Reflecting on the Italian GP with Boris

MotoGP 2022 – Round Eight
Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley

One should prepare for Mugello like a bride prepares for her wedding night. Extra tissues, an expectation things may not go the way you imagined, and an acceptance of new things being shown to you…

The Tuscan Do

I love Mugello. A true 360 km/h+ racetrack packed with history, kissed with glory, and bathed in despair. It’s both ended and started racers’ careers, and rarely fails to provide spectacular racing.

But even before the grid had a chance to line up, things were getting pretty spectacular in the paddock. And by “spectacular” I mean batshit crazy.

Aprilia announced it has re-signed Aleix and Maverick for another two years. I can sorta understand Aleix getting an extension. He’s so wedded to the marque, if he went anywhere else everyone would feel like he’s cheating on his missus. And he seems to be hitting his straps, which actually makes Aprilia a hot prospect, rather than Aleix. It’s a great bike if it can make him look good.

But in the same instance, how does it explain how crap Maverick has been on it? Maverick being Maverick, he’s had a few hysterics, most recently demanding Aprilia build him a bike that suits his special riding style. If that happens, he insists, then his full potential will be displayed. Rather than taking him out the back and choking some sense into him, Aprilia signed him for another two years, which makes me think he has pictures of the Aprilia CEO dating a goat.

On top of that, Aprilia announced it is fielding a satellite team in 2023. Enter Razlan Razali, currently the fellow shepherding Darryn Binder and Andrea Dovizioso around the rear of the pack. Razlan is parting company with Yamaha at the end of the year, which leaves Yamaha with no satellite team in 2023, and partnering up with Aprilia. Who the riders are is yet to be determined – but I’m guessing it won’t be Dovi or Darryn.

While we all absorbed this, Rossi’s race number was officially retired. It was a strange ceremony. They always are. But the honour of such a thing can not be understated. 

And then I saw the new livery being rocked by the Prima Pramac team, and wondered how much more lavender the grid could stand. Still, the bikes looked damn fine in white and lavender. The colour combo aged Zarco terribly, I thought.

There was also lots of new tech to ponder. A new engine for Aleix’s Aprilia, a new chassis for Marc’s HRC Honda, and new aero bits scattered here and there, including a mini F1 rear spoiler on the Aprilias. 

And for this weekend there were nine Ducatis on the grid. The usual eight augmented by Ducati test-rider Michele Pirro, who virtually lives in Mugello, which is Ducati’s home track.

When Qualifying rolled around, things took another strange turn. Jack Miller has always struggled at Mugello. It’s one of “those” tracks for Jack. He found himself in Q1, once again towing Marc Marquez around – something Jack does with great good nature. Behind Marc was rookie, Fabio Di Giannantonio. Both Marc and Fabio topped Q1. Jack did not.

The first Qualifying session started wet, but finished dry. Riders started out on wets, but when Brad Binder swapped to slick six minutes in, they all followed suit.

Qualifying Two was dry. And so Marc, who had just finished Q1 and had an idea of what was what on the iffy track, came charging hard on the out-lap, and passed a heap of more cautious riders. Then he munted himself hard on the second corner, snapped his forks, and walked away as his Honda burned merrily behind him. There was no way that bike could be repaired quickly, so Marc was left with one bike and a whole Qualifying session ahead of him.

Astonishingly, it was a troika of young Italian guns who shamed the rest of the field. Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi, and Luca Marini were the front row at the end of Q2. Surprising, but maybe not so much. All of them are VR46 Academy Old Boys. All of them know Mugello better than they know their girlfriends. But still, two of them are kinda new at this MotoGP caper.

Behind them sat Zarco, Pecco, and Fabulous – the normal contenders – which brought the Ducati count up to five on the first two rows.

