WHO WILL WIN EPIC TITLE FIGHT?
Nine rounds, five winners and just ten points separating the top four at the midway point: MotoGP has never been tighter
MarcMarquez
Reigning champion Marquez may be leading the standings but his route to the top hasn’t been plain sailing. Despite taking his now-traditional win at the Circuit of the Americas, he suffered crashes at both Argentina and France. Crashes that remind him of the importance of consistency and not just outright speed. Gone are the days of 2014 when he won the opening 10 races. Marquez is instead having to focus on improving his Repsol Honda and the added dimension brought by this year’s Michelins. Another factor in his up and down start to the year is that he was a little rattled by the arrival of superfast former sparring partner Maveric Villa es. ving bee outpaced in the op mg races by the Yamaha ma Marquez is concentrating o very trategic campaign - striking where he can his favoured i. anti-clockwise circuits of Texas and Sachsenring) and taking safe points elsewhere.
Maverick Viñales
Boy wonder in pre-season testing, Viñales showed he was more than a onetrick pony when the racing got underway by taking wins in the first two races of the year – and looked set to be on target for 2017 glory. But, as MotoGP has a habit of doing, the young Spaniard has been given a reality check in recent rounds. He has struggled with the Movistar Yamaha in hot temperatures and as a result his home races were a disaster – as was a big mistake in Assen and some unspectacular wet performances. He’s shown some chinks in his armour, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can get back to winning ways soon. We know he’s tough and we know that he’s always up for a scrap – but it’s still to be seen how he manages when the pressure of fighting for a world title is on his still very young shoulders.
Andrea Dovizioso
You'd have got very good odds on Dovi being a double MotoGP race winner at the start of the season, let alone actually winning the title. But the Ducati rider put together two stunning pertormances at Mugello and Barcelona to double his win tally in only a week — and to establish himself as a dark horse for the 2017 title. He's adamant that he's not yet ready to be there week in and week out, despite Ducati continuing to improve their Desmosedici. They've still got issues, mainly the mid-corner steering problem, but under the genius of Ducati boss Gigi Dall'Igna, those issues seem to be getting a little bit less of a problem. And here's the thing about the topsy-turvy world of MotoGP in 2017 — you no longer need to be winning races every weekend to be in with a shout for the title. Dovi is one of the smartest riders on the grid, there's no-one who knows how to bide their time quite like the 31-year-old Italian, and that's a strength that could well put him in the mix for top honours.
Valentino Rossi
In 2016, Valentino Rossi put together a blistering title attack that few saw coming. The MotoGP veteran stood on the top step of the podium multiple times and proved that he still had the pace to fight with his much younger rivals, ultimately finishing second overall in the series. In 2017 we’ve seen both pace and consistency from the Italian. Stunningly fast on his day (like at Le Mans, when he took the fight to team-mate Viñales) but also making uncharacteristic mistakes (again, like at Le Mans when he crashed out on the final lap). He’s also suffered from Yamaha going in the wrong direction with their new M1 chassis and leaving him unable to be competitive in low-grip conditions. But with a new frame in the bike now, which has clearly improved the situation, he’s still only 10 points adrift as MotoGP heads to some of his strongest circuits on the calendar— and only a fool would rule him out of being right in the mix come Valencia.