2017 Misano MotoGP Wrap-Up

As predicted, weather at the Misano World Circuit turned colder and rained after free practice and qualifying, zeroing the setup value of practice and leaving rider start positions as its only product. This left teams to play the guessing game of basing setup on a wet Sunday morning warm-up.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), who now makes his home on the far side of the limit, summoned the necessary concentration to pass leader Danilo Petrucci (OCTO Pramac Ducati) on the last lap. On the rostrum, he was booed by those expecting an underdog win, ignoring the stunning display of skill they had just seen. For those who enjoy only scripted outcomes, I suggest video games.

As I’ve said before, I think Marquez is learning useful technique from pushing to the limit. He said, “It required incredible concentration to manage the tension the whole time. It was very easy to make a mistake and that’s why I decided to attack only on the final lap. That lap was amazing. I took many risks but with such a close season it was worth trying to get the extra points for the win.”

Petrucci had led the race for 21 laps after Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) tipped over but, having been passed by Marquez on the last lap, he considered the propriety of giving second place to teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who is in the title chase.

“I have to be sincere,” Petrucci said. “I thought about it and I hoped Andrea was close, but I think Andrea could fight for the championship without my help this time. I thought, ‘Okay, maybe [Marquez] will go wide in one corner and I will try to go in, but he didn’t make any mistake. First of all, I don’t think it was a good image for the championship to give the position on the last lap—we are all fighting for something here.”

Excellent words: “We are all fighting for something here.” Petrucci has worked hard to earn the respect he now commands, coming up through the hard and, fortunately, temporary world of CRT bikes.

Andrea Dovizioso preferred 16 points in hand to the zero score he expected from pushing harder. “I realized from the first few laps that it was a very difficult race for me because I didn’t have the grip and I didn’t understand why,” he said. “I tried to keep up with Marquez and Petrucci and I did for 20 laps, but the track conditions were really difficult. I preferred to slightly drop my pace to bring home third place.”

Maverick Vinales, fourth on Sunday, emphasized that the Yamaha needs “a step” in wet performance. “The handling of the bike today was really good,” he said. “I’m happy with the front. But the rear was very difficult to get the traction, especially on the left. I was sliding the bike a lot. I could not lean. It was difficult, like going on the ice.”

Dirt-trackers know that the more slippery the track, the more important it is to transfer weight to the rear to generate the traction to accelerate. This means either a raised ride height or moving the rear wheel forward. Neither is easy on the Yamaha, noted as it is for being “long and low” (Bradley Smith’s words, from his time on the Tech 3 Yamaha).

Every team gathers data during wet practices in hope of developing an effective wet setup to which the bike can be switched. This includes softer spring and damping rates plus use of steel discs. Marquez demonstrated the progress Brembo has made in widening the operating temperature of its carbon discs and pads by using them in this wet event.

Fifth was the very experienced Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, who like so many others had crashed in qualifying. “I didn’t want to take too many risks in the early laps so I started too slowly,” he explained. “From halfway, I started to lap at a good pace and I began my recovery, getting close to Vinales. But I was struggling to keep his pace and, in the end, I decided not to take too many risks.”

How many times must I listen to bores who assure me that, “Racing in the rain is the true test of a rider”? If that were true then perhaps the odd shovelful of loose gravel or patches of black ice would be better yet? This event set a record for the number of crashes. Pure excitement? No, consider this: If it costs roughly two grand to fix your Panigale after its sidestand sinks into summer asphalt, think what it costs when a GP bike catches gravel and centrifuges parts in a hundred yards of leaping and dancing. One year, I mounted five new fairings. Crash repair is a drag and visiting riders in hospitals is no treat, either. Oh, and when Marquez crashed right at the end of warm-up, some fans cheered. For them, are riders just puppets in a fantasy play?

At the flag, Lorenzo shot away into the lead, which he held until lap 7. “I just wanted to change the map,” he said, “and this caused me a little bit to lose concentration in some corners. Especially in that corner [Turn 6], I made the change of direction a little bit quicker and not using the rear brake with less pressure, and I couldn’t stay on the bike.”

Dovozioso commented: “He crashed where most of the riders crashed today. It was maybe the worst corner for the grip and he was riding very fast at that moment. He wasn’t riding crazy, he just took more risk than us. It is his style, to start very fast at the beginning, but sometimes it doesn’t work.”

The solid outcome of recent events is that the Ducati has emerged as an all-around performer, able to match lap times with the Honda. Earlier in the week, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) had accidentally sliced a tendon in his left index finger. It was reattached and splinted straight, leaving him uncertain as to whether he could ride at Misano. He rode to 13th place.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), a lowly 14th, regarded his 112-pound weight as the cause of being unable to get his wet tires to temperature. “Tire temperature for me today was under the limit,” he said. “I crashed this morning and then I tried to be there in the race but I was doing 1:54s because of zero grip. We put weight on the bike today from warm-up to the race to simulate I was heavier.”

Tires for highway use must provide usable grip even at winter temperature, so the “glass transition temperature” of their rubber is made very low. This “glass point” is the temperature at which the rubber transitions from being a hard, sluggish solid to an elastic one that easily conforms to pavement texture. Racing rubber is given a much higher glass point (which is why tire grip is low in early laps, making warmers necessary) and when it is too cold it gives dramatically lower grip. This put Pedrosa “out in the cold” on Sunday.

The Tech3 twins, Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco, ninth and 15th, respectively, were unable to distinguish themselves. Folger said, “In the rainy warm-up, we decided to change something. But we were a bit unhappy with this because I then struggled with edge grip. Therefore, we tried to fix the problem with more weight on the rear and a softer shock. In the end, however, it was a mistake as turning got worse during the race.”

Zarco’s fate was more abject: “Unfortunately, I ran out of fuel five turns from the end,” he said. Like Ralph de Palma so famously did in the 1912 Indianapolis 500, Zarco pushed his machine to the finish.

Another rider from whom we hope for better one day soon is Andrea Iannone (ECSTAR Suzuki), whose wet leathers became a tourniquet. “The rain leathers were very tight and they cut off my circulation in my armpit, making the entire arm swell up and lose feeling. At Turn 4, I went straight on twice because of that, so in the end I decided to stop.”

The championship remains open: Marquez 199, Dovizioso 199.