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Morbidelli, Dovizioso, & The Great Yamaha Reshuffle

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It has been an open secret for some time, but now finally Yamaha have confirmed it officially. In a flurry of press releases, Yamaha announced it reshuffling of the factory Yamaha team, and laid the first stone in its satellite operation.

Starting immediately, Franco Morbidelli will be joining the factory team, and has signed a contract for the next two seasons, 2022 and 2023.

Taking his place in the Petronas Yamaha SRT team effective immediately will be Andrea Dovizioso, and the Italian veteran will race in Yamaha’s satellite team for 2022.

Though most of the news was already out in public, there were still a few details in the announcements that hadn’t been confirmed.

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MotoGP

Saturday MotoGP Summary at the Aragon GP: “Ordinary” Marquez

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Marc Marquez arrived at Aragon as the clear favorite to win. Based on his record – five wins from seven races, and crashing out of the lead in a sixth – and on the fact that this is a counterclockwise circuit, like the Sachsenring.

Before the Sachsenring, Marquez had a seventh, a ninth, and three DNFs, but he went on to win the race in Germany with ease, despite still not being completely fit.

Marquez arrived at Aragon – his third most successful circuit – with a seventh place, an eighth, a fifteenth after a fall, and a first-lap crash with Jorge Martin. If the pattern is to repeat itself, then surely Marquez is on for another win at the Motorland Aragon circuit?

Two crashes on the first two days suggest that may be harder than we all thought.

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Friday MotoGP Summary at the Aragon GP: Maverick’s Debut, Again

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With 21 riders covered by less than 1.3 seconds at a track over 5 km long, it is hard to pick a winner after Friday.

Take Jack Miller’s stellar lap out of the equation, and it’s even closer: the gap between Aleix Espargaro in second place and Joan Mir in 21st is precisely 1 second; Espargaro to Enea Bastianini in tenth is exactly two tenths of a second; Espargaro to Danilo Petrucci in fifteenth is half a second.

If ever you needed an example of just how close the current era of MotoGP is, Friday at Aragon delivered.

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MotoGP Preview of the Aragon GP: Quartararo’s Challenge & Viñales’ New Challenge

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These past two pandemic-stricken season have been strange years for me as a journalist. Instead of heading to race tracks almost every weekend, I have been sat at home, staring at a computer screen to talk to riders.

There have been ups and downs: on the plus side, we journalists get to talk to more riders than when we were at the track, because computers make it possible to switch from one rider to another with a couple of mouse clicks, rather than sprint through half the paddock from race truck to hospitality and back again.

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Counterclockwise: Can Marc Marquez Rule at Aragon?

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Marc Marquez has had a rough 2021 so far. Since his return from the injury, which kept him out of MotoGP for almost the entire 2020 season (the only exception being Jerez, where he sustained the fractured humerus in the first race, and overstressed the first plate inserted to fix the bone during practice for the second), he has struggled.

His record: ten race starts, six crashes (one each at Mugello, Barcelona, Austria and Silverstone, and two at Le Mans), and twelfth in the championship with just 59 points.

Of the six races where he has been classified, he has finished fifteenth, ninth, eighth, seventh twice.

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Maverick Viñales “Happiest Ever” After Misano Test

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Maverick Viñales has completed the first two days of his Aprilia career, riding the RS-GP for the first time at the Misano circuit. The Spaniard was very happy afterwards, in no small part because he was also fast.

He ended the day with a fastest lap of 1’32.4, he told Catalan journalist Damià Aguilar. Earlier, Lucio Lopez of MotoRaceNation, present at the track, reported that Viñales had set a lap of 1’32.8 on a soft tire with 8 laps on.

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Saturday MotoGP Summary at the British GP: The Pole That Wasn’t

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In the dying minutes of the Q2 session for MotoGP, it looked like we were witnessing a miracle. Jorge Martin flashed through the second sector nearly a second and a half up on the best time at that point.

If he kept up that pace, he would be on his way to destroying the Silverstone pole record held by Marc Marquez, set on the newly resurfaced track back in 2019.

Martin looked to be on his way to being the first rider to break the 1’58 barrier and lap the track in the 1’57s.

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Friday MotoGP Summary at the British GP: Risk vs. Reward

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It’s only Friday, so the times don’t mean all that much. You don’t win MotoGP races on Friday. But you can certainly lose them, and even lose championships if you’re not careful. Especially on a Friday.

That was the lesson of Silverstone, as both Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo found to their cost. Marc Marquez had a fairly simple lowside, but managed to do so at 274 km/h at one of the fastest parts of the circuit.

Quartararo’s crash was much, much slower – 75 km/h, rather than 274 – but could have been much more serious. The Frenchman lost the rear, then the bike tried to flick him up and over the highside, twisting his ankle in the process.

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