August 13, 2025 • 19 mins
Thank you to Shannons Insurance for sponsoring this episode of Pit Talk
MotoGP roars back from the summer break and ready to lock horns at the Red Bull Ring.
We preview the Austrian GP with everything you need to know including Bagnaia’s historical dominance, Marc Márquez’s unfinished business and KTM's home GP pressure.
Plus, Matt Clayton & Renita Vermeulen dive into the Red Bull Ring’s unique mix of high-speed straights, heavy braking zones, and whether the chicane has changed the racing for better or worse.
📺 Watch MotoGP on ch. 506 or via Kayo Sports bit.ly/3wDpMnj
Follow us on social:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foxmotorsport
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/fox_motorsport
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fox_motorsport
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@foxsportsaus
Stay up to date on the latest MotoGP News: https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Moto GP is ready to lock horns at the iconic
Red Bull Ring in the Austrian Mountains this weekend, and
we've got plenty to unpack ahead of the blockbuster in Spielberg.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Pit Talk has brought to.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host, Rinita Vanmulin, and
to help us get reped up for the return of
Racy is our very own Matt Clayton. Matt, we're going
to get straight into it with the hard question. So
my question to you is Peco going to remain the
king of the Red Bull Ring having been unbeaten here
since twenty twenty two? Whereas Mark Marquez going to break
(00:37):
his Austrian couract.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, interesting, isn't it? By the way, nice use of
Spielberg blockbuster that won't be used at all by anybody
else for the rest of the weekend. Certainly not me.
I'll probably get it in the first paragraph of every story,
all right, But say to.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Our listeners every time Matt Burt says it on the broadcast,
take a shot, like we always have our drinking games
over here.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You might not get to the end of well, you
might not get to the end of FP two at
that right, because Bat'll use it one hundred times as well.
But going back to your question, it's interesting, isn't it,
because we've had a couple of tracks this year that
we've been to where the past three years it's been
a Peco procession pretty much like Acid and Migello and
who's won those two races, Mirk Marquez. So it's funny,
isn't it that Mark's alongside Peco in the factory team.
(01:17):
We know that he's had some wins at tracks that
he hasn't won out for a while, but it almost
like he has some sort of special satisfaction of beating
at Peco tracks. It's almost become a thing this year.
What's really interesting about this was two things for me.
Since they changed the circuit layout back in twenty twenty two,
Peco Banna has not lost at the Red Bull Ring,
(01:37):
So that's interesting in terms of that run from the
first corner down to what was the second corner. We
know why it was changed after that absolutely terrifying Zarco
Morgadelli crash that year, which I had actually forgotten about
how severe that was until I was literally watching it
ten minutes before we started recording this podcast. And I
knew how it finished, and I still stood back from
the screen because it was pretty confronting. So they've changed
(02:00):
the track, put the chicane in there. Pecko's been unbeaten.
What's so strange about this? And I've got a story
for Fox Sports dot com dot AU that's going to
run probably late Wednesday early Thursday, Melbourne time. This is
the only track that's been on the calendar for the
majority of Mark's career where he's not won, And it's
so strange that someone with a CV that's so glittering
(02:22):
like his has this sort of kryptonite track, like he
can't win there. But there's context to this in that
normally when guys have bogie tracks, they are absolutely hopeless,
which you know, Jack Miller Magello comes to mind, and
Jack would agree with that. He was always like, I'd
even know why I buy the turning up half the time.
But the thing with Marquez and Austria, it's not that
he's been hopeless. There was a series of years there
(02:44):
where he couldn't have got much closer to actually getting
a win there but didn't. In that lakes that are
twenty seventeen through twenty nineteen period, so he's not slow there.
But it's so bizarre when you think about he's won
everywhere else, and he's won at some places. I mean,
he turns up at the Saxon ringing wins, he turns
up at Aragon and wins. Still hasn't managed to get
a win at this track. You look at the track
(03:06):
map on a piece of paper and you're like, huh,
that doesn't look super complicated, does it. So it's a
really strange rude and that somewhat of Mark's talent hasn't
been able to master the Red Bull Ring. But I
think a lot of that might be due to the
fact that he wrote a hondo for a lot of
his time there. And also just that circuit layout. There's
only two reasonable speed left handed corners on the entire track,
(03:27):
and we know that Mark Love's a fast left handed
corner and so this track layer, as simple as it
looks on paper, is not a Marquees layout. You add
all those things together and that's why there's a big
fat zero in the win column.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It's hard, though, not to think of the Red Bull
Ring and think backsho those iconic last lap overtakes, last
corner overtakes, that do include Mark though, so oh yeah,
Dobby and Mark, jorhe Lorenzo and Mark where I think
they touched on the straight. Like, there's all these iconic
things that Mark Mark has has been at, but then
to hear you say it's his bogey track, it just
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It's funny that every time he's been in a last
lap fight at this track, he's the one that's ended
up with the bloody dose and not the winner's trophy,
which is just not what you would expect from Mark.
