Aprilia and Ducati Battle, KTM Loses Chains. Misano Post-Race Show!

Marco Bezzecchi steps up for the hometown fans, Marc Marquez stages an epic weekend comeback, and KTM is losing parts all over the track. I recap the MotoGP action, surpises, and strange stuff (including the...fake leg) that happened in the SanMarinoGP.

The Rundown:

- Qualifying - Fabio Quartararo once again impresses, and Aprilia lets everyone know they mean business
- Sprint Race - An intense battle leads to a miscalculation, a big mistake, and a home win
- Someone please explain the creepy leg-thing
- Alex Marquez' stats this year will make your head spin
- VR46 and Pedro Acosta get back on track
- Yamaha V4 Debut
- MotoGP Race - Lessons learned lead to a reversal of fortune
- Aprilia - you don't have to win for the race to be a success
- The difference in progress between Yamaha and Honda
- The MotoGP Championship Picture - third place is the new battle
- My take on the San Marino GP

What did you think of Misano? Let me know on Facebook or the Motoweek Reddit Sub.

Find all of the latest episodes at Motoweek.net, follow on Bluesky and Instagram – and you can support the show on Patreon!

Thanks for listening!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Frommotoweek dot neg It's the MotorWeek.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Podcast with your host Wilson.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Big mistakes, bigger comebacks, a non Ducati that's now a
legitimate challenger, and missing motorcycle chains. Misano had action, excitement
and some really strange stuff happening. Hello and welcome to
the MotorWeek post trase show for around sixteen of the
twenty twenty five MotoGP World Championship the Samarino GP at

(00:30):
Misano World Circuit. Marco Simanceelli on the incredible Adriatic Coast
of Italy. My name is Wilson, I'm your host, and
did we get a variety of wild stuff this weekend?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Or what I mean?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Just to name a few, Aprilia back on the top
step of the podium, Fabio Quatruro with another stunning run
out of Q one and through Q two, Katsim with
the strangest series of mechanical failures maybe ever, the debut
of the Yamaha VI four and to top all of
those storylines, Mark wrecking on Saturday, following it up with

(01:05):
an epic comeback on Sunday despite intense pressure from a
non du Kati by the way for the win and
all of that sets up a potential championship lockdown in Japan.
We got a lot to talk about, so let's go
ahead and do it. Before we start, though, I would
like to take just a brief moment to invite you
over to the website if you've never checked it out before.

(01:26):
You can get all of the latest episodes as soon
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(01:49):
you do want to support the program, you don't have to,
but if you feel like it, you can do that
on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash motoweek links to everything.
Almost everything that I mentioned there can be found on
the website at motoweek dot net. All right, so let's
start our discussion of this weekend San Marino GP with Saturday.

(02:10):
Mostly we're going to talk about the sprint, but I
do want to rewind a little bit and discuss qualifying.
Because we started the weekend with yet another rider coming
out of Q one to land themselves on the front
row of the grid for the weekend. Fabio Quatraro, big surprise,
did it again, more qualifying magic and he almost did
it exactly like last weekend. If you remember in Catalunya,

(02:33):
he said the fastest lap of the entire weekend in
Q one, then got out on the front row in
Q two he just missed out, repeating that this time
mart Marquez had the fastest lap of the weekend at
that point, and then Fabio came within a couple of
thousands of it in Q one to make it to
Q two. Of course, then he threw everything he had

(02:55):
at it on the final two hot laps, almost keeping
up with the Italian bikes, but still on the front row.
Now that pair of Italian bikes in front of him
on the grid maybe weren't the riders that we were expecting. Now,
for the majority of Q two, there was a Marquez
at the top of the time sheet, but it was
Alex and not Mark. He led the majority of the

(03:15):
session before just getting nicked at the end by hometown
favorite Marco Bitzeki, and that definitely set the tone for
the points racing the rest of the weekend, and on
top of that, coming out of Catalunya where Kat looked
so good. This was a clear signal from Aprilia that
they weren't just going to hand over the title of
second best manufacturer to the Austrians when they could take

(03:36):
it back themselves on home turf. Now, Bez technically did
get some help getting on that poll came in the
form of his teammate Jorge Martin kind of waiting for
him and helping him draft down one of the straits.
I'm not sure I'm a fan of that at all,
the way that it all worked out. I mean, it's
one thing to follow somebody who you know is really

(03:58):
fast at the beginning of a run. I'm not even
a fan of that. I really think that guys should
go out there and it set their own fastest lapt
They shouldn't rely on drafting with somebody else. But for
a teammate to purposely wait for another teammate just to
be able to speed up in time for them to
pull a draft, I think it's kind of sketch. I mean,
their teammates and there's no rule against it, so you

(04:20):
know whatever, Because that's just qualifying. It's only going to
have a certain amount of effect on the race, and
I think that what we saw on Saturday and Sunday wasn't,
you know, massively shifted by the fact that Marco Bitzeki
started first as opposed to maybe second. But on principle alone,
I wasn't a huge fan of how that all shook

(04:43):
out with the Apprillia riders, but one way or the other,
best did a phenomenal job to lead the field, and
even though we didn't see a single rider get into
the one twenty nines, Marco was point one three to
four off that mark, not quite a lap record, but
again guys were pushing for the one twenty minu. We
have still never seen a Moto GP rider get into
the one twenty nine's at Misano, but for Mark Marquez

