Martin Raines, Author at Nick Harris

How close will MotoGP be in 2018?

All evidence from the first MotoGP test of the year in Sepang is that the racing in 2018 will be just as close and fierce as 2017 which was a record breaking season for close premier-class grand prix races.

Last year the record books were being re-written nearly every weekend, starting with the opening race of the year when the 15^th place finisher Tito Rabat crossed the line just 29.47 seconds behind race winner Maverick Vinales. This was the second closest top 15 finish of all-time in the premier-class, after the 29.296 seconds covering the top 15 finishers at Brno in 2006. This was just a sign of things to come over the other 17 races of 2017.

There was another indication in Qatar that the depth of field in the MotoGP class, in terms of both riders and machinery, is greater than ever. Sam Lowes, who recorded the slowest “fastest lap” in the MotoGP race posted a lap just 1.891 seconds slower than the fastest lap of the race set by Johann Zarco. Never before in the MotoGP class have there been 23 riders that have posted a lap time within two seconds of the fastest lap set during a race.

At the second race of 2017 in Argentina, the fastest lap of the MotoGP was set by Maverick Viñales with a time of 1 minute 39.694 seconds. During the course of the race another sixteen riders set lap times within one second of this fastest lap time; the first time in a MotoGP race that seventeen riders have posted lap times within one second of the fastest lap of the race.

At the third race of 2017 in Austin, 11^th place finisher in Austin, Jonas Folger, crossed the line just 18.903 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez – the closest top eleven of the MotoGP era.

At Mugello, tenth place finisher Andrea Iannone, crossed the line just 15.502 seconds after race winner Andrea Dovizioso, which was the closest ever top ten finish in the MotoGP class in a race that has run for full distance. This record was re-written again during 2017 when 14.075 seconds covered the top ten finishers in Aragon.

It is worth noting that it was not only in the MotoGP class that records for close racing were being set; at Mugello the 15^th place finisher in the Moto3 race, Jorge Martin, crossed the line just 1.553 seconds behind race winner Andrea Migno; the closest top 15 in any class in the 69 year history of motorcycle grand prix racing.

By the end of the season the list for closest top 15 finishes of all-time in the premier-class looked like this:

	Year	Circuit	Race winner	Time covering first 15 riders across the line (sec)
1	2017	ARAGON	Marc Marquez	26.082
2	2017	AUSTRALIA	Marc Marquez	26.168
3	2017	RED BULL RING	Andrea Dovizioso	28.096
4	2006	BRNO	Loris Capirossi	29.296
5	2017	QATAR	Maverick Vinales	29.47
6	2001	PHILLIP ISLAND	Valentino Rossi	29.738
7	2005	BRNO	Valentino Rossi	29.768
8	2017	MUGELLO	Andrea Dovizioso	30.779
9	2015	LOSAIL	Valentino Rossi	33.625
10	2017	SILVERSTONE	Andrea Dovizioso	33.901
11	2007	JEREZ	Valentino Rossi	36.744
12	2017	SACHSENRING	Marc Marquez	37.771

This shows that seven of the closest twelve races of all-time occurred in 2017! And it was not only down to 15^th place that racing was close in 2017, on eight occasions the winning margin was less than one second.

The 2018 season will be the 70^th season of motorcycle grand prix racing, and on an historical note, in 1949 only the first five riders across the line scored world championship points. The average time covering these top five riders in 1949 was 3 minutes 20 seconds (although it must be said that the races were rather longer back in 1949, taking anything from 1 hour 16 minutes, up to 3 hours!)

The opening test of 2018 is an indication that this close racing could continue in this season. How many days is it to the opening race if the year in Qatar?

By Martin Raines|2020-04-29T09:39:53+00:00February 1st, 2018|Martin Raines Blog, Uncategorised|Comments Off

THE AUDACITY TO ORGANISE THE COLLEGE GIRLS SPRING BREAK

This is a message to all those lucky people on the long flight to Sepang for the first MotoGP test of the 2018 season. Back in the day long before official test sessions for all the teams had been dreamed of we were sent to Daytona for the 200 miler event, which many of the top grand prix riders used as a pre-season test.