The two Davizioso years twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, you
as one of those you remember watching it in the
moment because it was so good. It had built up
for a number of laps and you knew you were
(04:19):
going to get this last lap show down and Davizioso.
Funnily enough, for a guy who Mark beat for championships
for a lot of those years in the Decadion Honda
rivalry there when it came to last lap battles, Dobby
was actually really good against Mark in last lap battles
if he could stay with him to be in a
last lab battle. There are obviously loads of races where
Mark was cleared off, but it got to the point
(04:40):
that if those two were in a last lap battle,
you'd almost put your money on Dobby to win it.
He was just really good in those elbow to elbow fights.
But twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, the last lap of
those two, for anyone listening or for you as well,
go back and watch the last lap of each of
those races, because you know how they finished. But it's
still awesome motorsport and just the camera work where they
(05:01):
go to the reactions of the two garages who know
they've just seen something really really special. Even though somebody's
happy and somebody's not happy, it's awesome, awesome TV. And
it's just something about this track and this layout that
does serve up a number of last lap classics. The
other one there that doesn't involve marquees that I always
think of is Miguel Olivera's win in the first of
(05:21):
the COVID races in twenty twenty, because until the last
corner of that race, it looked like Jack Billa was
going to win. It was the Miller Polos Bargo fight,
and then Miguel Olivera does the Stephen Bradbury comes through
the last order with the race.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You're just talking about these We've posted them on the
Fox Motorsports Socials leaders so if you want to go
back and see what we're talking about, they're coming up
in the build up to the Austrian Grand Prix. But
you know you mentioned that Miguel Olivera is also Rebel
KTM's home Grand Prix and Brad Binder had that fantastic
victory where he won on slicks.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah crazy at.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The Red Bull Rings, So you know you're talking about
the characteristics of the circuit there. It's one of the
hardest taking circuits on the calendar. But then he's then
won a rumpri on on a wet track on slicks, and.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It just shows you what we've got to look forward
to this weekend because last year Banyay just cleared off
and the only real intrigue in that race was that
Mark Markez had dropped way down the order at the
first corner and managed to rampage his way back through
to get to fourth at least. But we've talked about
so many of these great races. It's a track that
just throws up really really interesting motor GP races that
(06:26):
you go back when I was doing some research for
a story earlier this week. You remember that this used
to be the one track where Ducaddi was good, and
it wasn't very good at all the other tracks. And
you remember Andrea, you know, Oni won the first Ducaddi race,
not one by Casey Stoner. It was five years between
races race winds for Ducaddi. These days ago about five
days between race winds. So to think that the Caddy
(06:47):
had been the wilderness for all this time, it was
the one track where their bike worked. But there's just
so many year on year you go back through the
races here and you know eighty five ninety percent of
them have been fantastic to And it's just something about
the layout. It's in a really compact area, so it
feels like the fans are right on top of it,
like it's a real amphitheater, a bowl of fans, huge noise,
(07:10):
looks amazing on TV, incredible picturesque bac drop. It's just
got all the ingredients you want for a really, really
fun Grand Paris. So hopefully that's what we get on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, I was looking at the weather for this weekend
is potential rain Saturday and Sunday around the time of
both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, so fingers crossed.
That does make for that exciting racing that we've been
talking about. But we've mentioned Mark, we've mentioned Peco, Alex
Marquez returning from are going to say that injury, but
just a reminder he does have that long lap penalty
(07:41):
for Sunday's main Grandery as well, so I know a
long lap around here can really affect your whole race.
Before we wrap up the preview for Austria, that's the
top three in our championship, Matt, who's going to be
your top three on the podium this weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's interesting. I'm I'm really curious to see what KTM
do here because this is the home track and we
know that it's the Red Bull Ring. The bikes are
plastered with Red Bull logos. There's a lot of pressure
and expectation here. Jack Miller used to talk about this
a lot when he was riding for KTM, and then
even when he was a Red Bull athlete. This will
be the first Austrian GP in a really long time
that he's not been a Red Bull athlete. So be
(08:20):
curious to see how his weekend pans out. But there's
a lot of pressure and a lot of expectation on
the KTM riders. We know that Maverick Vinalees is going
to be back after missing the Czech Republic, so that's
good for them, but it's been quite a difficult year
for them. We know they had a lot of off
season financial troubles and a lot of development of the
bike was pretty stalled. Vinale has had that one very
Maverick Vinalees like cameo in Doha when he was right
(08:42):
up the front, and he's been probably the best of
the four of them pace wise in the second half
of this first half of the season. But you'd have
to say the bast you need anything hasn't really worked
out with KTM so far. Brad Binder, who you mentioned
him before, winning the race here in the rain, but
we've barely seen Brad towards the front all year, which
is so unusual for him because he's just missed a
(09:03):
consistency sort of you know, fifth six in the championship
all the time. So a lot of expectations there and
I think we know their financial footing is a bit
stronger now because of the investment in the company from
Beijaj in India, and things are looking a little bit
better now. But it's not just a case of the
financial tap being turned on and you get back to
where you were, you know, standing still in motor GP
(09:23):
is going backwards, let's be honest. And they've spent the
first half of this year kind of just treading water. Really,
they haven't really gone anywhere. Aprilly has clearly gone past them.
