It was another eventful MotoGP weekend in 2016 at MotorLand Aragon. We saw our first World Champion of the season crowned in spectacular fashion, another master-class from Marc Marquez and some frankly ridiculous decision making by race officials.
Hail to the King
The likelihood of Brad Binder winning the Moto3 World Championship in Aragon was pretty high. After taking yet another win at Misano two weeks ago he held a massive 91-point advantage over his main rivals heading into the 14th round of the 2016 season.
There were a number of permutations for Binder, but the only one he gave any thought to was that he only needed a top two finish and the deal was sealed. Unfortunately, Moto3 isn’t exactly a straightforward affair and simply finishing inside the top two wasn’t going to be easy for the South African.
He didn’t make things easy for himself either when he misjudged how much time he had left in qualifying and botched his final run, resigning him to seventh on the grid. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be cause for concern, but the first corner at Aragon is awfully tight and a real danger zone for multi-rider tangles.
Visibly nervous on the grid – his Red Bull KTM Ajo team not letting any journalists near him – Binder faced the biggest day of his life. All race long he scrapped for the lead, along with 10 other riders for much of the 19-lap contest. He led across the line at the start of the final lap, but by the time he’d reached Turn 15 and the final run down the one kilometre back straight he’d dropped to fourth. With Enea Bastianini and Jorge Navarro occupying the top two, as it stood, Binder would not win the title.
So it was all or nothing, balls to the wall, caution to the wind from the South African down into the final corner. He couldn’t clear Navarro, but his daring pass saw him scythe past Bastianini and his Gresini teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio to take second and ultimately the world championship.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a soul not chuffed to bits for Binder. This is a rider that has worked hard his entire career, his family giving up everything to get him to Europe to chase his dream. Never really destined for great success, Binder defied the odds and proved a lot of people wrong.
He now joins an elite list of South African’s to have won motorcycle Grand Prix world titles, Binder now mentioned in the same breath as Kork Ballington and Jon Ekerold.
The Hat-Trick Beckons
To be honest, we may as well hand Marc Marquez the MotoGP crown just now. He was simply unstoppable in Aragon, dominating qualifying by over six tenths of a second and running a pace so strong in the race that no-one could even get close to him.
But it wasn’t simply his performance that achieved this win, it was also his new-found maturity. On lap three, Marquez had a moment under braking for Turn 7, very nearly tucking the front-end of his factory Honda and dropping him back to fifth.
Had that been one year ago, the Spaniard would have likely carried on riding the way he was and most probably would have crashed. Instead, he saw that there were still 20 laps to go and that the race wasn’t going to be won this early on. So he decided to take it easy and allow his hard front Michelin tyre to come up to temperature before upping his pace.
By lap 12 he’d retaken the lead and had darted off into the distance, taking his fourth win of the year and extending his lead in the standings to 52 points heading into the flyaway races.
This is something we’ve seen from Marquez all year; he’s able to assess his current situation and weigh it up against the wider picture. At Jerez, Catalunya, Assen and Brno, he threw up the white flag and conceded that he wasn’t going to win the race and so settled for a rostrum. Meanwhile, his rivals at Yamaha were constantly tripping over themselves, throwing away vital points in silly incidents.
For me, Marquez is the only rider that truly deserves the title this season. Don’t get me wrong, if Valentino Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo spring some kind of miracle comeback it would be pretty sensational. But this would require Marquez to start making mistakes or take on board an injury, possible outcomes of the next four race weekends, but ultimately unlikely.
2016 Marc Marquez just isn’t a rider that looks like making big mistakes in races any more, and with a 52-point lead he really doesn’t need to take any unnecessary risks. The Spaniard is likely going to win this world championship and this is just testament to his evolution as a rider.
After the race, there was quite a bit of debate surrounding Marquez’ milestone. His 54th win ties him with five-time World Champion Mick Doohan in sixth on the all-time winners list, but as many pointed out Doohan’s 54 all came in the 500cc class (the pre-2002 equivalent of the MotoGP class, for those new to the series).
Now whilst Marquez’ 54 are across 125s, Moto2 and MotoGP, I would argue that this is certainly a record not to turn your nose up at. The 125cc, and its modern day evolution Moto3, is probably the most competitive series in the world and wins aren’t easy to come by. In Moto2, Marquez faced off against some stiff opposition in the likes of Stefan Bradl, Pol Espargaro, Scott Redding and Andrea Iannone. And in the big bike class, it’s the most competitive it has ever been, the level of competition I’d say greater than who Doohan faced in his winning seasons, particularly later in his title run.
