Aragon 2016 - After race analysis

Marquez's supremacy in qualifying session has been confirmed in race too. After a bad front loosing, he focused looking for the tyre feeling and once he got it, he recovered the positions lost, he took the lead, got some gap and went to the checking flag. Arrived to this point, the possibilities of recovering by Rossi with -52 points and only 4 races left seem to be almost none. Even if not mathematically confirmed, Marc proved to have enough maturity, speed and effectiveness to get the 2016 title.  

We saw also beautiful overtakes between the Yamaha teammates, with Lorenzo in troubles in the first part of the race and Rossi in the second. Then Valentino made a bad mistake loosing the reference for braking, going wide and loosing any possibility to get the second place. A pretty normal mistake even if preferably avoidable. He had quite visible traction problems due to spinning, especially in the third and forth sectors.

Suzuki had a bit more problems despite the optimistic preview of the team manager Davide Brivio. By the way the race is always different from free practice sessions and Vinalez risked several times, not only to crash, but also to involve other riders (like Lorenzo in turn 1). The 4th place is a very good result though.

Pedrosa furious! A setup problem in the rear tyre and a defect in the front one, compromise all the race of the Spanish rider who had almost to ruin his feet to stay on the bike and to end. Let's remember that Dani is not a polemic rider at all and when he speaks about a problem, the problem exists. Indeed...

And also this time... both the Aprilia arrived in the top 10 with just 1 missing rider in the grid. Quietly they are coming...

Next round in the 16th of October in Motegi.

Misano 2016 - After race analysis

I'm going to make an analysis on the main facts of the race instead of on the singular riders.
Michelin has reached the performances of Bridgestone, being better in some cases. However, the kind of tyre seems to permit just to keep a pace without passing it. This particular race proved that. Indeed we had overtakes but no battle at all. It's like to watch many Lorenzo all together which keep their own pace an nothing else. It's boring!
As Rossi said, this track is easier from a technical point of view compare to Silverstone but it's more difficult to overtake. This is the reason why we had so many discussions on so few overtakes we got.

Let's take the most viral, Rossi on Lorenzo in turn 14. It happened at the beginning of the race. It cannot be classified between the "clean" ones because the rider overtaken had to modify his line to avoid the accident. However it was absolutely legal and permitted move where theoretically had to be no contact at all. Why happened then?

The camera on the tail of Valentino's bike speaks itself: it shows the move before the turn and as you can see, Lorenzo saw very well Rossi. My theory is he deliberately simulated surprise to mask the enter as not regular or very dirty, keeping his ideal line and changing at the last moment looking for the contact. In fact Rossi was already passed indeed Jorge almost touched his back wheel form external. He theoretically had to modify his line to let the overtaker make his move (unavoidable) in a safe situation, for then answer later, eventually. This not happened and we had instead several controversies, which got worse during the interviews.

Was made that overtake in that particular moment right? Sipping Martini on the couch it's easy to say, on race is very different. Lorenzo teaches us if he starts in front and gets little gap, then is unreachable. I would say it definitely was right.

And Pedrosa? Wonderful race from 8th to the lead making a precise and spectacular overtake on Rossi (paradoxically dirtier than the one we've just seen). The Italian tried then to resist, making a couple of laps lightly faster, but not enough to reply to Dani. Better to take points also today, even if few.

Marquez had serious problems and just kept his pace for the whole race. Strange result despite the amazing time laps registered during the warmup session. Still a safe situation in the championship at +43pt, fine enough so far...

A little quick consideration also for Bautista who finally brought the Aprilia in the top 10

Next round in a couple of weeks in Aragon. 

Silverstone 2016 - After race analysis

Silverstone is a quite flat and long track with huge runoffs in asphalt. All the races of the last weekend have been plenty of battles and the final gaps were surprisingly content. By that, it's the ideal track for fun and motorcycles in general.
The weather compromised the qualifying session, but not the race which has been dry until the end. A red flag due to a crash between Pol Espargaro and Baz (with no consequence for them) obligated to start a second time the race.

Vinales gives a wonderful victory to the team Suzuki after years without a result like that. The team manager Davide Brivio is usually very careful on comments before the race, but that day he has been more confident than usual. He was right! Vinales jumps in the front of the grid soon after the start and gets a gap which suggests there is no way to beat him. Simply impregnable. Moreover, with this result he overtakes Pedrosa in the championship going in 4th.

Crutchlow liked the taste of the last podium and in battle is very hard to beat. After a good start manages the situation staying in the group Rossi-Marquez-Iannone-Pedrosa. The conditions of the tires in the end are still fine and after overtaking Valentino resists to a tenacious and determined Marquez which is forced kowtow in front of Cal. A wonderful and spectacular ride by him, from a couple of races, the best Honda rider.

Rossi takes the first laps of the race struggling a bit to cool down the hard compound tires. After that he takes the lead of the second place group managing for large part of the session. Then Marquez becomes insidious with so many things to clarify with him. The two of them start to overtake each other taking many risks and contacts up to the limit of the regulations. Marquez to avoid the crash is forced to run off the track to then come back quickly to his place, loosing nothing, overtaking him soon after. But unfortunately the rear tyre starts spinning and Valentino has absolutely to get points, so he opted to dose the throttle and resign himself to watch the opportunity of the podium going away. But then something happens: Marquez, trying to overtake Crutchlow with a inhuman braking, goes to get mushrooms outside the track giving to Rossi the opportunity desired. A real stroke of luck which reduces a bit the gap between them in the championship. Good race by the Italian which managed the technical problems of the Yamaha egregiously. (-50pt)

Marquez struggled this weekend like not many other times in his carrier. The 4th place is more than satisfying though, however he got too many risks. Too nervous to arrive in the podium, too determined to crash. Good but not too much.

A shame for Iannone which was the only one to have the pace close to Vinales, unfortunately crashed after a wonderful remount.

Lorenzo absent from the protagonists's list. Unexpected performances due to the pace during the dry free practice and the swagger statements of superiority before the race. In my opinion too much words and not determined enough.

Next round in Misano this weekend