Le Mans = Chaos! MotoGP Pit Talk

Join Renita Vermeulen and MotoGP journalist extraordinaire Matt Clayton as they break down one of the wildest races ever in MotoGP! 

From Johann Zarco’s fairy tale victory to championship shakeups, bike swaps, crashes, long laps, and a record crowd of over 311,000—this race had it all.

Plus lets not forget about Aussie Young Gun Joel Kelso nearly securing his maiden Moto3 victory!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Frenchman has won the French Grand Prix for the
first time and can you believe it's seventy one years,
the last time being nineteen fifty four. But the headlines
don't stop there. We had crashes, long lap penalties, last
minute bike swaps. It was absolute mayhem, to put it
kindly or politely in Lamon, and it all unfolded in

(00:22):
front of a record breaking crowd of three hundred and
eleven thousand screaming fans. The rain may have fallen, but
this French Grand Prix was anything but predictable. It defied expectations,
shattered records and delivered a storyline no one could have
written better. This was a Moto GP race for the ages.
But guys, welcome back to Pit Talk podcast, brought to

(00:44):
you by Shannons. I'm your host Rinita vmullin, and joining
me as always is Fox Motorsport editor Matt Clayton. Matt,
no funny intros this time, because the race gave us
everything and more. My first question to you, have you
caught your breath after that absolutely chaotic race.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
If this podcast was an emoji, it would literally just
be the shoulder shrug, hands up emoji, like what an
earth did we just watch on Sunday night here in Australia.
And we're going to delve into a million things in
this podcast today, but I've got to say, when a
nea Pastinini has had twice the number of long lap
penalties as I've had hours of sleep in the past

(01:24):
forty eight hours, probably not a great equation, and you
wouldn't whatevery grand prix to be like this, but my goodness,
there was that much going on. And the thing we
just laughed about it before we hit record here. When
you're in the media space doing one of these races,
you receive a notification for every time there's a race
direction message, someone into the pits, someone crashes, there's a

(01:45):
long lap penalty, what have you. The previous race in
Spain had ten of those. Last night's race had one
hundred and sixty individual directions from race direction during the race,
because every two seconds there was something completely nutty happening.
And if we scratched five percent of the next however
long we're going to be on this podcast, will be
doing well. Because I don't even know where we start
with this.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I'm thinking let's start back Saturday before the sprint. Let's
go to qualifying. Because Fabio Correro managed to pull out
a lap once again from I do not know where
on his Yamaha. It seems like Fabio, being in front
of his home crowd, has just got this extra bruster
confidence from that podium that he had last weekend or

(02:28):
last race back in her eth. So starting off that
you thought Mark Marquez He's going to be on fire,
like Chris spoke about in the last part when we
had him. Then all of a sudden, Fabio is like, Okay,
here we go. Fabio seems to have found something and
Pacubannay is still just struggling all weekend or Friday and
early Saturday.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it's funny, like I'm getting sort of twenty nineteen
Fabio vibes again when he first came into Moto GP
and you're like, who is this guy? Why is he
so fast over one lap? And it was never sustainable.
I mean, obviously it became sustainable because he became a
world champion and a front runner, but it's kind of
it's like, you know, a retro feel of Moto GP.
It's like going back to the good old day's like, oh,
it's so nice to see Fabio up the front because

(03:10):
there's a certain energy I think with his personality and
the way he rides, and the fact that it's someone
getting in there and sort of bloodying the nose of
the decaddies because we know the Dcaddies are the superior
bike and we saw it in the sprees. He did
everyth he think that he could, but three better bikes
passed him to get on the podium in the sprint,
but over one lap at the moment, and he's not
able to do it every lap, But when the clock's

(03:32):
ticking down in Q two, he just finds something and
there's you. You mentioned the home crowd. I mean, it
makes no sense that a home crowd can give you
a tenth of a second here or a tenth of
a second there. But they willed him to that pole position.
You could feel that as you were watching it. And
the response I mean, that crowd there as the best
of times is fantastic. But the response and seeing a

(03:54):
guy who's an underdog in this situation putting that thing
on pole against the might of all these decadies was
fantastic TV. And yeah, the sprint was interesting on the Saturday,
but it wetted our appetite for the Sunday because we
talked about this on the preview pod last week. The
thing with Lamont, it's going to rain at some point,
you just don't know when. And the fact that we

(04:15):
got through Friday and Saturday and the weather was fantastic.
I'm thinking to myself, oh boy, we know what's coming
on Sunday. And yeah, I think it was going to
be an interesting race regardless. But add a little bit
of water and equals chaos at Lamon and this Onmu
was no exception.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Lamont's equals chaos. I think that's going to be the
title for this pod because it's the easiest way to
describe it. I think looking at the results from the sprint,
we know Mark Marquez became the first writer to win
six consecutive sprints. So he's now known as a mister Saturday,
and he's very adamant that he does not want to
be known as mister Saturday. He wants to be known

(04:50):
as mister Sunday. But Furman Aldiger, the rookie for Grissini,
Now he got on the podium in Saturday Sprint, and
we'll talk about Sunday as well. But I think I
spoke about it in our last pod. I really feel
Furman was going to get on the podium. He was due.
We could see that momentum building up. And for a
rookie round six and he's already on the podium. That's

(05:13):
got to be phenomenal for him and Grassini and you Caddy.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, And I think the thing with him now is
that it's not a surprise when you see him up
there like a few rounds ago, like, okay, this is
a bit of an outlier, but this you go back
to probably a couple of rounds. I mean you're in
Katar for a round four. That was the first time
he looked super legit up inside the top six and
moving forward before it was like there's five decadies going well,
oh and Aldegaerez at the bottom end of Q two

(05:37):
or he's out in Q one. He's got up to
speed really quickly. And look, we know the GP twenty
four is perhaps the best Monor GP bike there's ever been.
It's clearly a great bike. But I've been impressed that
he's not done the stupid, dumb twenty year old rookie
things at all. Twenty year old rookies do because they're
so inexperienced. He's still very young in his World Championship career.

(05:57):
He's not like someone like a guru who's got a
few more years behind him. I'm just super impressed at
how fast he's got up to speed. And look, he's
going to be a problem for the rest of the
year for these guys. There's not a week link in
that Ducatti stable. Now he was potentially it, but six
rounds in and he looks completely legit. And yeah, a
good Saturday. And then as you said, Sunday got better
as well.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sunday got better. So now we've pushed Friday, we pushed
Saturday out of the way. That's pretty much in a nutshell.
Let's move on to Sunday. Because if you don't know,
if you've been living under a rock for these past
twenty four hours, well turn on your Fox Sports and
turn on your KO. Because Johan Zaco won the French
Grand Prix at Lamon nineteen seconds ahead of Mark Marquees.