(05:07):
we see yet another round where he doesn't begin the
race on the front row, again, settling for fourth, followed
by Franco Morbidelli, and by the way, it was good
to see some initial speed out of him, which carried
through for the weekend. As well as Luca Marini leading
the way for Honda. He had an impressive one thirty
point three nine zero. That was a quarter of a
second off of Marco Pitzeki's blistering pole setting pace, but

(05:29):
it was only point zero three eight seconds slower than
Mark Marquez. So at least when it comes to single
app times, Yamaha and Honda they had something speed wise
for Mark and the Ducates. It's just a matter of
them figuring out how to extend that speed across an
entire race. And I know I'm trivializing that it's a
lot harder than the way I just said it, but

(05:50):
hold that thought too, because when we get to Sunday,
I want to discuss that just a little bit further,
the difference between Yamaha and Honda, because here in this
qualifying session, Fabio Quaturero qualifies third right in there with
the Ducati Centerprilia, and Honda qualified sixth, again not that

(06:10):
far behind the best riders in the sport. But when
we get to Sunday, I want to talk about how
each of those manufacturers ended up managing that full length
race and what that says about where they are in
their development right now. And while I was cautiously optimistic
about pecobag Nyaya after he made it straight into Q two,
with decent times at a track where we know he's
very good, he just couldn't set the pace when the

(06:34):
grid positions were on the line. In Q two he
landed down in eighth, so Alex once again bested Mark,
but it was Marco Bideki at the front. So which
Italian bike would have the advantage? We found out a
few hours later as we headed into Saturday afternoon and
the sprint race, and oh boy, do we have some
high drama to kick off the weekend. In this sprint

(06:57):
we got some major, major plot twists. Things were fun
right off the lights. Marco Bitzeki and Mark Marquez. They
were both super aggressive from the start, both making passes
on the outside in the first couple of corners, with
the polsitter Bez getting the upper hand Mark and Alex
in tow. Once that order was figured out, it became
a bit of a chess match. Bez was, in my opinion,

(07:22):
faster overall, a little tiny bit faster overall. Mark was
just super consistent, and so when Bez made a mistake,
Mark would close right up on him and we were
all wondering, is Mark just waiting for his moment or
does Bez really have the advantage here and the answer
was yes and yes. Mark made his move on the

(07:45):
first half of lap six, and I think he knew
at the time that Pitzechi was a little bit faster,
because once he took the top spot, Mark was pushing really,
really hard to try to make a gap.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
And that's a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Different than what we've seen out of him in so
many other sprints this season, where he would get the lead,
take it whenever he wanted, and then just slowly build
that gap, having the confidence of knowing that, yeah, I'm
going to be a tenth or maybe two tens faster
than you every single lap, so I don't need to
really push too hard here. I just need to go
to work and rest assure that between three and five
laps from now I'm going to have a one second

(08:21):
lead and there's nothing you can.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Do about it.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
It didn't feel that way in this race. He was
trying really hard to get clear right off the bat,
and I think that he was a little bit worried
that Bez was going to be able to come back
on him, and then it was just a few turns
later that Mark was pushing so hard that he dumped
the bike and handed the lead right back to Bitzechi,

(08:44):
a very very rare mistake on a Saturday by Mark Marquez,
and that lessened the pressure on Bittechi at the front.
But he wasn't out of the woods yet because Alex
was right there within a half second. But a little
bit better pace was really really evident in the last
five laps of this one, as Marco Pitzeki just inched
out a tenth here and a tenth there over Alex

(09:05):
much in the same way that we would have expected
Mark Marquez to do once he got the lead, and
so Marco was kind of playing the role of Mark
in this one, and of course Alex was playing the
role of Alex and second like he always is. I
would say that they were pretty even in the first
two sectors. Alex was a little bit better in sector one,
Bez was just so good in sectors two and three,
especially through Cravone carrying a bunch of speed that there

(09:28):
was just nothing that little Marquez could do to keep up. Now,
obviously this was a big win to take the checker
flag in the sprint in front of all those hometown
fans that were going bonkers over Pitzechi.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
It was so much fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
But on top of that, this was also exactly what
I was looking for out of Marco after that surprisingly
bad Cataloonia showing. I wanted to see a strong recovery
consistent with the type of speed we've seen out of
Pitzechi ever since, well back in Asen and then Silverstone
before that. That's what we got. Now, would he have
won if Mark didn't wreck? Maybe, I mean there's no guarantee,

(10:06):
but it would have been really really close, and he
was fast enough to win one way or the other.
And of course he stayed on the bike, and so
he did win, and it was what both he and
Aprillion needed and a great way for Bijechi to cap
off an amazing Saturday starting with the pull then taking
the sprint win.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
But the one thing.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
That we got to talk about briefly here when it
comes to Marco Bizeki winning the sprint race. All Right,
so you guys are from all over the world, and
I'm sure somebody knows the full story about this. They
can at least explain it better than the world few
commentators did. What the hell was up with the leg thing?

(10:46):
I mean, I get it was something from an Italian film.
I'm assuming it was some sort of comedy film if
the premise was throughout the entire picture they were carrying
around this wooden leg, and I'm assuming because of that
the joke wasn't for me because I haven't seen this film.
But it was weird that maybe borderline a little creepy.

