Two races in a row where rain was forecast, two races in a row of perfect sunshine. Amidst all kinds of predictions for a wet and treacherous Sunday, Mugello delivered blue skies and a warm circuit for MotoGP to do battle on, and the riders couldn’t have been happier for it. The last thing this manic season needed at the start of a triple header was the unpredictability brought by rain and standing water on circuit.
Instead, we got a rather uneventful race dominated by a pack of Ducati riders. Pecco Bagnaia got away early and never looked back, chased by stablemate Jorge Martin. After an early duel with KTM’s Jack Miller and the two Marquez brothers, Luca Marini and Johan Zarco threw down for the final spot on the podium. Ducatis made up the entire top four of the feature race, following the Saturday sprint in which they locked out the top five.
The Italian brand has been threatening to do this for some time, and if anything it’s a miracle this hasn’t happened already in 2023. Their bike is strong in every aspect while still retaining their top speed advantage over the rest of the grid. Sure, there are areas in which other bikes can leverage strengths and get ahead, but there isn’t a manufacturer on the grid right now that is anywhere near as consistent as the Bologna bullets. All they needed was a track custom built to extract every drop of top speed they can deliver, and they swept away the rest of the grid.
Well, most of them did. Alex Marquez finally survived the opening lap of a race just to drop out of contention of his own accord while running in third. Enea Bastianini, in his first race back from injury, struggled with late race pace and faded from contention. Fabio Di Giannantonio continues to struggle far more than any of the other Ducati riders, and test rider Michele Pirro had an uneventful finish outside of the points. And Marco Bezzechi, who came into the round second in the championship and just a single point behind Bagnaia, dropped to the back of the top eight early on and never recovered, struggling to catch the Aprilia and KTM riders ahead of him.
It was a curious result for Bezz, and not at all what we were expecting following his podium finish in the sprint and recent run of overall good form. If anything, the fact he did so well in the sprint made it seem as though he was in for a guaranteed podium come Sunday given his scoring patterns all season. The VR46 star has been phenomenal in feature races thus far but seemingly struggles to extract full potential from his bike in the shorter sprints. This weekend, for whatever reason, his fortunes were reversed.
Unfortunately, this could end up being the sophomore’s undoing this year. Compared to the raw speed and terrifying consistency of Bagnaia, Bezzechi has only really seemed to have bursts of talent this season, something that doesn’t tend to form a good base for a championship challenge. It might be a question of inexperience, it could be that Bezz is on a year old bike as opposed to Bagnaia’s full factory force, it could even be bouts of nerves from a rider very new to winning ways. Whatever Bezzechi’s issues are, they could be a real problem in the coming rounds as his Italian foe looks to set about dominating the standings before the Summer break.
One thing Bezzechi couldn’t blame for his woes was injury, though that excuse was rife within the paddock this weekend. Heading into the weekend, we had a shocking number of injured riders preparing to race: Aleix Espargaro, Oliveira, Raul Fernandez, Bagnaia, Bastianini, and Marini were all carrying some kind of physical issue, not to mention Pol Espargaro still sat on the sidelines following his horror crash in Portimao. After the weekend was done we added two more names to that list, with Honda riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir both out for the count and not expected to return until the July races post-break.
I will reiterate once again: This is not sustainable. MotoGP’s change to its weekend structure has compacted rider’s fortunes and forced them to push harder than ever before, and the result we’re seeing is a bunch of competitive riders having their championships put into doubt with random ailments picked up along the way. At the rate of attrition we’re currently seeing, this season is going to be decided purely by who survives the longest without a major injury. This is not the MotoGP we all know and love.
Anyway, back to the bikes themselves. Jorge Martin bounced back here to reinforce himself as a genuine championship contender, making it four podiums from the past two race weekends. The Spaniard’s future appears to no longer be in doubt – he will stay with Pramac for at least another year, with the option to jump ship to Yamaha looking increasingly unlikely given their current misery. While I remain steadfast in my opinion that satellite riders cannot and will not win MotoGP titles given their lack of direct factory support, Martin represents a genuine headache for Bagnaia at this stage in the season. He’s had the pace to battle all year, and now he’s gotten rid of his crashing habits he should start to deliver on a weekly basis.
Speaking of Yamaha, it was another weekend to forget for the Japanese brands at large. Both Yamaha riders finished the race in the points but looked miles off the pace all weekend, and Honda had three riders either fail to finish or simply not start thanks to their injuries earlier in the weekend. When Taka Nakagami (who is still rumoured to be replaced by Ai Ogura at the end of the season) is your top scoring rider, you know things are going wrong, and it’s unclear when a resolution is going to present itself for either factory.
With rumours that Franco Morbidelli appearing to be out the door at Yamaha, it raises a genuine question of who is going to replace him. At the start of the season it appeared as though there were a wealth of options standing in the wings, but almost all of those have dried up in recent months thanks to Yamaha’s consistently poor performances. Toprak Razgatlioglu is staying in WSBK, Martin and Bezzechi are staying firmly within the Ducati fold, and none of the disenfranchised riders at other manufacturers see Yamaha as a realistic option. Even the prospect of taking on a young talent from Moto2 like Pedro Acosta seems like a pipe dream given their current slump of form.
The Summer break at the end of this triple header will help to put a lot of these puzzle pieces into place. Once heavy hitters like Martin, Acosta and Morbidelli are locked in, others will start to snap up the remaining positions on the grid and shore up their futures as soon as they can. There will be people left out on the sideline as a result – if two or more rookies are stepping in next year, others must leave to make room – but the overall strength of the class should remain just as high, if not higher. A tantalising prospect indeed.
But that’s too far ahead in the future to be looking. For now, we look ahead to the Sachsenring for the German grand prix this weekend, and the continuation of this blistering European triple header. Who will build off a strong base in Mugello and continue scoring big points, and who will fall behind in the championship chase? Thankfully, we’re only days away from finding out.
Solomon Talks Bikes 