(06:43):
Can you believe that I'm gonna be jo and Zarco
won the French Grand Prix in Lamon ahead of Mark
Marquez by nineteen bloody seconds.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, extraordinary, Yeah, and it was one of those things
that you know, we talked about that record crowd in
the opener, and obviously you know Fabio's on pole, they've
got huge amount of support for him. But there's something
about Zacho because he's a little bit older and he's
a bit old school like, he's a bit of a
I mean, you know what he's like. You've dealt with
him from media capacity. He's an unusual cat, and I

(07:12):
mean that in the nicest possible way, in that he
there's always a story with him. I heard the other
day someone was saying that if you are driving through
the area of France where he lives and you want
to do an interview, he'll let you come and do
the interview at his house and he'll pay for your
petrol if you drive there and do the interview with him,
because you've come to see him. And it's one thing
he does. He always gives you money for petrol because

(07:34):
it's like, well, you've come to see me, so that's cool.
And that's like the most Johan Zako thing of all time.
That's the sort of the way he rolls. My favorite
Johan Zako story. I'm going to slightly digress here, please
tell me you've heard the story of Jack Miller's wedding.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I heard that. Zako was there and took his
guitar and serenaded them.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
So he was a guest at the wedding and he
sprung this on Jack in the day's leading up. He said, Oh, look,
I've actually written you a song, and if it's okay,
i'd i to perform the song for you and Ruby
at your wedding. And I've bought my guitar with me
to Australia. It was the week before the twenty twenty
two GP at Philip Island, and so Jack's like okay,
like thinking this could go anywhere. And Johann gets up
and sits on a stool and light sort of takes

(08:14):
their black tie off the little tucks and here's a
little something I just made for you guys, and gets
out of the guitar and plays this song. And no
one knew this thing was coming, and everyone was completely astonished.
And if anyone else would want this all over social
media and carrying on about it, and he's just like
just doing a nice thing for a friend, and that's
just the He's just a different cap. Johann and I'm
so pleased that. I mean, when he won an Australia

(08:36):
in twenty twenty three, it was one of those is
this guy ever going to win a Grand Prix? He
won it an incredible style, a pass of the lead
on the last lap. Finally he was a Grand Prix winner.
I was a little concerned because it had been about
five or six years since he'd done a backflip off
the fence, and when you get into your mid thirties,
those backflips don't come quite as easily as they used to.
But as a fairy tale story, in you thirty four

(08:57):
years old, you're the oldest rider on the grid, you're
towards the tail end of your career. To win at
home in front of the biggest crowded motor GP history,
and not just win any old race, win a race
like that, win a race for a Honda. After Ducati
had one twenty two consecutive Grand Prix to equal the
record set by Honda in nineteen ninety seven and ninety eight,

(09:20):
to sort of defend Honda's honor. If you like on
home territory and it's raining and it's crazy, and it's
the sort of race that Odiohank Psycho could win, but
from the entertainment value alone and watching that crowd embrace
one of their own, it was full goosebumps. TVA. It
was absolutely fantastic to see. And there's not going to

(09:41):
be too many people that There'll be some disappointed people
that they didn't win, don't get me wrong, but there's
not going to be too many people that would begrudge
him the success because he's a popular guy. He goes
about it the right way and yeah, good stories follow
this guy around and it was really nice to see.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I was when you talked about the backflip just then.
I was thinking I was on the service at Philipiland
when he did the backflip when he won that race.
Goosebump's there. But last night, sitting in my living room
when we're here in Australia and I'm watching him do
that backflip. You hear Matt Berts talking about how visibly
emotional Yoann was. I was getting visibly emotional because you

(10:17):
just know that this guy is putting in the work.
You can see what he's doing for Honda, you can
see the journeys that he's had. Yeah, he's probably not
going to be a world champion during his Moto GP career,
but this race for him, I think, in my opinion,
is as important as winning a Moto GP world championship.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
No, I completely agree. And there's something about him too
in the you know, I'm not saying that a lot
of riders are the same based on where they're from
in the world, or the way they speak or the
way they go about it, but he is a proper
one of one for mine. Like he's a bit of
an old soul and a bit of a throwback in
a lot of ways. He's probably racing in the wrong
era to a lot of degrees, but he is a
complete one of one. He is a unique guy with

(10:57):
the way he goes about it. And you know, one
of my favorite saying I always say on this podcast
is styles make fights. Like I said old boxing term,
like when you have different ways of going about trying
to achieve the same goal, that's what makes sport interesting.
And seeing the way he went about it and have
this success, which he'd have to do something pretty remarkable
for the rest of his career to top that, but

(11:17):
what a memory. But then even the way he was
processing it afterwards, he was saying I was expecting the
tears to come, but they didn't, and like you know,
one of those things. He is very, very conscious of
the way he feels about these things, and I'm sure
he'll get to like Monday or Tuesday this week and
then he'll sort of look at himself in the mirror
be like, jeez, I won the French Grand Prix, and
this huge smile will come on his face. Like you
could see last night, just the emotions and the rollercoaster

(11:40):
that he was going on. He was still trying to
process at all because it was a lot and I
don't think in his wildest dreams he would have thought,
you know, I'm going to win my home Grand Prix.
I think he qualified eleventh, but the seas parted because
of the way this race was run at the beginning
and the tire choices or not the various people made,
which is a I don't know what's on your run sheet,

(12:02):
your run sheet that's in your head for today, but
I reckon that's probably where you're going next.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
That was what I was going to talk about. So
let's take it back to the grid. Now. We could
see that there was like some spots of rain forming
I've heard Jack Appleyard on the telecast saying, yeah, look
that's starting to rain a bit heavier like, but it's
not full rain. The riders then went out, but then
we I was thinking back to Cooder, Covi, Mark Marquez

(12:29):
with all that drama on the start, right, so we
know what the rules were, and Mike Web the thing
came up on the screen. I hope you saw that
as well. Matt Web. It was like, if the riders
come in and they changed their bikes, they have to
do a double long lap penalty. Well, it's clear that
the riders went out on slicks, came back, decided to
change the wets, and then half the grid I'm going

(12:51):
to say, yeah, half the grid came back in and
then decided to go back out on slicks. But the
riders who stayed on the wets was Ossie, Jack Miller,
Joan Zako, Girl Oliver I believe, and a few of
the other's Loranzo Savadori, maybe Takanakagami because at one point
it looking like Lorenzo Savadori it was going to be
on the podium during this phrase, so you think, you
know he's a villain. Writer for Jojey Martine at the moment,

(13:14):
so there's all this happening. Fabia Couadoroni really crashed on
the warm up lap. This is all before lights.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Out, no I know, and this is the thing. So
there were two distinct parts to this. The first formation lap,
everyone was on slicks and they all straight lined the
chicane at turned three because no one could turn because
it was raining so hard. Fabio Quadra almost dropped it
on the way to the chicine. It was so treacherous
from pol so they all came back into the pits,
which means aborted start everyone else. They all go back

