Assen MotoGP Wrap-Up

[Hugh Janus]

Fabio Quartararo extended his point lead after his win at Assen. (MotoGP/)

By handily winning the Dutch TT, Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo took the lead in the MotoGP championship with 156 points, over second place Johann Zarco’s 122 and the 109 points of Francesco Bagnaia in third (both on Ducatis).

Although it was a surprise to see Maverick “Mr. Up-and-Down” Viñales topping most practices after finishing 10th at Sachsenring, it was only an illusion brought about by his hot single laps versus Quartararo’s crushing consistency. In FP4 Quartararo unrolled eight 1:32 laps to two by Viñales, while Bagnaia produced steady 33s.

Bagnaia, who came sixth in the race, said, “In FP4 my pace was not too bad, but looking at the pace of the Yamaha, [I’m] five- or six-tenths slower.

“I didn’t expect to struggle so much this weekend. The Desmosedici is difficult to handle in the fast corners because it moves a lot.

“I will try to stop them in the first few laps [Quartararo and Viñales] but it will be difficult to stay with them for the whole race.”

Quartararo assessed the competition: “…Bagnaia is good at tire management and he will be there, as well as the Suzukis and [Miguel] Oliveira—difficult to know who will be the main opponent.”

Everyone agreed that Assen’s new asphalt gives outstanding grip. Viñales noted, “My problem is grip. When it’s there, I’m fast. When it’s not, I suffer.”

The racing this year has shown that it’s essential to get away in the first group, get into clear air free of hot, tire-killing slipstreams, take the lead, and go away. Bagnaia gamely gave it a try even without the pace to win. He led four laps, but Quartararo’s repeated attacks eventually succeeded and the Frenchman broke away to win by 2.7 seconds over Viñales.

Quartararo made the pass on Bagnaia on lap 4. (MotoGP/)

Many in the paddock speak of how close the competition is now, the result of every rider having thorough training and being aboard fully engineered factory racebikes. Can competition be too close?

Luca Marini (Valentino Rossi’s half brother) said of present MotoGP, “It’s different from Moto2. Last year I fought for the championship until the end of the season but it was a completely different situation. [In MotoGP] the stress is much higher.

“…in Moto2 I was never tired. In MotoGP you start the weekend already tired.”

Other riders spoke of having to ride at the limit the whole time. Oliveira, who finished fifth, said, “I was on the limit since the start to the finish.”

Zarco said, “Today I raced really to the limit, the front end closed and to recover I was pushing [on the pavement] with my elbow.

“Even at Sachsenring I pushed to the limit but I took pole there, while here it wasn’t enough.” Zarco finished fourth.

What of Marc Márquez, who thrilled us all by winning Sachsenring? A snap highside in practice effectively thumped him very hard. Unbroken, he gathered himself to finish seventh. Márquez noted, “The thing is, only Honda riders have these kinds of highsides. In Portimão, Álex and Pol. Here, me.

“But the traction control didn’t keep the slide.”

As the back end started to go, he waited for the intervention but it never came.

Marc Márquez finished seventh at Assen—a commendable finish considering the massive highside he had in practice. (MotoGP/)

Despite two changes of crew chief, Viñales has now asked for early separation from Yamaha (his existing contract includes 2022).

“Somehow I start to feel when I come to race that it starts to be a nightmare. I have for three years the same comments [to Yamaha].”

Maverick Viñales finished second on the weekend he announced his request for an early departure of the Yamaha squad. (MotoGP Race News/)

Losing three positions at the start, Viñales set about getting past Takaaki Nakagami (Honda): “For sure I destroyed the tires a lot behind him. I didn’t find the way to overtake until he lost grip.”

What has happened to other previous winners such as Joan Mir, Jack Miller, and Oliveira? Mir’s 2020 consistency has been eclipsed by Quartararo on the improved Yamaha, yet he did forge his way into third this time. Miller crashed at turn 5. Oliveira said, “Our goal was to make the bike [KTM] agile, but making it agile and stable at the same time is not an easy result to achieve.”

Joan Mir finished third on the day in Assen. (MotoGP/)

Zarco had earlier noted, “The fourth sector is the most complex for our bike—there are high-speed changes of direction.”

