Yesterday's Valencia GP marked an end of an era for MotoGP in many ways. There are so many things that I would like to cover so I want to be brief with the races:
The last ever 125cc GP was won by Maverick Vinales, who impressed massively in his first season, however the news of the day was that Nico Terol won (finally after so many years) the last ever 125cc Championship. His future remains to be seen, I expect him to move to Moto2 but I won't be surprised if he stays in Moto3 next year. Zarco was his nearest challenger, but he is too immature and hot-headed to win a championship at the moment, hopefully he will learn for next year.
Next up, is the Moto2 Championship won by Bradl deservely. However Marquez put an impressive charge that was stopped by his injuries. I am sure he will be a top contender for next year's championship. What impressed me more though is the news that Bradl will most likely spend one more year in Moto2, which I feel is unnecesary as he should move to MotoGP even if its in a CRT.
The last 800cc race was won by Stoner, however Spies proved why he is in MotoGP, just losing at the finish line. It was a thrilling end to a race that could have offered more if it wasn't for Bautista's crash. Riders worth mentioning were Hayes, in his first ever MotoGP race and Nakasuga. It also mark the last race of Capirex, a three time world champion and a contender for many years in MotoGP. He used Simoncelli's #58 as a fitting tribute to his fellow italian racer.
So yesterday MotoGP said goodbye to the 125cc and the 800cc classes, and also said goodbye to Capirossi and Simoncelli. The idea of having 1000cc for next year excited me but after this race I am not so sure. There are many things I do not like about next season and I will talk about them later. For now I just want to leave the tribute all classes made to Marco Simoncelli. A fitting tribute to a great rider that will not be forgotten and I want to leave the After the Flag special as well.
Yesterday was a terrible day for the world of motorsports, we lost a truly great rider just before he was about to blossom. It is a heavy loss for many, his family, his friends, the paddock and all the extended motorsports family. For me, it was a truly shocking news, I cannot express how deeply saddned I am about this.
In all the years I have been following motorsports, events like these have unfortunately happened. I have watched live these terrible accidents that claim young promises, hardened racers or world champions. However unlike those other accidents, Simoncelli was the rider I most strongly rooted for in MotoGP, and probably my favourite motorcycle rider at the moment, period. I loved his race craft, his style, his off-track personality. In every picture you see of SuperSic riding his bike, the body language tells you how aggressive and quick he was.
I truly believed his large frame would have suited the 1000cc next year, and with his Honda contract he was certainly a challenger for the World Championship. I will truly miss him, I still cannot belive we won't see him on track anymore. At the moment, my thoughts are with his family and friends. I know the whole motorsports family will miss him as well.
After three months, I am back to blogging about my thoughts of the world of motorsports, and I do so under the worst possible cirumstances. In the course of a week we have lost two truly brave heroes. I will talk about Marco in my next post. For now I want to give a mention to Dan Wheldon.
I think that in this week we have all read about how we was a great guy and pure determination allowed him to win Indy 500 this year. We have also read the backlash towards IndyCar and their decision to run so many cars in such a short and fast oval. So I am not going into any of that.
I just want to say that Dan Wheldon was a personality bigger than life, and a master at the Indy 500. My heart lighted up a bit when I saw Indy fans flock to the circuit and make a memorial for Dan. I love how fans from across the world opened their hearts and emotions towards Dan and we could all get more of an insight of this wonderful man. I will just embed the video of Indycar´s 5 Lap tribute at Las Vegas. Somehow watching this I get such a rush of emotions, it is a powerful and fitting memorial for a man that gave its all on the race track. Godspeed Dan Wheldon.
For today´s video of the day I have the trailer of a great documentary called Truth in 24. This documentary basically follows the Audi Team Joest in preparation and most importantly during the 2008 24 hours of LeMans. A great documentary and a must see for endurance racing and motorsports fans.