I think they are Prillius pretty easily the second best
bike and Mooto GP. Now KTM have perhaps been flattered
a bit by the fact that, yeah, Hondra and Yamahar
are better than they have been, but they're still not
quite at that level despite Fabio Quatroro's pole positions, and
(09:47):
Honda has won a race of course that was pretty
exceptional circumstances. So a lot of pressure on KTM. And
the curious one for me is Pedro Costa in that
we know that he is impatient at the best of times,
he's been pretty restless this year. There's been a lot
of talk is he flirting with Decadie, Does he want
to go to Honda? Where does he want to go.
(10:08):
I saw something in the last couple of days where
he is recommitted, apparently to Katie m like he's very
you know, he wants to win with them, and I'm
committed to the project and so on and so forth.
Now Pedro Costa is likely to change his mind by
the end time I finished this sentence. So he's pretty impulsive,
but he is now he is the leading writer, but
I don't think he's the leader, if that makes sense
(10:29):
of that writer quartet. I'll be curious to see how
he handles Austria, because you'd have to say last year
his first appearance for Katim in Motor GP at the
Red Bull Ring, he just spent most of the weekend
falling off and amazingly not hurting himself. There are a
couple of those crashes that he had last year, particularly
the Friday practice crashes. I still have no idea how
(10:50):
he got up from the one down. It's turn forth.
That's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
If you don't know what Matt's talking about here, and
I'm glad you brought it up, because that's something I
wanted to discuss, is how howur manor GP writer can
have a crash like that. And I'm going to butcher
my explanation here, but just so you guys are understanding,
I believe the tires were cold. We found out afterwards.
He has come in tucked the front as he's heading
down the hill, but the bike slidden off the track,
so has he, and thankfully there was no riders around
(11:17):
him because he was in a practice session. That both
he and the bike and then slidden back to the
left over the track once again, and it's going continue downhill.
It just seems like the Rebel ring does give these
massive crashes, like you spoke about the one with mor
Bedelli and Zako, this one with Pedro last year gives
us great racing. Bit does give us big crashes. And
(11:39):
I don't know how you can come back to a
circuit like this when there's that like playing on your mind.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean, it's a function of the layout in
that it's effectively it's just long straights into slow corners.
You look at the first, first corner, third corner, the
fourth corner, even the last sector of the lap. There's
really only that bit in the middle where the two
left handers a hook into each other. The one good
bit from Mark buck as as I mentioned before, it's
a car racing track. Let's be honest, and we know
the amount of money that Red Bulls tipped into that
(12:06):
circuit to get it back up to speed. A lot
of people listening to this won't realize that Murder GP
actually raced here for two years in the nineteen nineties
before it was off the calendar. It was called the
A one Ring at the times before Red bull bought
it and then it sort of fell into disrepair. But
it is a car racing track. It's an abbreviated form
of the old Austria F one GP circuit from the
sixties and seventies, the austraich Ring, which you can still
(12:28):
actually see when they show the helly shot above the circuit.
You can still see the old circuit heading off into
the trees there. But it's a bit on the edge
for motor GP. Some of these walls are a little
bit close. That was why the chicane was put in
between turn one and what is now turned three at
the top of the hill. I don't like it's a
bit clunky as a solution, but it's safer. I think
(12:49):
it just makes that entry speed into turn three a
little bit less but it is a bit on the
edge and it's you know, it's a hard stop, big
breaking track, so you'd see a very different race here.
It's not unlike any other track on the calendar. I'm
glad we don't have twenty two of them, but I'm
glad we have this one because it is a point
of difference relative to so many of the other tracks
we go to.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Last year's pulsitter was Joge Martin, our reigning world champion.
Now we know that he's come back from the Czech
Grand Prix, taken the summer break, and now returning hopefully
for the rest of twenty twenty five as a full
season brighter. What's your thoughts on Martine coming back here,
because we're talking about the characteristics and how different this
(13:30):
track is. How do you think he's going to go
on the Aprilia.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's interesting he'll be fit. I know that if you've
been following Jorjey on social media over the break, he's
not had much of a break. I figured he's had
enough time out of the saddle. The amount of cycling
that guy's been doing. I think he'll be getting on
a motor GP bike for a rest. Basically, after the
past three weeks. But I'm curious with Martin. I think
that we know the guy's quality, right and we know
that that bike is pretty clearly the second best bike
(13:55):
on the grid right now. Marco Bizeki's having a really
you know, the second quarter of his season, youonce, has
been incredibly good, like really really impressive one at Silveston,
many many podiums. I don't think anyone's ever looked at
Marco Vetzeki and Joge Martin and said that A is
better than B. And we know the ceiling for Martin,
he won the World Championship last year, so I'm almost wondering, Yeah,
(14:18):
Polsita last year, hand on heart, he'd probably like this
Grand Prix to be about two or three races time,
you know, and he's a bit more ready, and he's
got a bit more runs on the board in that
he'll be a lot more prepared than he was for Bruno.