The Yamahas have always excelled at direction changing, but the usual means of speeding up the process, through reduced steering rake and trail, can provoke oscillatory instability—wobble or high-speed weave, which riders call “pumping.” Is chassis oscillation what riders now mean when they complain of “shaking”? Quartararo spoke of shaking beginning out of turn 12 until turn 15, and Bagnaia noted that while Quartararo was faster in sector three, “I’m always faster in some corners like the fast ones in sector four. I know that maybe for the setting his bike is shaking more and I can control it better.”

MotoGP is no picnic, as American World Supers rider Garrett Gerloff, standing in at Yamaha for the injured Franco Morbidelli, said: “The bike is so rigid and the tires have so much grip that it just reacts off of every imperfection in the track.

“…there isn’t much middle ground. Either you push or you don’t push. You need balls.”

Gerloff finished 17th.

Garrett Gerloff stood in for an injured Franco Morbelli and finished 17th. (MotoGP/)

This is close to the reaction former MotoGP rider Ben Spies and crew chief Tom Houseworth voiced at their first GPs: The bikes are much stiffer than Superbikes and offer much more grip.

This season and last, first one rider and then another moves to the front in a steady succession, suggesting that, in a paddock where everyone in the top 10 has a winning pace, winning has become a lottery. Quartararo has emerged as a force, but even so, we won’t be surprised if the Ducatis return to strength at tracks that favor them. We can guess, but nothing is certain.

What if tires are more complex than the simple-minded model that says “baby them in the early laps so there’ll be something left at the end”? What if they behave more like old-time engine break-in? Piston rings might never seat properly unless loaded to, say, 70 percent of maximum in cycles of heavy throttle, alternating with rest. “Babying” the rings just resulted in arrested break-in, leakage, and disappointing power. How did Casey Stoner get his tires to operating temperature so fast in the first three laps and still have winning grip at the end? What did Andrea Dovizioso learn at Ducati that allowed him to use that maker’s tremendous power without shredding his tires? How did Marc Márquez arrive in MotoGP already able to postpone his tire drop beyond what veterans Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo could manage? How does Quartararo make his Yamaha win races when the finish record of the factory’s other three riders has been so up-and-down?

We have to reject the idea that MotoGP has become a “tire lottery” in which the winning strategy is trusting luck to issue you two good ones for Sunday afternoon. Quartararo’s wins would be an unlikely result.

From early 1950s experiments with silica as a tire tread reinforcement (in partnership with carbon black), it was 40 years before Michelin released its “Green Tire” revolution in 1992, employing rubber that paradoxically combined high wet and dry traction with much reduced rolling resistance. It was a breakthrough. Tread compound development is scientific, but it is also slow because understanding the effects of so many ingredients and processes takes time. The result is yearslong programs of exhaustively testing every small variation. There is no such thing as full knowledge in this business.

Rossi (who lost the front and crashed out) said of Michelin on Saturday, “They don’t know which tire will work either.

“[Piero] Taramasso expected no one to use the hard tire on the rear, but in FP4 with that [on] I had a pace that was sixth-tenths better than [with] the medium.

“But this is valid for today. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow in the race.” Quartararo won on the medium/hard that many riders chose.

We instinctively seek reliable truth but we enjoy the uncertainty and surprises of racing. Now comes the monthlong summer break. Will MotoGP resume at Austria’s Red Bull Ring as it is today? Or will everything change again?

As Rossi put it, “…the cards are always shuffled.”

We’ll know more on August 8.

Source

[Pedro]

Three things were clear after this race:

- Quartararo is a cool guy, and the world needs cool French guys, god knows there’s plenty of french twats already

- Viñales is a sore loosing idiot, and Maverick being his first name doesn’t make up for him being a spanish twat. The are several spaniards who aren’t sore losers or twats, but he’s not one of them.

- My man Miguel Oliveira is a great MotoGP racer and I couldn’t be happier about it, a real credit to Portugal!

[Sir Fallsalot]

I've been to Assen twice to watch the racing, unfortunately both times i found the lure of the pub more attractive than the race track and didn't see any racing other than on the pub's TV 

[Pedro]

31 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

I've been to Assen twice to watch the racing, unfortunately both times i found the lure of the pub more attractive than the race track and didn't see any racing other than on the pub's TV 

The last of the great old school motorcycle tracks, the motorcycling's Spa Francorchamps.