What a nightmare assignment it was as I’m am sure you can imagine. Two long weeks in the Florida sunshine at the end of February having to watch 750cc missiles race round the most famous piece of banked tarmac in the world. To make matters even worse you had to watch and yes even report on Supercross and short track racing, while witnessing more Harley Davidsons than you’d ever seen in your life parade up and down the Daytona strip every warm evening before enjoying more than one cool beer. Would you believe on a couple of occasions they even had the audacity to organise the college girls spring break at the same time of the races, now just how inconsiderate was that.

One year I even had to share a room with a colleague. The fact that it was enormous and overlooked the massive long beach with the sound of the Atlantic Ocean luring you to sleep each night, or in most cases early morning, was irrelevant. After so much hard work some nights it was difficult to take an early night because the band and particularly the girl lead singer who both looked and sounded like Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac for you youngsters) were too loud. They played in the bar of the hotel five nights a week, not that we went to the bar on that many occasions in those 14 tough days. On another occasion our sleep was interrupted when they launched a moon rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral, just another thing to moan about to my editor on return to a cold wet England in early March.

At the circuit some days you often had to keep out of the sun while watching a young Freddie Spencer in action for the first time on the four-stroke Honda taking on the likes of Kenny Roberts and Graeme Crosby on those frightenly quick 750cc Yamahas that would twitch and wriggle at over 150 mph on the banking.

It was a nightmare and you people on that long flight to Sepang just don’t know how lucky you are!

By Martin Raines|2018-01-25T19:28:17+00:00January 25th, 2018|Nick's Blog|4 Comments

OVER TWO AND A HALF MILLIONS FANS CAN’T BE WRONG

I’m so naive about believing facts and statistics. Like many people I’m happy to use them when they suit my purpose and to hide them when they don’t while not really knowing deep down if to believe them or not. However, I do believe the facts produced by Dorna regarding last year’s MotoGP World Championship because I was there first hand to check. I’m not pretending that I spent every race weekend counting the number of spectators in the grandstands on my fingers but I’m not surprised that the average attendance for each race weekend was just under 150,000 and was in fact 148,100.

It’s a staggering figure which was rarely eclipsed by any other 18 round World Championship in any sport and certainly in any other form of Motorsport. Two million six hundred and sixty five thousand eight hundred and six fans witnessed the action last year despite rain at some stage of the three day race weekend at 11 of the 18 events.

The final showdown of the season in Valencia attracted a sell-out crowd of 110,220 fans on race day and a weekend attendance of 209,707 to witness Marc Marquez capture a memorable championship. The Red Bull Ring in Austria was jam packed with 201,589 MotoGP fans which was around three times bigger than the attendance for their Formula One event. Sepang in Malaysia staged its last Formula One race for the time being while the MotoGP race brought in nearly 100,000 race day fans despite the rain.

Despite all the uncertainty about its future The British Grand Prix at Silverstone still attracted a weekend crowd of over 128,00 which should increase this year with Silverstone endorsing it’s faith in the event. Another venue looking for an increase is the legendary Sachsenring in Germany. Despite a date change which affected the ticket sales nearly 165,000 fans watched their local hero Jonas Folger finish second.

Naïve I may be about attendance statistics but I do understand they are a true indication just what a great show MotoGP produces for the masses. The equally impressive social media figures are more of a grey area for a grey head like me but on good authority, by people considerably younger than myself, I’m told they are equally impressive – I have to believe them.

The official MotoGP web site attracted 70 million visits, 24 million unique users with 208 million pages being visited which sounds like a lot to me. Facebook attracted 12.7 million fans, Instagram 4.9 million followers, Twitter 2.3 million followers and YouTube 1.2 million subscribers. The new MotoGP eSport Championship was a massive success with 25 million video views, 2.8 million engagements and a reach of 75.5 million.

The worldwide success of MotoGP is a clear indication that by producing a spectacle that excites and stimulates the fans whether at the venue, on the television or social media is the key to success. Build the infrastructure round the principle that the product has to be right before you can gain the benefits – Other sports should take notice and follow their example.

