There was a lot of talk at the end of Sunday and yesterday about how Jorge Martin’s race may have been sabotaged in some way, with a rear tyre being at the root of the spaniard’s problems. Marco Melandri spoke about the issue and how, regardless of what is said, there is an interest on the part of the manufacturers in having their riders prevail.

The former rider, who has nine years’ experience in MotoGP, spoke about the subject to Corriere dello Sport, where he expressed his opinion that there is a clear favouritism towards Pecco Bagnaia on the part of Ducati, something that is natural in a world like the category that is a ‘business’:

– I haven’t criticised them for pushing for the factory team to win, but it bothers me that they deny it at all costs, even if they do it anyway. It can happen, after all, MotoGP is a business, and there are priorities.

Although on several occasions various members of the Ducati team have said that there is no preference as to which rider wins the world championship, the italian believes that this is not the case: ‘It’s normal that the factory team is favoured and has to bring more results, but it doesn’t make sense to deny it’.

O conteúdo Marco Melandri denies Ducati’s ‘indifference’ between Martin and Bagnaia: ‘It’s a business; There’s no point denying that the factory team is favoured’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Former MotoGP rider Marco Melandri shared his insights on the dynamics of MotoGP, particularly in the context of the ongoing championship battle between Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin. Melandri, closely observing the title race, offered his perspective on the preferential treatment often given to official team riders over satellite team riders.

Melandri commented on the situation, saying, “I haven’t criticized them for pushing for the official team to win, but it bothers me that they deny it at all costs, even though they do it anyway.” He acknowledged that MotoGP is a business with hierarchies, and it’s normal for factory teams to be privileged and expected to deliver more results. However, he pointed out the lack of transparency in admitting this preference.

Regarding the race in Qatar, Melandri reflected on Martin’s performance, suggesting that a setback due to tire issues was inevitable. He speculated that Michelin’s assurance about the tire being fine might indicate a pressure problem. Melandri emphasized the crucial role of tires in MotoGP, stating, “The tire makes the bike. It’s much easier to improve with a tire than with a change in the bike.”

Looking ahead to Valencia, Melandri noted the different pressures facing Bagnaia and Martin. For Martin, there’s nothing to lose, which could make his approach more relaxed, but also disappointing, given the technical issues that might have cost him the title. Bagnaia, on the other hand, will be trying to limit risks and manage the situation carefully.

Melandri concluded with advice for both title contenders, suggesting that Bagnaia will wisely control Martin, including in tire choices, while Martin will likely take a more aggressive approach. He reminded everyone that championships are decided at the finish line, indicating that anything could happen, including the influence of weather conditions.

Melandri’s comments provide a seasoned racer’s view of the strategic and psychological aspects of competing for a MotoGP championship, highlighting the complexities and pressures of the sport.

O conteúdo ‘MotoGP is a business, with hierarchies, it is better for them if an official rider wins than a satellite one’ – Marco Melandri aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The 2023 MotoGP championship race is heading towards a thrilling climax at the final round in Valencia, with defending champion Pecco Bagnaia and his rival Jorge Martin in a tight contest for the title. Despite Bagnaia’s early 62-point lead in the season, the gap has now narrowed to just 21 points, following a dramatic points swing in the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Valencia event holds the potential to decide the championship even before the main grand prix, thanks to the points available in the Saturday sprint. Bagnaia, with six grand prix wins to Martin’s four, could secure the championship in the sprint if he establishes a 25-point lead, as sprint results don’t count towards a tiebreak in case of equal points.

Here are the scenarios for Bagnaia to become champion in the Saturday sprint:

• Bagnaia finishes 1st, and Martin is lower than 2nd.
• Bagnaia finishes 2nd, and Martin is lower than 4th.
• Bagnaia finishes 3rd, and Martin is lower than 6th.
• Bagnaia finishes 4th, and Martin is lower than 7th.
• Bagnaia finishes 5th, and Martin is lower than 8th.
• Bagnaia finishes 6th, and Martin is lower than 9th (out of the points).

For Martin to keep his title chances alive into Sunday, he needs to finish the sprint in the top two, or Bagnaia must finish lower than sixth.

If Martin wins both the sprint and the grand prix at Valencia, a track where he has shown strength, Bagnaia needs to score 16 points or more across the two races to win the title. This could be achieved with a podium finish on Sunday or a pair of fifth-place finishes.

O conteúdo The Maths for Pecco Bagnaia conquer the championship in the Sprint Race aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Marc Marquez shared his insights on Jorge Martin’s performance during the MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar. Martin, who had been exceptional in the Sprint race, experienced a significant downturn in the main race, leading to a loss of crucial points in the championship.

Marquez, who followed Martin closely throughout the race, observed that Martin’s performance was not his usual standard. He noted, “It was difficult for me to follow the pace of those in front, so I stayed there with Martin all the time. I was practically behind him for the entire race.” Marquez commented on Martin’s struggle, saying, “It’s not that he suffered excessively, but he didn’t have much more. Simply put, when you’re not finding it, you’re not finding it. It wasn’t the usual Martin.”