(13:41):
out for a second formation lap out of the pits
on wet weather bikes. For some reason, on that lap
there's thirteen of them that decided, oh, it's actually not
raining hard enough, I want to go back to the
slick bike, which is that's what necessitates the double long
lap penalty for all of these guys. You mentioned the
guys that stayed on the grid with the highs that
they were on. There were eight of them out there

(14:02):
on drives and Savadori had rolled the dice on slicks
and was going to stay on the grid, so he
didn't have to do the double long lap. But what
was interesting you saw that shot of when they went
out on the warm up lap there were only nine
bikes on the grid and there were thirteen of them
at pit Laid exit. I was getting ripped memories of
that crazy year at the sacks of ring where they
started the race from there, which is clearly unsafe and
a bit nuts. Everyone lines up in their original grid positions,

(14:25):
but then at some point you have to serve that
double long lap. The really interesting one for me, and
because it's items six hundred on the list of things
to talk about today. The guy that was highest on
the grid that started the race on wets and wasn't
going to have to take a long lap penalty was
Pekobannaia in sixth place, and so afterwards he was saying,

(14:46):
my aim was just to go out there and circulate
and don't be on the wrong tire, and circulate and
circulate and circulate, because this is one of those days
where the weather's going to change eleven times. You just
need to be there and you need to be on
the track. And that plan went completely down the toilet
at turn three on lap one when his old teammate

(15:06):
and Aa Bashtianidi decided to play some ten ben bowling
at the chicane at turn three, took Banyaira out, Banyaia
slides across the track, Juan mir crashes to avoid Banyaia
and then Mia when you look at the replay, almost
takes Zarko out and Zako has to run through the
gravel trap. So this incredible Zarko win was centimeters away

(15:27):
from not happening on the first three corners because he
almost got skittled by Juan minat Chuaim has broken his
hand apparently, so he just cannot take a trick, and
so you've got Banyaia with a broken bike limping back
to the pits, his chance on these where the tires
is gone. Zako seventeenth after lap one and was very
lucky to still be in the race. I think he
was thirty seconds behind the race leader after one lap

(15:50):
and then well twenty five more laps after that. Things
took multiple twists and turns. But I think for the
Australian listeners here of those eight guys that started on
wets and I went very deep into this this morning
for a story on Fox sports dot Com that au
I mind the data, and I just wanted to know
what position Jack Miller was in in this race. He

(16:12):
was one of the eight guys to start on wet tires,
and because Jack has this reputation of being this guy
who reads the conditions probably better than anybody else. There
were several other writers Zarko included. He said, I was
comfortable being on the wets because Jack was. Marco Bezzeki said,
I've not ridden the aprillia in the wet. I don't
really know what's going on with this. I wasn't particularly confident.
I wanted to see what Jack was doing, and did

(16:34):
what he was doing. So there were eight of them
down the grid that had decided to go out on
the wets. Vannai is one of those eight. He's basically
out on one lab. And of those eight guys, yes,
it was slick tire weather for the first few laps,
but of the eight of them that started on wet tires,
Jack was comfortably the leader of that eight. And so
then when the rain really started coming down, we saw

(16:56):
Fabio Coutarero crash, We saw Brad bindakrash at the last
cornerhich is the key part here as the race went
from being a slick tire race to being a wet
tie race. As it was transitioning through there, Jack Miller
was fantastically placed. On about lap five, he had a
ten second lead over Johannzako, who was the next best

(17:16):
rider on the wet weather tires. And if it had
kept raining the way it was going, all Jack needed
to do was stay sunny side up and you were
going to have one of those races where everybody else
would have had to have pitted. And given the weather
stayed pretty stable for the rest of the race, he
was in absolute position a to win that Grand Prix.
But the key line there he needed to stay sunny

(17:37):
sided up. And end of lap six last corner, Kwatrara
had gone down, Bindra had gone down, some of the
others had gone down on that corner and it bit
Jack as well. And at the very least, I think
it's a podium and it very probably was a Grand
Prix win. And he high sighted with absolutely no warning,
he said afterwards. They looked at the data and he

(17:57):
wasn't quicker through there than any other lap point where
there was too much standing water. The grip was changing
centimeter by centimeter and he just pushed that minute bit
too far and down he went. But man, talk about
one that got away, because that's one that he needed.
And he's so good in these sorts of conditions. We've
seen that in the past, and that was one. He

(18:20):
is going to be kicking himself because the guy that
he was comfortably ahead of that was watching what he
was doing, that was mimicking his tire strategy. He's the
guy that's won the race and he being you and Zacho.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
When I saw Jack's Instagram post, I think he is
very much looking at the glass half full with that.
I think that's what he needs to do. And you
could see that he's talking about, you know, how they're improving,
how he's feeling better. We know that these mistakes happen,
and sometimes they do happen for Jack. They're silly mistakes,
but in this instance, this is lemon in the way

(18:52):
like you just said, pekobad Nyaya got involved, Fabiocordorara. All
these writers are crashing out. What I think for Jack though,
is okay, he does colp some slack on socials, but
what I'm seeing is people are still respecting him. If
if these writers are looking at him, going, well, this
is Jack Miller's territory in this weather, let's follow him.

(19:13):
It's like what everyone did at Coder with Mark. This
is Mark seratory, We're going to copy him. This is
Jack Miller showing us Jack Miller and why he deserves
to be a Moto GP.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Absolutely, you look at the development work behind the scenes,
the fact that Yamaha is up in Q two. But
one of the things about where he crashed, I'm going
to give you a little French high school French lesson here, Renetta.
While you're here. You so the last corner with no
credit to Michael Lamonato at all, my fellow co host
on the F one Show, who thinks that all quarter
should be named after numbers. I'm a sucker for Carter names.
I love them. The last corner at Lamont is called

(19:46):
Record DeMont, which means connection. The reason that's important is
that the last corner is where the Bagatti circuit that
the motor GP bikes race around joins onto the circuit Lasath,
which is where they race the twenty four hours sports
car race. That last corner is where the circuit LASA
joins the Picicati Circuit. So there's two different types of

(20:06):
Ashfeldt on that corner at Recordermont, and so when you
can see that corner when it's semi wet, it's like
it's got a sheen on it. It's a totally different
surface at that corner. Fabio Coaateurero was saying after his
crash that he felt that it was excessively bumpy there.
But it's more slick than bumpy, I would say, and
it's a bit of a change of surface. Jack basically

(20:27):
had a high side with the bike completely upright and
went completely over. You saw Brad Bnder's accident and even
Coaateurero's accident there there was no warning. They were just
on the floor. And that turning point at Recorder Mot,
the connection where it joins the circuit LASA, that's where
the change of surface is. So you add a heap
of water onto there. And obviously there'd been no wet
running all weekend and you know, we know that circuit