By Martin Raines|2018-01-18T13:46:35+00:00January 18th, 2018|News and Events, Nick's Blog|1 Comment

Christmas MotoGP Trivia Quiz – Answers

There are sixteen sets of initials that are shared by two or more world champions. (As an example, “J.M.” for Jorge Martinez and Joan Mir) How many of the other fifteen sets of initials can you come up with?

Here is the full list:

HA – Haruchika Aoki/Hiroshi Aoyama/Hugh Anderson/Hans-Georg Anscheint

KC – Kel Carruthers/Keith Campbell

LC – Loris Capirossi/Luca Cadalora

MD – Mick Doohan/Mike Di Meglio

DK – Danny Kent/Daijiro Kato

MH – Mike Hailwood/Manuel Herreros

ML – Marco Lucchinelli/Mario Lega

EL – Eddie Lawson/Eugenio Lazzarini/Enrico Lorenzetti

AM – Anton Mang/Alex Marquez

JM – Joan Mir/Jorge Martinez

MM -Marc Marquez/Marco Melandri

TP – Tom Phillis/Tarquinio Provini

KR – Kenny Roberts/Kenny Roberts Jr

CS – Casey Stoner/ChristianSarron/Cecil Sandford

JS – Jarno Saarinen/John Surtees/Julian Simon

KS – Kevin Schwantz/Kazuto Sakata

By Martin Raines|2018-01-02T11:03:13+00:00January 2nd, 2018|Martin Raines Blog, News and Events, Uncategorised|1 Comment

Christmas MotoGP Trivia Quiz

Something to think about when you have had your fill of Christmas pudding! No prizes, just a bit of MotoGP fun.

The following trivia question relates to all grand prix classes over all years that the world championship series has taken place, starting in 1949.

There are sixteen sets of initials that are shared by two or more world champions. (As an example, “J.M.” for Jorge Martinez and Joan Mir) How many of the other fifteen sets of initials can you come up with?

A full list will be given in the New Year. Good luck!

By Martin Raines|2017-12-24T12:08:39+00:00December 24th, 2017|Martin Raines Blog, News and Events, Uncategorised|Comments Off

THE TWELVE DAYS OF MOTOGP CHRISTMAS

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Zarco’s debut podiums three.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Second place for Dovi

Zarco’s debut podiums three.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Three wins for Maverick

Second place for Dovi etc …….

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

4.9 million Instagram followers

Three wins for Maverick etc ……….

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Five gold Rins

4.9 million Instagram followers etc…….

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Six Franco poles

Five gold Rins etc ……

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Seven Sepang swimmers

Six Franco poles etc ……..

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Marc’s eight Tissot watches

Seven Sepang swimmers etc …..

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Nine Luca’s coaching

Marc’s eight Tissot watches etc …….

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

Ten Joan’s winning

Nine Luca’s coaching etc ……..

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

150,000 fans at each grand prix

Ten Joan’s winning etc ……..

On the 12^th day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

12 European venues

150,000 fans at each grand prix

Ten Joan’s winning

Nine Luca’s coaching

Marc’s eight Tissot watches

Seven Sepang swimmers

Six Franco poles

Five gold Rins

4.9 million Instagram followers

Three wins for Maverick

Second place for Dovi

Zarco’s debut podiums three.

By Martin Raines|2017-12-22T09:16:00+00:00December 22nd, 2017|News and Events, Nick's Blog|1 Comment

Fortunes of Moto2 and Moto3 race winners in MotoGP

Following on from the blog last week where I presented an analysis of the fortunes of WSBK Championship winners after switching to MotoGP, this week I will look at how Moto2/3 riders have done in MotoGP. The analysis will consider any rider who has won either a Moto2 or Moto3 race before competing full-time in the MotoGP class. The riders who have done this are: Karel Abraham, Stefan Bradl, Alex de Angelis, Toni Elias, Pol Espargaro, Jonas Folger, Andrea Iannone, Sam Lowes, Marc Marquez, Jack Miller, Michele Pirro, Tito Rabat, Scott Redding, Alex Rins, Maverick Viñales and Johann Zarco.