(11:06):
So if you know what was up with it, uh,
definitely let me know. It was definitely the most unusual,
one of the most unusual celebrations I've ever seen after
a Moto GP victory. But hey, I mean, Marco is
in front of his hometown fans. They get the joke.
He's having fun.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
What are you going to do?

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I was very curious if the leg was gonna come
back on Sunday. We didn't get to find out, but I imagine.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
It probably would have.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
And speaking of World Feed commentators, so let's talk about
Alex Marquez, because the World Feed commentators sometimes like to
throughout these stats that are a bit obvious and then
they repeat them time after time after time. But they
dropped one after the sprint that I think and they
only said at once, by the way, that I think
really outlined how interesting and surprising this season is for

(11:54):
Alex Marquez. He finished second again, and they pointed out
that this runner up effort was his seventeenth second place.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Finish of twenty twenty five. Think about that for a minute.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Alex Marquez has finished just second seventeen times this season.
That's wild. And of course he has win a sprint
win in Silverstone and then two Moto GP victories this season,
including the last week a cat Lunya. That means that
Alex Marquez now mark. Alex Marquez has twenty finishes of

(12:26):
first or second this season and we still have six
rounds to go. And this is coming from a rider
that has only scored five first or second place finishes
in his first five full Moto GP seasons. So in
five years he finished first or second place five times.
This year, in two thirds of a season, he's finished

(12:49):
first or second twenty times. I have never seen a
breakthrough season from my MotoGP rider like this before, especially
not late in their Moto GP career. It's kind of
mind boggling when you take a step back and think
about it. And not only did Alex's second get him
back on track in terms of Saturday performances, where he's

(13:10):
been so good all year long, but it also reinforced
the speed we saw out of him in general in Catalunya,
jump starting a new run of consistency, and that performance
was really big for Alex in his championship quest to
lock down second overall, scoring nine points in this one,
while pecobag Nyaya didn't even come close to scoring a point.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
While Bez and Alex had a pretty calm run to
the flag, VR forty six meanwhile was conducting a pretty
fierce battle for third, one that ultimately went to Fabio
Digian Antonio, who relatively quietly now has podiums get this
in his last three sprint races. Now for some reason,
that success has not been translating to Sunday, partially thanks

(13:53):
to some weird things that have happened to him. But
both VR forty six riders I thought were excellent in
this sprint, even with a couple of handed to them
by both Fabio Quachraro and Mark Marquez wrecking out. But
it was an excellent podium result for Digia, and even
though I'm sure he would have much rather had that
third spot instead of his teammate Franco Morbidelli, in my opinion,

(14:13):
still had a really good day.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
In the pre race show I put him in the
hot seat category. I said, I was looking for a
strong rebound from that mistake mired Catalunia, and that's exactly
what he gave us, even if he couldn't pass his
teammate in the end. A couple of other riders I
want to talk about in this sprint. On Saturday, we
got a chat just for a brief moment here about
Mark Marquez, because this was the third race in a

(14:35):
row if you include Catalunia Sprint and Catalunia Motor GP race,
the third race in a row where Mark was legitimately
challenged by another rider and in this case by another manufacturer.
And like I said earlier, I don't think he was
quite as fast as Bittechi in this one, and that
forced him to push too hard to try to build

(14:56):
that gap quickly. But that being said, he it was
right there on speed with Bez who was clearly a
step above everybody else, and overall his pace in this
race until he wrecked out was fine. And honestly, I
wasn't concerned about the fact that he didn't win this one,
and I wasn't concerned about the fact that he wrecked
out because statistically speaking, he can't win them all, and

(15:18):
statistically speaking, he's going to wreck at some point, and
it does hurt to wreck out.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Of the lead.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
But when you're Mark Marquez and you're going to wreck
in a race, chances are that wreck is going to
be from the front because that's typically where he is
on any given day. But it was a bummer that
it had to happen in this particular situation because in
the end, it was yet another classic example of Mark
being the only one that's consistently capable of beating Mark.

(15:46):
But it would have been really, really nice to see
what would have happened between him and Marco Pitzeki, because
Bez was right there on pace with him. Obviously that
didn't happen. Mark was pretty upset with himself for throwing
away a potential win like that, and at the time
after the sprint, I was thinking, Man, I'm really going
to be looking forward to what Mark Marquez's response was

(16:08):
going to be on Sunday, especially seeing as clinching the
championship in Japan would kind of hinge on him not
having a repeat performance and wrecking out again. In the
full length Modo GP race. More on that in a
few moments, but Firris, let's talk about more riders. In
the sprint, Pedro Acosta was the highest finishing KTM in fifth,

(16:29):
and this was kind of interesting because Acosta is riding
so well right now that at the time that fifth
place result in the sprint was actually his worst finish
in the last nine points races, with the exception of
the Hungry Sprint. But you remember there he got taken
out of contention by Fabio Quachrararo barelining to that corner
early on and making the mistake. So if you set

(16:51):
that one aside because it's an anomaly, his fifth place
result is his worst in the last nine races, and
when fifth is a bad race, you're doing something right now. Overall,
I expected him to be stronger on Saturday. You can
extend that to all weekend long, especially when it came
to an Abastianini, who I had such high hopes for,

(17:12):
and in the end he was nowhere at his home
track after that strong, strong performance in Catalunya. But Acosta
was the only one that made a difference. He was
a full six seconds ahead of Bestia at the end.
Luc A Marini was once again the top Honda. He
was seventh in this one. You know, two riders wrecked
out in front of him and he started sixth. So

