Qatar Chronicles: Márquez’s Mastery & Martín’s Misfortune MotoGP Pit Talk

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week's episode of Pit Talk is brought to you
by Shannons. Moto GP dazzled under the lights for round
four of the twenty twenty five World Championship and Mark
Marquez dominated in the desert and it was a statement
ride a vintage Marquees, full of confidence, control and a
touch of chaos. But behind him the battle was fierce.

(00:21):
You caddies, inner wars heated up, the KTM showed flashes
of brilliance and Joge Martin had that incredibly lucky escape.
I'm your host, Rinita Vanmulan, and joining me is the
man who can dissect a Moto GP weekend faster than
a ju Catt can launch off the line. Matt Clayton, Matt,
where do we even start? After that desert showdown?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Brnanda, Look, there was so much going on, and I'm
very keen to get your perspective on what was going on,
giving you had a closer seat to it than me,
because to take readers behind the curtain a little bit here.
Everyone knows kitars in a brutal time zone for Australia.
So I'm sitting there at two fifty five am on
Sprint Day and and then a voice I could hear
at the circle across the TV is yours. And that
completely threw me because I know I'm tired. I'm not

(01:06):
quite with it, but there's something not quite right about that.
But we'll get to that in the future. But look,
it was a predictable results if you look at the
classification at the end of the weekend. But how we
got there, As you said in the intro, Man, there
were some twists and turns in this and the Johey, Martine,
there's something we'll touch upon because I don't know whether
he's cross paths with a black cat, or walked under

(01:26):
a ladder, or broken a mirror or done all three
of those things. But you could just not have worse
luck than that guy at the moment, could you.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
I really felt for him. And when I spoke to
him on the weekend when I was there and I asked,
how's the body? How are you feeling? He goes, look
the body saw but I'm feeling good and I'm eager
to get back out. He was adamant of saying, I'm
not going to try and fight for a win. This
is testing, this is me just getting back up to speed.
But the fact that when that crash happened on Sunday
during the race and we saw the multiple replays, I

(01:55):
also felt for Digito who had nowhere to go. He
did his absolute bad But then the fact that Jorges
sitting on the side of the track, the riders are
going around, it's still yellow flag in whatever sector it was,
I get this guy off the track, red flag or something,
because clearly he is not okay. So that really scared me.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, look, definitely, I think any time you see that.
The one thing that did give me a little bit
of optimism was that he was moving like he's clearly
saw and clearly beaten up, but it wasn't like he
was laying prone on the side of the track.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
So that was a positive.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Where he was on the track relative to the bikes
going through that particular corner, that was the bit that
was a little bit disconcerting for me, because I'm not
sure that yellows are enough in that situation. But then,
if you've read Flagg the right, I mean there's a
number of knock on effects from red flagging a race
like that, so I can see in some respects why
they didn't. But yeah, you mentioned Fabio Degan Antonio his

(02:49):
post race press debrief. I'm not sure whether you're in
that or not, but he had spent the next couple
of laps. You know, Martine had fallen right in front
of him. He knew that he'd hit him, and there
was no way of avoiding that. He's looking on the
big screens as he's riding around the next few laps
after his own race had been completely ruined at the
beginning of the race, looking to see where Martine is.
Is he moving And you can imagine the emotions that

(03:12):
were going through his head while he was doing that,
because he's inadvertently been involved in every.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Rider's worst nightmare of an accident.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
He was pretty emotionally fraught anyway, because he was angry
with the way his own race had played out. And
you looked at him in that post race debrief and
he was a guy that you could almost see the
gears wearing at his head as he was trying to
process everything that was going on. He knew, and we
knew that we'd escaped something far worse. When we've seen
accidents like this in the past end up with far
worse consequences. But Jorge Martin, now you look at the injuries.

(03:44):
Eleven fractured ribs and a punctured lung. And I don't
know whether anyone listening to this is actually fractured a
rib before. I've done about three of them, and it's
the worst thing, by a mile, that's ever happened to me,
because you can't brace them, you can't splinter them. You
have to wait for them to heal, and every little
thing like sneeze is the worst possible thing ever. So
here you got Martine laying in a hospital in Katar.

(04:05):
He can't fly at normal altitude to get back to
Europe because of the pain and the swelling, so he's
going to take a low level medical flight to get back.
His season was pretty much ruined before this weekend because
of what happened in the preseason. It's completely ruined now.
But he's going to be out for a while. The
fortunate thing for all of us is that there is
a timeline for his return because for a while there

(04:26):
that could have been super dicey.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Couldn't it.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Oh when you saw the posts or what he was
doing on social media from the hospital bed, you see
the tubes hanging out of him. You could see him
physically in pain. You really fell for him, Like you said,
what has caused this bad luck for Juay Martin? Because
coming fresh from a World championship last year, we know
what he's capable of. A parlier we could see that

(04:49):
small glimpse of preseason that he was getting used to
the bike and the riding, soul and everything that he
was having to change. But now it's gone from two
steps back to ten steps back. Though you reported on
it for the whole weekend for Fox. What's your timeline
When do you think Jorge is going to return? Do
you think he's going to return? Because this is a
question I've had going is is this him going? No? Look,

(05:12):
I've won the World championship. This is him, Danni. He's
ticked his goal. He doesn't want to come back. Or
do you think he's still got that fight in him?

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah? I think there's He will be back at some
point this season I would suspect, but not for anything
meaningful because the championships, the title defense hasn't got out
of first gear. Quite frankly, that's not going to happen.
We know where Ducati is that relative to everybody else.
He knew that when he left to go to a Priulier,
so I think he's kind of playing with house money
a little bit. He won the championship with Ducati last year.