Rider	MotoGP Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
Abraham	85	0	0	14th
Bradl	86	0	1	7th
De Angelis	23	0	0	21st
Elias	26	0	0	15th
Pol Espargaro	71	0	0	6th
Folger	13	0	1	10th
Iannone	83	1	7	5th
Lowes	18	0	0	25th
Marquez	90	35	63	1st
Miller	48	1	1	11th
Pirro	49	0	0	13th
Rabat	35	0	0	19th
Redding	72	0	2	12th
Rins	13	0	0	16th
Viñales	54	4	11	3rd
Zarco	18	0	3	6th

Summary for all riders combined:

Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
784	41 (Win rate – 5.2%)	89 (Podium rate – 11.3%)	1st

Comparing this with the equivalent summary for the WSBK champions who have switched to MotoGP:

Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
346	2 (Win rate – 0.6%)	23 (Podium rate – 6.6%)	4th

Clearly from the above stats the performance of the Moto2/3 race winners are superior overall than the WSBK champions who have made the switch to MotoGP. However, most of the wins/podiums are down to one rider – Marc Marquez. It is interesting to compare how the summary would look if Marc Marquez was excluded (although cannot think of a logical reason why he should be excluded!).

Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
694	6 (Win rate – 0.9%)	26 (Podium rate – 3.7%)	3rd

The performance of the two groups of riders are now very much closer, with the Moto2/3 riders having a better win rate, while the WSBK riders have a superior podium rate.

It could be argued that if we are going to exclude Marc Marquez from the above table, then he also needs to be excluded from the results. So for instance, Stefan Bradl who finished 2^nd to Marquez at Laguna Seca in 2013 would be credited with a win. By doing this the revised Summary table for wins and podiums would look like this:

Starts	Wins	Podiums
694	8 (Win rate – 1.2%)	44 (Podium rate – 6.3%)

So what can be concluded from the above analysis? Well it is clear that historically the WSBK champions that have switched to MotoGP have not performed significantly better than the riders who have moved up to MotoGP after winning races in the smaller GP classes. So perhaps this makes it understandable why MotoGP team bosses are not necessarily looking to WSBK to recruit riders. The other factor may also be that the Moto2/3 riders moving up to MotoGP will be more willing to accept a ride with a satellite team, and on lower wages, than a rider who has proved his worth winning the WSBK championship and already earning a high salary.

So what about Jonathan Rea? Well as I said in the last blog, what has happened in the past is not necessarily a good indication of what would happen in the future. My belief is that Rea is perhaps the exception and could move across to MotoGP and win races. I can understand that he may be reluctant to make the move unless he is on proven race winning machinery. But most of the factory contracts are up for renewal at the end of 2018 and who knows what may become available? Will Valentino Rossi call it a day? Will the KTM prove itself to be a bike that can challenge for podiums and wins? Will Dani Pedrosa keep his place in the factory Honda team? Now that is a combination I would like to see – Jonathan Rea alongside Marc Marquez in the Repsol Honda Team.

Maybe one of the MotoGP team bosses will take a chance and makes Rea an offer he cannot refuse. And my hope is that Jonathan Rea will take up the challenge: clearly he has nothing to prove after winning multiple WSBK championships, but wouldn’t it round-off a great career if he could add a handful of MotoGP wins?

By Martin Raines|2020-04-29T09:39:53+00:00December 15th, 2017|Martin Raines Blog, Uncategorised|2 Comments

The fortunes of WSBK Champions in MotoGP

It was difficult not to be impressed by the great lap time set by Jonathan Rea at the recent Jerez test, following which there has been lots of discussion on the reasons why he is not on a factory bike in MotoGP. Of interest to the discussion is the performance of previous WSBK Champions who have moved across to compete in MotoGP. In total there have been five riders compete full-time in MotoGP after winning the WSBK title: Troy Bayliss, Colin Edwards, Neil Hodgson, James Toseland and Ben Spies.