Clearly he's got all of the awkwardness with the team
and the cobwebs, like all that's gone now. But the
only way to be race fit is to get rid
(14:40):
of the race rust, and he hasn't had a chance
to do that yet. What's interesting for me is I mean,
we know there's ten rounds to go. There's ten rounds
in fourteen weekends, like two doubleheader break, doubleheader break, that
goes all the way until we get to Valencia. So
two things here, won you and I don't get to
sleep for the next fourteen weeks? Two. I think the
longer we get into this, particularly when we head to
(15:00):
the Flyaways, I think, all, hey, Martin's almost going to
be one hundred percent up to speed. He'll know the Aprillier.
I could see him winning race for the end of
this year, and a lot of people are saying, could
he get on the podium. I think there's more to
offer for Martine than that, and won't that be an
interesting storyline to follow because he still sounds like I'm
sort of in with a prilier. I'm sort of a
(15:22):
little bit off the fence, but I'm still slightly on
the fence. Do I want to stay? Do I not
want to stay? Can you imagine what's throwing a race
win into the mix for that team where he's tried
to leave and he's come back and he's had this
terrible championship defense that never got off the ground. How
much would a win change the equation for him and
what a prillier think they might be able to do.
Because we know how good the guy is, right, that's
(15:46):
not a question. We also know how restless and impulsive
he can be. But if you add twenty five points
on a Sunday into the mix there, that might just
change things. So in terms of you know, this is
what we do here. We cheer for the narrative. We
don't care who wins. Necessarily, we chief good stories in
good racing. That's what we're here for. A Joge Martein
win before the end of this year, given what's happened
(16:06):
between March and now, wouldn't that be a fun story.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, you've got that story as the comeback kid, and
then you think Mark Marquez winning the championship this year
as the comeback king from his injuries as well. And
like you said, that's what we love about Moto GP.
But Matt, you dodged my questions. So I'm going to
ask you once more, who's going to stand on top
of the podium on Sunday? Who's your race winner?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah? I did dodge a question, didn't I I'm going
to say Chakra. I'm actually going to say Mark Marquez
is going to win simply because this is the year
where Mark wins attracks that he doesn't usually win. And
so you look at Qatar, first time in eleven years
one there, Magiello, first time in eleven years one. There, Ascent,
first time in eight years one there, red bull Ring,
(16:49):
first time in ever. He's going to win there because
you forget that that circuit came on the calendar in
twenty sixteen, so he never got to race Moto three
Motor two there, so it was three years after he
began in twenty thirteen. So he's never won there on anything.
But I think this Sunday is going to be the
first time simply because Mark loves having a little external
(17:09):
motivator and he'll know the stats and you know what
will happen. He will sit in the pre race press
conference and say, oh, you know my record, he is
not great, Pecko's been fantastic here and I haven't done
anything here and I've got lots to prove and so
on and so forth. He loves this sort of stuff
where he gets a chance to prove other people wrong,
to rewrite some history and to it's almost more sold
(17:31):
destroying for the opposition where he wins at tracks where
he shouldn't, because if you're the opposition, you're like, all right,
here we go, We've got him. He's on a week track.
We can actually get in there this weekend. And then
when he goes and wins at Guitar or he goes
and wins at Magello, it's so deflating. And the fact
that Pecko's won the last three in a row there,
Mark's not not a verse to plague a few psychological games,
(17:53):
and I think this is the year he finally snaps
this streak, because it's a streak that it would be
a little bit ridiculous if someone of his quality through
any tite mooto GP career without winning it a particular track.
And surely, surely this year is the you.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I just love that you brought up the little mind
games that Mark plays, because if if Liftner's listeners, if
you do get a chance to watch the press conferences
or even just little snippets in u GCC, Mark, like
Matt was just saying there where he's like, no, this
is my good track. Peco's really strong here. But you
just know because it's Mark Marquez and you're back to
what I said before, This is just what makes Moto
(18:28):
GP so exciting at the moment. Yes, Mark's going to
win the championship, but there's all these little stories happening
left right in the center, and that's why we love it.
But do go and read Matt's article that he is
talking about here about Mark Marquez and Austria being his
bogie track. So you can catch that and all of
Matt's articles and the latest MotoGP news on Fox sports
(18:49):
dot Com, dot au, Forward Slash Motorsport and if you
want to check out any of those videos I was
talking about on our socials that is at Foxmotorsport everywhere.
