When practice is dry and Sunday is wet, all the information gained Friday and Saturday is out the window as the softer springing and damping of rain setups are adopted to increase mechanical grip.
The wet Thai MotoGP featured top riders pushing to the limit, and no real surprises: the names up front were the expected ones. On the dry Friday and Saturday Marc Márquez (Gresini Duc) rose from fourth in FP1 to be first in the run-up to Q2 but then was fifth, 0.686 second slower than poleman Francesco Bagnaia.
In the Saturday sprint it was Enea Bastianini first from Jorge Martín, Bagnaia, and Márquez—the advanced school, all teaching each other.
Sunday was wet. Márquez, starting fifth, was third at the end of lap 1 as Martín led from Bagnaia for four laps. On lap 5 Bagnaia took the lead with Márquez second, passing Martín as he ran wide. With wet top speeds of 200 mph they continued until Márquez—with, as noted by Martín last weekend, “nothing to lose”—lost the front and crashed out on lap 14. Pedro Acosta (GasGas/KTM) was third, 3.8 seconds down, with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jack Miller fourth and fifth.
Bagnaia said, “I knew we had the potential to do well but we had to fix something in terms of bike behavior under braking. We managed to do so and I felt better right away.”
Recall Bagnaia’s recent remark that in the dry, he runs softer “rain” front spring rate, and with it brakes to bottom the front fork, giving him direct information about front grip. Back in the 1990s it was said that Mick Doohan (five consecutive 500cc World Championships) would have liked clip-ons that were extensions of the front wheel for the same reason: direct information.
Bagnaia continued, “It wasn’t an easy race because it was very long and stressful, but as soon as I saw my feeling was very good, and I saw Jorge pushing a lot. But I decided to wait two more laps to make sure the rear was more ready.”
An important concern in design in recent years has been inadequate rear grip, in both corner entry and exit acceleration.
“As soon as it was [ready] I tried to catch him back. Then I opened the gap but Marc was pushing hard.”
Bagnaia said the race was long and stressful. Mistakes at the end of the season with the points being tight could mean no hope for a championship.Ducati
Then came Márquez’s crash.
Martín got away first: “…straight away I saw that the feeling wasn’t the warmup feeling. I was struggling to put all the power on the ground and it was very slippery…was sliding a lot at the rear…and at that point I saw they (the leaders) had something else.
On lap 5 he “…braked late and went wide into corner 3, and Pecco and Marc overtook me. Then I tried to stay close to them because I thought about a potential move at the end.
“But as soon as Marc crashed I also lost the front, the same as him. But I was able to save it.
“…at that point I was able to control the distance to Jack and Pedro, because they were coming strong.
“I think without [the example of] Marc in front of me, I would have crashed.”
Care for any gut-wrenching tension or performance anxiety? Martín continued, “I don’t want anybody to feel what I felt before the race. I think being Pecco or me at this stage of the championship in these conditions is not really good.”
Márquez commented, “We were the fastest today (he led the wet warmup from Martín and Luca Marini) but now, two or three hours after the race, maybe we weren’t patient enough…
“It’s true that it was super-tricky because I wasn’t able to overtake Bagnaia in a clear way.
“I was planning a very clear overtake because I had the speed and I said, ‘We will have more chances.’
“Always, I was trying to push, attack, then when it was not possible, to cool down the front tire and attack again.”
Marc Márquez went down ahead of Jorge Martín, who also nearly crashed at the same spot.Gresini
The softer rubber in rain tires overheats quickly unless adequate water-cooling is present!
“On that second attack I saw that I was much faster,” Márquez continued.
“…just one-and-a-half degrees more [lean angle] in [turn 8] and I lose the front, and I couldn’t save.”
Witnesses said he launched his famous “un-crashing technique” with his elbow, but the bike reached the curbing and couldn’t be saved. Commenting on his own Ducati GP23 versus the GP24 of factory rider Bagnaia, he said, “The GP24 in some areas is a strong evolution but I don’t ride [it] and for sure, my GP23 today was ready to win—I felt good.”
Márquez remounted and finished 11th.
Acosta showed self-discipline in finishing third. “I had a hard time getting the brake discs up to temperature.
“I didn’t have a good feeling with the rear tire… I had a lot of sliding coming out of turns 5 and 6—it was like riding on ice.
“…I also went wide in the first corners. But then there came a time about five laps from the end when there was a change and I started going fast.
“We have to take a step back and be calmer, and understand that sometimes the top five isn’t bad.
“…I have to now learn to be content and get to the finish line.”
His last few laps were the result, passing Miller on lap 22, then Brad Binder on lap 25, the next-to-last. Starting seventh, he had moved up cautiously until his “access of speed.” Making a similar climb was Di Giannantonio, who passed both Miller and Binder for fourth place in the last two laps. He commented, “…we have not the best bike in one area but we have a 9/10 bike in every area…”
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