The following table is a summary of the MotoGP results achieved by each of these five riders:

Rider	Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
Bayliss	44	1	5	6th
Edwards	196	0	12	4th
Hodgson	16	0	0	17th
Toseland	35	0	0	11th
Spies	52	1	6	5th

Summary for all riders combined:

Starts	Wins	Podiums	Best championship posn.
343	2	23	4th

The summary here is critical, showing that from a combined 343 starts in the MotoGP class by WSBK title winners they have accumulated a total of just two wins (representing a win rate of 0.6%) and 23 podium finishes (a rate of 6.7%). Also, no rider who has won the WSBK title has managed to finish higher than 4^th in the MotoGP World Championship.

Of course, what has happened in the past is not necessarily a great guide to what may happen in the future, but the fact that no winner of the WSBK title has transferred across to MotoGP and made a massive impact by scoring multiple race victories or challenging for the world title must influence the thinking of MotoGP team managers.

But then again what are the alternatives? Well it seems that the more traditional route of graduating from the smaller Grand Prix classes seems to the one favoured by the MotoGP team bosses. But how do the statistics of these riders stack-up? Tune in next week to find the answer to that one!

By Martin Raines|2020-04-29T09:39:53+00:00December 8th, 2017|Martin Raines Blog, News and Events, Uncategorised|Comments Off

OLIVER TWIST – NOT ASKING FOR MORE, JUST A PARAGRAPH

I still love newspapers – perhaps it’s my age but while my younger colleagues scan phones, tablets and computers to keep up to date, usually when we are eating, I still like the rustle of news print. My delight on a MotoGP weekend is to find an English newspaper at the airport on Monday morning and spend the flight home scanning the page of football results, often to the annoyance of the passenger next to me who is busily checking the news on his tablet causing no inconvenience to anybody.

So imagine after the memorable Valencia weekend I arrived at the airport on Monday morning, nursing a sore head, to find a copy of the most famous English newspaper in the world on sale for four precious euros. It was surrounded by all the Spanish dailies with massive front page pictures of Marc Marquez celebrating his MotoGP World title. Rather than the usual football page I looked forward to reading what the esteemed publication reported from Valencia.

After all the Valencia Grand Prix was the biggest sporting event of the weekend in Europe and probably in the world. A championship still to be decided at the final round of eighteen, a weekend crowd of 209,000 and a race day crowd of 128, 00 was surely a clear indication just what a massive event this was. A championship that had provided 73 overtaking manoeuvres between the top six riders three weeks earlier in Australia. Certainly the social media following gave a clear indication the world was very interested indeed. Facebook reported 51 million video views from the official feed with 4.8 Million Instagram followers thirsting for information. There was no doubt this was a major sporting event.

Having parted with my four Euros I settled down for my favourite Monday morning read. I ploughed through two pages reporting on the Formula One race in Brazil although the championship had already been decided, pages of Rugby Union, ATP tennis and Ashes cricket. These are sports I love and thoroughly enjoy the coverage but where was the news on Marc Marquez’s win. I looked and looked and found absolutely nothing. I doubled checked and still nothing although the results were shown in the results section but not a word, line, paragraph or photograph from the race. For once the football results page was unread as my favourite newspaper for the last 50 years found itself on the rubbish bin at Valencia airport.

Apologies if the English edition did contain a report because when I got home my daily delivered copy of the unread newspaper also found itself in the rubbish bin. Perhaps those younger colleagues are right I need to change my reading habits to keep up to date with the real sporting news.

I’m not Oliver Twist asking for more but just for something. Just a paragraph would be a start. Otherwise that tablet could be top of my Christmas present list.

By Martin Raines|2020-04-29T09:39:53+00:00December 1st, 2017|Nick's Blog|5 Comments

LOWES SEEKS REDEMPTION IN ARAGON

Sam Lowes returns to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs seeking redemption after a nightmare Gresini Aprilia debut MotoGP™ season. The Lincolnshire rider won the Moto2™ race last year at the magnificent 3.155 miles Aragon circuit and returns to Spain for the Movistar Grand Prix of Aragon on Sunday looking for a change of MotoGP fortune before returning to Moto2 next season.

