MotoGP Sepang Preview 2018

Bruce Allen
by Bruce Allen

Battle for #2 Alien Rages in the Tropics

With the title decided, the factory Yamaha “team” of Valentino Rossi & Maverick Viñales, joined by Ducati ace Andrea Dovizioso – the next top three riders in the remnant of the 2018 season left after Marc Marquez secured the championship in Japan – have determined to slug it out until the bitter end in Valencia in the chase for second best in 2018. The young upstart facing the current powerhouse facing the still-competitive old man in the figurative fight to caddy for Marquez as he golfs his way around his world during the winter. Only a mother could love this part of the season.

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Andrea Dovizioso holds a 15-point lead over Valentino Rossi for second overall in the championship. Rossi’s Yamaha teammate Maverick Viñales sits another 15 points back.

Danilo Petrucci, Johann Zarco, a wounded Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Iannone and Álex Rins have credible shots at passing Cal Crutchlow into fifth place for the year. Cal, with a bad ankle, has been put on injured reserve with Stefan Bradl getting the call to pilot the #1 LCR Honda in his stead. Bummer. Tito Rabat is MIA recovering from his terrible injury. Lorenzo has wrist and toe issues but will try to race in Sepang. And Zarco, KTM-bound in 2019, knows the Suzukis are coming into their own, threatening his current perch in seventh.

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Jorge Lorenzo will be in Malaysia, hoping to receive medical clearance to race.

My insistence that Rins has more than Zarco is ready to be tested, the Frenchman’s margin reduced to a mere four points following Sunday’s astonishing crash. Rins, career in the ascendancy, is more motivated than the departing, now possibly gun-shy, Zarco. Iannone wants to prove, again, to Suzuki that they gave up on him too soon. Lorenzo has little on the line at this point; Petrucci needs to scrap to keep Ducati Corse folks happy they promoted him to the factory team next year and to continue chasing that elusive, overdue first premier class win.

Recent History at Sepang

The 2015 Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix will be remembered and talked about for years. Reduced to an afterthought is the fact that Repsol Honda #2 Dani Pedrosa won the race. By the way, Lorenzo took second place to pull within seven points of the championship lead. As we wrote last year, “The 2015 race will be remembered as the day Valentino Rossi allowed his machismo to get the best of him, such that kicking Marc Marquez into the weeds became, for a brief moment, a higher priority than winning his tenth world championship.

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The 2015 Sepang round also featured this spectacular fireball from Jack Miller’s LCR Honda during qualifying.

Some of you, the lucky ones, have forgotten most of what occurred then and thereafter; I know I have. Those of you unable to forget are in danger of joining the small cadre of bitter Hayden fans who remember Estoril 2006 and still, every year, wear their now-eccentric pink “PEDROSA SUCKS” t-shirts to the race in Austin.” Sorry. I still believe Marquez, smarting from having screwed the pooch early in the year, baited his main rival and Rossi took the bait. Others I respect feel differently, i.e., Marquez stole Rossi’s last chance at a title for the sheer hell of it. Let it go.

The 2016 running of the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on the newly refurbished track went especially well for several combatants, and not so well for a few others. For factory Ducati veteran Andrea Dovizioso, his skills, his bike, the track and the weather came together in the best possible way, allowing him the relief of a second premier class win, his first since Donington Park in 2009. (The win opened a veritable floodgate for the Italian, as he has won nine more grands prix since.) Contenders Crutchlow, Marquez and Iannone all crashed, for no obvious reason, within a minute of one another mid-race, to the delight of those following them. DesmoDovi was joined on the podium by the then-dissolving factory Yamaha duo of Rossi and Lorenzo.

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Andrea Dovizioso’s victory at Sepang last year kept the championship chase alive heading into the finale at Valencia.