(20:51):
gets used for sports car racing. It's probably the most
unique corner on the circuit because it's the one that
joins the twenty four hour track and it caught them
out and there were a couple other guys that went
down there too, so it was a confluence of yeah,
it's raining a bit more, but it was super treacherous
through there. And Zako said afterwards because obviously he had
seen what had happened to Jack, because Jack was in

(21:11):
front of him, you could see how easily he was
being super easy and cautious at that particular corner, because
that was the one that was like riding the tightrope.
In those weather conditions. You could take more risks on
other quarners, but that one he was just rolling through
there and taking no risks at all because three guys
ahead of him had gone down and they'd shown him

(21:32):
what not to do. So yeah, at about eleven pm
on a Sunday night, the old high school French came
in handy because I was thinking about that, and I thought, so,
this is why your name corners, Michael laminat as, Oh,
we don't name them after numbers, so we need to
find out these six so I win that particular battle.
That's not for debate, but I just thought it was
interesting that, Yeah, there is a change of surface at

(21:52):
that corner, and it caught a few of them out,
and unfortunately for Rossie fans Jack was one of the
biggest casualties.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
That actually makes a lot of sense now you say that,
and as to why it does catch a lot of
the riders out there, Matt, I want to ask you
for me. If I was to go back to lapse two,
lap three, looking at that gap that Fabio Corderao had
and then even him when he took the first long
lap penalty. Out of all those riders, I'm thinking Fabio's

(22:20):
got a good chance here at getting on the podium
at his home Grand Prix with if the weather had stayed.
Looking back at Friday, do you think tire degregation would
have come into play with the Yamahas or do you
think that it was because of the longer distance?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
YEA, interesting because so the sprint was though using a
softer compound in the sprint, it was obviously way hotter atout,
pushing way harder because it's half the distance and we
saw the back half of the sprint. Fabio had nothing
left to fight with. He'd gone out too hard, too soon.
And how much of that is just the adrenaline of
home crowd and wondering how fai he could push as
softer tire and that sort of thing. No one was racing.
That tire hadn't been dry on the Sunday anyway, so

(22:59):
I think he was less likely to come into as
big of a problem as he did in sprint, but
he's probably still more likely to come into more problems
and say they docaddies at this particular track. So look,
I don't think he wins the race. I could have
absolutely seen him finishing behind the two Marquez brothers, probably
probably third, which you know he would have absolutely signed

(23:19):
up for given the way things have been going. He
obviously had that great race at Herrez to get on
the podium there, but I thought third fourth Aldegaer was
sort of the outlier there. But I also wonder about
Aldegare's tire management over a full Grand Prix distance over
a sprint not so much of an issue. That's one
of those tires of the black art of murder GP.
You need to have the experience to know how to
manage them, and he has an entire catalog of what

(23:42):
five races a murder GP experience, so he's still agreed
in that regard. But I think he's probably finishing on
the podium in a normal race using air quotes, but yeah,
this was not a normal race.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
So anything far from a normal race. I was just
looking on the foxmitter Sport Twitter and lapse seven looks
about when Alex and Mark came back into what their
bikes over. How's that for timing, Because by the time
they get back out, they're only like fifth or sixth
or seventh, right, so they've dropped down from leading the race.

(24:13):
Then rookie Aldiger stayed out there on his slicks and
doing his long laps and trying to live as long
as he can out there. But it's looking like the
Marcus brothers, and you can see Alex is just following
Mark with everything that he's doing. Right, He's like, yeah,
I'm not going to let him get away this time.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
It's so funny. The two of them are like circling
each other. And it's funny anyway as his hack pic,
but it's even funnier because they're related. Because if anyone
knows what the other one's thinking, it to be those two.
So neither of them is going to give an inch.
And they are racist. It's not that they're ignoring the
other twenty guys, but they've absolutely got eyes locked on
each other. And yeah, because Mark had won the sprint

(24:50):
on the Saturday, hed taken the lead of the World
Championship again, and those two were determined if they were
both going out, they were going out together. They were
going to do the same thing. But I think what's
super interesting, and I've just got this up on the
screen next to me, is that, obviously, Alex Marquez's season
has been built on being incredibly consistent and not making mistakes,
and on Sunday in the Grand Prix, finally he made

(25:12):
a mistake. He made two of them because he crashed
once at turn three and then again at turn eleven.
That was just a really strange, wet weather bike. I
don't even think you know how that thing dropped him
on the ground. But what's so interesting is that we've
talked a lot this year about Mark throwing points away,
crash from the lead at Cota, crashed from what were
probably going to be a podium at her Wrath, before

(25:33):
he launched that ridiculous comeback. This might be the race
that we look back at at the end of the
year and go, okay, this is where he took a
lead and was never headed again after that. Because he's
now got a twenty two point championship lead. It's the
biggest championship lead he's had all season. What was really
key about this and I'm going to write about this
later in the week when my fingers work again. I'm

(25:54):
not sure when that's going to be. But the other
five guys in the standings behind Mark coming into the
weekend combined scored fewer points the marketed for the entire
weekend at La mal to a point where Peca Bannay
has had his first zero point weekend since the sprint
era began. So he didn't score a single point in
the sprints. He crashed in scoring the Grand Prix because

(26:15):
he finished sixteenth, he was the last classified finisher. So
if you look at the other guys on that list,
I'm just doing a quick bit of mats in my
head here, seventeen eight. So the other five guys on
the list scored twenty seven points between them, So that's
Alex Marquez, Baannai, Morbidelli, the jan Antonio and Couacharero scored
twenty seven points between them for the weekend, and Mark
scored thirty two by himself. So that's why Mark's got
this twenty two point championship lead. Now that's decisive for

(26:38):
me because it feels like he's made his mistakes. He'll
make more mistakes, but Alex has almost had to be
perfect to stay with him, and to expect perfection out
of a guy for twenty two rounds is not realistic.
And these are the sorts of races that trip you up.
So I don't know about you. But how interesting was
Mark after the race where he had said, if I

(27:00):
hadn't crashed at her Wrath last time out, eighty percent
chance I crashed today because I probably go for too much.
And in the fact that he admitted it, he said,
I know myself and I know that I would have
probably overreached and gold for it. And he said it
with a smile on his face, which you can do
when you've had such a decisive championship weekend like that.
But it's interesting that even two weeks later he was thinking,
don't do what you did at Herath, don't do what

(27:21):
you did at he Wrath, just telling himself, settle for second,
take the points, and it's funny to think that it's
a race. He was beaten by twenty seconds by jo Hanzako,
Yet those twenty points that he picked up on Sunday.
They could prove to be pretty significant as we move
forward now because he's now got this buffer. The pace
suggests he should have a buffer, but now he's got
the points to prove it.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
I think what you were just saying then about Mark's mentality,
I was watching the race thinking the same thing, because
for him, this is my thoughts on him, is if
he knows someone's in a head and he's comfortable, and
we know Mark can ride to pretty much any condition,
he's going to chase that person. But I think this
year so far we're in round six, but I think
he's learned a lot of valuable life lessons when it