It’s also a big 23 lap race for Oxfordshire’s Bradley Smith who arrives after his best result of the season at the previous round at a wet Misano in Italy. Smith was tenth, one place in front of his team-mate Pol Espargaro, in KTM’s first MotoGP™ season. Test rider Mika Kallio returns after finishing well ahead of Smith on his previous appearance in Austria and Smith hopes his Misano performance will prevent that happening again.

Isle of Man – based Midlander Cal Crutchlow crashed in the Misano rain but typically remounted to finish 13th on the LCR Honda. Crutchlow brought Ducati rare success in Aragon when he was third three years ago. He’s currently eighth in the Championship three points behind Danilo Petrucci and two in front of double Aragon winner Jorge Lorenzo.

Gloucestershire’s Scott Redding had a morale boosting Misano ride into seventh place on the Octo Pramac Ducati. Five years ago Redding was third in the Aragon Moto2™ race and wants to finish his Pramac Ducati season on a high before joining Aprilia next year.

Two other fallers in the Misano rain were Scotsman John McPhee and Tarran Mackenzie. Oban-based McPhee fell from the British Talent team Honda in the Moto3™ race. He’s seventh in the Championship on equal points with Marco Ramirez and just two behind Andrea Migno.

British Supersport Champion Mackenzie crashed in the early stages of the Moto2™ race after a big crash in practice. He’s still chasing his first World Championship points and where better than Aragon before the fly away races in Japan, Australia and Malaysia.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX DATE AT SILVERSTONE OR DONINGTON

The 2018 British Grand Prix date has been confirmed for August 26 but the venue has still to be decided. The venue will be either Silverstone, which has staged the race for the last eight years or Donington Park which hosted the race between 1987 – 2009.

The championship has been increased to 19 rounds with the Chang circuit hosting the first grand prix in Thailand on October 7.
FIM Grand Prix World Championship 2018 Provisional Calendar
Date Grand Prix Venue
18 March Qatar* Losail International Circuit
08 April República Argentina Termas de Río Hondo
22 April Americas Circuit of the Americas
06 May Spain Circuito de Jerez
20 May France Le Mans
03 June Italy Autodromo del Mugello
17 June Catalunya Barcelona – Catalunya
01 July Netherlands TT Circuit Assen
15 July Germany Sachsenring
05 August Czech Republic Automotodrom Brno
12 August Austria Red Bull Ring – Spielberg
26 August Great Britain** TBA
09 September San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
23 September Aragón MotorLand Aragón
07 October Thailand Chang International Circuit
21 October Japan Twin Ring Motegi
28 October Australia Phillip Island
04 November Malaysia Sepang International Circuit
18 November Comunitat Valenciana Comunitat Valenciana – Ricardo Tormo

* Evening Race
** Circuit to be announced

DID YOU KNOW

This is the eighth successive year that the Aragon circuit has hosted a grand prix event and below are some facts and stats related to this event:

• Aragon first hosted a grand prix event in 2010, when it became the sixth different circuit that has been used for grand prix racing in Spain. The other circuits that have been used in Spain are: Jerez, Catalunya, Jarama, Montjuich and Valencia.

• Casey Stoner won the first MotoGP race at Aragon in 2010 on a Ducati, the only victory for the Italian manufacturer at this circuit.

• Honda are the most successful manufacturer at the Aragon circuit with four MotoGP victories, with three different riders: Casey Stoner in 2011, Dani Pedrosa in 2012 and Marc Marquez in both 2013 and 2016.

• Jorge Lorenzo has given Yamaha two MotoGP victories at the Aragon circuit, in 2014 and 2015.

• Spanish riders have had great success across all three GP classes at the Aragon circuit, winning fifteen of the twenty-one GP races that have taken place. The only non-Spanish riders who have had a grand prix win at the circuit are: Casey Stoner (MotoGP in 2010 & 2011), Andrea Iannone (Moto2 race in 2010), Romano Fenati (Moto3 in 2014), Miguel Oliveira (Moto3 in 2015) and Sam Lowes (Moto2) last year.

