Mugello is in the books. It was a unique race for a circuit with such a history to it, with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and without the usual fanatical crowds lining the grandstands. It had unexpected crashes, resurgent rides, and a truly dominant display at the front on a machine that hasn’t seen success here in a number of years. All told, pretty standard stuff for 2021.
First of all, I feel the need to answer my own question from my Preview post, where I spent several paragraphs outlining why the Ducatis would be nigh unstoppable in race conditions this weekend. In the end, the Ducatis only managed to put two riders in the top 6, and had several DNFs across their various teams. While their qualifying record continued to be phenomenal, they simply failed to convert that into the kind of dominance on Sunday that we’ve become used to in Mugello in recent years, and seemed instead to be roughly on par with the Yamahas, Suzukis and KTMs.
Why was this year so different to previous editions for the Italian manufacturer? For starters, they had competition on the top speed front, with KTM rider Brad Binder setting the top speed record for the weekend and actually matching Zarco’s all-time record from Qatar. Aprilia and Honda were not far behind either, meaning the Ducatis couldn’t rely as much on their all-conquering horsepower down the start-finish straight. They also suffered immensely in the infield section against the Suzukis and Yamahas, losing chunks of time through the tricky chicanes that plague the second and third sectors. All told, they just didn’t have enough of a leg-up to strand the other manufacturers behind them.
Which led to perhaps the most surprising result for the weekend: Fabio Quartararo running away with the win. The Frenchman was untouchable once he got to the head of the queue, gapping the other riders by several seconds and maintaining that lead for the remainder of the race. He was helped somewhat by Bagnaia, who crashed out of the lead in front of him, but it’s still really impressive that he was able to keep the higher horsepower bikes behind him and manage the race so well. We’re seeing a lot of this from Quartararo this year; once he gets to the front of a race, if he puts his head down and finds his rhythm, he can just streak away from the other riders and take a comfortable victory.
He may have been helped somewhat by the conflict behind him. The battle for the podium was a hard-fought affair, with Zarco, Miller, Rins, Mir, Oliveira and Binder all in the running at various stages of the race. Binder was ruled out by a tangle with Marc Marquez early on that triggered his airbag and left him unable to breathe properly for several laps, Rins crashed out of a comfortable points position for the fourth week in a row, and both Zarco and Miller seemed to fade somewhat in the latter stages of the race, which left us with Oliveira and Mir duelling for the podium places. Ultimately this would be decided on the final lap with some close-quarters racing, and the KTM rider came out on top to take second.
There was drama after the flag on that front. Oliveira tagged the track limits while trying to keep Mir behind him on the final lap, which results in an automatic deduction of one place. The infraction was minimal, and likely wouldn’t have been caught in previous years by officials, but the new track sensors made it very clear that the infringement had taken place. What followed, however, was more unusual – race direction took back the infringement and restored Oliveira’s second place finish. This is the first time I can remember seeing a track limits infringement overturned since the introduction of the new rules system.
This causes more problems than it solves. Why was Oliveira’s infringement ok when others in the past have not? Riders across all classes were penalised for the same reason in Mugello this weekend, yet Oliveira’s was the only one that was overturned. What separates this incident from the ones in Moto2 and Moto3, both here and in previous races? Some clarification on the exact nature of these rules would certainly help, as the only logical answer is that it was simply due to Oliveira’s status as a MotoGP rider rather than a junior or intermediate class rider.
In Mir’s case, I imagine it was simply nice to be back on the podium. The Suzuki rider found his way to parc ferme for just the second time this year, in what has been a rather mild start to his title defence. The consistent podium pace he showed across last season simply hasn’t appeared as of yet, and though he sits comfortably in fifth place in the championship standings, he’s a long way off the title protagonists after six races. The Suzuki doesn’t seem as dominant in 2021, and he and Rins are both having to fight much harder to get solid points results – which is likely part of the reason Rins has suffered so many crashes in recent history. Whatever the problem is, they’re both running out of time to figure it out before Quartararo’s lead in the championship becomes insurmountable.
I touched on it earlier, but the KTMs had a fantastic weekend. A new chassis and fuel type lead to them very suddenly bridging the top speed gap to the Ducatis, and both Binder and Oliveira were consistently towards the spiky end of the timesheets as a result. While qualifying could have been a bit kinder to them both, they both showed exceptional race pace and were able to take second and fifth respectively. If the updates are provided to the Tech3 team for the coming race at Catalunya then we could easily see four competitive KTM machines on the grid for the first time in 2021. It’s great to see them finally returning to some of the form we saw last year, and hopefully the Austrian factory can maintain this upswing heading into the next few rounds.
Overall, a solid weekend for many, but in the worst possible circumstances. Just before the Moto2 race started we found out that Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier had lost his life at the hospital he’d been transported to in Florence. The Swiss rider was involved in a heavy accident at the end of qualifying the day before and was treated on the circuit before being airlifted away. It’s a crushing loss for the whole grid, and I can’t even begin to imagine how this news would have affected all the riders. Racing is complicated enough from a mental standpoint, as every rider must head out to every session knowing they could be seriously injured, and the grid are a close-knit group akin to a family, so losing one of their own can’t have been easy.
The topics of rider and track safety will likely take the headlines in the coming weeks, and I understand that many people likely have opinions on the events that took place at Mugello, but for now I would simply like to send my best wishes and condolences to Jason’s family, friends and team. He was a bright and talented young rider, and he will be missed dearly from the paddock.
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