Marquez has to go up against Lorenzo, Rossi, Pedrosa week-in, week-out, not to mention the fact that Maverick Vinales is now a constant threat, as is Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso. And that competition will only get tougher, the existing guys only seemingly getting better whilst the new order begin to crop up: the likes of Alex Rins, Johann Zarco and Sam Lowes all coming up next season. You’ve also got the satellites getting in the mix on a regular basis, Cal Crutchlow being the most pesky of the independent bunch.
So whilst his 54 have been across all three classes, it’s not as if Marquez has had an easy run to them. It’s also worth pointing out that one over half of Marquez’ wins have come in the premier class, a championship he only stepped up to three years ago.
Nonsense Decision Making
Why was Danilo Petrucci allowed to race on Sunday? This is a question a growing number of people have been asking since it emerged on Saturday that he had suffered some short-term memory loss in a crash in FP3.
Pol Espargaro lost the front-end of his Tech 3 Yamaha at Turn 2 during the third free practice session and unfortunately the bike slid into the path of Petrucci, who was exiting pit lane at the time. The pair were unharmed in the incident and both were back out fairly sharply.
However, the Italian later admitted that he couldn’t remember the crash when he got back to his garage and when back on circuit didn’t know where he was. I’m not a medical professional, but I’m pretty sure that he should not have been allowed back out on track because these are very much the symptoms associated with a concussion.
He did visit the Clinica following FP3 and was later declared fit, but some serious questions need to be asked. Again, why was he allowed to race, and how did he manage to get back out on track in FP3 suffering symptoms of a concussion without anyone stopping him?
Given the stance world sport has nowadays regarding head injuries, it seems baffling to me that he was declared fit to ride. Even if he wasn’t knocked unconscious in the crash, he still took a big hit to his head and it very clearly affected him.
By heading back out straight after the crash he was putting himself in grave danger. Second-impact Syndrome is a serious concern when someone takes a big knock to the head, because it tends to be infinitely more serious than the initial head blow. SIS can be fatal, and at best it can leave a person’s brain completely mangled – SIS has led many who have suffered it to suicide or worse. In this day and age, even if later he was cleared, that Petrucci wasn’t told to sit out Sunday’s race purely to err on the side of caution is deeply troubling.
Of course, not only was Petrucci putting himself in danger when he took to the track in the latter part of FP3, he was also endangering his fellow riders. Motorsport is a dangerous game, motorcycle racing probably the most dangerous, so it’s a rider’s duty to not put those around him on track into a needlessly dangerous situation and this is exactly what Petrucci did. Surely this warrants some kind of disciplinary action for either rider or team, or indeed both?
Racers are stubborn folk, so unless they’re strapped to a chair and locked in a secluded room, they’re always going to try and brush off whatever ailment troubles them and ride; they heal from injuries quicker than us mere mortals and hold higher pain thresholds. In Petrucci’s case, he is fighting his teammate for a factory GP17 next season and any lost track time, to him, is allowing Scott Redding to get the upper hand.
But the well-being of a person is paramount, and that was thrown into disregard for so many because of this incident. I sincerely hope that this is looked at in great detail before the next race to avoid a repeat, because if this happens again we might not be so lucky.
On another note, this weekend saw the introduction of a rule where riders will be punished for making derogatory gestures. I have a gesture for this rule, two in fact – I’m sure you can imagine what they may be.
This is just stupid, to be honest. The brilliant thing about motorcycle racing is that a rider is in full view, which allows us to see proper displays of emotion. I love it when riders bang their bike’s fuel tank with their fist or have a strop in the gravel trap when they make a mistake, because it shows their human side.
Twitter: RT @crash_motogp: This is what got Bulega into trouble… https://t.co/zRykUhzRiF (@Lewis__Duncan)
And let’s be honest, a rider flashing the finger to someone who has impeded them somehow makes for great television. It may not have been correct, but you can’t deny that Rossi cruising down the pit straight in Misano whilst showing Aleix Espargaro in pit lane, who he felt baulked him on a fast lap, the middle finger was a little funny. But it also showed just how important each lap is to these guys, even in a practice session when nothing is on the line. This ruling takes away some of the emotion of Grand Prix racing, and that is a sad thing.
One rider did actually fall foul of this new rule this weekend. Niccolo Bulega was fined €300 for making a rude gesture towards Jorge Martin during qualifying. He most likely won’t be the last to pull out his wallet for Race Director Mike Webb, but you trying telling a paddock full of adrenaline-fuelled Grand Prix riders to keep a lid on their emotions!
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