Regarding the potential cause of Martin’s issues, Marquez was cautious in his assessment. He suggested that if a tire is overheated at the beginning of the race, it becomes ineffective for the remainder of the race. However, he refrained from definitively attributing Martin’s performance issues to the tire, the rider, the team, or the bike without seeing the data. Marquez emphasized the importance of tire management, indicating that a good tire can perform poorly if not handled correctly at the race’s start.

“  I did a lot of laps this year behind Martin, behind Pecco a few laps, those that lasted because they always had a very high level and went much faster than us. But there Martín was suffering, he wasn’t turning in the same way, he didn’t have the same speed, and he wasn’t accelerating compared to the Ducatis who normally accelerate quite well. What happened ? What went wrong? I don’t dare say it, but it’s clear that he lost a lot of points for the championship,  ” he adds.

He still  “  dares  ” to show a direction… “ I don’t dare say without seeing the data if it’s the tire or what . It can be a very good tire but if you overheat it at the start of the race it is no longer useful for the whole race. It might be a bad tire, but if you take care of it at the start of the race, you’ll have more at the end  .”

“ And it might be a good tire, but if you increase the pressure because you overheated it, the bike won’t perform the same either. At the start I saw that it had failed, but I don’t dare say that it was the tire, the rider, the team or the bike without knowing it . What is clear is that he has lost points and now needs to show his best version to try to win the two remaining races in Valencia. And this way we have more opportunities to make mistakes .” 

Marquez’s comments reflect his expertise and understanding of the complexities of MotoGP racing, particularly the critical role of tire management. His observations also highlight the fine line between success and struggle in the highly competitive world of MotoGP.

O conteúdo Marc Márquez leaves some messages in the air about Jorge Martín race: ‘What happened ? What went wrong? I don’t dare say it, but it’s clear that he lost a lot of points for the championship’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Michelin was at the center of the latest MotoGP controversy, with Jorge Martín blaming the category’s tire supplier for allegedly providing him with a defective tire, which ultimately caused him significant performance issues leading to a poor showing in yesterday’s race in Qatar, jeopardizing his contention for the title.

In response to the Pramac rider’s criticism, Piero Taramasso – Michelin’s head for MotoGP – was quick to defend the French structure: ‘This weekend the absolute record and also the record for the fastest lap of the race were broken on the last lap. This shows the consistency of Michelin tires’ performance. Not only was the track surface new, but also a Grand Prix motorcycle had never ridden on it. It was not possible to organize any pre-test, and the first test session on a “green” track was really like a dive into the unknown.’

Taramasso then ‘aimed’ at Martín, considering that what happened with #89 was the only negative point of the weekend: ‘The only negative note was Jorge Martín’s performance. He complained about the rear tire at the beginning and then also about the front tire, because he pushed too hard. We are analyzing the data because, at this moment, it is not easy to say anything about the tire. The tire was manufactured in France and transported directly here, it was never pre-heated before.’

And he assured that news would come soon after analyzing what happened: ‘He has no idea, check the data we received from the team and, as soon as we have any news, we will inform Jorge, Pramac, and everyone about what happened.’

O conteúdo Michelin “responds” to Martín: ‘It was the only negative point in a weekend of records; his tyre came straight from France’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Michelin has been in the middle of MotoGP’s latest controversy, with Jorge Martin blaming the category’s tyre supplier for allegedly supplying him with a faulty tyre which, in the end, caused him major performance problems that led to a poor performance in yesterday’s race in Qatar, putting his title challenge at risk.

Faced with the Pramac rider’s criticism, Piero Taramasso – Michelin’s head of MotoGP – wasted no time in defending the French company: ‘This weekend the absolute record and also the record for the fastest lap of the race were broken on the last lap. This shows the consistent performance of the Michelin tyres. Not only was the track surface new, but a Grand Prix motorbike had never ridden on it before. It wasn’t possible to organise any pre-testing and the first test session, on a “green” track, was really like diving into the unknown’.

Taramasso then took aim at Martin, considering that what happened to the #89 was the only negative point of the weekend: ‘The only negative note was Jorge Martín’s performance. He complained about the rear tyre at the start and then also the front tyre, because he pushed too hard. We’re analysing the data because it’s not easy to say anything about the tyre at the moment. The tyre was manufactured in France and transported here directly, it was never preheated before’.

And he assured us that there would be news soon after analysing what happened: ‘He has no idea, he’s checking the data we’ve received from the team and, as soon as we have any news, we’ll let Jorge, Pramac and everyone know what happened’.

