MotoGP once again returns to Misano for the second time this season. The original race was scheduled to be in India, then in Kazakhstan and finally in Misano. Join us as DRC previews an exciting weekend ahead of the 2024 Emilia Romagna Motorcycle Grand Prix. Read the last race review here.
Table of Contents
Three-way MotoGP title fight brewing
At the start of the year, it looked like it would be either Jorge Martin or Francesco Bagnaia who would be the title protagonists. It looked like it was the case even in Silverstone. But with his recent return to form, Marc Marquez has also made his claim as a potential title challenger. With back-to-back wins, the last one on the same circuit in Misano, he is one of the favorites to win. Right now the Gresini rider sits 3rd in the championship, 53 points behind leader Jorge Martin. With a bit of luck and a lot of victories, Marquez surely has a chance at his ninth title.
While Marquez needs some luck, the two at the front don’t. Both Martin and Bagnaia are 50 points ahead of the opposition and have dominated this year with all but 3 wins going to them. 7 points separate them with martin leading the championship by 7 points. A lot of pressure will be on him to outscore Bagnaia for some crucial points. Another big talking point will be how well can Martin handle pressure. Pecco has been very good at putting Martin under loads of pressure, which often culminates in him making a mistake or crashing out. Martin in the past has been vocal about how he needs to be better in the psychological battle against Bagnaia.
Francesco Bagnaia will come into this weekend as confident as ever after topping the Misano test right after the San Marino GP. He is the home-crowd favourite and has more wins than anybody else this season. Misano historically has not been his best track, with him winning twice in 8 starts since his debut.
Yamaha aim improvements
The last race at Misano was an excellent stride in improvement for Yamaha. Fabio Quartararo put his factory Yamaha in the top seven. And this was not just the rain mixing things up. Fabio was 6th and 9th in the practice sessions, got a straight entry into Q2 and qualified ahead of every single Aprilia. Alex Rins had a fantastic ride as well and was at one point fighting for tenth place when the rain came.
This is the first time in nearly a year that a Japanese bike has cracked a top-10 finish. Further, Fabio finished fifth in the Misano test earlier on and showed great improvement with the new tire compounds being tested. This was received by the community as a huge leap forward for Japanese motorcycle racing, and Yamaha has said with recent improvements they aim to be fighting at the top end by the end of the 2025 season. With Prima Pramac also switching to Yamaha 2025 onwards, the team will also benefit from having European expertise involved in the development process.
Honda on the other hand, are facing blow after blow. Both Repsol Honda riders sat out the San Marino Grand Prix due to sickness. Repsol also parted ways with Honda after a very successful partnership that saw them win 15 titles and score more than 450 podiums in MotoGP.
The LCR Honda team scored some points for the Japanese powerhouse, but the outstanding problems with the bike are still fixed. Zarco was the lead Honda in the Misano test in 18th place 1.3 seconds off the lead. Johann Zarco even went on to say that there were some problems whose cause have not even been identified as of now, and a “total postmortem” of the bike is necessary to make it competitive. He also went on to say that it is not that Yamaha and Honda are bad, just the fact that Aprilia, KTM and Ducati are way better.
KTM look to impress again, Aprilia try to bounce back
KTM were the team that took the challenge to Ducati here two weeks ago. Three KTMs were in the top three with Brad Binder, Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro finishing ahead of every single Aprilia. The wonder rookie Pedro Acosta was also on point fighting for a potential 4th place but crashed out while duelling with Morbidelli and had to finish a lap down in 17th.
Acosta was once again the lead KTM in the Misano test, finishing a strong 4th by the end of the day. He was the leader of the pack until the final hour when Bagnaia, Morbidelli and Bastianini put in very quick laps to overtake him. Binder, Miller and Dani Pedrosa also impressed with the consistent pace.
Aprilia have traditionally not fared well at Misano and it showed in both the San Marino GP and the test. The only Aprilia to score points last time out was that of Miguel Oliviera for Trackhouse. They were outpaced and outraced by the KTMs and hence dropped valuable points to them in the Constructer’s championship. KTM will once again try to jump on this opportunity to score more points than Aprilia. It is rumored that they may bring in Pedrosa as a wildcard in-order to score more points, just like they did with Espargaro last time out.
Weekend Schedule and weather report
This is how the weather looks like for the Emilia Romagna GP
This is the weekend schedule. All times are in IST. Races can be watched live on Eurosport and on Jio Cinema.
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