Plus subscribe to Pit Talk so you never miss an episode.
Big thanks once again to Shannon's Insurance for sponsoring this episode.
But you guys can catch all of the on track
(19:09):
action live on Fox Sports and KO this weekend for
Round thirteen at the Red Bull Ring from Matt Clayton
and myself, Ronda Vermullen. We're gonna be back real soon
with more Moto GP Pit Talk
Moto GP is ready to lock horns at the iconic
Red Bull Ring in the Austrian Mountains this weekend, and
we've got plenty to unpack ahead of the blockbuster in Spielberg.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Pit Talk has brought to.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host, Rinita Vanmulin, and
to help us get reped up for the return of
Racy is our very own Matt Clayton. Matt, we're going
to get straight into it with the hard question. So
my question to you is Peco going to remain the
king of the Red Bull Ring having been unbeaten here
since twenty twenty two? Whereas Mark Marquez going to break
(00:37):
his Austrian couract.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, interesting, isn't it? By the way, nice use of
Spielberg blockbuster that won't be used at all by anybody
else for the rest of the weekend. Certainly not me.
I'll probably get it in the first paragraph of every story,
all right, But say to.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Our listeners every time Matt Burt says it on the broadcast,
take a shot, like we always have our drinking games
over here.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You might not get to the end of well, you
might not get to the end of FP two at
that right, because Bat'll use it one hundred times as well.
But going back to your question, it's interesting, isn't it,
because we've had a couple of tracks this year that
we've been to where the past three years it's been
a Peco procession pretty much like Acid and Migello and
who's won those two races, Mirk Marquez. So it's funny,
isn't it that Mark's alongside Peco in the factory team.
(01:17):
We know that he's had some wins at tracks that
he hasn't won out for a while, but it almost
like he has some sort of special satisfaction of beating
at Peco tracks. It's almost become a thing this year.
What's really interesting about this was two things for me.
Since they changed the circuit layout back in twenty twenty two,
Peco Banna has not lost at the Red Bull Ring,
(01:37):
So that's interesting in terms of that run from the
first corner down to what was the second corner. We
know why it was changed after that absolutely terrifying Zarco
Morgadelli crash that year, which I had actually forgotten about
how severe that was until I was literally watching it
ten minutes before we started recording this podcast. And I
knew how it finished, and I still stood back from
the screen because it was pretty confronting. So they've changed
(02:00):
the track, put the chicane in there. Pecko's been unbeaten.
What's so strange about this? And I've got a story
for Fox Sports dot com dot AU that's going to
run probably late Wednesday early Thursday, Melbourne time. This is
the only track that's been on the calendar for the
majority of Mark's career where he's not won, And it's
so strange that someone with a CV that's so glittering
(02:22):
like his has this sort of kryptonite track, like he
can't win there. But there's context to this in that
normally when guys have bogie tracks, they are absolutely hopeless,
which you know, Jack Miller Magello comes to mind, and
Jack would agree with that. He was always like, I'd
even know why I buy the turning up half the time.
But the thing with Marquez and Austria, it's not that
he's been hopeless. There was a series of years there
(02:44):
where he couldn't have got much closer to actually getting
a win there but didn't. In that lakes that are
twenty seventeen through twenty nineteen period, so he's not slow there.
But it's so bizarre when you think about he's won
everywhere else, and he's won at some places. I mean,
he turns up at the Saxon ringing wins, he turns
up at Aragon and wins. Still hasn't managed to get
a win at this track. You look at the track
(03:06):
map on a piece of paper and you're like, huh,
that doesn't look super complicated, does it. So it's a
really strange rude and that somewhat of Mark's talent hasn't
been able to master the Red Bull Ring. But I
think a lot of that might be due to the
fact that he wrote a hondo for a lot of
his time there. And also just that circuit layout. There's
only two reasonable speed left handed corners on the entire track,
(03:27):
and we know that Mark Love's a fast left handed
corner and so this track layer, as simple as it
looks on paper, is not a Marquees layout. You add
all those things together and that's why there's a big
fat zero in the win column.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It's hard, though, not to think of the Red Bull
Ring and think backsho those iconic last lap overtakes, last
corner overtakes, that do include Mark though, so oh yeah,
Dobby and Mark, jorhe Lorenzo and Mark where I think
they touched on the straight. Like, there's all these iconic
things that Mark Mark has has been at, but then
to hear you say it's his bogey track, it just
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It's funny that every time he's been in a last
lap fight at this track, he's the one that's ended
up with the bloody dose and not the winner's trophy,
which is just not what you would expect from Mark.
The two Davizioso years twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, you
as one of those you remember watching it in the
moment because it was so good. It had built up
for a number of laps and you knew you were
(04:19):
going to get this last lap show down and Davizioso.
