Cry for me in Argentina | GP Argentina with Boris
MotoGP with Boris
2022 – Round 3 – Argentina
For someone programmed to deal with MotoGP broadcasts that mostly happen on Sunday nights, these lousy spins where the time zone conflicts with normal sleep patterns are brutal. Neighbors understood at 11 o’clock at night. Not so much at 3:30 am.
MAKE CRY FOR ME IN ARGENTINA
There were a lot of tears at the Argentina round, and most of them started without a plane full of bikes and gear on Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or Friday.
Planes with bikes and gear arrived at half-time on Saturday morning, which forced the teams to prepare two days in eight hours. Dorna excelled on this occasion, expanding FP1 and FP2 into hour-long sessions, and canceling other sessions, then leading the net straight into Q1 and Q2.
The next set of tears is mine. I usually record these wild hour races, then watch them over coffee in the morning. The delay caused my Foxtel box to record the auto race, which it labeled “Free Practice One”. It recorded several other auto races for Free Practice Two. My scream resounded from space.
Then someone at Foxtel turned everything off and back on, and I got to see the extended Practice sessions that Saturday afternoon and the Qualifying Test on Sunday morning.
It’s strange. Aleix Espargaro is very fast. Anytime. Everywhere. He’s usually just quick occasionally, then he’s down, or tapers down to tenth, and the Aprilia boys go around staring at the ground.
Hiring Maverick was also unsuccessful. But he even appeared on top of the time sheets at one stage. Did Noale suddenly find something?
Obviously there are many things to consider. Not least of which is the absence of Marc Marquez. That vicious high side in Warm Up in the previous round in Indonesia, saw Marc’s double vision return.
Social media is awash with rumors of him retiring, but his Instagram feed is just a picture of him working out and HRC’s official position is that he’ll be back when fit enough. . I’m sure Puig stayed up all night sacrificing small animals so the comeback would be the next round at COTA, where Marquez was undefeated. Without him, HRC is just Pol Espargaro eating gravel. Oh, and Bradl, who has replaced Marc 17 times, just keeps the engine running at the bottom of the pitch.
When the first division kicks in, the track looks a lot cleaner than when the Moto3 boys first showed up. Clouds of dust settled on their tyres, and it was clear that the track hadn’t been used for a long time. But the weather was fine, the Army was rebuilding the grid building that had burned down, and aside from some very unusual grid locations, the Termas Di Rio Hondo looked set to go.
So what was weird? Aleix Esparagro on the pole. It was followed by Martin (not too strange), then Luca Marini (very strange), then Pol (OK, no worries), Maverick (WTF?), and Fabulous (expected).
Bagnaia finished 13th, Miller finished 14th and the championship leader, Bastianini, led them in 12th. Miller actually got a three grid penalty for disturbing Fabulous while Practice and Race Direction was brutal. To say that Miller’s whole weekend was a tasteful bullshit wouldn’t be an overstatement. He also ranked 14th.
When the lights went out, Jorge Martin sped off, followed by Aleix and Luca. On a few corners, Jorge took the lead by almost half a second, while Fabulous fell back again and caught the eye of Brad Binder, who had started in 11th place.
Dovizioso was overwhelmed early in the race, and retreated to the rear by Lap Two. Fabulous is currently racing for 13th place with Oliveira, while in the end of the business, Aleix is ahead of Jorge, and the two of them have a one-second lead over Pol, Luca and Alex Rins.
Maverick had seen enough of the quick blobs and was starting to fade even as Mir bounced back and overtook him for seventh place.
Fabulous and Zarco battled for 12th place, but neither of them looked ambivalent about posing a challenge to the podium. Zarco then decided he would be a gravel plow and left the track in Round Two.
Jorge and Aleix were now exchanging the fastest laps and were nearly two seconds ahead of their pursuers. Pol looks a bit like the businessman in season three, until Rins walks past him and Puig goes looking for smaller animals to sacrifice.
Miller got really tired back at 14, while Morbidelli developed mechanical problems and retired. It’s clear that Maverick (in 7th place) is stopping Bagnaia, and can’t get past Luca – well, not at this stage. But he certainly got in Pecco’s way.
Jorge is unshakable Aleix, and Rins is also interested in running to the podium, and looks solid in third place ahead of Pol, who is working hard to stay with Suzuki. Behind them, all lined up in a nice, evenly spaced line as the race reached the midpoint.
Jorge was in a near-perfect race. He’ll run a little wide at a corner or two, and whenever Aleix gets close to him, he’ll spin it up a notch and hold him. Then Pol went into the rocks at Crossroads. Puig was probably taking a taxi to the nearest pet store when that happened.