(28:05):
comes to racing and pushing himself that far forward to
make those silly mistakes, and I don't think he wanted
to make those silly mistakes. I'm curious to see if
on his lap board, his pit board there was anything
about Banyaya out or anything silly like that, you know,
to not egg him on, is what I'm trying to say,

(28:26):
as I'm wondering how much that was there.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
But he's also learned the hard way that these are
the days when you bank the points that are there.
These are the days that you win world championships. They're
not the days you get the headlines for, and the
highlights for, and the big bucks for. These are the
days that you win world championships where your bain rivals
have dropped the ball, or they've had a technical difficulty,
or something's gone wrong. You take the best of what

(28:48):
is available to you, and you do not let that go,
because all these points count for what they count for.
And he said after he came back out after he'd
made his last bike swap, Zacho was about eight seconds
up the road, and he said, I was taking like
point three here, point five there. But the amount of
risk I was going to have to take to be
able to overcome a gap like that. Now, in the dry,

(29:09):
he would have won one hundred percent, gone for it,
there's no doubt. But there was too much peril in
the if you're trying to turn that point three point
five into point seven point eight. Yeah, there were a
number of laps to go. He had the laps left
to catch him, but the amount of risk he was
going to have to take to do it. There comes
a risk reward ratio there, and do you take a
stab at trying to overcome a deficit that's too much

(29:31):
for the sake of five war points, or do you
bank the twenty points and get out of there with
a significant lead, and you know, the ball's absolutely back
in his court. Because the only reason that Alex Marquez
as good as he has been was in the Championship
League going into Lemon was because market allowed it to
happen by making mistakes. And so these are the days
you bank the points and you move on and you

(29:51):
lift to five another day.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
I want to talk about Miguel Lavera really quickly because
when they were bringing up the tire choices on the
side of the screen, correct if I'm wrong, but did
majority of the guys on wets have the soft rare
great and Miguel was on the medium rare? So is
that why he dropped back so quickly? Just couldn't maintain
the heat in the time.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
I think it was a bit of that. I mean,
I think he's nowhere near fully fit. It's the first
time he's been back since Argentina. He's had that shoulder
ligament issue, so he was nowhere near sort of Miguel
or are apace. All weekend he is down the back,
and that was one of those ones that perhaps the
soft was on a bit more of a knife edge,
or you had to push it a lot harder to
keep it in the temperature window. So perhaps he offered

(30:32):
for opted for a bit of safety there. I mean,
he's not going into that race thinking that he's going
to be fighting for You know, if he made the
top ten, he would have been ecstatic. And here we are,
what you know, eight laps from the end of his
second because everyone else has made mistakes and they've done
bike swaps, and he's up there going for a great result.
And he slid down to seventh, though some faster guys

(30:52):
came past, but he was still on for a great result.
You'll never guess what corner he crashed at though, the
last corner. So both Pramat Gamahas were in the skin
at the final court. Another guy to go down on
that changing surface that we talked about. But man, if
you're Pramak, you must be looking at that saying we
could have had a win in a top five. You know,
things are gone well and at worst we might have
had a podium and another top ten. And you leave

(31:15):
there with nothing and it's not because you know, they
actually made the correct call. They had both their riders
on the right tires at the right time. They were
really happy with their strategy. Some days these things, you
can make every right decision and it still doesn't come
up for you, and Oliver was part of that. And
a really difficult weekend for them. But as you mentioned before,
Yamaha's been good. They're coming. It's pretty clear that they're

(31:38):
making a lot of progress. But I just didn't get
the results that they probably should have.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
That high side when I saw that for mcguil, felt
that in my bones that one.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Well, when you know guys come off a dislicated shoulder
as well, you're just thinking where you're going to land,
because when you're in the air like that, that's just
a total lottery. So yeah, I did WinCE a little
bit as he was in the air. I grew yeah
looking at.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
The results, So yes, Johann Zark was a first ahead
of Mirk Marquez and Ferman Aldiger did the double back
to back podiums for the rookie like we said, But
then I was quite shocked at this's Pedro Acosta fourth,
Maverick Vinalez fifth. So now Vignalez is still kind of
leading the way, but Pedro Ocosta's gone. Move over, Vannialez.
I'm the main dog here at KTM, and I'm going

(32:18):
to take home the first KTM physician for me. Looking
at that, I think that's the confidence that boost that
he needs. Because we've said it so many times. You
can just tell that a Costa is not happy. I
remember everything.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Definitely needed it. It was a result that he's been
being for for a while. It was a good result
on a difficult day where a lot of things could
have gone wrong. We know he was coming in off
arm pump surgery after the previous race at Heretz. So
to score your best Grand Prix result of the season again,
when you're nowhere, you're fully right. And I mean, let's
face it, since Katar Vignalez has been clearly the best
of the KTM riders, we're now talking about super consistent

(32:55):
Maverick Vinales just top five every weekend. I mean, I'm
still waiting for the bubble to burst on that one.
But that three straight weekends that he's put this together now,
so I think once it's nice and nice and second
is a coincidence and the third weekend I guess it's
a trend now, so this is just what Maverick is.
But good weekend for a cost of for sure. But yeah,
a few extenuating circumstances, but I think you'll be pleased

(33:16):
to get out of there with some good points and
not hurt himself because you know, those extra two weeks
between now and Silver Study's gonna heal quite a lot.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I think, you know, even just talking about this race
and then when Chris was on and talking about his race. Okay,
so it's about luck, but it's also about the skill
and just staying on the bike right. So clearly, you know,
circumstances come into play with your results or when you
go in to swap your bikes or whatnot, but you
also have to stay on the bike to finish the
race well.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And what was interesting, like listening to Zarko afterwards, he
was saying where it was so hard is that he
was in the lead on lap eight. There's eighteen laps
to go. He knows he's got a significant advantage. And
it's on days like that where you lose your focus
by one percent and you go slot off light, or
you touch a white line or you clip a curb
and you saw during the race Luccio Chechanel I was

(34:05):
over the pit walls like just chill out, like calm down.
And I think Zarko was of a mind that I
feel like I'm under control here. If I am going
to start deliberately slowing down because I've got a buffer,
that's where I'm going to get out of the zone
and I'm going to make a mistake. So I think
he was being super cautious at the last corner, like
I mentioned, but for him, because he had no one
behind him, there wasn't anyone pushing him. This is a

(34:27):
victory that had to come to him. He wasn't going
out to get it. And that's where it's so different
from that Australia twenty twenty three win because I think
he was fourth going into the last lap of that
race and then made that really ballsy pass of Juge
Martin to take the lead. Martin was like the carrot
that day. He was pursuing that to get to the victory.
Didn't have time to really think about strategy catch the
guy in front yesterday. The only thing he had was time.