Funnily enough, for a guy who Mark beat for championships
for a lot of those years in the Decadion Honda
rivalry there when it came to last lap battles, Dobby
was actually really good against Mark in last lap battles
if he could stay with him to be in a
last lab battle. There are obviously loads of races where
Mark was cleared off, but it got to the point
(04:40):
that if those two were in a last lap battle,
you'd almost put your money on Dobby to win it.
He was just really good in those elbow to elbow fights.
But twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, the last lap of
those two, for anyone listening or for you as well,
go back and watch the last lap of each of
those races, because you know how they finished. But it's
still awesome motorsport and just the camera work where they
(05:01):
go to the reactions of the two garages who know
they've just seen something really really special. Even though somebody's
happy and somebody's not happy, it's awesome, awesome TV. And
it's just something about this track and this layout that
does serve up a number of last lap classics. The
other one there that doesn't involve marquees that I always
think of is Miguel Olivera's win in the first of
(05:21):
the COVID races in twenty twenty, because until the last
corner of that race, it looked like Jack Billa was
going to win. It was the Miller Polos Bargo fight,
and then Miguel Olivera does the Stephen Bradbury comes through
the last order with the race.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You're just talking about these We've posted them on the
Fox Motorsports Socials leaders so if you want to go
back and see what we're talking about, they're coming up
in the build up to the Austrian Grand Prix. But
you know you mentioned that Miguel Olivera is also Rebel
KTM's home Grand Prix and Brad Binder had that fantastic
victory where he won on slicks.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah crazy at.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The Red Bull Rings, So you know you're talking about
the characteristics of the circuit there. It's one of the
hardest taking circuits on the calendar. But then he's then
won a rumpri on on a wet track on slicks, and.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It just shows you what we've got to look forward
to this weekend because last year Banyay just cleared off
and the only real intrigue in that race was that
Mark Markez had dropped way down the order at the
first corner and managed to rampage his way back through
to get to fourth at least. But we've talked about
so many of these great races. It's a track that
just throws up really really interesting motor GP races that
(06:26):
you go back when I was doing some research for
a story earlier this week. You remember that this used
to be the one track where Ducaddi was good, and
it wasn't very good at all the other tracks. And
you remember Andrea, you know, Oni won the first Ducaddi race,
not one by Casey Stoner. It was five years between
races race winds for Ducaddi. These days ago about five
days between race winds. So to think that the Caddy
(06:47):
had been the wilderness for all this time, it was
the one track where their bike worked. But there's just
so many year on year you go back through the
races here and you know eighty five ninety percent of
them have been fantastic to And it's just something about
the layout. It's in a really compact area, so it
feels like the fans are right on top of it,
like it's a real amphitheater, a bowl of fans, huge noise,
(07:10):
looks amazing on TV, incredible picturesque bac drop. It's just
got all the ingredients you want for a really, really
fun Grand Paris. So hopefully that's what we get on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, I was looking at the weather for this weekend
is potential rain Saturday and Sunday around the time of
both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, so fingers crossed.
That does make for that exciting racing that we've been
talking about. But we've mentioned Mark, we've mentioned Peco, Alex
Marquez returning from are going to say that injury, but
just a reminder he does have that long lap penalty
(07:41):
for Sunday's main Grandery as well, so I know a
long lap around here can really affect your whole race.
Before we wrap up the preview for Austria, that's the
top three in our championship, Matt, who's going to be
your top three on the podium this weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's interesting. I'm I'm really curious to see what KTM
do here because this is the home track and we
know that it's the Red Bull Ring. The bikes are
plastered with Red Bull logos. There's a lot of pressure
and expectation here. Jack Miller used to talk about this
a lot when he was riding for KTM, and then
even when he was a Red Bull athlete. This will
be the first Austrian GP in a really long time
that he's not been a Red Bull athlete. So be
(08:20):
curious to see how his weekend pans out. But there's
a lot of pressure and a lot of expectation on
the KTM riders. We know that Maverick Vinalees is going
to be back after missing the Czech Republic, so that's
good for them, but it's been quite a difficult year
for them. We know they had a lot of off
season financial troubles and a lot of development of the
bike was pretty stalled. Vinale has had that one very
Maverick Vinalees like cameo in Doha when he was right
(08:42):
up the front, and he's been probably the best of
the four of them pace wise in the second half
of this first half of the season. But you'd have
to say the bast you need anything hasn't really worked
out with KTM so far. Brad Binder, who you mentioned
him before, winning the race here in the rain, but
we've barely seen Brad towards the front all year, which
is so unusual for him because he's just missed a
(09:03):
consistency sort of you know, fifth six in the championship
all the time. So a lot of expectations there and
I think we know their financial footing is a bit
stronger now because of the investment in the company from
Beijaj in India, and things are looking a little bit
better now. But it's not just a case of the
financial tap being turned on and you get back to
where you were, you know, standing still in motor GP
(09:23):
is going backwards, let's be honest. And they've spent the
first half of this year kind of just treading water. Really,
they haven't really gone anywhere. Aprilly has clearly gone past them.