(17:34):
it's not really a let's go out and celebrate type
of finish, but in typical Marini style, it was consistent.
And another rider that's really consistent right now that I
want to talk about is Peco bag Yaya. Of course,
the problem is Peco is consistently bad.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
I mean, once.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Again he looked lost, and once again I don't get
it because this should be a great track for him,
and he didn't even qualify bad. He was eighth, not great,
but also not the worst. He ended up finishing the
sprint thirteenth, and that was with several riders wrecking ahead
of him. I think maybe three riders who were in

(18:13):
front of him wrecked. And you know, he went from
a good practice session that got him in the Q
two and then he just regressed the rest of the day.
He says he can't pass in traffic, and well, he's right,
but he's gonna be in traffic the rest of the
season the way he's riding, in the way he's qualifying.
So that is what Dukati need to focus on. It

(18:36):
was highly disappointing. It was difficult to understand. I think
Dukati as a whole has that same opinion of what's
going on with Peco. And the worst part here is
that Bagnyaya is rapidly losing his grip on third overall
in the championship. And who would have thought that at
the beginning of the season. I mean, the thought of
Peco in third in the championship would have been kind

(18:58):
of shocking to begin with, but the fact that he
might not even be there by the end of the season,
that's pretty big considering where Peco came from just a
year ago. Yeah, he didn't win the title or hy
Martine did, but Peco was winning so many races and
it is all gone away from him on a bike
that I still maintain wasn't a complete redesign. It was

(19:19):
an evolution of the GP twenty four and for some
reason it is just so confounding to him. And now
he's in his own head. Clearly he's in his own
head because we're seeing all of the other Ducati riders
now perform better than him on similar or older equipment.
Something has got to happen at some point to help
him turn that around.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Moving on Fabio qua Carraro.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, the good news for Fabio is that he
was able to hold his ground running forth. He was
keeping back the VR forty six Ducatis, both of them
and the Kittima Pedro Costa, all of whom are riding
really well right now, and so it was super impressive
that Fabia was able to hold them off as long
as he was. The bad news is that that only

(20:00):
lasted five laps until he wrecked in turn two. You know,
it's so hard to predict if he would have been
able to keep up that race pace across the entire sprint,
but at least he was fast for more than just
one lap. And of course, speaking of Yamaha, this race
also saw the debut the official debut in a race
situation of the Yamaha VI for the long awaited Yamaha

(20:23):
VI for Adrian Fernandez at the Helm, I wasn't expecting
a whole lot and we did not get a whole lot.
He finished eighteenth and then he got a long lap
penalty in the Motor GP race for jumping the start.
I think it was a double long lap for jumping
the start, so we didn't get anything in terms of
results all weekend long from that V four, but that's
not why they were out there. The data was the

(20:45):
important part, not the actual results. Otherwise they would have
just given it the fabio if they wanted to see
actual results.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
So good start for them.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
I'm sure that they got a lot of data out
of those two races and out of the entire weekend.
So to recap the sprint, Mark makes a a big
mistake and Marco Bozeki takes full advantage on Saturday, So
the question stood, what would happen in the rematch on
Sunday and could Peco do anything to turn around his
fortunes in front of all the hometown fans. Well, we'll

(21:16):
talk about that and missing motorcycle chains and a lot
more when we discuss MotoGP in just a couple of seconds.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
All right, let's do this.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Let's wrap up our discussion of this weekend Sam Marino
GP by moving on to Sunday and the main event.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
The Moto GP race. And man oh Man, I loved
this race.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
No, it was not a full on fender defender shootout
between Mark and Bizeki, but it was about as close
and as tense as you could get or you could
ask for between any non Ducati bike and a factory Ducati,
especially the factory Ducati of Mark Marquez. Now this one
kind of played out in three acts, if you will.

(22:00):
We had the protagonist and the antagonist the lead writer
for Aprilia and Dukati. Act one was a bit of
a chess match which encompassed the first half of the race.
The second act was a quasi duel. There was no
passing back and forth, but for three four, four and
a half laps we had a really tense standoff where

(22:22):
they were really close together, and then with about seven
to go, Mark turned up the wick for the final act, but.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
That wasn't the end.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Marco did not let Mark get away. Even as late
as three laps to go, Marco Pitteki was within three
tenths of a second, and you had a feeling that maybe,
just maybe.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
He might be able to do something to catch Mark.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I mean, he was legitimately willing his way to an
opportunity to try to make a pass, even though it
didn't quite happen. But it was so much fun to
watch and things in this one started off very similar
in the motive race, as they did in the sprint,
aggressive start, especially by Mark Marquez making a pass on
the outside, but once again Bez got the best jump

(23:08):
and they line up with Bitzeki, Mark and Alex one
two three, the same crew of Quatruro Acosta and the
VR forty six bikes in toe, so the usual suspects
all in a line with the latter half Quatruro and behind,
losing a tenth here and a tenth there to those
three at the front. But it only took about eight laps.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
For the surprises to start.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
And when we talked surprises, the heck was up with
KTM this weekend. I mean, chains kept falling off bikes
more than one. Never seen that before ever, I've never seen.
I don't even think I've seen a single chain come
off a bike in definitely not in a race, but
we got three all weekend. Brad Bender had his chain