(34:48):
They would have been the longest eighteen laps of his
life with that crowd, and he could hear the noise
and see the French flags flying and every lap is
it raining a bit more? Is it raining a bit less?
You can almost have two much time to think, so
mentally for him to hold his nerve, there's a lot
of pressure, like it's yeah, of course, it's pressure when
you've got someone on your back wheel. It's also a

(35:09):
lot of pressure when you've got too much time to
think writing one of these things. And let's face that,
not many races play out like Lamon did on Sunday,
so it's an unusual situation for these guys. They're not
accustomed to this, and it's when you've got time to
think that it's almost more dangerous than when you squabbly
get a pack of three or four other guys.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
He said that in the park for my interview, or
maybe it was even in that the little room that
they go into before the podium that he goes. Those
last three laps took so long, and it's already a
long lap time here in Lamn. You can just imagine
if he thought about something else for a split second
in those conditions, like you said, you run over a
white line, hit the ripple strip, there goes your chance

(35:48):
at winning. But for him to go those last three
laps were so long and they going bloody fast around
that track.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, I just had to find the quote so I've
used at the sport. I couldn't remember exactly what it was,
but he said sometimes you need to go and catch
a victory. Today I had to wait for it, and
I love that. It's the most Arco quote of all time.
But you can see exactly what he was saying because
at Philip Island a couple of years ago, it's like
you've got to go and get this thing and take
it off somebody else whereas on Sunday La morn like

(36:16):
it was his to lose, and sometimes that's that's even
worse than having somebody to go chase.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm just looking at the results from from the race
and so the crashed riders. Should we go through those?
So not finish, not finished first lap Juan Mia unfortunately,
like you said, possible broken hand. We obviously do not
want that. We want him to be racing, but that's
just unfortunately a typical juanmir To situation to be in.
Moving on, then we had Fabrio Cordero, Jack Miller, Brad Binda,

(36:44):
Miguel Olivera, Alex Marquez, they are all the not classified.
Then you go to sixteenth place, Peco Banyaya. Now we
mentioned him obviously crashing. How was it when he came
back into the pits to try and swap his bike
and the mechanics, they're like, mate, you've got no bike
to swap to. What are you going to do? You

(37:05):
have to just try and finish. And it's a shame
that he's only finished sixty one place earlier. But the
gap obviously is I'm just trying to see if I
can find that here. It's not saying they're Morbidelli Bazeki.
Then it starts to go through. But if you look
at your top ten, both track House riders managed to
go into that top ten this weekend, and I think
for those guys, they're a new team and MERITOGP in

(37:27):
this situation. Probably a lot of the mechanics, like the
decisions that they're having to make, the pressure that they're
under with bringing the riders in, what tied to choose,
et cetera, et cetera. Raoul you said off air, but
seventh place, okay, he was seventy seconds behind you on Zaco.
He's still finished in that top ten.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
And it's just the thing. You look at that list
of guys that you reeled off that didn't finish the race,
and then some guys that did like best, the best
you knowed. He had four long lap penalties and crash twice.
I mean that's like a half a season for most people,
and so it was three points, and he still got
three points. And there's all this nonsense going on elsewhere,
but this was a day where if you are on
a not so great bike or you're having a difficult season,

(38:07):
you look through these results. Takannakagami, as a wild card
for Honda, finished sixth. It's the best result he's had
since twenty twenty one. He was another guy on the
wet weather tires and he just circulated and circulated and circulated,
and he finished a minute behind Zako, and he banked
a massive amount of points. You mentioned the track house guys.
Lorenzo Savadora career best result finished nights on Juge Martin's bike,

(38:31):
because obviously juj is still out injured, so this was
another day where guys down the back had a chance
to make their mark best result of the season for Fernandez,
as you mentioned, this was a day that was all
about keeping your head and staying in the game. And
what was interesting for me is that you've got all
these really experienced guys who've won Grand Prix who were
just Binder had multiple crashes before he finished Bashtyin and

(38:54):
he went down a couple of times. More Bdelli went
down a couple of times. And then you've got fermin
Aldegerre and he sticks Grand Prix that was didn't put
a foot roll of finished third. And then you've got
Takannaka Army who hasn't raced since the end of last year,
and of all the races to make a wild card.
In my goodness, he would have slept well last night
and here he is scoring his best result for five years.
So it was we'll look at this top ten at

(39:16):
the end of the season and then we'll go, oh
my god, that happened. It's going to be one of
those races because everywhere you looked it was complete mayhem.
But it was fantastic TV. It was very very difficult.
I'm not going to lie for me to get my
head around and try and like, how do I encapsulate
what happened in a story here. I could have written
a story for each of the twenty two of them,
because it was that much going on. But these are

(39:37):
the nights when you love this gig because you love
being able to absorb all this and then try to
make sense of it. But this is going to be
a Grand Prix that I know. We've got another race
in two weeks time, but I think we'll be talking
about it pretty much every day between now and then.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Oh and this is going to be Grand Prix that
six in Zarco's mind forever. He is never going to
forget that feeling of winning in front of his home crowd.
So that what do you mind to wrap some Moto
GP as best as we can match? You have any
more fun facts for our friends here who are curious
about Mojipi, Because you are the statman, the scatman, the statman, I'll.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Be anything at this point. If it involved coffee, I'm
probably up for it. But there was the thing that
was amazing for me is that you know the thoughts
of Ducatti not winning a Grand Prix based on what
we've seen in the past twelve months. At the moment,
it's like, well, if there's sixty caddies, they're probably finishing.
Five of them are probably finishing in the top six.
The fact that you had Honda, who previously held this

(40:33):
record of twenty two straight wins, being the manufacturer to
beat Dicadi. You wouldn't have thought it was going to
be a Honda that was going to win this streak.
But there's so much going on in this race. It
was Zarko's one hundred and fiftieth start, it was a
landmark start for him. You mentioned before, you know, first
Frenchman to win a Grand Prix at home since nineteen
fifty four. There's just so much going on. And then

(40:54):
I think the key one you mentioned that weekend crowd
three hundred and eleven thousand or something over the course.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
So the weekend eleven thousand.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
That's absolutely awesome. And there was an one thing that
Motor GP's doing a fantastic job off at the moment
is the who was flying the drone around the start
finish straight at these circuit hat tip to you, sir
or Abdam, whoever you are, because in encapsulating what that
crowd was like last night and that drone's just hovering
over the top of the start finished straight before the race,
and it was you could not see a spare place

