Marc Marquez, by winning Sprint and final at Misano, is now level on points with Jorge Martin. This is a grand result because he began more than 100 points out of first.

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi broke the Misano lap record in qualifying on pole, as Marc Marquez made a series of mistakes in Q2, strongly suggesting that this pace was all he had.. His brother Alex (Gresini Duc) crashed in his attempt.

Sunday, at the flag, Bezzecchi hammered the start, then rode the first few corners defensively.

He later said, “Everything was going well but I made a mistake at Turn 13 and lost the front. …when you have a full tank you have to manage the braking a bit better {because of greater weight transfer to the front}. I had a small wobble before braking between turns 12 and 13. I wasn’t able to hold the line perfectly and when I tried to brake, the front folded.”

Marc Marquez said, “…today Marco did the mistake and we tried to just take that benefit.”

Jorge Martin, Bez’s teammate, moved up to take the lead from Marquez on lap 6 but Marc re-took the lead on lap 11, holding it to the flag despite strong pushing from his brother Alex, who had regained second on lap 13.

Pedro Acosta (factory KTM) had earlier announced a new way of working, in effect from Aragon, of making more radical (and potentially higher-yielding in results) set-up changes now that he is out of the title chase. It has seemingly delivered benefit, pushing him into 3rd on Sunday.
During one crazy lap in the Sprint, Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Duc) had the kind of battle with Acosta that fans dream of – all over each other in every corner, swapping places and nearly touching several times. More about that later – for now, know that Aldeguer was 4th.



Fifth was Jorge Martin, whose clear chance at the win was stopped by right arm trouble (compartment syndrome). “Today I had a great chance to win. I was feeling really good, I got off to a good start, I managed to catch up to Marquez and even pass him, and I was able to keep a good pace without doing anything crazy.”

Marc shared with us his reading of the weekend that allowed him to win the Sprint. The reasoning was this; Misano has outstanding grip, but before the Sprint a number of Ducatis had crashed – losing the front while running a soft rear. Ducatis have no surplus of rear grip – something they have admitted only lately. Bike set-up is based on this by necessity. If now, on a high-grip track, you greatly increase rear grip by fitting a soft, you have created a situation in which magnified rear grip pushes the front, leading to a crash.

Ducati race manager Dall’Igna had said this weekend, “…let’s just say we tend to struggle a bit more with rear grip than others, so that’s something we’ll have to work on.”

Marquez said, “…the feedback, the data, and all these things gave me the idea to go with the medium.”

This, he said, was an on-the-grid decision: “As you saw in qualifying many Ducati riders crashed in the same way” (his brother twice, and Fabio Di Giannantonio).

He himself had an experience that added weight to the decision to run the medium rear. “I did a mistake from turn 8 to 9. That was the most dangerous one.




“I got out from 8, start to wheelie and I tried to change direction.”

He touched the grass at very high speed.

“I wanted to lead from the start partly because of the tire choice.”

With Bezzecchi on the soft, Marquez had to lead in order to prevent Bez on the soft from getting a jump that Marquez might not overcome.

“I took a big risk to do that and really pushed.

“After that it was purely a question of risk management. Once I’d opened up the gap I relaxed a bit. But then the lead started to shrink again {Alex was coming} and I had to take more risks.”

During the Sprint, Acosta and Aldeguer would have their 
all-over-each-other third lap, of which Acosta said, “That cost us a lot of time. Without that duel we’d both have been closer to Martin {In the Sprint, Acosta was 6th, Aldeguer 8th).

A look at the times on MotoGP.com shows that lap cost one rider a full second and the other, two seconds. Meanwhile the phalanx of Ducatis and Aprilias were first through 5th. Although hailed as being “what puts fans in seats,” that kind of duel is not practical when the sport is as rich in talent as it now is – lots of others on strong rides, both eager and able to close on you if you waste time on cut-and-thrust.

Bezzecchi’s crash on Sunday’s first lap shows that being even slightly off-line can put you on lower-grip, dusty, and less-rubbered-up pavement.

The racing line carries high confidence. Off-line is unknown.

Let’s remember another misconception that fans may have – that super-quick reflexes win races. Kenny Roberts told me in 1980, “My reflexes aren’t all that fast, so I have to get a lot of my thinking done ahead of time. I think of my mind as being like a big Velcro board with little packets hanging on it. In those packets are how to handle all different situations. When something comes up I grab the packet and do it.”

Thinking done ahead of time is experience.

Later in Sunday’s race Acosta was closing on the Marquez brothers. He said, “…the pace at the end of the race was quite good {Marc was having to push again to remain clear of his brother’s advance}.

“It was going to be tough and at the end, in turn 7, I locked the front and that was exactly the moment that I said, ‘OK, now it’s time to chill a bit.’

I had a good gap {from} Aldeguer behind and said, ‘P3 will be more than enough for how tough this weekend was.’ “

He elaborated, saying, “We did a great job last night…we had to completely change the bike.”

Earlier in his career, Acosta has seemed a bit wild to some but now that he has a two-year to ride Lenovo Ducati as Marc Marquez’s teammate (replacing the departing two-time champion Bagnaia) he must think and act more on the basis of championship points and less on trying to win every corner.

Here they are:
M. MARQUEZ 274.1
J. MARTIN 274
MARCO BEZZECCHI 241
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO 223
PEDRO ACOSTA 209

The 274.1 is because Marquez has more wins than Martin.

There are eight races to go, starting with Austria next weekend. There are enough points on offer to upset all predictions.