(23:53):
fall off twice in practice they broke, and then Pedro
Acosta had his break in the Moto GP race as
he was running forth. He was highly upset. We could
all see that on camera and I do not blame
him because that is crazy. And that's not to mention
that there was a separate technical problem that took Binder
out of the sprint on Saturday, and at the end

(24:15):
of it all, I was like, what the heck is
happening here? We have not seen reliability problems like this
from KTM in a really long time, and the last
time I can remember a single manufacturer having this many
technical problems in just one weekend was that first couple
of years of a priliag Grissini. When they first started
a Prilli really really was struggling with engine reliability. And

(24:38):
I know that there were a couple of weekends where
they had multiple engines expire, but nothing as bizarre as this,
And I cannot wait to hear if there is some
sort of explanation that comes out of the KTM camp.
I would imagine in the end it was just a
bad batch of parts from the manufacturer. I mean, I
suppose it could have been a bad installation, like they
had one guy who didn't know how to install chains

(24:59):
or something like that. But yeah, I would really really
think that the explanation here is that they just got
bad luck, you know, bad batch of parts from the manufacturer,
and what are you going to do? They just break
and you're out of a race. It just really really
sucks for Augusta, who was having a really good race
again before he was suddenly out of it. So while
that was happening, we're nearing the halfway point, Bez was

(25:21):
still leading. But unlike the beginning of this one that
was kind of reminiscent of the sprint, the tone of
this Moto GP race was definitely different than what we
saw on Saturday, at least as it pertains to Mark Marquez,
because on Saturday, Mark was giving up time to Pitzeki
a lot through Kervone. But on Sunday I don't know

(25:42):
if Ducati made an adjustment to the bike or if
Mark just went over the data and discovered something that
he wasn't doing in there. But in the first half
of this race, Mark was much much stronger through those
right handers than we had seen him the day before. Bez,
I would say, was definitely stronger there in the second half.

(26:02):
But in the initial stages of this race, Mark seemingly
could roll through the center and make up a ton
of time and a ton of ground at will right,
and you could see that in the overhead shots. In
the early stages of this race, he was rolling right
up behind Bittechi through those corners. Now, I don't know,
maybe Bez was just trying to control the pace a
little bit. But Mark was getting through there really, really

(26:22):
well and closing up on Marco, and you thought, maybe,
just maybe, unlike the sprint where Mark seemed to be
in a hurry, that this time he was holding back
a little, waiting and get serving his tires. And that
was really the next thing that Mark did so well
in this race was adapting his strategy. Now, keep in

(26:43):
mind that sprint races they're completely different than a full
length MotoGP race.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
You've got so much less.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Time that maybe you have to make aggressive moves. In
a full length MotoGP race, you aren't necessarily gonna, you know,
try to stream by everybody at the beginning and then
push like crazy to build a gap. Unless it's twenty
twelve and you happen to be Jorge Lorenzo, then you
do exactly that and it works out great like nearly
every time. But Mark, having seen the day before that

(27:10):
Marco could be fast but also prone to a mistake
in a corner here and there, he played it different.
Instead of forcing that move, he just got right up
behind Bez, so that Marco could hear him and know
that he was there, and then Mark waited for his opportunity,
and that opportunity came just before the halfway point of

(27:30):
the race at lap twelve, but Techi runs wide heading
into turn eight, and as we all know, Mark just
rode right through. And because Mark waited for the mistake
instead of forcing the issue, that had the added benefit
of not just handing Mark the lead, but also automatically
giving him a tenth or two buffers. Bez recovered from

(27:51):
the mistake, and so now with just a little bit
of daylight between them, Mark adjusted his strategy again from
Saturday by not pushing like his life depended on it
at that point, but just consistently applying pressure like we're
used to him doing now. To his credit, Marco was
not willing to give up and made things very very

(28:13):
interesting right down to about three laps to go, closing
in on Mark's rear wheel multiple times at one or
two points only about a tenth and a half behind.
And so let's talk a little bit more about Marko
Pitzeki in this one, because yes, unlike the sprint, in
the end, he couldn't hold off Mark and he couldn't

(28:34):
catch Mark to try to make that last lap pass,
and Mark didn't help him by making a mistake as well.
But I want to focus on the positives here, and
there are some really big positives surrounding Marko Pitzeki this
entire weekend, but especially in this MOTORJP race, even more
so in my opinion than the sprint. This was a
phenomenal effort by Marko Pitzeki to cap a phenomenal weekend

(28:58):
and it was just as fantastic for a Prillia. And
that's because their bike was able to directly challenge Mark Marquez,
and then when Mark passed them, they were able to
stick with Mark all the way till the end of
the race. I mean Bitzeki ran his fastest lap of
the race four from the end, and then he set

(29:19):
another personal best on the second to last slap, keeping
the lead to less than four tenths of a second
the entire way, actually all the way up until the
last lap of the race, when bes knew that he
wasn't going to be able to make a pass and
so he just kind of packed it in. I was like,
I'm going to get my twenty points and go home.
But it was such great stuff to watch. I mean,
if you had told Aprilia and Marco Bitzeki at the

(29:40):
beginning of the season that they would be that close
to the top factory Ducati at Misano and crossing the
line the final time around less than a half second back,
you know, I think they would have wanted to believe
that that was a possibility, but I'm not sure that
they realistically have believed that that could have happened. But