(41:25):
seat up against a fence where there could be another person.
That thing was just absolutely rammed with people. And full
credit to the promoters and everyone that turned up there.
And if you bought a ticket for the French Grand Prix,
I think you'd be looking to get your next year's
ticket pretty quick, smart, because that was a pretty awesome
sporting theater.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Guys, if you've watched the French Grand Prix once, go
back and watch it again. I did it just before
we came on here to chat at Motor GP, purely
just to try and dissect and see what I missed
last night, because at one point you're watching one thing,
you're seeing the replay in the corner of the screen
where someone else's you're hearing about writers coming in, who's
getting extra long lap penalties like Bashiani. That first third,

(42:07):
even halfway through that race, it was insane and I
think one of the best motor GIP races. It kept
me on the edge of the seat the whole entire
time so well.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
And yeah, and there's also that point where I don't
know whether you do this as well, I've got the life.
I've got sort of mission control happening here with all
the screens and what have you. The life timing is
always slightly ahead of the TV pictures, so if you
don't want to spoil, don't look at your lifetiming and
then look at the TV pictures go oh, no, someone's
tumbling down the order, which is what I did when
Jack went out. Unfortunately, I saw his name tumbling down
the sheet and went, oh, no, don't tell me he's

(42:38):
gone off. That thing was It was like a like
a slot machine in a casino last night. There were
just naves going up and down, and it was all
over the place. You know, someone's in for a long
lap penalty, someone's doing a bike swap. There were several
points in that race where I thought, how many long
laps has this guy done? Has this guy pitted? What
tires is he on? It was complete chaos trying to

(42:58):
keep up with it. That was the first sort of
eight to ten laps, and then the last fifteen laps
was is Zarko going to hold his nerve here? Because
that was the story. It was not particularly close in
terms of will to will, but jeez, it was tense
because a he's not a guy who wins gron Prix
very often, but b because it was home and history
and how emotional it was going to be, so it

(43:20):
was super tense to watch. But yeah, if we're going
to do this every second or third race, it's going
to take years off my life. But I think I'll
enjoy it, so signed me up.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
That's one was just thinking. I'm like, you know, we've
spoke about this race, has been forty five minutes or so,
There's still so much that we could talk. But I go,
you just got to watch it. You just got to
watch it and then possibly watch it again, maybe a
third time, just to try and dissect everything. As a
fan though, watching the international broadcast with Matt Burton Lewis Studby,
I loved when they had Bradley Smith on this weekend.

(43:50):
For me, sitting there reminded me of Simon Crafer. But Bradley,
you know, he did fairly well in mitogp won races
in the law classes. Now he's doing very very well
on that Holly Davids and Baggers Championship. But hearing him,
hearing him talk about what's happening on track for me
was really really good at a clear, clearer understanding. But

(44:10):
one thing I loved was when they were getting ready,
I think for the when they finally decided to start
the race. After the red flag, Radley Smith goes, I'm
nervous and I'm not even racing out there, so could
you imagine just the feeling of what is going to
happen at the start? And then Joan Zarco wins well.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
And he's been in races like that too, where you
have to make all these decisions on the fly and
they can make or break your race, you know, quarter
by corner, lap by lap, So he was nervous for
everybody else, but probably quite relieved that he got to
sit and talk about it rather than actually have to
execute it. And that's these riders make, you know, pretty
frustrated spectators a lot of the time, as you know,
having a brother as one. But I'm sure Chris was

(44:48):
watching that race last night sort of with his rider's
eye on, but thinking, thank goodness, I'm not out they're
having to do this, because that was a stressful night
for everyone watching Littlelone participating.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Then there's rewind the clock Moto two dry race. Sena
agis struggled. He struggled all weekend and he had not
the best qualifying I think he was fourteenth, and I
think he ended similar position off memory fourteenth. Senna's having
a really interesting season. He's having very high highs, but

(45:19):
then he's having these I want to say low lows.
You know, it is still only his second year, but
it was a dry tracker track that he'srased at before
considering his teammate Manu Gonzales Pol won the race. You know,
he's consistently well. I'm wondering if it's just this missing
piece And it's so easy for me to say, sitting

(45:39):
here on my sofa, you know, talking about that, but
what is that missing piece for Senna to progressively be
closer to the front. So he is fighting with the
likes of Manu and Jake Dixon and those guys who
were fighting for the championship.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah, I think to be honest, it's kind of normal
of a young writer who's in a fairly early stage
of his World championship journey in that you can see
the talent when he gets on the podium, which he's
done several times now. So the good weekends are very
very good, but there's a spikiness to the result curve.
At the moment, it's not you'd like to have less
spikes and more of a flat line on that curve,
But I think that's something that will come with age

(46:13):
and experience and having to go through weekends like that.
There's some weekends where you know, you look at Murdo
GP how many times last year was pecab Annoor absolutely
nowhere on a Friday and you're like, oh, he's in trouble.
But he had the experience and the confidence and the
know how and the data bank to call upon where
he could engineer himself out of a difficult position. And

(46:34):
this is so by the time you get to Sunday,
he's ready to go. Sen is so young and so
early in his World Championship journey that the talent's there
and the speeds there, but you can't fast track that
experience card, right, So that's something that he will get
over time. So maybe this is his destiny this year.
The bike is good, there'll be weekends where he's clearly
very good, and there'll be other weekends where he's a

(46:54):
bit anonymous, and that will probably flatten out over time.
So I guess we've enjoyed some the highs. This weekend
was probably one that you just sort of shrug your
shoulders and move on, learn from it and try and
you know, get better the next time this presents itself.
But I also don't think we're going to start seeing
him fighting for fourteenth most weeks. I think we'll see
him back up the front before too long, and.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
That's what we want as Ossie fans. But I tell you,
Moto three, if I was on the edge of my seat,
my poor neighbors were just probably going, what is she watching?
Because them going, God, Joe, come.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
On, Joe, you can do this, Joe, hold on to it.
He was so close, I'm talking, so bloody bloody close
to getting that first ever Moto Iree victory. And we
were talking in our group chat afterwards, and you send
me a message going, we knew Munyo's was going to
do that. We knew he was going to try and
go for the win.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
I mean obviously relegated that Munos was cross the line
and relegated down to third, which meant Kelso second, and
then Ruaida, who right place, right time, just sitting at
that bag, managed to take better the last corner as well.
That last corner that we've talked so much about.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Ye the Stephen Bradbury approach by Rueda, who just sit
there and let everyone else wipe each other out. But
it's funny. I was the opposite to you, and I
was really you know, I loved the way Joel raced
last night, and this is the sort of race we've
been wanting from him. Get to the front, boss the race,
take control, split the pack. There's only three of them
at the end the last five laps. I was a

(48:26):
bit different to you, and then I'm going, all right,
so when is Munyo's just going to ride into the
side of him? Because you know it's going to happen,
because that's the way he races. That's what his reputation is.
If it had been anyone else that was behind him,
I'd be like, all right, this will be curious. I
wonder how this is going to go. And the only
mystery in the last lap with Muna's was he going
to take Joel and himself out or just himself out