Aleix, Taka, and Pol were on the third row – but before the race started on Sunday, Marc Marquez called a press conference and announced he’d race on Sunday, but he would not be competing for the rest of the 2022 season. He said he had been in constant pain with his arm, and he could not continue as he was, so he was flying to Minnesota to have a fourth operation on the damaged appendage. He hoped he would be back stronger next year. 

And we all hope he will be too…but, you know. I’m thinking this is the end of the Marquez Era. I salute and commend him for making this call. And it’s a big one. Marc is not the kind of racer happy to come sixth all the time. And if and when he comes back, and he’s not smashing all and sundry as he once did, then he will retire. I wish him well.

When the lights blinked off, the kids on the front row pissed off at a massive rate of knots. It was sensational to see. Was it possible Di Giannantonio or Bezzecchi, or even Marini, suddenly have the best Sunday of their lives? An Italian rider winning on an Italian bike at Mugello is what Italian race fans masturbate to.

But as talented as they clearly are, these young guns are not the seasoned war-fighters chasing them with ferocious intent. And make no mistake, Mugello makes the racing look ferocious. It’s fast and it flows, and there’s no super-hard braking zones, but there’s lots of scary-fast corners. Bezzecchi even acknowledged that on his helmet, which had “Scary Mugello” written on it.

With ruthless determination, Fabulous rode the race of his career. He was fourth behind Aleix early on, and it was obvious his Yamaha just lacked top speed – which is hugely important at Mugello. But Fabulous rode the bastard bags off the Yamaha. He couldn’t fend Bagnaia off, but was unable to close the one-second gap Pecco had eked out on him when they eventually got around the kids. 

That took a few laps, because the kids were not giving up their positions easily. Both Pecco and Fabulous had to work for it. Positions were swapped and re-swapped, but eventually, the two older campaigners made a break.

The other old campaigner, Aleix Espargaro, had also worked his way past the young blokes and was sitting in third. His brother, Pol, crashed out once more because Pol is nothing if not consistent, and I think he’s starting to enjoy Puig beating him on Sunday evenings.

Jack Miller was languishing at the back of the field. He’d been pushed wide at the start, hit the dirt for a little way, then just couldn’t make it work. Alex Marquez beat him. The shame of that alone will haunt Jack for days.

Jorge Martin set a new top speed record back in 15^th place shooting his Ducati through the speed trap at a blistering 363.3km/h. It made no difference to the outcome of the race. Top speed is great, but Fabulous was showing them all how important corner speed was too.

The Beast had not started well, but about a third of the way into the race, he started to make his move. He was almost a second quicker than everyone else on the track and starting to make his way forward.

And then he made his way into the gravel.

The hole of despair and misery that is the Suzuki Factory team at the moment, had an appalling day. Mir troweled it in Turn One – his third DNF in the last four races, which has lots of people wondering how he ever won a championship. 

Rins crashed seconds later in Turn 12, as Fabulous kept Pecco very honest at the front. The gap between them hovered between 0.7 and 1.2 seconds. Pecco could not get away, but Fabulous could not catch him. And Aleix could not catch Fabulous.

It was clear Fabulous was riding with his championship in mind. His Yamaha was on the very limit of the magic Lin Jarvis and his techs had installed. Deciding to settle for 20 points and second place was always going to be better than no points and letting Aleix, the bloke chasing him for the championship, have them.

Brad Binder rode a decent race. He started in 16^th and finished in seventh. It doesn’t take a lot to make South Africans happy, so that will do them for this round.

The true standouts were the rookies, of course. Especially young Bezzecchi. He finished a magnificent fifth, barely half-a-second behind Zarco, who had to work to get past the young Italian. Marini, no longer a rookie, so it doesn’t count as much, was sixth.

Di Giannantonio faded back to finish eleventh, just behind Marc Marquez. It’s a race they will both remember for a long time – even if for entirely different reasons.

This weekend we have Catalunya to look forward to. I need to get more towels for the couch…

Mugello 2022 MotoGP Race Results

MotoGP Event Top Speeds

MotoGP Championship Points Standings