Marc Marquez (Ducati) dominated the MotoGP race weekend at Hungary with pole position and wins in both the Saturday Sprint race and Sunday’s GP.
Master of the counter-clockwise circuits like Hungary (no one turns left like Marc Marquez), despite recent surgery on his shoulder and foot, Marc Marquez was unstoppable on the weekend. Saturday’s Sprint saw him followed home by Pedro Acosta (KTM) in second and championship points leader Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) in third.
Sunday’s GP started with a nasty crash at Turn 1, as three of the Aprilias in the race were cleaned out by an out-of-control Jorge Martin (Aprilia). It appears none of the riders were seriously hurt (they included Bezzecchi). Ultimately, Marquez took the win over Acosta, in second once again, with Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) finishing third.
For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here. For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
After turn one I turned it off. Now if they would have restarted the race I would have watched it.
How many riders need to crash on the first lap of a MotoGP race to cause a restart? I rode an event once when I thought that too few crashed out early for a restart. But it wasn’t like I was upset about it. MotoGP has small grids. Four guys crashing on turn one isn’t a good reason for a restart? Weird automotive mindset.
Early psychological victory by MM over his future teammate. As race commentator said, Acosta must know that Marquez is effectively riding with only one arm.
MM is the one who should be worried knowing the Acosta was riding a far inferior motorcycle and MM is on one of his left turn tracks.
The guy and his fans got a day in the sun. I don’t like the guy. So I’m on the MM days in the sun are rare team. But it’s his weekend. That’s racing.
And Marquez knows Acosta is riding an inferior bike. I’m calling it now. Acosta will be unbeatable on next year’s Ducati. Marquez will retire.
Isn’t next year when the displacement and aero change happens? It’s my opinion that teams that dail their bikes for Marquez end up with bad bikes. Honda is slowly recovering and Ducati has lost its dominance. Making a new bike from scratch for Marquez might produce a real turkey. The end of the Marquez era at Honda produced a bike that everybody including Marquez crashed on all the time. Acosta is fast. But he might find that Bagnaia recognized the Marquez cancer and was wize to go to Aprilia.
I think MotoGP is headed for some dark times. They should just go to 850cc two strokes. That would rock harder that Rammstein.
Ducati hasn’t made a bad bike and hey haven’t lost their dominance to mistakes of their own making. Aprilia was on an upward trajectory for the past 3 years and Honda have been working with concessions to speed their return to competitiveness, just as Ducati had several years ago. The system Dorna has in place is meant to prevent one-brand dominance. Ducati knows better than to build a bike for Marquez. He’s on borrowed time.
2-strokes are a dead technology. They were harder and more dangerous to ride than current bikes, despite being 30% less powerful.
Bagnaia was doing just fine at Ducati until Marquez showed up after destroying Honda’s bike. Suddenly Bagnaia seems to be on a real turkey most of the time. Honda is slowly recovering. Aprilia just put their head down and kept building a better bike. Not just a better bike for some guy who thinks he knows what he wants and turns out to be terribly wrong.
Two strokes are far from dead. They have been banned for being too cheap and effective. Motocross teams costs quadrupled overnight when they went retro four stroke. Remember that 500GP was 500cc. It was overdue for a displacement bump. They were playing with engines making 400hp per liter with no electro nannies. Of course they were difficult to deal with. Now MotoGP is insane. They spend crazy money on retro engines with a zillion moving parts. That’s now just the start. They have to spend another boatload on electronics to make those dinosaurs rideable. But they’re still not done. They have to blow another king’s ransome on aerodynamics to create the bloated clown bikes they have today. I think it’s weird that they show the starts from the front. No wonder bagger racing is alive and well. The MotoGP bikes are every bit as big and fat. Oink! And people pay money to watch those things. Wonders never cease. The only events that I will go to that I’m not riding in anymore are observed trials. Absolute gods riding pure unadulterated motorcycles. The best rider is actually riding a four stroke and taking home Honda money. But that just shows that observed trials is a motorsport where the best man wins. That’s becoming very rare in all of motorsport. You know when engine displacement is up to rider preference that you’re on to something.