(05:42):
He will want to come back and prove that I
am a world champion quality rider on bikes that.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Aren't a Ducaddi.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
And so by the end of the year, assuming he
gets back to something resembling full fitness, I could see
him being that guy that's challenging the Ducatties for occasional
race wins or particularly sprint wins. We know how goodies
and that show format. That's got to be the goal
for this year. But everything needs to be looked at
with him through that longer lens of We've got this
massive motor GP regulation change for twenty seven right so

(06:10):
at the moment, Gukati's just wiping the floor with everybody.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
They've won twenty one straight Grand Prix.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
It would be a huge surprise if that changes this year,
probably rolling to next year a little bit, because why
these manufacturer are going to throw a heap of development
at a bike and rule set that's going to change anyway.
So I can kind of see the way it's going
at the moment, will probably go for most of the
next eight eight months. He wants to be ready at Aprilia,
have everything the way he wants it for twenty seven

(06:36):
and that big reset, that's the clean sheet of paper, right,
that's when we get this hard reset for the series
where you're not going to watch each race and go okay,
so which do Cati is going to be on pole
and which Ducati is going to win? I think you're
going to have a far greater spread of riders and manufacturers.
So he's got to take the long lens with this.
He's got the he's got the World championship, so he
doesn't have to really fret about that. He's obviously got

(06:58):
He's been paid as a factory rider now, so that's
hopeful too, obviously, but he's still young enough and ambitious
enough that I think he'll still be super keen to
get back to the front.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
But he can afford to be a little bit patient.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
He's not only twenty seven, right, so time's on his
side to a degree. He just doesn't need to rush
back now. There's nothing meaningful to fight for this year.
The number one priority has to be his health and
then almost treat the rest of this year as like
a huge preseason run into twenty six but this season
as we know it now is shot.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
This season litt let me try to again that's this
season may be shot for Johe Martin. But Mark Marquez,
if like let's talk about that he hadn't won in
Kata since twenty fourteen, comes back first year on Factory
Jacaddi literally out of the gate boom, Mark Marquez. Was
it a shock? Probably not necessarily because it is Mark Marquees,

(07:52):
but even going into this weekend, in the press conference
on the Thursday, Mark's going, oh, look, I'm technically I'm
not the strongest the track Pecker Bannay is even he goes,
my brother Alex Marquez is a lot stronger at this
circuit than I am, and he's on you know, Grissini
ju Caddi. So going into this weekend, either he was
playing those mind games straight away or he just generally

(08:13):
didn't think that maybe he could win and go out
and dominate and then look what happened Cole sprint win
and Sunday victory.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
This was a different one though to the ones we've
seen earlier in the season at tracks where we know
he's really good, Like I mean, he Obviously he binned
it in the Grand Prix at Kota, but to see
the way he handled that CODA weekend, that wasn't a surprise.
Argentina was the same, Thailand was the same. As you mentioned,
this is a track he had one acts, it's twenty fourteen,
and other riders have better cvs here, they're stronger here.
But one by one the others kind of dropped the

(08:44):
ball a little bit. Baangnai crashed in qualifying, was too
far back on the grid. That sort of took him
out of the way he preferred to run that race.
Alex Marquez had the incident with De jan Antonio earlier
in the race, got a ride through that took him
out of the front group. So one by one the
guys who were probably going to challenge Mark over the
Grand Prix distance were with self inflicted wounds. Really, they
took themselves out of the equation. I think I don't

(09:06):
know about you, but the thing that's so impressive with
me with Mark this year is he's not doing what
Mark used to do in that he would almost want
to flex how much speed and power he had in reserve,
because he would just go out and totally dominate I'm
not sure I've seen him ride smarter than this in
that now he knows, he said at the end of
the Grand Prix and Qatar, Morbidelli took the lead on

(09:27):
the first lap and Mark was like, well, that's fine,
he's just going to go on Bernie's tires out. I'll
just wait for him to come back to me, whereas younger,
more impatient Mark would have said, no, I'm getting back
in front of you right now. And so Mark's now
playing super clever. You combine that with a fantastic bike,
and you combine that with the fact that he's still
got that I'm kind of making up for lost time

(09:48):
thing about him, and that he knows this is huge
gap in his CV because of the injuries and the
recoveries and the surgeries and what have you. It's almost
like he's determined to come back and win a different
way to show that it's not just about speed, it's
having the speed and when you choose to deploy it,
and just writing more intelligently than the rest. So you
look at the way he pieced that Qatar weekend together.

(10:10):
He saved some sire, he saved some tire. Vignale has
made a mistake in upfront and we'll talk about Maverick
in a second, I'm sure. And that was the moment
it's like all right, time to go now. And he
knew that Banyai had charged through from the fourth row
to be in the mix, but would have consumed so
much tiger to get there that he wasn't going to
have the staying power. And you saw how much Mark
had in reserve once he got to the lead, set

(10:30):
a fastest lap, said another fastest lap, and that was
just like, see you guys later. So it's interesting you
look at the points tally and it's win win when
you know the one outlier with the Cota Grand Prix.
To me, it's how he's doing it, not what he's doing,
because I just think he's riding smarter than he's ever ridden.
You combine that with everything else that's already in his favor,
this is probably the best version of Mark we've seen, speaking.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Of value him writing smarta. Do you think Peco's seeing this?
And now we're starting to see those small little mistakes
like him crashing qualifying, like even the fact that Alex
Marque has I think he collided with Mark in the
sprint and then Collidible did you and the Grand Prix.
These these little mistakes that these other writers are going
to make because maybe that pressure is getting there because

(11:13):
they know what Mark is capable of and they have
to push that bit harder to reach out same level.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, the Banyai thing is interesting to me. I don't
know how you feel about this, because Banyaya were always
sort of painters, being this intelligent.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Cerebral writing. The professor as you like to call it.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
He's the guy who has everything worked out and then
executes the plan. It must be pretty galling for Peco
right now because Mark's come into his team and Mark's
kind of beating him, beating him at his own game.
You know, he's proving to be quick, but he's also
writing intelligently and doing the smart things that Peco is
renowned for. And I think that's why Banyai was kicking
himself so much after katar in that if he starts,

(11:48):
even if he's on the front two road. So Peco
was fourth on the grid or something. You can actually
try and take this version of Mark on from there.
Being back on that fourth row. There was just too
much to do in that first four or five laps
to get there. So that's where he would have been
kicking himself, because this is a circuit where you know,
you put them heads ahead here Banyay has a better
CV at Qatar. So if this is what Mark's capable

(12:11):
of at a circuit where it's not great for him,
and there's a couple of them on the calendar where
he's been sort of so so over the years, if
this is what he's doing at a circuit where he's
not had the success in the past, you look at
what's coming up. You know we're going to go to
the Saxon Rig at some point. You know how that's
going to end. And there's a few of these tracks
later in the season where you know, Philip Island's another
one where we know how good Mark is. So for

(12:32):
the others, this becomes a psychological game as much as anything.
I've been super impressed with Alex Marquez the entire year
and the fact that he had sustained it for three
straight rounds, finish, executed, everything was hugely impressive and not
something we've seen from him before. But Alex Mark is
who he is for a reason because he has not
been able to sustain that and there were a couple
of little wobbles in Qatar that saw him fall behind