I think they are Prillius pretty easily the second best
bike and Mooto GP. Now KTM have perhaps been flattered
a bit by the fact that, yeah, Hondra and Yamahar
are better than they have been, but they're still not
quite at that level despite Fabio Quatroro's pole positions, and
(09:47):
Honda has won a race of course that was pretty
exceptional circumstances. So a lot of pressure on KTM. And
the curious one for me is Pedro Costa in that
we know that he is impatient at the best of times,
he's been pretty restless this year. There's been a lot
of talk is he flirting with Decadie, Does he want
to go to Honda? Where does he want to go.
(10:08):
I saw something in the last couple of days where
he is recommitted, apparently to Katie m like he's very
you know, he wants to win with them, and I'm
committed to the project and so on and so forth.
Now Pedro Costa is likely to change his mind by
the end time I finished this sentence. So he's pretty impulsive,
but he is now he is the leading writer, but
I don't think he's the leader, if that makes sense
(10:29):
of that writer quartet. I'll be curious to see how
he handles Austria, because you'd have to say last year
his first appearance for Katim in Motor GP at the
Red Bull Ring, he just spent most of the weekend
falling off and amazingly not hurting himself. There are a
couple of those crashes that he had last year, particularly
the Friday practice crashes. I still have no idea how
(10:50):
he got up from the one down. It's turn forth.
That's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
If you don't know what Matt's talking about here, and
I'm glad you brought it up, because that's something I
wanted to discuss, is how howur manor GP writer can
have a crash like that. And I'm going to butcher
my explanation here, but just so you guys are understanding,
I believe the tires were cold. We found out afterwards.
He has come in tucked the front as he's heading
down the hill, but the bike slidden off the track,
so has he, and thankfully there was no riders around
(11:17):
him because he was in a practice session. That both
he and the bike and then slidden back to the
left over the track once again, and it's going continue downhill.
It just seems like the Rebel ring does give these
massive crashes, like you spoke about the one with mor
Bedelli and Zako, this one with Pedro last year gives
us great racing. Bit does give us big crashes. And
(11:39):
I don't know how you can come back to a
circuit like this when there's that like playing on your mind.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean, it's a function of the layout in
that it's effectively it's just long straights into slow corners.
You look at the first, first corner, third corner, the
fourth corner, even the last sector of the lap. There's
really only that bit in the middle where the two
left handers a hook into each other. The one good
bit from Mark buck as as I mentioned before, it's
a car racing track. Let's be honest, and we know
the amount of money that Red Bulls tipped into that
(12:06):
circuit to get it back up to speed. A lot
of people listening to this won't realize that Murder GP
actually raced here for two years in the nineteen nineties
before it was off the calendar. It was called the
A one Ring at the times before Red bull bought
it and then it sort of fell into disrepair. But
it is a car racing track. It's an abbreviated form
of the old Austria F one GP circuit from the
sixties and seventies, the austraich Ring, which you can still
(12:28):
actually see when they show the helly shot above the circuit.
You can still see the old circuit heading off into
the trees there. But it's a bit on the edge
for motor GP. Some of these walls are a little
bit close. That was why the chicane was put in
between turn one and what is now turned three at
the top of the hill. I don't like it's a
bit clunky as a solution, but it's safer. I think
(12:49):
it just makes that entry speed into turn three a
little bit less but it is a bit on the
edge and it's you know, it's a hard stop, big
breaking track, so you'd see a very different race here.
It's not unlike any other track on the calendar. I'm
glad we don't have twenty two of them, but I'm
glad we have this one because it is a point
of difference relative to so many of the other tracks
we go to.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Last year's pulsitter was Joge Martin, our reigning world champion.
Now we know that he's come back from the Czech
Grand Prix, taken the summer break, and now returning hopefully
for the rest of twenty twenty five as a full
season brighter. What's your thoughts on Martine coming back here,
because we're talking about the characteristics and how different this
(13:30):
track is. How do you think he's going to go
on the Aprilia.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's interesting he'll be fit. I know that if you've
been following Jorjey on social media over the break, he's
not had much of a break. I figured he's had
enough time out of the saddle. The amount of cycling
that guy's been doing. I think he'll be getting on
a motor GP bike for a rest. Basically, after the
past three weeks. But I'm curious with Martin. I think
that we know the guy's quality, right and we know
that that bike is pretty clearly the second best bike
(13:55):
on the grid right now. Marco Bizeki's having a really
you know, the second quarter of his season, youonce, has
been incredibly good, like really really impressive one at Silveston,
many many podiums. I don't think anyone's ever looked at
Marco Vetzeki and Joge Martin and said that A is
better than B. And we know the ceiling for Martin,
he won the World Championship last year, so I'm almost wondering, Yeah,
(14:18):
Polsita last year, hand on heart, he'd probably like this
Grand Prix to be about two or three races time,
you know, and he's a bit more ready, and he's
got a bit more runs on the board in that
he'll be a lot more prepared than he was for Bruno.