The 2009 Catalunya GP featured the epic battle between the two Yamaha factory riders. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The last two final laps were amazing and well, if you do not know the story behind his GP I recommend seeing this video. The italian comentators are classic and they certainly brighten up anyone's GP with their enthusiasm.
The title is very descriptive of what this video is about, however this 10 minute long video is one of the best tributes for any F1 driver I have ever seen. According to the creator's comment, this video has been selected as the official video for the Museum Gilles Villenueve in Berthiville, QC, Canada.
I am aware that I have not posted in a while here and also I have not been active in twitter. I have been very busy with my new job and family situation. However I have been following some races still and I do have a lot of things I want to comment. So at least for now I will start posting every day a motorsport related video found online.
Today I want to share a video that has been around for a while. Despite what the description says, this is a fan-made trailer for Steve McQueen's movie Le Mans, released in 1971. Le Mans is, along with Grand Prix, one of the greatest motorsport movies ever made. This trailer was made by Antti, the well-known Finnish video-maker and I will probably be posting a lot of his videos. If you have not seen the movie, check out the trailer it will be enough to convince you to get it.
I do not normally make posts to show a promotional video, however this one is worth it. Audi of America released an 13 minute long video with a few of the highlights of this year's 24 hours of Le Mans. This is definitelty a video worth seeing regardless if you saw the race live or not. This was certainly one of the most exciting Le Mans races in the last few years and it allowed Audi to create an emotional video in just a few minutes. Also it was nice that even if Peugeot played some dirty tricks on Audi with the backmarkers Audi did not highlighted those actions here. Enjoy!
Although a bit late, I want to write my thoughts on the British GP. If you did not watched it then you missed one of the best races of the season, with action from beginning to end. This contrasts massively with Valencia, which proved to be a bore fest, and it makes it more obvious that Valencia is just a badly designed track that needs to be dropped. The British GP was also using for the first time the new Silverstone complex which proved to be a huge success. In the race Mark Webber was on pole but we all knew the man to watch was Sebastien Vettel, and he proved us right when he stormed past his teammate at the start of the race. The tricky conditions at the start did not prevented Vettel from storming into the lead, but Webber and Alonso were close behind while Hamilton was gaining places quickly.
After a few laps into the race the British public got what they wanted, Hamilton fighting for position with Alonso. Hamilton made a good clean move on Alonso to the delight of the public, and Alonso seemed to be struggling at that point. However after the first round of pit stops Alonso managed to gain ground and pass Hamilton again for position and here is where Alonso started to make its way to the top. In the mean time Kobayashi and Di Resta were having problems with their pit stops losing positions but the top 5 were running smoothly at the midpoint of the race. Then after a series of pit stops both Alonso and Vettel joined the pits a few seconds from each other, but thanks to a mistake in the Red Bull pits Alonso managed to get out first and take the lead. In his first out lap he had the pressure for Hamilton right behind him, close enough to use his DRS but this was not enough, Alonso started lapping faster leaving Hamilton behind.
Hamilton was later passed by Vettel and Webber, while Button had to retire due to a mistake in the pits. Right near the end of the race Alonso had a dominating lead, while Webber closed in on Vettel and Massa closed in on Hamilton. Alonso had no further problems to take victory, but behind him Webber ignored team instructions to keep the gap with Vettel and fight for second place. Although he did not manage to pass the German, there was a lot to talk about this incident. Further behind Massa made a move to pass Hamilton, in which Hamilton crashed into Massa taking him off balance and allowing Hamilton to take 4th by a very close margin.
Even if Vettel would have been trouble free at the pit stops, I think Alonso had the pace to catch and pass Vettel anyways; this is great news for both Ferrari and the Championship as a whole. Having another contender beating the Red Bulls will only be good news, but it is too soon to tell if Ferrari will keep this up in further races. Also the incident between Webber and Vettel had some controversy, as Red Bull clearly gave a team order on Webber not to race Vettel. I do not mind much about team orders, because basically that is the point of having a team, however Red Bull got a bit of karma back since they criticized Ferrari for their orders last year. McLaren cannot feign innocence on team orders either, although "Button, save fuel" is a bit less conspicuous than "Alonso is faster than you".