(12:53):
the wayside a little bit. So at the moment, it
kind of looks like the only person that's capable of
beating Mark is Mark at the moment, and we saw
that in Kota seven out of eight so far. But
I think for Banyaya, that qualifying crashes. That's the sort
of crash you make when you're under the pump a
little bit. You know, you're just trying that little bit
extra to get on terms with the guy because you
know deep down you might not have the raw speed

(13:15):
to go with him. And that was just like a
bit of an overreach, I think for Peco, and it
had pretty disasterrous consequences. So we know that, you know,
he has that, the way of thinking that he has,
the way he races.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
He will learn from that.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
But that's one where we'll be kicking himself because it's like, ah,
this is one of my tracks relative to Mark, and
I've kind of let him off the hook a little
bit here, so you know, we'll obviously talk about her
wrath a little bit later on. But that's another good
Peco track and that's one that he'll definitely keep in
mind for this weekend looking.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
At the results. So, yeah, Mark Marquez one Sundays at
Grand Prix, and originally it was a different podium, but
it ended up being Vanyaya in second and Frankie Morbidelli
and third. Now, Frankie, let's touch on him because he
was on the podium. Both we can both racist. Sorry
this weekend. Third in the sprint, third in the main
Grand Prix. I kind of thought I was going to

(14:04):
see Digia up there, but we spoke about his Grand
Prix in his results earlier. Is this Frankie Morbidelli. Is
this him in his element, in his comfort zone. He's
got the team, he's got the bike that he's comfortable on.
Is this kind of where we're seeing that ceiling for
him or do you think he's going to be fighting
further for those racemans and eventually take that as well.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
He strikes me as the guy who'll be there to
pick up a podium when the others can't.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
For whatever reason.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
I think he's you know, he's clearly at a happy
place back riding for Valentino, and he's in a spot
that he likes. But I think in a more normal
race weekend. You if Qatar played out more normally for
the others, you would think that someone like Banaya had
his measure. Alex Marquez probably had his measure, and I
think de jan Antonio was the faster of the VR
forty six bikes. I think did you probably had podium
pace on the Sunday, but had the incident with Alex

(14:51):
Marquez really early and then everything unraveled after that. But
you know, a full credit to Morbidelli. He's put himself
in a position to score these big results this season,
and that's been the criticism of him in the past
couple of years. When he was alongside Juge Martin at Pramac,
the bike was good enough to win the World championship,
and you're thinking, well, if it's good enough for Martine
to win the World Championship on then where's the other guy.

(15:11):
He was never quite in position to capitalize on that.
So you know, he's been on the podium a few
times already this season. He's putting together a really nice season.
I don't know if it's got massive upside though, it
kind of is what it is. He's making the most
out of the opportunities that have presented themselves. Look full
credit to him, and for a guy who, you know,
we don't know what his contractual status is going forward,
he's one of the few that's out at the end

(15:32):
of this year, certainly making a pretty good case to
be retained. And I'm not sure we would have said
that six months ago, because we kind of felt that
maybe it was a bit of like a halfway house
for him, like a bit of a stop gap. Where's
he going to go after this? At the moment, he's
making all the right noises. But I still think within
that team, I still think, to Jane Antonio is the
faster of the two. It just hasn't really worked out
that way so far this season.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
So I mentioned Maverick Manalas that and let's talk about
that because roller coaster weekend and just the fact that
a KTM originally was on the podium and then the
hire pressure situation, but Maverick Vanalas crossed the line second
place ahead of Peco Banyaya. Then we find out what
forty plus minutes after the podium that he had the

(16:16):
hire pressure penalty, which relegated Peko Banyay into second. Franco
Morbidelli up into third, and I think it was a
sixteen second penalty second sixteen seconds, so he was demotive.
Back to p. Fourteen, when we looked at post race
debriefs and everything from Maverick, he goes, Okay, it's not
the result what we were hoping for, but the fact

(16:38):
that I was the fastest KTM and I was fighting
with that front group. This is what katm can do.
This is what I want to talk to you about. Okay,
move that high pressure aside. Is Maverick now finding his home?
Is he finding his confidence? Or is this just another
Maverick Vaniella's We're seeing the high of batmav and then
once again it'll be that rollercoaster and flow.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
You do ask the impossible questions. I'm not sure Maverick
knows the answer to this question, so I'm not sure
sure how I'm supposed to as well. He's got no idea,
so I don't think anyone's got much of an idea.
But to let you know what I'm actually cooking up here,
I'm actually writing a piece of vinialest to go on
Fox Sports a little bit later in the week, perhaps
on Wednesday, and started diving deep into some stats. He
hadn't been written a lap in a Grand Prix in

(17:22):
better than thirteenth position in the first three rounds of
the season. He spent the entire race in Doha in
the top five, which if that's not the most Maverick
Vinales stat of all time, then I don't know what is.
We know that this guy's high points. He can be
the best rider in Motor GP for about one hour
a year, that's what it feels like, and that he'll

(17:42):
have one weekend where he is absolutely amazing. We only
have to go back to twenty twenty four. The last
non Decati rider to win a Grand Prix was Maverick
Vinales on an Aprilia at Cota. It was over one
year ago and he had one of those weekends where
he absolutely screwed up the start and I think tenth
on the first lap and then past everybody like they
were riding motor three bikes and won that race. And

(18:04):
then you don't see him for two months. You just
forget that he's at the races, so you don't see
him on the coverage because he's buried so far back
in the pack and you look at the classification and go, oh,
Maverick Vinalez was thirteenth.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
I forgot about that.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
So this is what he is at this point, and
I don't know. I've had this sort of love hate
relationship with the way he goes about it, because I
get so enthusiastic about the good days that I'm like, oh,
come on, like, why aren't these repeatable. I've actually gone
a bit the other way now, and I know that
he's like this wild card of wild cards that one
weekend a year he's probably going to be absolutely amazing,

(18:36):
and it's super fun when it happens because it adds
something to the mix.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
But even his.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Peers were surprised about it. You probably saw this in
the post race presser, and it was pretty funny that
Mark Marquez had said, Oh, I saw this orange KTM
come down the inside about halfway through the race, and
I figured, oh, that's Pedro Acosta, and then I looked
to one side went oh, it's Maverick. Who knew like
he was absolutely shocked and was just so impressed with
how good Maverick was in that race. But he was