Clearly he's got all of the awkwardness with the team
and the cobwebs, like all that's gone now. But the
only way to be race fit is to get rid
(14:40):
of the race rust, and he hasn't had a chance
to do that yet. What's interesting for me is I mean,
we know there's ten rounds to go. There's ten rounds
in fourteen weekends, like two doubleheader break, doubleheader break, that
goes all the way until we get to Valencia. So
two things here, won you and I don't get to
sleep for the next fourteen weeks? Two. I think the
longer we get into this, particularly when we head to
(15:00):
the Flyaways, I think, all, hey, Martin's almost going to
be one hundred percent up to speed. He'll know the Aprillier.
I could see him winning race for the end of
this year, and a lot of people are saying, could
he get on the podium. I think there's more to
offer for Martine than that, and won't that be an
interesting storyline to follow because he still sounds like I'm
sort of in with a prilier. I'm sort of a
(15:22):
little bit off the fence, but I'm still slightly on
the fence. Do I want to stay? Do I not
want to stay? Can you imagine what's throwing a race
win into the mix for that team where he's tried
to leave and he's come back and he's had this
terrible championship defense that never got off the ground. How
much would a win change the equation for him and
what a prillier think they might be able to do.
Because we know how good the guy is, right, that's
(15:46):
not a question. We also know how restless and impulsive
he can be. But if you add twenty five points
on a Sunday into the mix there, that might just
change things. So in terms of you know, this is
what we do here. We cheer for the narrative. We
don't care who wins. Necessarily, we chief good stories in
good racing. That's what we're here for. A Joge Martein
win before the end of this year, given what's happened
(16:06):
between March and now, wouldn't that be a fun story.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, you've got that story as the comeback kid, and
then you think Mark Marquez winning the championship this year
as the comeback king from his injuries as well. And
like you said, that's what we love about Moto GP.
But Matt, you dodged my questions. So I'm going to
ask you once more, who's going to stand on top
of the podium on Sunday? Who's your race winner?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah? I did dodge a question, didn't I I'm going
to say Chakra. I'm actually going to say Mark Marquez
is going to win simply because this is the year
where Mark wins attracks that he doesn't usually win. And
so you look at Qatar, first time in eleven years
one there, Magiello, first time in eleven years one. There, Ascent,
first time in eight years one there, red bull Ring,
(16:49):
first time in ever. He's going to win there because
you forget that that circuit came on the calendar in
twenty sixteen, so he never got to race Moto three
Motor two there, so it was three years after he
began in twenty thirteen. So he's never won there on anything.
But I think this Sunday is going to be the
first time simply because Mark loves having a little external
(17:09):
motivator and he'll know the stats and you know what
will happen. He will sit in the pre race press
conference and say, oh, you know my record, he is
not great, Pecko's been fantastic here and I haven't done
anything here and I've got lots to prove and so
on and so forth. He loves this sort of stuff
where he gets a chance to prove other people wrong,
to rewrite some history and to it's almost more sold
(17:31):
destroying for the opposition where he wins at tracks where
he shouldn't, because if you're the opposition, you're like, all right,
here we go, We've got him. He's on a week track.
We can actually get in there this weekend. And then
when he goes and wins at Guitar or he goes
and wins at Magello, it's so deflating. And the fact
that Pecko's won the last three in a row there,
Mark's not not a verse to plague a few psychological games,
(17:53):
and I think this is the year he finally snaps
this streak, because it's a streak that it would be
a little bit ridiculous if someone of his quality through
any tite mooto GP career without winning it a particular track.
And surely, surely this year is the you.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I just love that you brought up the little mind
games that Mark plays, because if if Liftner's listeners, if
you do get a chance to watch the press conferences
or even just little snippets in u GCC, Mark, like
Matt was just saying there where he's like, no, this
is my good track. Peco's really strong here. But you
just know because it's Mark Marquez and you're back to
what I said before, This is just what makes Moto
(18:28):
GP so exciting at the moment. Yes, Mark's going to
win the championship, but there's all these little stories happening
left right in the center, and that's why we love it.
But do go and read Matt's article that he is
talking about here about Mark Marquez and Austria being his
bogie track. So you can catch that and all of
Matt's articles and the latest MotoGP news on Fox sports
(18:49):
dot Com, dot au, Forward Slash Motorsport and if you
want to check out any of those videos I was
talking about on our socials that is at Foxmotorsport everywhere.
Plus subscribe to Pit Talk so you never miss an episode.
Big thanks once again to Shannon's Insurance for sponsoring this episode.
But you guys can catch all of the on track
(19:09):
action live on Fox Sports and KO this weekend for
Round thirteen at the Red Bull Ring from Matt Clayton
and myself, Ronda Vermullen. We're gonna be back real soon
with more Moto GP Pit Talk
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com