(30:03):
it is now right and it totally doesn't matter that
Bez didn't win. This was a great, great race for him.
It was a great sign that Aprilia have taken a
big step forward in the right direction, and more importantly,
it shows that they're continuing to move forward. You know,
Bez won the race in silver Stone and then there
was like an off round. Then he got to Asen,
and since Asen he's been really really fast, showing podium

(30:26):
quality speed the entire time. And incidentally, this double podium
this weekend is his first since back then in Asen.
But he hasn't always had the results to go with it.
Sometimes he's been fourth, sometimes he's been fifth. He's just
been able to compete for somewhere on the podium right now,
they've taken another step forward and instead of just being

(30:46):
a podium contender, they were seriously challenging Mark for the lead.
They're getting closer and closer to the standard and in
the process distancing themselves further and further from all of
the other incredit Do ducats in the field. And so
that's great work by Aprilia and Marco Bitzeki is showing
how talented he is exploring all of that work. I

(31:09):
know he didn't get voted the rider of the race,
but for me that was the ride of the day
by a mile for sure. Rounding out the podium was
Alex Marquez. He finished a super quiet third in this one,
but after that bumpy start to the second half, in
terms of consistency, the speed is back. We saw it
in Catalunya, even if the sprint didn't work out for
him in terms of results, and we saw it again

(31:31):
this weekend a Misano. Yet another double podium weekend for him,
and it will not be long before Alex is starting
to count down the races to lock in second in
the Rider Championship and the top spot in the Independent
Rider Championship as well, especially with Peco in a full
on free fall.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
It's just only a matter of time.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
There other writers I want to talk about in this
motor GP race. Let's discuss the VR forty six guys,
starting with Franco Morbidelli. I loved this weekend for him. No,
he didn't finish on the pod at all, but a
double fourth place accomplishes exactly what I wanted to see
out of him, just to recovery from that disaster at
cat Luna. He had two clean races, no mistakes, no incidents,

(32:12):
two excellent runs. And something similar could be said for
his teammate Fabio di Jayan Antonio, who yeah, it was
best to buy Frankie in this one, and so he
had to settle for fifth after that sprint podium. But
Digia had been having terrible luck on Sundays in general.
In the prior five rounds from Germany all the way
up to Catalunya, Fabio had three DNFs, a sixteenth and

(32:33):
a fifteenth, so in all five of those races he
scored one point. So to leave this race fifth it
was a nice correction back to where you'd expect to
see him on any given Sunday. Luca Marini had the
highest finishing Honda effort and he was once again boringly solid.
He was seventh in the sprint this weekend, seventh in

(32:53):
the Moto GP race. And guess what his average finish
in the past three rounds or six points races. Six
point five. That's not bad and it sounds about right
handa is producing about a seventh place bike right now.
Then we move on to Fabia Quatruroro, he was the
top Yamaha. Now, the good thing here is that he

(33:13):
made no mistakes, he stayed on the bike, didn't wreck
like he did on Saturday in the sprint. The bad
thing is that the M one just cannot maintain pace
for an entire race. Fabia was trying so hard and
he did a really good job of trying to hang
in there in the top five or top six, but
he just faded fast at the end, landing eighth a

(33:35):
little over twenty seconds back. You could say, hey, what
are you gonna do? But get that V four ready.
That's exactly what you can do, and that's what they're
gonna do, and they're gonna be testing the V four
on a wider scale Monday in the Misano test but
remember way back earlier in the show and I said,
hang on to that Honda versus Yamaha thing. This is
where I want to bring it back up, because when

(33:57):
you look at qualifying, you see how well Yamaha, at
least at the hands of Fabia Quatruro, is able to
come storming through Q one and into Q two and
land on the front row. He's been on the front
row multiple times this year and have multiple polls this year.
Honda have certainly not shown that same strength in terms
of being able to land themselves on the front row

(34:18):
of the grid. This weekend, Fabio Quatruro started third, Lucamarini
started sixth. So it's not bad, right, but it's not
on the front row. You look at the results in
the end of this race, Lucamarini went from six to seventh,
Fabio Quaturoro went from third to eighth. And so that's
the main difference between Honda and Yamaha right now. Yamaha

(34:42):
has better single lap speed, but they are way worse
at maintaining race pace, especially in the latter stages of
the full length Moto GP race, like just goes away
on them. Meanwhile, Honda isn't nearly as thrilling and qualifying,
but where they qualify at least in the hands of Lucamarini,
who is their most relian rider, that's typically where they finish,

(35:03):
and so at least they're able to maintain pace, even
if that pace is slower than what's happening up at
the front of the field, where Fabio can hang for
a couple of laps and then the bike just goes
away from him. And so those are the differences between
Yamahan and Honda. Yeah, they're both moving in the right direction,
but they're moving in the right direction in different ways
and because of that, they have different challenges and that's
why we're seeing different results out of them. Which approach

(35:25):
is better? I don't know, you tell me. I mean,
it's fun and exciting to see Fabio Quachrararo in the
front row of the grid because it gives you hope
that Yamaha is finally going to be able to do something,
But then when you see how consistently they fade at
the end, I might rather have a Honda situation where
at least we know where a baseline is and we