(19:01):
almost too fast for his own good. Because I did
some digging with this with this whole tire pressure stuff.
Obviously you've got to be above a certain low low
mark of tire pressure for the sixty percent of the
race distance. Katy m clearly didn't expect him to be
up to the front because they set his tire pressures
to a point that he could run in the pack
and still be within that threshold. It was when he

(19:22):
got to the front of the race for five laps
that he's front tire cooled down that the tire pressure
went below the threshold. So even surprised his own team
by being too fast for his own good, and that's
why he basically caught the penalty. So it's so funny
with the way these things work out. This tire rule
is convoluted and annoying and all of those things. But
he was so good that he'd defied what his own
team expected of him because he was up the front

(19:43):
for five laps. So yeah, a very Maverick videal is
way to a get a podium and then be lose it.
But he wasn't super upset after the race because he's like, well,
we showed the pace, this was fantastic, and I think
he was still going to hit herve pontchareal up for
his podium bonus as well, so you know, second across
lot and so where's my little percentage kicker for being
on the podium. Thanks, But I don't know about you,

(20:04):
but this weekend at her Rest, it's a track where
he's gone quite well in the past. He could be
on the podium agin or it could be fourteenth, and
I'd probably just shrug my shoulders and go sure, because
you just don't know what you're going to get from him.
But it was certainly fun to watch though.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
It was and it made the race exciting to see
a KTM. And like you said, I thought it was
Pedro Acosta originally, and even reading you know articles, Herve
Panchoal was going, you know, before everyone was Pedro Acosta's
KTM's golden boy. But now they're going to start looking
at Maverick. Well maybe they're going to start looking at
Maverick for some of it, but like you said, it'll
be why is he back down in fourteenth or why

(20:39):
is he fighting for another podium? At Herrest? This weekend
is typical. Maverick is nice and it's exciting, and it
added a change of scenery to what I thought we
were going to experience this weekend, which was Hope Well,
a Mark Marquez, a Mark Alex Marquez, and a Peko
Baangnaya somewhere in those three and all of a sudden
you have a KTM up there. But then we also

(21:00):
had Joan Zako who finished fourth a Sunday's Grand Prix,
and Quita obviously with the penalty and everything from Maverick Vignalez.
But now we're starting to see the other manufacturers make
their way through. Joan Zacho. I spoke to him Akata.
He looks confident, he looks like he's jelling. He's comfortable,

(21:21):
He's in his element there, and we've spoken about this
on the pod. There must be something in the team
dynamic of being the Elsier, the family team as they
call it, even though it's the privateer, but the satellite team.
It just seems to work for him. We're seeing the
same thing with Jack Miller, where they just seem to
be that bit more comfortable that they can then perform.

(21:42):
What have you heard from Zacho? Is this something that
we're going to start seeing him fighting close so? Or
was this another we can like Argentina where it just
seemed to suit him in that bike no.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
I just think he has been really, really good this season.
I think he's the perfect guy at the perfect time
for not any Elsie but maybe that Honda project, because
I mean.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Let's face it, it's been so bad since Mark left.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
It's been bad even while Mark was there, when he
was sort of competing between surgeries, and they've got this
situation with the factory team where the team looks different
because you don't have the Repsol sponsorship anymore. Juan Mier
is crashing all of the time, and if he's not,
then the poor guy's sick, like he was in Katar
and had to sit out the sprint. Luca Marine is
out of contract at the end of this season. He's
the guy who wants to understand what it is that

(22:27):
he's riding and how it all works before he pushes
it to that next degree. Zarko is a guy who's
going to wring the neck of whatever it is that
he rides. And I think you approach this a little
bit differently when you're him because he's been a major
GP a long time. He had to wait so long
for that first win that came here in Australia, obviously,
but now he's the oldest guy on the grid. He's
not doing like every race like it's potentially his last race,

(22:50):
but you know the clock only you know far the
time is undefeated, as the saying goes, and you can
only hang around for so long. He's making a really
good case that he should be retained by Hold, and
there's been some discussion. It's like, well, why wouldn't they
put him in the factory team? Like he's their best
performing writer so far, And that's not normally a conversation
you would have with a guy getting towards like the

(23:11):
twilight of his career in terms of age. But I
don't know about you. I don't see any sort of
drop off in his determination or his ability to push
the limits. He's still one of the hardest guys in
will to will combat there is in the field, like
Jack Miller always talks about, you know, when you're at
a fight with Zarko, you know it's going to be
gloves off. So he you know, you would think, well,
maybe he's starting to wind down. I'd almost go the

(23:32):
other way and say, right now, if you're Honda, why
wouldn't you throw him in the factory team if you
have a chance if you're looking for a potentially a stopgap,
because he's getting the most out of.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
What he's getting.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
He is a very very determined guy. We know the
way he goes racing, and you mentioned before that sort
of family, small privateer type team. I think that brings
out the best in someone like him. I think Zarko
reacts better when he knows that he's sort of loved
and he's got someone with an arm a round his
shoulder and they're buying into what he brings. And that's
Luccio to a t, isn't it really?

Speaker 1 (24:03):
So?

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, super impressive. Yeah, he got promoted up a spot
because Finale's got punted down in the classification because of
the penalty. But he was right up there the entire race.
And yeah, Honda's in the top five. Hey, we've not
said that for a while.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
You mentioned they're about putting him in the factory team.
The I keep wanting to say, repsal Honda. Now that's it,
take a shot whenever we say Reps, wonder Castro Honda HRC.
I've heard the rumors and I wanted to ask you
about this, the rumors of Pedro Acosta potentially going to
Honda next year, and then we're hearing the rumors about
top Rack Rasgalioglu also making that move. For twenty twenty seven,

(24:40):
let's talk about Pedro and the rumors of him going
to factory Honda, because you mentioned Marini's contracts. You at
the end of this year me is still crashing or
is ill? Is that a possibility? Is that something you think?

Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think it's got more to do with what Katims
show than what Honda does, because I think we can
see Honda's clearly climbing out of the basement. Now it's
a long climb. They've been a long, long, long way down.
And we talk about this on a previous podcast where
when Honda had Mark Marquez, he almost sort of flattered
the machinery where they thought that maybe it wasn't as
much of a problem as it actually was. I think

(25:14):
once you took a complete superstar off the bike and
put a very good motor GP right on it, you
could see their results just went down so badly. So
they're still climbing out of the basement, but they are
clearly climbing, and we know with Honda, there's no shortage
of ambition, there's no shortage of budget, and I think
that's the key thing if you've read some of the
reports out of the Spanish press. Obviously, if Honda were
to get a Costa, they have to pay out his

(25:36):
KTM contract to get him out. That's going to be
not the work of a moment. And I wonder the
way I look at the ECSTA thing is that if
he's frustrated with KTM not being able to take the
next step and be ready, you would have to say
on balance that KTM's further up the food chain than
Honda are right now. So if you're putting a cost
on a bike that's not necessarily capable of achieving great things, now,

(25:59):
is it to be the same frustration, but just on
a different colored bike and a bit further back on
the grid. So I'm not sure. I don't know if
Honda's ready for a rider like a cost but I'll
put the end of that sense I put the word
yet because I can see a pathway where Honda might be.
It might just be a little bit premature. I don't
think Honda is going to be down in this position
for too much longer. It still might take a couple

(26:20):
of years and perhaps that rule reset that I talk
about in twenty seven might be the time that they
really start to step forward. So could I see a
cost on a Honder in the future. Yeah, look, possibly,
but maybe not yet. That might be one with a
longer lens. And the thing with Pedro Costa is atly
twenty one years old, so he's got the longer leand
he's got the longest possible lens. He could be on
this grip for another twelve years longer than that if

(26:41):
he wants to be. He's one of those guys. So yeah,
I could see a Honda in his future, but perhaps
not yet. But the look the top rack stuff, I
feel like I've been burned by this one so many
times because every time it comes up as a potential topic, go, oh,
that would be interesting, that would be fun, that would
be box office for Moto GP. I've almost got a
blanket banner myself here from talking about or writing about

(27:01):
top rack until it actually happens, because I feel I've
written or talked about that, Oh that'd be interesting if
it happens story, and then it never does. So yeah,
I've decided to keep the Q in the rack on
that one. So look, if he ever comes to Motor GP.
Then happy days. I'll have lots to say about it,
but for the time being, it's like, can you just
prove it first and actually get there and then we'll
discuss it.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
I like that. Yeah, it just continually he's coming in
the headlines of top Rack, Moto GP, and then some manufacturer,
and then a month later it'll be the different manufacturer.
But the Honda thing I thought was interesting was I
don't want to get too much into top rack, but
the fact of him having to go to Honda World
Superbike for a season then go to Honda Moto GP.
I thought, oh, that's quite an interesting move if that's

(27:42):
something that they would even consider, But.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Sounds better on paper that it does in reality, I
reckon because if he was riding the Honder in World
Superbikes after about four rounds, it'd be like, what am
I doing on this thing? And you know, bike riders
aren't the most patient at the best of time, So
to ask someone to sort of you know, can you
just have like a bit of an annoying year doing
that and then will promote you? Like that's going to
get pretty old pretty fast, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Oh? Exactly exactly, But let's talk about the rookie of
the weekend, Furman Alsigert qualified eighth and then what was
he top five in both the sprint and the main
Grand Prix. I'm just looking at how to get fourth
in the sprint. Yeah, once again, Matt, I'm going to
ask you this question. Was this just a circuit that
seemed to suit that you caddies, or is this Albiget

(28:25):
now finding his feed in with the big boys and
he's finally getting to grips with this is Moto GP
and how he can fight for that top five finish.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
I think both think Well, is name me a circuit
that's not ad Caddy circuit Right now, they're all du
Caddy circuits. But I've been impressed with how quickly he
started to look legit because at the start of the
season three, preseason testing, in those first couple of races,
it's like, oh, this guy looks a bit off the pace.
And he had that really weird Motor two career where
he was amazing, and then he got signed to Moto GP,

(28:54):
and then last year in Motor two it was like, oh,
you know, I remember we had Matt Burt on the
podcast last year and you know, you say, you wonder
if Kady would like to sort of take a mulligan
on that decision and throw it back in the.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Pond a little bit.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
The race of his improvement's been the impressive thing for me,
because you know, he's super young, and he's super inexperienced,
and you see the complexity of these bikes these days,
with all the systems and the way they need to
be ridden and ride height devices and this, that and
the next thing. It's not a small step at all
from Moto two to Motor GP. There's not too many
rookies around. There's a lot going on. You're doing flyways

(29:27):
for the first four rounds. It's fairly chaotic. I just
think the rider he was in Katar compared to where
he was in Thailand four races, four rounds earlier. He's
come a long way in a super short time. And
we know he's on a really, really good bike. But
he's not just some sort of also round. Now he's
a guy we have to factor in, and he's still
going to do rookie young guy Motor GP. You know,

(29:49):
novice mistakes like he did in Austin when he came
charging up behind Jack Miller, and then promptly crashed when
he had a top five on the table. But the
rate of his improvements is the thing that's impressed me.
And look, there's sixty on the green. If you're on
one of those bikes, then you're in with a good
shot of winning some silverware by the end of the year.
But it would not surprise me at all if we
see him now some things that have to go wrong
for other people. I could see him finishing on the

(30:10):
podium this year because we know he's got the right
bike to do it. So what he's seeing is we
don't know. He's still so young. But I've been impressed
by just he seems to be a fast learner, which
you know when you're coming into Moto GP, and particularly
after that first couple of rounds where everyone's talking about
Ayagura as being the gun rookie, Aldegarez really kind of
settled in and he's been super impressive, I think.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
As well, coming to your first nighttime race and we
know there's only the one nighttime race that they have
on the calendar, but also talking to Alex Rins and
he's saying it still takes time to adjust. You still
see the shadows, you still see all that. So I
think for Feman, like you said, to have progressed so
far and doing that on the first nighttime race on
a Moto GP bike, it is that step forward that
he needs. And I think having Alex Marquez, who was

(30:53):
so far up the championship, was leading it right coming
into this weekend, now Foman is starting to show, you know,
I do to be here, look at what I can do.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
It's a weird format too, Katar, and you would have
found that when you were there, because the whole race
weekend for Motor GP, like half of it's in daylight
and half of it isn't. Yeah, And I keep wondering,
you know, particularly talking about rookies trying to get used
to racing under the lights of the first time. I
almost wonder if that weekend format needs a flip, like
do we need to have the sprint on like Saturday
morning and then have qualifying at night because it seems

(31:23):
weird that you're qualifying for a race that's happening like
thirty hours later. You're qualifying in the daytime and you're
racing at night the next day. That's always a bit
weird for me. The whole Kitar thing because practice and
the way that the weekend sort of shakes out, the
general cadence of a weekend is weird because you've got
totally different track conditions and everything else going on. I
wonder if there's like a one off switch that needs