Recall last year, when factory Ducati #1 Dovizioso could hope for but one thing as the starting lights went out at the wet track – win the race and keep the title chase alive heading back to Spain for the finale. Trailing defending champ Marquez by 33 points entering the day, he needed to cut the deficit to less than 25 to avoid, or at least delay, having to endure another revolting Marquez title celebration. By winning the race, and with Marquez off the podium, the 2017 title would be decided two weeks later in Valencia, Marquez’ lead too big, ending the season with a whimper, rather than a bang. Jorge Lorenzo, it appeared, impeded his teammate’s progress late in the Sepang race, disregarding the importance of Dovi winning. At the last turn (?), Lorenzo did have the courtesy to accidentally run hot and wide, allowing Dovi through to the win everyone but JLo seemed to need. “I AM THE SPARTAN!”

Ducati GP18 and Alvaro Bautista

The domino effect came into play last Sunday at Phillip Island on the Angel Nieto Ducati team. Alvaro Bautista rode the factory GP18, in place of the injured Lorenzo, to a highly competitive fourth place finish after spending most of the day in the lead group. His erstwhile teammate, well-funded attorney Karel Abraham, inherited Bautista’s GP17, which is a big step up from his GP16, and promptly put it in 11th place, doubling his point total for the year. Both riders, I expect, have told management that putting them on better bikes would produce better results, in direct contravention of Ducati policy against speaking truth to power.

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Alvaro Bautista made up for this high-speed crash in FP4 by finishing fourth at Phillip Island.

Bautista’s confidence coming into the race might have traced back to his high-speed crash in FP4, when he found it necessary to bail on the bike at speed. The suddenly rider-less bike proceeded on its own, across the lawn, perhaps a hundred yards or so before smashing into the tire wall. At that moment, sitting in the grass, Alvaro might have realized that the GP18 can ride itself and all he needed to do was hold on. (Better yet, since it wasn’t even his bike, Sr. Aspar wouldn’t be yelling at him all week for destroying another Ducati.) All positives for the well-groomed man departing for WSBK at the end of the year, underachiever tag firmly in place, separated from greatness by tenths of a second per lap. The blink of an eye.

Your Weekend Outlook

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Hafizh Syahrin on his Yamaha M1 and Danilo Petrucci on a Ducati Panigale V4 took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur ahead of this week’s action at Sepang International Circuit.

Without even looking I can tell you that the weekend weather forecast calls for temps in the upper 80s and low 90s, humidity like a blanket, with torrential rain possible at any moment, generally in the afternoon. Brolly girls required. Although the tracks are very different, the conditions will be similar to Buriram where Marquez, Dovizioso and Viñales podiumed. It’s one of those long circuits that makes the 15-minute qualifying sessions so difficult for some riders who, like Valentino, shall remain nameless.

In the words of the late lamented Mr. Spock, wagering on this race is illogical. I expect to see Rossi, Viñales and Dovizioso in the top five, joined, perhaps, by the likes of Bautista, Rins or Marquez. Marquez remembers his crash here in 2011, the one that almost cost him his career, and will tread gently in and around the puddles. And around Valentino Rossi. Looking forward to Hafizh Syahrin playing the “home race” card and praying for rain.

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Maverick Viñales ended Yamaha’s MotoGP winless streak last weekend. He and Valentino Rossi will try to make it two in a row for Yamaha.

With the season drawing to a close, I need to begin the process of locating a pithy historical quote which accurately sums up MotoGP 2018. Readers wishing to contribute suggestions (which, if selected, we will publish with attribution [to the person quoted and submitted by you, the reader]) may share them below in the Disqus Comments section. Pithy quotes need not apply to Marquez; I’m looking for something to say to the twenty-something riders who aren’t #93.

We’ll be back again on Sunday. Cheers.

Bruce Allen
Bruce Allen

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  • Old MOron Old MOron on Nov 03, 2018

    So on the campus of California State University at Northridge, there is a radio station. I don't live close enough to tune to KCSN in all the time, but if I did, I would. While driving in the vicinity the other day, I was privileged to hear new music from Mark Knopfler.

    I just looked it up. Check out the video. As if the music weren't enough, listen to the sound of his bike at the beginning and end.
    https://youtu.be/JIBCHh-fMUE

  • Kos Kos on Nov 03, 2018

    Fine writeup and all, Bruce, BUT WHERE CAN I GET ONE OF THOSE PINK SHIRTS?!

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