Another controversy was found in Hamilton's move on Massa at the end of the race. A lot of people felt he should have been penalized, but in this occasion I think leaving it as it is was fine. However the stewards must have been consistent since Schumacher clearly made a mistake at the beginning when he collided with Kobayashi and was penalized, then Hamilton should have been penalized as well. In my opinion both were racing incidents and no investigation was required on either of them.
Another mention I want to give is for Perez, the young Mexican driver drove smartly and consistent enough to finish 7th. Although he was unable to pass Rosberg on the track, I believe he could have been closer to 5th place if Rosberg was not in front of him. Also, the TV directors I criticized previously came good this time round and the race transmission was very enjoyable.
In the end the British GP fulfilled all our expectations for the race and them some more. It was one of the best races of the season, and consequently of the last few years. The Silverstone Circuit featured a record breaking crowd and the TV figures in the UK were amazing, proving that the new regulations are attracting more race fans into Formula 1. The drivers provided a great spectacle and everyone enjoyed it, this is indeed a good race weekend where everyone wins.
Racing is back in MotoGP! At least in some form, although the MotoGP race wasn't exactly a classic, at least it was a better race than most this season. However the Moto2 class keeps stealing the show in my opinion, so I will start with that one.
Although on paper Marc Marquez seemed as if he was going to take an easy Mugello win, the reality was different. Although Marquez lead most of the race he didn't had any breathing space, with pressure coming from Smith and de Angelis. Eventually, Bradl was able to join the front pack and change positions in the lead as well. A good surprise was the resurgence of Andrea Iannone, who battled from 14th on the grid to join the leaders. In the end Iannone could not keep the pace for too long, and was passed by de Angelis. Bradl also lost his fight with Smith and had to settle for third, however Smith was not done and took the lead a few laps near the end. It seemed as if Smith was going to claim his first win, but Marquez made a masterful move between turn 1 and 2 to pass Smith. The move made by Marquez was fair but though at the same time, and he earned the win with that one. This is the kind of motorcycle racing I want to see all the time!
Given how boring the last few MotoGP races were I wasn't having high hopes for this one. After the first few laps it all seemed eerily familiar, Stoner riding away into the distance while the other riders could just follow each other in small packs. A few moments later we saw a 6 way battle for 6th that involved Bautista, Barbera, Edwards, Crutchlow, Rossi and later Pedrosa, a battle which Rossi won. Then there was a battle for 4th place between Spies and Simoncelli which was off the camera most of the time. The most impressive thing was that both Dovizioso and Lorenzo were catching up with Stoner in the second half of the race. Lorenzo pulled a great overtaking move on Stoner to take the lead (also to note was Lorenzo's move on Dovizioso) and never let it go. Right near the end Dovi was able to pass Stoner for second place; racing at last!
However this is not good enough still, yes there was more action than before but watching the Moto2 race, it is still not enough. It feels like we are starved people getting scraps of bread, its good, but there is better racing in Moto2, 125, WSBK, etc. Yamaha seem to be on the up, with two race victories in as many races, taking the challenge directly to Honda. Also there seems to be progress in the Ducati garage, but I am beginning to think that there is something fundamentally wrong at Ducati, and it seems that this will affect the performance of the GP12 as well.
After reading some comments weeks ago, I did started thinking during the race that what MotoGP needs is to cut back on electronics. Make a standard ECU just like in Formula 1 and leave it with the basics. We want to see the motorcycles slide around the track and the riders taming them, just like it was before the 800s came into the scene. No matter what new rules and teams come next year, I think it won't be enough until the reliance on electronics is cut back to the levels we had 6 years ago. Then we will get back the racing we like to see.
