World of Sport: Motogp; Australian Supercars; Road to Le Mans
MOTOGP BARCELONA (E) JUNE 17 ROUND 7/19
Back-to-back victories at Mugello and Barcelona following a spell of relative underachievement last year put Andrea Dovizioso firmly into 2017 title contention, while team-mate Jorge Lorenzo continued to look for the form that had deserted him since his switch to Ducati.
Last weekend Lorenzo completed his own Italian Gp/catalan GP double. It’s not quite put Lorenzo back in the hunt – though he admits it is no longer “impossible” – but it’s come at an unfortunate moment for Ducati, which recently decided it didn’t want his services in 2019. At the same time, the form Dovizioso displayed in the opening rounds has vanished, as a third crash in four races leaves the Italian level on 66 points with Lorenzo, eighth in the standings, 49 down on leader Marc Marquez.
Dovizioso’s Mugello/barcelona double last year seemingly vindicated Ducati’s decision to retain him and kick Andrea Iannone to the kerb, even if those successes were more the result of tactical use of circumstances rather than all-out speed.
Lorenzo’s double Ducati success is different. He blitzed the field in Italy as the ‘final-step’ modifications to the GP18S fuel tank allowed him to maintain his searing early pace for a full race distance.
At Barcelona, he did so again. Marquez was 4.5 seconds back at the flag in second place. After Lorenzo hit the front at the start of lap two, he asked questions
Marquez simply could not answer.
Lorenzo effortlessly lapped in the low-mid 1m40s bracket for 22 of the 24 laps. Marquez, by contrast, was working overtime to try to run at that pace. Lorenzo kept his soft tyres in sublime condition, nullifying any late-race advantage Marquez hoped to have on his harder rubber.
With its future line-up split by 0.066s in qualifying and finishing one-two in the race, Honda management must have been delighted by its decision to recruit Lorenzo. Ducati put a brave face on, but it now must face up to the awkward reality; had it waited one more weekend, Lorenzo would likely still be a Ducati rider in 2019. Danilo Petrucci, who will fill Lorenzo’s shoes next year, picked a terrible weekend to finish a lowly eighth on his Pramac-run factory GP18.
Crash aside, Dovizioso once again looked resigned to being Lorenzo’s bridesmaid, his pace two to three tenths short of what his team-mate was hammering out in the early stages. His Turn 5 tumble on lap nine came as the result of “arriving five, six kilometres [per hour]” faster into the corner, and he brushed off claims that Lorenzo’s resurgence forced him to go over the limit.
Valentino Rossi remains Marquez’s nearest title rival, 27 points adrift despite riding a Yamaha with a “maximum” potential of third – at least, in his hands. Team-mate Maverick Vinales once again showed promise in practice and in qualifying, but
plummeted from fourth to 10th on lap one and spent most of the first 10 tours looking for pace. Sixth, besting Yamaha stablemate Johann Zarco on the Tech3 M1 in the latter stages, was all Vinales could conjure.
As fifth-placed Dani Pedrosa (Honda) looks odds-on to join a Petronas-backed Yamaha team next year, the Japanese marque must also be facing the awkward reality that it perhaps jumped the gun in signing Vinales for two more years back in January.
Cal Crutchlow passed Pedrosa late on at Turn 4 for fourth, though the factory Honda man had made his satellite LCR counterpart fight hard for it. As 13 of the 26-strong field all fell out of contention on a day with many crashes, ninth-placed Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati) was able to add a third top-10 finish to his 2018 scorecard as he seeks to save his career in Motogp, while early podium challenger Iannone sunk to 10th after making several errors on his factory Suzuki.
Lorenzo now has “the most complete Ducati ever” at his disposal, and his form on it has so far been unstoppable. Marquez’s grip on the championship is still tight, but he now has the only rider who has beaten him to a Motogp title back at the front. Lorenzo could well go on to deliver the championship his arrival at Bologna was supposed to produce. And Ducati will have to come to terms with the fact that its impatience has potentially denied it more title glory.