marquez seemed likely with the pairing only wanting a factory Ducati ride for next season.
Sadly for Aprilia though Ducati seemed to have smoothed the waters and both riders now look likely to stay at the cheating Bolognaise based team. This means that the outcast, Bastianini, may be Aprilia’s only real option. Which is somewhat depressing if this weekend is anything to go by.
The usual suspects
MotoGP is padded out with riders that are either past their best or their best isn’t good enough. You know exactly which riders we mean. With the exception of Raul Fernandez, who jumped into life, the usual suspects were once again pointless in many senses of the word. Never looking like race winners and falling off when near the back – the purge can’t come soon enough.