Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) won the Motegi MotoGP race earlier today ahead of Marc Marquez (Honda) and third place Dani Pedrosa (Honda).
With one round remaining, Marquez leads the championship by 13 points over Lorenzo. If Lorenzo wins the final race, Marquez will win the championship if he finishes in fourth position or higher.
For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
So, one more website I can’t look at until I’ve gotten to watch the races. I normally look at this site every day. Now that the winner of a race has shown twice in the lead photo (Sykes and Lorenzo), I’ll avoid the site.
watching the race, barely caught the comment that Ben Spies has “retired from racing”. With injuries on both shoulders from 2012 and again 2013 he felt racing is questionable for next year, and they agreed to end his contract with Ducati.
Shame to see him retire, but hopefully he can race in other series, or maybe join the rank of talented instructors at racing schools?
Best of luck, Ben. Hope to see you around the sport!
It was a good but slightly boring race. Comes down to the home soil for the top three riders, they’re all going to give everything, with Jorge and Marc giving more than 100%. Or at least Jorge should, but Marc should just play it safe and get his championship.
Who knows what can happen though, rain, on track shenanigans, disastrous starts, Alvaro getting a wild hair and taking out half the field… exciting times ahead! What a great season it’s been so far.
re: “they’re all going to give everything, with Jorge and Marc giving more than 100%.”
that’s what the dorna hype machine is selling innit…? and they don’t have to sell very hard either because they know you/we are already mentally predisposed to buying it.
truth is Jorge is the only one going to give 100%, but since the scheduled motegi celebration (see entry for the t-shirt and premature press release debacles and Freddie fly-in) was up-ended by the weather, marcus and dan are under strict orders to phone it in. finishing order will be same as Japan.
pyrrhic victory… jay wins the battle but loses the war for want of 8 points. it is a mathematical certainty.
This is where the series really misses a guy like Super Sic, who, at any given moment, might just go completely hairball and take out Marquez in the final corner. Or vice versa.
Sic vs Marquez would have been hilarious fun.
Marco is certainly missed, but for entirely different reasons. He was a talented rider who was maturing as a racer and stood to benefit the most from the increased displacement rule change. I personally would not want to see a rider win or lose a championship because they were taken out.
“Lighten up, Francis.”
re: “who, at any given moment, might just go completely hairball and take out Marquez”
i’ll be your huckleberry. (alvaro bautista voice)
Re.”i’ll be your huckleberry. (alvaro bautista voice)”
I’d give ‘Crutch a nod here too if he can get that Tech-3 Yammy back up front. He’s probably looking to go out with a bang before being relegated to 10th on his new full-factory ride.
no, not crutchers. mentally, he’s “sound as a pound”. 🙂
Wow –
Brilliant ride Jorge! If not for Assen and a wet paint stripe you would be champion again.
Uber-smooth and controlling from the front. Jorge is a true champion.
I agree, brilliant Jorge!
who would win if, lets say, Marc and Jorge take each other out at the next/last race?
Pedrosa
No wait..I have to think about that. He’s too far behind 25 points wouldn’t help. Marquez would win if neither he nor Lorenzo got any more points.
Interestingly..if Lorenzo and Marquez don’t finish, and Pedrosa wins, he and Lorenzo would be tied on points and tied for 2 nd in the Championship, but I. Would assume 2 nd in the championship would still go to Lorenzo due to his 7 wins this season.
Pedrosa said he was bored. It looked like he could have passed Marquez earlier on but didn’t, probably, due to team orders. It was semi-amusing that Gavin Emmett and Nick Harris brought up Estoril 2006…
“It was a bit of a boring race for me, because I tried to give everything but I had a lot of problems exiting the corners; I was unable to get on the gas fully and I lost a lot of time to Marc and Jorge. I was third for the entire race, trying to hold onto them. However, at the midway point of the race my pace started to become slower than theirs. Now we have to focus on the next race, in Valencia, where we shall try to do as well as possible”
He may have been ordered to not pass Marquez, under any circumstances, but I don’t think he could have kept up with them had he been given the all clear to go out and race. I think he was just bored riding in a lonely 3rd place and not mixing it up with the guys. Apparently the course is a little boring as well.
I would rather watch Lorenzo ride than anyone else on the planet. It’s a thing of beauty. Too bad for him that he had the injuries earlier in the year, or he would be locking in another title.
Marquez was riding pretty aggressively much of the race yesterday. I have no idea what the kid was thinking. He should be content sitting back in second or third and pocket himself a championship.
Word to the wise, Mark. Keep an eye on your teammate. He’s been known to take teammates out as the season winds down.
Re:”Word to the wise, Mark. Keep an eye on your teammate. He’s been known to take teammates out as the season winds down. ”
Maybe this is part of the reason why he was riding so hard in 2nd?
Well, Lorenzo is doing all he can do, the rest is up to fate…or Norm’s script depending on which way you believe.
Hahaha – good one! I think it’s Dorna’s dream that the race comes down to Valencia, but I seriously doubt they could have controlled the season (or any season) outside of the rules that are prescribed pre-season. But really good quote – obviously Norm knows something we don’t (and that’s certainly true based on his past observations…).
re: “Norm’s script”
Carmelo’s (aka Puppet Master).
It’s to bad there are not any other bikes on the grid to compete with the factory boyz to make a real challenge for the aliens. I believe Lorenzo is still the better rider. He is the only one on a yamaha able to beat the hondas, even though the honda is a slightly better bike. I really hope Marquez doesn’t win. It’s unfair that he was able to slip his way into a factory bike. I would of liked to see him on Bautista’s bike attempting to the impossible if he is really that good of a rider. I remember watching Lorenzo on the 250’s blowing away the compition back in the day. And as I recall he didn’t get the advantage of the factory bike in his rookie year.
re: “Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) won the Motegi MotoGP race earlier today ahead of Marc Marquez”
typhoons don’t give a rat’s about scripts.
But Dorna and their advertisers do.
So they:
– messed with Phillip Island laps, switching from regular length to two sets of 14 laps (http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-racing-news-moto-gp/bike-swap-needed-during-australian-gp-race/23799.html), then 10
– disqualified Marquez because his team couldn’t follow their running rule changes
…giving the resurgent Lorenzo an opportunity to turn the last race into a more meaningful and revenue-generating championship round.
Reality TV couldn’t have scripted it better.
I don’t get people being so upset over this. The changes were made clear prior to the race. All Marquez and his crew needed to do was follow the rules of that day. They didn’t.
Now the issue of spec tires. That deserves criticism and debate. They should go back to the old rules. Let a rider choose his own tires and don’t put limits on the choices, then you don’t have a mess like this.