(31:43):
to be for that, But that's for people with far
more important jobs than me to decide. But you were
on the ground there was it a bit of a
weird vibe because you've got you know, you've got this
qualifying thing happening on Saturday morning. It's almost like you're
a totally different track, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
It is? It does feel like a totally different track,
and they do say that it funny. We were just
talking about the timing and I just want to go
back to I was talking to my brother when I
came back from Qatar, Chris Famulan for those who are
new here, and he was saying that when he used
to race it, and they'd race at night, they'd actually
race like two am in the morning or three am
in the morning. Yeah, the Jew and the Mist, because

(32:17):
so they do their practice and the qualifying when it
was dark, and then the Jew and the Mist would
sit down from the desert, they obviously would cool down.
The track would actually get really quite damp. He was
saying he actually crashed coming into pit lane once back
on Suzuki because of how much it is, So that's
why they moved everything back. And then you have the
trouble of the track temperature doesn't change all that much

(32:39):
because it is still really hot there. But you can
see as the sun starts to set, you see it
almost like the dust come in like the sets, So
it changes a lot, And a couple of them would say, yeah,
the track would feel really dirty as the time would change.
But then like I talked to like Fabio Coudro and
he's like, to me, it just feels the same. I'm
just doing the same. So I think it depends on

(33:01):
the writer as well and how they handle it. But
I would think for a rookie that would be a
lot to adjust for.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Well, he's got a lot going on anyway, because he's
getting used to the sprint format and you've got you
know what, the way practice has become now with Moto GP,
that last ten minutes of Friday practice has almost become
what we're sort of referring to as Q zero.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
These days.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
It's like the qualifying session before the qualifying session. So
you've got that going on. You've got two part qualifying thing,
a sprint race. There's a lot for rookies to get
used to. And I just think the thing with alther
Gear is he seems, you know, what, are we the
end of nearly the end of April. You look at
where he's come from the start of February to now,
he's made super progress. Now it helps that you're on
an awesome bike. Let's not now makes your bones about it,

(33:43):
but he's making the best of what he's got. And yeah,
I can see him becoming much more of a factor
towards the sharp end, or at least determining what happens
in podium places for the rest of the season if
this continues for him.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Let's talk about the other rookie, and you mentioned that
I age now what I wanted to ask you with eyes.
I've heard some rumors going around on social media that
I is potentially going to step in to replace Jorge
Martin while the injury and everything's going. What's your thoughts
on that? What have you heard? Because I also feel
like that's a lot to put on a rookie. Yeah,

(34:16):
we saw him exceed expectations in pre season and testing.
But looking at the results from this weekend in a
Sunday's race, he was fifteenth. Okay, so he got a point.
But we saw him so well at the beginning of
the season. Now we're still trying to see him finding
his feet. Do you think he's the person to step
in to help replace and I'm seeing that with like
the air. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Look, it depends how long Martin is out, and it's
been some discussion that he might be out for twill
three months. And if that's the case, if we're not
going to see Martin until almost the tail end of
the European season, I actually don't mind it for a
Prillier because it's one of those things that, well, you know,
there's potential upside there as opposed to just sort of
running up and down on the spot for the next
couple of months. Because we've seen Lorenzo Savadori step in.

(35:00):
He's a test rider, he's not a front running motor
GP rider.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
There's nothing to suggest that he's there.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
I wouldn't mind a Prillier having a gur up in
that top team for a couple of reasons. A. It
gives you a more dependable points scoring option on the
second bike. B. It kind of helps you benchmark Marco
Betzeki a little bit, because I've been pretty underwhelmed with
what Bozeki has.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Done so far on that bike.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
He was good in the preseason, but we've not really
seen it when it comes to the actual championship so far,
and the fact that a guru is on the whole
doing better. I think you'd learn a lot about both
riders if you put them together in the same garage
for a couple of months.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
And I think.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
If it was a race or two at the start
of the year when you Martin was going to be back,
probably round three, round four, that's not a long enough
period to perhaps put a guru up in the top team.
But if save Martin's going to miss the next i
don't know, six seven rounds or something, if you're a prillier,
then what have you got to lose? As opposed to
having Savadori in the factory team and he's basically there
to test parts and you won't see him at the

(35:57):
front of races, why not put a guru in there,
give him some more responsibility and find out whether he
sinks or swims in that sort of situation, and you
can have Savadora down on the trackhouse bike and it's
not as much of an issue. So I don't mind
it as an idea, but I think the validity of
that will be once we get an idea as to
how long Martin is likely to be out for. If

(36:19):
it is three months and he's going to miss pretty
much half the season to two thirds of the season,
why not because it's kind of nothing to lose, is there?

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well, exactly right. I mean, I think it's good. We've
seen what I can do, especially he is in that
track house team, so it is very different dynamic and everything,
I think, But for him to step into the factory
role essentially air quotes once again, I mean him alongside
Marco Badzecki. I think that could be a really good
team together because they are very different people, very different riders,

(36:50):
and I feel like how they would attack the situation
with the development of the Aprilia. I think it would
be a good teamwork.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Well, and I think they're coming at it from very
different angles. Have to remember, Bozeki is as an experience
with the Aprilia as a Gura is because he'd never
raced one before this season either, So it's not like
you're putting an inexperienced guy with an experienced guy. They're
both in a similar situation. I think you'd actually learn
a lot about both riders by making that move, not
just a gura because it it'd be interesting to see
how Buzeki reacted to that, and is there a natural

(37:20):
leader among the two who steers the development direction of
the bike. They're not fighting for wins right now, let's
be honest. Because they're not riding in to Caddy. You
may as well take a risk with this because it's
kind of a It's like a low risk, high reward
sort of situation as far as.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
I see it, And that's what we love about motogps
because you never know what's going to happen, the twizs
and the turns and guess what. We had one weekend
off which you guys didn't get to hear from us.
But now we're back because we're going to Harath this weekend. Unfortunately,
we're not going to hereth we'll be watching it from
our sofas at home in Australia. But motor GP is

(37:53):
going to Herrath. So let's look forward to that thinking
of last year. I'm trying to rack my brain. Remind
me it was quite wet, wasn't it on the Friday?
So they didn't actually have a good set up.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
On the Friday.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Look, her ref last week from last year for me
was that was that first Mark Marquez Pekovan flashpoint with
Mark being on a do caddy. Awesome grand Prix, like
one of the absolute best Grand Prix of last year,
and unusual in that Mark got the bloody nose in
a fight head to head with somebody, which is not
something you see very otem Mark and Vanya had that