• Casey Stoner’s two victories are the only occasions that a non-Spanish rider has stood on either of the top two steps in the MotoGP class at the Aragon circuit.

• Marc Marquez has been on pole on all four occasions he has raced in the MotoGP class at the Aragon circuit.

• In addition to Casey Stoner’s win in 2010, the only podium finishes for Ducati riders at Aragon are; third for Nicky Hayden in 2010 and third for Cal Crutchlow in 2014.

• The best result at Aragon for Suzuki is the fourth place finish achieved last year by Maverick Viñales.

• Aragon is one of just five circuits on the current grand prix schedule that run in an anti-clockwise direction, along with Austin, Sachsenring, Phillip Island and Valencia.

• Aragon is one of just three circuits on the current grand prix schedule where Valentino Rossi has not had a MotoGP victory, along with Austin and the Red Bull Ring.

• The three riders standing on the MotoGP podium in Aragon last year (Marquez, Lorenzo, Rossi) had a record accumulated total of 232 grand prix wins across all classes.

ALL POINTS TO ARAGON SHOWDOWN

Something has to give at Aragon Sunday when Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez arrive at the Spanish circuit on equal points with just five rounds of this amazing 18 round MotoGP™ World Championship remaining. They have both amassed 199 points and scored four victories apiece as they arrive at the superb 3.155 miles Aragon circuit for yet another showdown before the vital three flyway races that will have such a bearing on the outcome of the championship.

Marquez, fresh from his last lap victory in Misano has won two MotoGP™ races on the Repsol Honda at Aragon including last year. He will receive good support from team-mate Dani Pedrosa who was a winner on home soil five years ago. Casey Stoner brought Ducati victory eight years ago at the first Aragon grand prix but since then they have only taken two podium finishes, but history has made no difference to Dovizioso’s barnstorming performances this year. The Italian is in the form of his life and will receive good support from team-mate Jorge Lorenzo a double Aragon winner with Yamaha and Danilo Petrucci who was so close to victory at Misano on the Octo Pramac Ducati.

The MotoGP™ Championship is not just a two horse race with Maverick Vinales hanging in there just 16 points behind the two leaders. The Movistar Yamaha rider was fourth last year on the Ecstar Suzuki and has a new team-mate for the 23 lap race on Sunday. Fresh from his first World Superbike podium for Yamaha at the weekend Dutchman Michael van der Mark makes his MotoGP debut replacing the injured Valentino Rossi at a circuit he knows well.

Two riders looking for a change of fortune are previous Moto2™ winners in Aragon. Andrea Iannone and Sam Lowes are experiencing nightmare MotoGP seasons but have Moto2 wins in Aragon, while KTM test rider Mika Kallio returns to put the pressure on Pol Espargaro and especially Bradley Smith.

The Moto2™ World Championship has been blown wide open following the crash of championship leader Franco Morbidelli in Misano. His nearest rival Tom Luthi finished second and closed to within nine points of the Italian who he joins at Estrella Galicia Marc VDS Honda in MotoGP™ next year. Morbidelli was third last year behind team-mate Alex Marquez, who returns after missing Misano and winner Lowes, with Luthi in fourth place. Miquel Oliveira returns on the KTM to the circuit where he won the Moto3 race a couple of years ago.

Another former Aragon Moto3™ winner Romano Fenati arrives full of confidence after his wet Moto3 win in Misano. Despite his second win of the season the Italian still trails Joan Mir in the championship by a massive 61 points after the Spaniard was second in the Misano rain that brought about so many crashes. Third placed Aron Canet chases his fourth win of the season.

TELEVISION TIMES

BT SPORT 2
Friday 22 September: 8.00 – 15.00
Saturday 23 September: 8.00 – 15.15
Sunday 24 September: 7.30 – 15.00

CHANNEL FIVE
Highlights Monday 25 September 19.00

talkSport2 will also have live commentary of the race on Sunday.

By Martin Raines|2017-09-19T07:54:58+00:00September 19th, 2017|Uncategorised|Comments Off

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