O conteúdo Michelin «responds» to Martin: ‘It was the only negative point in a weekend of records; His tyre came straight from France’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The end of yesterday’s race at Losail was full of controversy, especially after the words of Jorge Martin, who admitted that he had somehow seen his chances of fighting for a good result – and therefore the world championship – seriously diminished after a hypothetical sabotage to his rear tyre.

The spaniard even admitted to journalists that he felt he was beaten more by what happened off the track, and that if he had been beaten in a direct battle, he wouldn’t have been so upset:

– I don’t know what to expect from Michelin. We’ll wait for them to analyse the tyres and we’ll probably have to meet to see what happened. I did a half-box, I think it helped me to cool off. But I don’t feel like I was beaten on the track; I was beaten off the track. If I’d been beaten in a one-on-one, I’d probably be less angry than I am in this situation.

O conteúdo ‘If I was beaten on a one-on-one I’d be less angry’ – Jorge Martin aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Jorge Martin is clearly the standout rider of the day, but not for the best reasons: 10th place in today’s race in Qatar left the spaniard 21 points behind Francesco Bagnaia, and in analysing his performance the Pramac rider admitted that he even… laughed.

‘At a certain point I started laughing because they didn’t beat me on the track, because with the same conditions I’m confident I could win today. […] I’m also frustrated because I think I deserve this championship too and I lost it to a large extent today’, Martin told the press at the Qatari circuit.

The rider was then asked if anything could be done to avoid problems like this in the future, to which he replied: ‘I don’t think there’s any need to understand what happened because I don’t think they want to decide the championship: they want to be competitive, I hope and believe that they want the same conditions for us, but… I lost 1.5s of pace in one day. I don’t think I’ve forgotten how to ride. I think they have to improve and analyse why this happened so that it doesn’t happen again in the future, and I hope that I can fight for more championships in the future, but today I feel a bit lost because it’s more difficult now’.

Faced with the 21-point gap that now separates him from Bagnaia, the spaniard guaranteed that he won’t give up: ‘I think we can still do it. We’ll get to Valencia and see if we can be competitive. It’s a track I really like and where I’ve been very fast in the past. We’ll see, it’s easy to recover points now as we saw today, I lost a lot, so if I win both races in Valencia I might have a small chance of winning, but now the question is how this tyre has changed my path to the title because I think I was capable of recovering points today’.

O conteúdo Jorge Martin doesn’t give up: ‘I laughed because they didn’t beat me on the track; If I win in Valencia I have a small chance’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

After hinting that his race may have been sabotaged in a way, Jorge Martin once again touched on the subject and left some questions hanging in the air, but with his frustration clear as to how it could be that his battle for the championship was almost ended by… a tyre.

On the warm-up lap, just before the start of the race, there were apparently no problems: ‘No, on the Warm Up lap there was nothing, only on the start’ he began, before continuing:

– I was the only rider on the whole grid in all categories to who this happened, so there was certainly something wrong with the tyre. Then, after about three laps, I understood that it was impossible to do the same as yesterday.

Asked if he had tried to speak to anyone at Michelin about the anomaly, Martin clarified that for the moment he had only spoken to members of Pramac: ‘No. I’ve only spoken to my team and it’s a shame that this has happened to us. They certainly need to improve, it’s unacceptable for a MotoGP world championship to be decided by a tyre… Maybe sometimes it happens to Pecco, he’s spoken about it before, and it’s never happened to me, but today it was difficult to finish the race. I’m happy and proud of myself because I finished the race, it was super complicated’.

He continued: ‘I think the bike was ok, but when the tyre doesn’t work then nothing works. Yesterday I was riding in second 53 relatively easily, I mean, not easy but on the pace, and today I was 1.2 off the race pace. I’m a bit faster than that and it’s difficult to understand at the moment and we certainly need to ask the tyre supplier some questions’.

O conteúdo Jorge Martin very frustrated: ‘I was the only in all the categories to have this happen. A Championship being decided by a tyre is unacceptable’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

One of the riders who was behind Jorge Martín and eventually overtook him in the MotoGP Qatar GP race was Fabio Quartararo. The 2021 champion spent some time behind the Prima Pramac rider when the Spaniard was clearly facing significant difficulties before Quartararo managed to pass him.

The French rider told the press that he isn’t aware of the reasons behind Martín’s performance issues but believes there was undoubtedly some kind of issue:

– He was struggling. He was not riding like yesterday. I don’t know which was the problem, but of course he wasn’t the same Jorge as yesterday. For sure he had a big issue, because you don’t make this kind of race less than 24 hours after. So for sure he had an issue. When I overtook him I wanted to be sure, because I didn’t want to make a mess, but he was struggling more than yesterday. The way he rides, I was faster. Yesterday I wasn’t faster than him and today I felt worse than yesterday. So I think the difference was big. But I think it’s not me that I tell you the correct answer.

O conteúdo ‘He wasn’t the same Jorge Martín as yesterday; he had a big issue’ – Fabio Quartararo aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.