MotoGP finds itself on a longer Summer sabbatical than was originally intended. Thanks to the cancellation of the Finnish grand prix – which, by the sounds of things, may struggle to even make it onto future calendars – the paddock is now enjoying a five-week holiday from the sport, giving riders time to relax and catch some European sun. It also gives them a chance to reflect on the first eleven races, and prepare themselves for the back half of the season, and in that spirit I thought I would join them in retrospection.
Right from the beginning of this season, we’ve known it was destined to be one of the closest we’ve ever seen. The gap between the best motorcycle on the grid and the worst is narrower than it has ever been, with all six manufacturers showing up to the start of the season with highly competitive bikes tuned from months of testing and the data obtained from 2021. Ducati looked the strongest on paper, but their 2022 bike was showing unexpected flaws, and in a way that tore apart a lot of our pre-season predictions. Picking a winner before we touched down in Qatar would have been a daunting prospect indeed.
The theme of the first four rounds was inconsistency. There seemed to be no ability for riders to find repeat success as we jumped from continent to continent. Qatar, Mandalika and Termas de Rio gave us nine different podium finishers from a possible nine, and Austin made it eleven from twelve. No rider or manufacturer was taking the reigns of the championship and marking themselves as an early title contender. It seemed that we wouldn’t have a clear picture of what the title chase would look like until we got some European races under our belts, with the more familiar circuits giving riders the opportunity to really flex their muscles.
This idea that none of the results from the start of the season would reflect the overall championship ended up being equal parts right and wrong. With the power of hindsight, we can actually see that the seeds of what was to come in the European leg were all visible from the beginning. Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro both finished every race in the opening stint in the points, with Quartararo nabbing an important podium and Aleix taking his and Aprilias first win. Enea Bastianini won two of the opening four races, but was miles off the pace on the other weekends. Ducati was on the podium every week, but rarely with the same rider. These facts have all blossomed into the current state of the championship as we see it eleven races in.
The two biggest lies to come from these more unpredictable rounds were likely the strength of the Suzuki and the entire results of the Qatar grand prix. Admittedly, Suzuki’s results have been masked for months now by the weight of their looming departure from the grid, but they certainly seemed to be realistic title contenders after four rounds, with both riders finding consistent results where others were struggling. Add in the fact that Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro managed podium finishes on the opening night in the desert but have since failed to return to parc ferme gives us a growing list of riders who haven’t lived up to their start-of-season hype.
Undeniably, the three biggest contenders since we hit Europe have been Quartararo, Aleix and Bagnaia. Quartararo and Bagnaia have won three races apiece since the fourth round in Austin, and Aleix managed a run of four podiums on the trot and hasn’t finished worse than fifth since this leg of the championship started. All three have taken huge swathes of points since Portimao, but the exact nature of their results has defined the championship. Pecco’s three wins are complimented by a shocking three no-scores, which leaves him in fourth in the standings. Quartararo’s wins have been aided by a series of key podium finishes and points hauls, which has allowed him to stretch his advantage at the top of the standings.
The other surprise package of this season so far has been Johann Zarco, who has found consistency that no other Ducati rider seems able to replicate at this stage. A string of top five finishes has seen him rise to third in the standings ahead of Bagnaia, Bastianini and Aussie rider Jack Miller despite being winless for the year. In a championship that has been lauded for its lack of consistent form, Zarco has shown that simply being close to the pace each weekend can allow you to outscore those who have better individual finishes. In a way, he’s not that far from replicating what Aleix is doing on the Aprilia.
Where does the championship go from here? It’s actually hard to know for sure. Logic would dictate that the more familiar European tracks coming up should continue to favour the top tier of riders we’ve had crop up recently – Quartararo, Espargaro and Bagnaia – but it bears remembering that of the nine remaining races, four of them are taking part in Asia and Australia. It’s been three years since the MotoGP grid last contended with a set of Asian flyaway rounds, and that means three batches of rookies that have never ridden the likes of Sepang or Phillip Island on a MotoGP bike. We could still be in for plenty of surprises.
Solomon Talks Bikes 