(35:45):
just got to get the bike's performance better, as opposed
to we can perform, but we just can't do that
over time.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Maybe maybe it doesn't make a difference, and maybe this
V four is going to change that quite a bit
for Yamaha once they get it dialed in, which obviously
isn't quite yet. But we'll find out a little bit
more about that in the Monday test Brad Bender.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
The good news for Brad Bender his chain didn't fall
off in this one, so.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
That could be considered a good day for him and Misano,
even though Pedro Costas did. But the mechanical gremlins at
least spared Brad in this one after plaguing him on
Friday and Saturday, leaving Bender the top KTM, even though
that top finishing result was only tenth, which isn't great

(36:34):
and things could have been way better had Acosta's chain
not taken an early vacation on him and he was
able to actually end the race. I mean, then, once again,
I guess we got to mention Peko bag Nyaya and
I don't even really know what to say.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Peco doesn't know what to say.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
I really think in this off week they just need
to put Peco on a plane and flying to someplace beautiful.
Just let him go to the most stunning beach that
you can find and tell him just have a drink,
relax and don't think about motorcycle racing for a week,
and then let's come back and try it again, because
right now his brain is not in the right place

(37:09):
and he needs a reset, and there's just not enough
time in the schedule. There's you know, one off weekend
double header, one off weekend double header, one off weekend
double header. There's not a lot of time for him
to get that reset. I don't know, like I said,
I might just tell him to go on vacation for
a couple of days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and just come
back Friday. We'll sit down at the shop work on

(37:30):
the bike and then hopefully we'll come back in Motegi
and have something that you can work with. All right,
So that was it for the Moto GP race. What
a thrilling, thrilling comeback for Mark Marquez and a great
great effort to try to keep him honest and track
him down by Marco Bitzeki. Let's recap the podiums for
both Saturday and Sunday. In the sprint race, Fabio di

(37:51):
Jan Antonio finished third, his third consecutive sprint podium. Alex
Marquez was second, and I mean, come on, Alex second
in the sprint race, who would have thought now? And
then your winner in the sprint was Marco Bitzeki, and
Aprilia is finally back on top, and bez gets his
first sprint win in over two years and his first
on in Aprillia. As we move on to Sunday, in

(38:14):
the Moto GP race, third place goes to Alex Marquez,
and I can declare it now the consistency has officially returned,
and because of that, second overall is within his grasp.
Marco Bitzeki had a fantastic run in second, even if
he didn't win, And your winner of the San Marino GP,
Mark Marquez, And I'll tell you the most impressive part

(38:35):
is the guy is like what thirty one years old,
He's done it all already, and yet he's still learning,
he's still adjusting, he's still adapting, and because of that,
he's still winning. It's his eleventh Moto GP win of
the year and twenty fifth overall this season. And so
let's talk about the Moto GP Championship picture coming out

(38:58):
of Misano and we're us there. It's almost over. Even
with the wreck in the sprint. Mark Marquez his victory
on Sunday leaves him ahead of his little brother Alex
by one hundred and eighty two points.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Now after the.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Next round in Motegi, after that round is done, there
will only be one hundred and eighty five points left
to score. So all Mark needs to do is gain
three points on Alex and the title is his now
the world few commentators were saying, oh, you know, Mark
can't clinch the championship after the sprint race, and you

(39:35):
might think to yourself, well, a sprint win pays twelve
and so if he scores twelve and Alex is second
and only scores nine and that's three points, that's one
hundred and eighty five he's won, right, No, because we
still have the entire Motor GP race left to go,
and if Mark rex and Alex doesn't and scores points, well,
then that number can dip back down below one hundred
and eighty five and then we continue on to the

(39:57):
next round. And that's why Mark can only win it
after the Moto GP race in Motegi, not after the
sprint race on Saturday, Alex Marquez is the only challenger
left now Peco Bagnay. It was eliminated after the sprint,
and of course he had a terrible weekend. Bagnay is
two hundred and seventy five points back in third, and

(40:18):
even if you include the points available at Motegi, there's
still only two hundred and twenty two points left to
race four, so there's mathematically nothing that Peco can do now.
Alex technically would have a chance to extend the championship
if Mark were to wreck in one of these two races,
or if Alex were simply to beat him, but that

(40:39):
only extends it by one more round, and each round
we race, that magic number comes down by thirty seven points.
So if Alex isn't winning both races and Mark isn't
scoring zero points in both races, then this is a
losing game for Alex. Time is not on his side,
and one way or the other, the championship is not

(41:00):
a matter of if if Alex can do this or
do that, it's simply a matter of when for Mark Marquez,
and I still stand by the fact that Motegi is
probably going to wrap things up for one of the
most unlikely championships in Moto GP history. And I know
you might be thinking, wait a minute, this guy has
already won six Premier class titles in eight overall.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
How could this be one.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Of the most unlikely championships in Moto GP history. Well,
it's given Mark's age, the massive injuries he's gone through,
his willingness to take a demotion to do Katti's bottom
satellite team and then work his way back to the top.
It is wild to think about, and we will be
discussing just how monumental this title run is once it's finalized,
or we might actually do that next week right before

(41:44):
it gets finalized. Now that's Mark. When it comes to
Alex Marquez, he is looking in pretty good shape right
now himself.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
For second overall in the championship.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Alex currently has a ninety three point lead on Peco
bag Nyaya for second overall. That is a two and
a half round lead to begin with, but with Alex
once again showing consistency and Peco having scored get ready
for this, just twenty four points in the last four rounds,
Alex is likely going to wrap up second place with

(42:15):
I'm going to guess around four rounds to go, so
maybe Australia and that might be the place where he
wins the Independent Rider Championship as well. He's up I believe,
one hundred and fifty right now on Frankie Morbidelli, and
obviously the magic number will be one hundred and eighty
five points after Motegi, so he wouldn't win it there.