(48:47):
or just Joel out? Because you knew it was coming.
And if you're Ruaida, this is where he played that
super smart. This is why he's leading that Championship was like,
I could go and fight these guys to the win,
but I might not have to. I'll just sit here
at a respectable distance. I've got a championship lead here,
and if something goes on in front, which given the
nature of one of the two people in those two
at the front, there's a fair chance that's going to happen,

(49:08):
I'll just sit here and sail through. And I think
he led the entire race for one corner and that's
how you end up with twenty five World Championship points.
But I don't know what Joel was like behind the scenes,
but great a for diplomacy. I thought he handled that
incredibly well given the circumstances. But I think that's all
part of the evolution of Joel in that in the past,

(49:29):
if he was having a result like this, it'll be like, well,
how long is it going to be until I'm back
up there again? Because they weren't the norm for him.
This is just what he does now, and so this
is why he's going so well in the Championship. That
first wins coming, it's going to happen this year. There's
probably going to be a few of them. He just
had the great misfortune of having the one guy that
you do not want behind you in that situation on
the last lap. And I don't know, I don't like

(49:53):
races being decided by stuff on the last lap that
you wouldn't get away within the other laps. And the
fact that he had to drop one position. Okay, cool
still didn't win the race. I'm wondering what the penalty
is if Joel isn't skillful enough to stay on the
bike and he falls off, So does Munos get a
long lap for the next race? Like how we adjudicating this.
It was the fact that Joel actually managed to keep
going across the line in third place that meant the

(50:15):
penalty was probably less than it could have been because
that's not a racing move, Like I'm all for a
bit of hard racing, but the inevitability of him doing
something dumb like that in the last corner you could
see it coming five laps away.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
I was so hoping though, when Munia's were await or
we're battling out, that they would just keep messing around
with each other and that would allow Joel to break away.
That's what I was screaming at the TV to happen.
But yeah, like you said in the group Chatty, it's
just with him with Munio's being there, we knew it
was going to happen. Like you said, Joel in Park
fir May afterwards. For me, same thing I thought. Okay, Joel,

(50:49):
two point five is here and he's here to stay.
We're seeing that with six rounds in and he's consistently
been up the front. But we've seen it before. Consistency
is what wins championships. Okay, we know he's fighting. I
think is he correct if for wrong? Is he third
in the championship at the third I believe yes, yeah,
Look there's still only two places ahead of him to
take that title and we're only six rounds in, and

(51:10):
like you said, that first win's going to come. We
know it, Joel. We believe in you that first win's
going to come. But then we go further down the
field and our other Aussie Jacob Rlstone, he had another
tough weekend P thirteen Cross the Line, Jacob. I know
he's coming back from that serious injury that he had
in the off season, but what's it going to take
for him to get closer to the front because okay, yeah,

(51:31):
his teammate was tenth, so three places ahead, but the
Red Bulls, like last year, these guys were closer to the.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Front, right, Yeah, definitely. I mean I still think there's
a degree of him being a bit undercooked. I mean,
when you come back from the accident that he'd had,
he missed all the preseason, he missed those first few rounds.
He's kind of at about round two mode right now,
not round six. So I think if we're still seeing
these results by mid season and a bit longer once
he's got his race fitness back and everything's back to normal,

(52:01):
and that's probably a little bit more concerning, But I
do think he is going to get better. There is
a degree of russ And the Moto three is just brutal, right,
Like it's so so cutthroat, and if you're that little
bit off in that pack with all these guys on
fairly equal bikes and they're all young and crazy and fearless,
like you're going to be taking advantage of if you're
not one hundred percent there. And I just think that's
where he's at at the moment. But yeah, I think

(52:23):
I'm sure he'll be just disappointed with that, But he's
kind of still playing himself back in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I think, yeah, no, I get what you're saying. I
wish we were seeing more ossies closer to the run,
but he's so exciting having kelso they're flying the flag
for us at the moment. So that pretty much rounds
out Motor GP motor to a Moto three before they
head to Silverstone. But then let's go back to Moto
GP really quickly because Fabio Cordoraro has been handed a
penalty for Silverstone FP one where he has to sit

(52:50):
out the first ten minutes and pay a two thousand
euro fine for aggression. I'm going to say aggression towards
the marshals and not complying with them during his Moto
GP crash. Yeah, tell me the last time detention has
been handed to at GP rider.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
When I read that as well, it's like you have
to sit in the naughty corner with your hands in
your head for ten minutes or something. It's a bizarre one, isn't.
It's like, we know you'd like to go ride your bike,
so we're taking all your toys away from you so
you can't. It's a bizarre punishment because two thousand euro
for a motor GP writer. That's kind of tip money.
That's not that exciting. But yeah, the fact that we're
not letting you ride your bike for ten minutes because

(53:27):
you've been misbehaving. But if anyone's seen the video, I
think there needed to be something because he was clearly
trying to drag a broken bike back onto the track
and keep riding it. The bike was gone at that point,
the race was over. He was not following the instructions
of the marshalls. There's a safety respect danger element to that, yes,
And I can understand that he was worked up and
he was at home and he was frustrated and all

(53:49):
of that. But I think once the red mist calms
down a little bit, I think you'll probably regret that one.
It's understandable in the moment, but it's probably one he
will live to regret. Yeah, strange punishment, not one that
I was not one that I'm particularly familiar with, I
must say, But it's kind of weird that you have
this five second moment of rage and then two weeks
later you have to go sit out and watch all

(54:11):
your colleagues right around for a bit. But of course,
the other penalty that came out after the race just
for anyone playing long lap penalty. Bingo here at home
and they have ash and he's got another long lap
penalty because he skittled Pecobanyaya, and he served two long
laps for changing his bike before the start of the race.
He did another two long laps for speeding in the
pit lane, so he'll be up to five thousand long

(54:32):
lap penalties or something by the time we get to Silverston,
so he'll almost do another full race distance just by
going through the long lap penalty loop. I think I.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Can't wait for Silverstone. It's going to be interesting, especially
after this weekend, just to see what happens and who
comes out on top. But we've only got two weeks
to wait for the next Moto GP. In the meantime,
F one is back on this weekend, Matt, you'll be
covering that one with our colleague Michael Lamonado, who you
gave a shout out to earlier in the pod. So
you guys can get prep for a another weekend of

(55:00):
racing here on Fox Sports. But if you want to
keep up to date with all the latest MotoGP news,
then head to foxsports dot com dot AU forward Slash Motorsport.
To read what Matt's writing about MotoGP, or to stay
up to date on our social media, you can at
Foxmotorsport on all the platforms. But once again, thank you
to Shannon for sponsoring this pod, and as always from

(55:23):
Matt Clayton and myself, Rinita Vermulin, We're going to be
back real soon with more moto GP pittok