(38:28):
awesome battle across those last few laps, and look, we
know Peco was on a better machine. We definitely knew that,
and it was just nice to see Mark fighting up
the front again. But you know, we didn't even know
at that point those two were going to be teammates
for the following year, because they all kicked off at
Magello a couple of months down the track. But that
was so interesting last year where you had the guy
won the previous two championships against the guy who had

(38:50):
kind of abdicated the throne a little bit, you know,
because he'd been so beaten up for the last few years.
It was a super intense flashpoint between those two Mark
at home Pecko sort of you know, winning one on
away territory. But the intensity of that fight, and the
thing I loved about it last year was that it
was just on the side of being accepted and I

(39:10):
say just like literally finger and thumb together and it
was millimeters away from being a little bit over the top.
But Peco gave as good as he got, and we
know how fierce marks in these head to head battles,
so that was a real feather at his cap that
day to sort of, you know, stare in the eye
of motor TP. He's giant and not buckle. He really
held his ground there. So I would love to think

(39:31):
that that would be the case again this year, but
we've already seen that Marco has definitely taken a step
up since he's gone to that factory team. It's a
weekend for Peco to stand his ground a little bit.
I think he's the guy who won there last year.
We know how he won. It's probably going to be
a Ducati track, because every track, as I said before,
is a Ducatti track, But I wouldn't mind a reprisal

(39:53):
of those two going camera and tongs up the front
for the Grand Prix again because it'd be pretty good
TV for us, wouldn't it. Oh?

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Definitely, And I think you know he's all that in guitar.
The racing was really good and it was exciting. Again,
it wasn't just Marquez getting up front and taking the
lead straight away, so hopefully we can see that. But
this is what then, I'm thinking, Okay, we know it's
going to be a Mark Marquez, hopefully it's a Peco
Bagno and battling it out. What about the rest? Do
you think we'll see Aldiga, who were just talking about
close to the front? Is this and Alex Marquerez coming

(40:20):
back to fight, maybe regaining his P two or is
it going to be one of the VR forty six machines.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
You've given me Option A, B and C, so I'm
going to do what I do in pick Option D.
I'm just going to make one up here. I'm super
curious to see Yamaha this weekend because her read is
one of those tracks that it's not just about horsepower, right,
It's not one of those tracks with a massive one
case straight. You've got the front straight and the back
straight down into what is now the Danny Padroza carder.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I've almost called a drysack there.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
It's not a track that rewards just straight horsepower, right
because you've not got these huge long point and squirt straights.
It's a flowing circle with that particular layout that's still
in Yamaha's wheelhouse, right. And we know that Katura has
been good there previously. We know Jack Miller has been
good there. He has a good record at her Reath generally.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
So I'll be.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Curious to see what happens with Yamaha because you look
at the last two tracks. Guitar's got that one and
a bit k front straight. Austin's got that straight that
you can't even see the end of because it's so long,
And that's where you see the Yamahas might be in
a good position and they just get passed by decatties
like they're riding in a different category. So that's not
as much of a factor. A somewhere like her Reth
that's much more of a flowing traditional track. Yamaha has

(41:28):
been a bit.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Up and down.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
I mean, Quaturo has been good on occasions. Jack Miller
was fantastic at Austin and had just the most forgettable
Doha weekend of all time for a million different reasons.
But I wouldn't be surprised to see them more in
the mix this weekend, just simply because I think it's
a track layout that suits them a lot more and
it's one of those you know, over a full Grand
Prix distance, it might be a bit of a stretch,

(41:49):
but if someone like Quaduro can qualify quite well, he's
the guy who could be fighting for something meaningful in
the sprint perhaps, And then you look at someone like Jack,
he's got would record that his last Scranpery podium was
at Hareth when he was at KTM a couple of
years back, so he's got some good results there. He
was very much looking forward to get there a because
he loves the place and be he could not wait

(42:10):
to get out of Doha because it was the complete
disaster of him having food poisoning and choosing the wrong
tie for the sprint and then having some random thing
happened to him in the race and it just never
happened for him. So he'll be keen to get there
Kwaturo should be pretty strong, and I think Yamaha generally
seems to be this weekend. A team that we might
see fighting more up the front is.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Miguel Lavera making the return to this weekend in hereth
or Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
TBC haven't announced one way or the other yet whether
it's going to be Augusto Fernanez or Olivera.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
And as you know, Olivera was in.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Qatar visiting the Pramat garage. Still looks pretty sore and
beaten up. So we're now in this European part of
the season where we've got a race basically every two
weeks until September. He will come back, probably in the
next one too. I reckon he might try to come
back this weekend simply because on the Monday after Hares
there's a one day test there. Testing is so few

(43:01):
and far between in MotoGP these days. He'll want to
get through a weekend and then get the benefit of
doing the test on the Monday. So if he's close
to being right, I would suggest that they'll have him
on the bike this weekend.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
You mentioned Fernandez or Gusto Fernandez there. I just want
to say I actually spoke to him when I was
at Qatar and the fan forum stage, asking him what
is like test riding and whatnot. My read from what
he said to me, he wants to come back to
Moto GP. As you would. He had very difficult years.
Let's say he was saying to me. He is working harder,

(43:33):
he was training more, He's doing with everything that he
can to try and get back. Are we seeing the
results that could potentially bring him back, do you think?
Or is it he is the test writer miguel O
Lavera like we talk about this, the one year contract
with Miller all the time. Right.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Interesting with they Amahart, they've got sort of five i
won't say overqualified, but five legit motor GP riders for
four bikes. Right, So Quaaterero is the king pin, the
leader of the project, the guy they're paying them money to.
Alex Rins, as we've discussed before, has been just a
shadow of himself since that accident Magello a couple of
years ago, and he's still on the grid based on
what he did before that than what he's done since.