(42:36):
And Frankie is running relatively well right now, and Alex
does have the ability to not finish second every single race.
Sometimes he might finish a little bit lower than that,
So I think a couple of rounds down the road,
so I think there's a possibility in Australia that he
could clinch both second overall in the championship and then
also the Independent Rider title as well, if he continues

(42:56):
to race the way that he's been racing. But I'll
tell you when it comes to second, a lot of
that is not gonna hinge on Peco, but rather on
Marco Bozeki Bez and Aprilias phenomenal late season run have
Marco get this just eight points. He's only eight points
behind Peco bag Naya for a third right now, and
he's one hundred and one back of Alex. Now, I

(43:17):
think that's too many points. I don't think Pitzechi has
a real shot of catching Alex, but he is absolutely
gonna catch Peco, probably will do that at Motegi.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
But if he's finishing ahead.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Of Alex, then that could delay the point where Alex
clinches second overall. But Bez, I'm telling you, is gonna
fly past Peco Bagnaya in the next couple of rounds,
probably in the next round, and with him having a
forty one point lead right now over fifth place Pedro
Acosta and riding better than Acosta, even though Acasta is
riding pretty well himself. You know, at the beginning of

(43:51):
the year, I initially thought that Aprilia could finish third
overall this season with Jorge Martin. Had Martin come back
in and stayed that first time at Kaitar, well, Aprilia
probably are going to finish third in the Rider Championship,
but not with the guy I picked, very likely with
Marco Pitzeki instead. And that's the real race to keep

(44:11):
an eye on as we head through the next couple
of rounds. One last thing about the championship, Mark Marquez,
after what what round are we after here? After round
sixteen has scored five hundred and twelve points in the championship.
Last year, Jorge Martin won the championship with five hundred
and eight points over twenty rounds. So there are still

(44:33):
four more rounds to go to get to the number
that we ran last year, and Mark is already ahead
of the pace of last year's champion Jorge Martin. Of course,
we have twenty two rounds this year, so his points
total is even going to be more and more insane.
So that's the championship. Last thing to talk about. What
is my take on this weekend at Misano? And for me,

(44:57):
for the second straight round, I think we got excitement,
surprises and then a couple of unexpected plot twists, and
when I say that, I'm looking directly at you and
your really weak chains KTM. But Prilli, you got back
on top of the podium. Then one took the fight
to Mark Marquez on Sunday with a result way closer
than anything we would have expected in the first half

(45:20):
of the season. The only bummer on track was Peco
continuing his collapse, but that does absolutely ignite a pretty
hot battle in the championship for third overall, which could
see and Apprelia break that Dukati dominance, and they're already
doing that on track right now, They're about to do
it in the standings too.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
We also got the.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Somewhat lackluster debut of the Amaha VI four, although like
I said, it wasn't about results, it's about data. We
saw Honda maintaining their pace, maybe not improving, but keeping
what they have going. Fabio Quatraro continuing to punch above
his weight, providing more spectacular surprises and highlights and qualifying
which is just fun to watch. And to top it

(46:00):
all off, we have Mark Marquez's comeback story from Saturday
to Sunday, setting the stage for an epic championship clincher
in the next round in Motegi, and he did it
in front of an enormous crowd of enthusiastic Moto GP fans.
I was so jealous because not only are they on
the Adriatic coast of Italy, but there were so many

(46:21):
fans and they were so enthusiastic. I just wanted to
be in that crowd so badly. It was the second
consecutive weekend of excellent action and a lot of fun
as far as I'm concerned. Now next up, well, we
got a week off and then we are headed to
the Flyaways and the ultimate crowning of Mark Marquez as
the twenty twenty five Moto GP World champion. Between now

(46:44):
and then, I'm going to try to do a show
talking about why this championship is such a big deal
and so out of the ordinary, and maybe, along with
you guys decide if this is the biggest title victory
in the four stroke motor GP era, because it certainly
is up there and is absolutely one of the most
compelling stories in not just the MotoGP era, it's one

(47:07):
of the most compelling stories in premier class history, everything
that Mark has gone through to get back to this point.
And then of course we'll talk about Motegi. And we've
got three double headers to end the season, and we
have a lot more positions in the standings to work
out as well, So there is plenty to talk about,
plenty more shows on the way, and I don't want
you to miss a single one. So if you have

(47:28):
not done it yet, I would highly recommend you subscribe
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(47:51):
You can follow on blue Sky at motoweek and on
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Let me know what you thought Misano, let me know
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Speaker 2 (48:13):
And if you do.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Feel compelled to support the show, and don't think you
have to, but if you want to, you can support
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slash motowek. All right, so until we talk just a
couple of days from now, and we also have the
Misono test to discuss as well, So I'll try and
do a show at the end of this week where
we talk about the Misono Test and a little bit
about Mark ultimately winning this championship, and then we'll move

(48:36):
on to Motegi and beyond, so until then, I want
to thank you so much for listening. Ride safe, and
I'll talk to you soon.