Eight laps from the finish, Aleix was on Jorge’s rear wheel, with Rins working hard 1.6 seconds behind them. Whenever the camera cuts across Aprilia’s garage, the team manager Romano Albesiano can’t look at the screen himself.
He is thinking what I am thinking, ie. Aleix will create this grand style. He’s in shape in that respect. Surely if he had the speed he would pass Jorge now?
And then Aleix continued, quickly grabbing Jorge first, before running wide and letting Pramac pass. Rins approached the two.
A round later, Aleix tried again, quickly taking the lead, then handing it over to Jorge again. I’m sure Romano already has a bag on his head at this stage.
Then five laps from the finish, Aleix made his pass, and Jorge crossed the block to enter the Fifth Inning. Rins came close to both, and is now third with less than a second between him and Jorge in second.
And that’s it. Aleix persisted until the last minute, and Jorge Martin had no answer. Rins was pleased with Tuesday, which is good to see, with his DNF-ing record like a 1000 assholes.
Aleix cried like a baby. This was his 200th MotoGP ride and it was his first win. It was understandable that he was overwhelmed with emotion. This has been going on for a long time, and if anyone needs that kind of authentication, it’s definitely Aleix Espargaro. Now he leads the championship.
So far, MotoGP has served us with nine different podium finishers in three races. Everyone in Aprilia will be drunk until they get to Texas next week. And the championship ladder is fascinating. Brad Binder came in second, FFS…
MotoGP Argentina race results
Position | Rider | Ethnic | Bike | Time / Distance |
first | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | APRILIA | 41m36,198 |
2 | Jorge MARTIN | SPA | DUCATI | +0.807 |
3 | Alex RINS | SPA | SUZUKI | +1,330 |
4 | Joan Mir | SPA | SUZUKI | +1,831 |
5 | Francesco BAGNAIA | ITA | DUCATI | +5,840 |
6 | Brad BINDER | RSA | KTM | +6.192 |
7 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | APRILIA | +6.540 |
8 | Fabio QUARTARARO | FRA | YAMAHA | +10.215 |
9 | Marco BEZZECCI | ITA | DUCATI | +12.622 |
ten | Enea BASTIANINI | ITA | DUCATI | +12.987 |
11 | Luca MARINI | ITA | DUCATI | +13.962 |
twelfth | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | JPN | HONDA’S MOTOBIKE | +14,002 |
13 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | POR | KTM | +14.456 |
14 | Jack MILLER | AUS | DUCATI | +14,898 |
15 | Alex MARQUEZ | SPA | HONDA’S MOTOBIKE | +23.472 |
16 | Raul FERNANDEZ | SPA | KTM | +25,862 |
17 | Remy GARDNER | AUS | KTM | +28,711 |
18 | Darryn BINDER | RSA | YAMAHA | +28,784 |
19 | Stefan BRADL | GER | HONDA’S MOTOBIKE | +31,943 |
20 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | YAMAHA | +3 rounds |
Not classified | ||||
DNF | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO ITA | ITA | DUCATI | 3 Round |
DNF | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | HONDA’S MOTOBIKE | 11 rounds |
DNF | Franco MORBIDELLI | ITA | YAMAHA | 18 rounds |
DNF | Johann ZARCO | FRA | DUCATI | 20 rounds |
MotoGP Championship Score Ranking
Position | Rider | Nat | Point |
first | ESPARGARO Aleix | SPA | 45 |
2 | BINDER Brad | RSA | 38 |
3 | BASTIANINI Exhale | ITA | 36 |
4 | RINS Alex | SPA | 36 |
5 | QUARTARARO Fabio | FRA | 35 |
6 | MIR Joan | SPA | 33 |
7 | OLIVEIRA Miguel | POR | 28 |
8 | ZARCO Johann | FRA | 24 |
9 | MARTIN Jorge | SPA | 20 |
ten | ESPARGARO Pol | SPA | 20 |
11 | Jack MILLER | AUS | 15 |
twelfth | MORBIDELLI Franco | ITA | 14 |
13 | VIÑALES Maverick | SPA | 13 |
14 | BAGNAIA Francesco | ITA | twelfth |
15 | MARQUEZ Marc | SPA | 11 |
16 | NAKAGAMI Takaaki | JPN | ten |
17 | MARINI Luca | ITA | ten |
18 | BEZZECCHI Marco | ITA | 7 |
19 | BINDER Darryn | RSA | 6 |
20 | MARQUEZ Alex | SPA | 4 |
21 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | ITA | 2 |
22 | GARDNER Remy | AUS | first |