(44:11):
Because the last year and a half has been pretty bad.
We know how good Alex is when he's fully fit,
but those three those words, when he's fully fit, that's
the caveat We just don't know Jack Miller, I think,
you know, take guitar out of it. I think he's
already shown why he's so valuable to a new project
in terms of pramaccas, of the experience, the fact that
Jack finds the ceiling of a bike super quickly. He's

(44:33):
done everything he needs to do, And to my mind,
Fernandez's motor GP story isn't finished. I think he's probably
a better ride and some guy's on the grid now,
he's just in the wrong situation.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
So I think.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
He's in a good position to get back on the
grid simply because Yamaha has got a few moving pieces there.
Whether he gets back on, I don't know. He's older
than you think he is. You think of him as
being a younger guy because he won that two two championship.
He took a while to get there, so he's in
that sort of mid to late twenties range. But I
don't think he's finished by any means. I could see

(45:04):
him getting back in. But there's just a few unanswered
questions at Yamaha. Other than Quatarero, who's the proven you know,
he's their shining light. He's the proven commodity. The other
guys all have justify they have justifiable cases to stay
on the grid, But just who's got the most justifiable case?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I guess that's the answer to that question.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Before we wrap this one up, let's talk about our Aussies. So,
Sena Aegeus, what was up with that? That was not
the ride that we from.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
No I was going to ask you that exact question,
because that was a little bit of a head scratcher
that I mean, with the others, we know Jacob Rolston
is still getting himself back to full fitness and we
can discuss the craziest photo finish of all time Momoto
three with John Kelso at a sec. But yeah, the
age is one that I must admit that was because
it was being held at stupid a clock here in Australia.
I didn't sort of tune in and have a look

(45:52):
and I was like, that's not worked out what happened?
So you would have spoken to him over the course
of the weekend. What was his read on it?

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Well, to me, he seemed really comfortable, he seemed good.
It was maybe just like fine a little bits, but
I know he's working really closely with Manu Gonzales and
she guys can see right now somehow there's balloons on
my screen. I don't know what's happening, but anyway, I
know that they are there working really closely together. So

(46:19):
from my understanding, that was all okay. But then to
get that double long lap penalty and then not complete
it properly and then have to do another one for me,
I think that was Senna being really frustrated and not
letting it clear his mind and not just head down Taylor,

(46:39):
do what you have to do and then go through. I
think that was him just trying to just a frustration
getting to him. And I think he's still let's call
him a rookie. Is his second year, still in Moto two.
He's still learning to deal with that. But also the
fact that his bike, his team, they're closer to the
front than what they were last year. We hear only
had his first podium the end of last year, but

(47:00):
he's already had a podium this year. I think it's
the frustration. I think it's him having to learn and
keep growing.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Yeah, I mean it's a different equation, isn't it. When
you know you've got machinery that's capable of better and
for whatever reason, you're not achieving that. I think the penalty,
I think you're completely right. It's one of those things
that maybe in the inexperience still in that you are
too busy being annoyed about what has happened rather than
thinking about what might happen in the future. You sort
of hang on to stuff for that little bit too

(47:26):
long and not completing along that penalty correctly. It's easy
for you and I had to say City got the couch,
but it's one of those things you can't rail against it.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
It's happened.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
You've just got to deal with it and move on
to almost handicap yourself while having to do it a
second time. That wasn't exactly ideal. But while we're talking Australians,
I did shout at my screen here a couple of
times with Joel Kelso because my goodness, like to finish
what was it, eight one hundreds off a win and
not even be.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
On the podium. That was absolutely crazy. The final lap
of that Moto THII race.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
It was insane and you could hear the crowd, you
could hear everyone like gasping. Everyone's on the edge of
their seats. Joel. The thing is, he's so close now,
and it's such a big improvement from last year. He
is close. We Sawry Meals on the front row this weekend,
like he is getting that and it's not going to
be long before he's consistently that p one position. Man,

(48:19):
just oh, it was just right there.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
It's so near but so far. But look you look
at the season he's having, I mean, third World championship.
He's doing a really, really nice job. But it feels
to me like I don't think it's going to be
too long until he wins one of these because he's
right there in the mix now, you just need he's
at ninety nine point eight percent of what he needs
to be able to do. It's just that last little bit.
And yeah, I'm galling to finish off the podium. But

(48:43):
that photo finish I actually paused that and looked at
that finish line a couple of times. You could not
have had a podium decided by smaller bargins. I don't
even know if it was the width of a front
wheel was about half a front wheel?

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Is crazy?

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Do you know what blows my mind is how quickly
the guy's in the control room looking at all the
cameras ken decide who it was because I was waiting
in the wings to go and present the podium and
you see it the replaces happening on the TV screen
and then all of a sudden you get the result sheet.
Note this is what it is. This is the finale.
I mean they say that and then we had the
Maverick Finnella situation, but this is the finale, all of

(49:17):
a sudden, like how they can find it. It's so close.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
That's why they are the best of the world doing
what they're doing and finding these things.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
That's why they're doing it.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
And that's what you and I are talking about it
exactly exactly. And one last writer to talk about before
we close this up, Jacob Realstone. I spoke with Jacob
really briefly. I said, hey, going, how are you feeling, like,
how's it being back? He said, he is also taking
his time coming back and getting up to speed. He
feels like there's not pressure there, but I think he's
putting pressure on himself. And I must admit, from having

(49:48):
such a big damage of an injury to his neck.
What did he finish on the weekend fourteenth. I feel like, Okay,
it's gonna take Jacob a few races to get back
to where we know can get back to. But I
think he's coming back more determined this time.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Yeah, I think so. I mean that whole absence makes
the heart growth on the type thing he's been out
of it, and it's obviously a serious, serious injury. His
number one goal now is to get back to at
least where he finished last year in terms of confidence
and feel and physically. But you don't want to overstep
here because the last thing he needs is another fall.
He just needs to get through weekends cleanly and just
methodically build his way back up. I reckon it about

(50:25):
a month's time will start to see the best of
Jacob once he's had a couple of European tracks under
his belt, and obviously going back to Herreth this weekend
will be a bit of a mental thing to get
over because of where he was injured, but it's he
just needs to. You know, you're asking a motorcycle rider
to be patient. It's not the easiest thing in the world,
but he just needs to do that at the moment
and just methodically get his way back to where he was.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
I love that you've said that twice in this podcast
about how I rode a cycle race and needs to
be patient, and I'm just thinking about what it's like
being in my family and having the first experience of that.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
I spent many a year having this conversation with your
brother and he looked at me like I was completely
insane because I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
He was right and so was I, and I think.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
That is the perfect place to wrap this one up. Guys.
This weekend is the wrath A Grand Prix and you
can catch it all live on Fox Sports and care
Sports Plus. Keep up to date with all the latest
Moto GP news on our socials at Fox Motorsport on
every platform, and if you want to read some of
Matt's articles that we spoke about, you can do so
on foxsports dot com, dot au, Forward Slash Motorsport. But

(51:27):
from Matt Clayton and myself, Rinita Vermullen, We're going to
be back real soon with more Moto GP pit talk,

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