The British GP was held at the Silverstone Circuit last weekend, and Aprilia riders dominated.
Starting from pole position, Jorge Martin (Aprilia) took an easy win in Saturday’s Sprint race. Aprilia filled out the podium with Ai Ogura finishing second and Marco Bezzecchi third.
Sunday’s main event saw another Aprilia sweep of the podium. This time, Raul Fernandez dominated from the start and cruised to the victory over a second place Martin and third place Bezzecchi.
Marc Marquez (Ducati) had an uncharacteristically poor weekend with a 9th place finish on Saturday and a 7th place finish on Sunday.
Martin continues to lead the championship points. 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.
can martin become the first rider to win the c’ship and then be promptly fired by TWO different manufacturers?
He wasn’t fired either time, he voluntarily left. This 2nd time is looking like a mistake from a competitive standpoint but if he wins the title this year and Yamaha pays him several million euros/year (like they did Quartararo) then it hardly matters. He can think of it as deferred compensation, what he should have been paid to win the championship with teams that did not pay him appropriately.
Trackhouse had a bit of a win it or bin it weekend. They’re still doing a fantastic job. I wonder if they will ever find an American rider. At least there is an American team showing that it can do well in the very series that killed America’s ability to generate road racing rider talent.
American bankroll, European/international just about everything else.
I think we’re a long way from seeing an American born rider at the top level of road racing. A 51 year old just won an AMA pro supersport race. In a healthy talent pool, that’s impossible.
Weird thing about Minnesota. The fastest enduro riders were all around my age for about two and a half decades. From my late twenties until I was into my 50s whatever my age class was would be the toughest class. For a while it was as if there was a bit of a lull as more guys chose motocross. Then it was the four strokes. With rare exception, four strokes are simply less competitive in the forests of Minnesota. Guys could do well for a while. But by mid rare they were wearing out. By the end of the race they were toast. The exceptions were just guys who seemed to have found a way to ride them. I rode a race on Bob Swift’s minute. The guy was crazy fast on an old XR600. Kind of like Scott Summers was back in the day.
Mick, did you ever race on the dirt track in Buffalo, MN, as a youngster? If so, I might have seen you.
Those would have to be the most unimaginative winners trophies ever! Shame on you, Silverstone.
Well, at the tail end of an ERA of 1 liter displacement bikes, Aprilia has THE package. That was literally a country ass whooping on the other brands. Great job to the brand. They have the goods and hopefully this will carry over to the 850cc machines. The preliminary testing looks very good.
Two of the current Aprilia riders will move to Yamaha and hopefully turn that brand around. The tuning fork factory certainly needs their help with Yamaha’s V4. One factory guy and one satellite team guy….it should be interesting.
Two other of the current Aprilia riders will stay with the brand. Bezecci on the factory squad will stay and I surely hope he will persevere to earn and take the number one plate for the brand. Raul Fernandez has proven more than once, that on his good days he is capable of masterclass performances. So glad to see him retained on the satellite squad, but hope he is given factory level equipment. He may very well be the most talented of all the current and future APE riders.
Been a long time coming.
I’ll never understand Martin. I think Ducati kind of mistreated him. But his whole bit about wanting to bail on Aprilia because he wasn’t getting results in races that he never suited up for because he was injured? At Yamaha he ain’t gonna get results while he’s healthy. Clearly the Japanese brands are not willing to pony up the development funds necessary to compete with the European brands. Even KTM was taking them to the cleaners while going through bankruptcy.
In 24 years the four stroke follies have taken the street bike industry from road racing flavors for everyone and a sportbike on every corner to one hyper expensive mutant sideshow and showrooms full of morbidly obese dirtbikes. China and India smelled the blood in the water and are finding it easy to compete when all you have to do is build a halfway decent morbidly obese dirtbike to make yourself a dent in the market to make a buck in.