#styriagp

[ariworldjapan]

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¡Maravilloso! Dani Pedrosa #MotoGP #DP26 #StyriaGP ”26_danipedrosa　Thanks to @ktmfactoryracing for the big effort and all the motogp community for the warm welcome! Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend like I did! @motogp”

[meaningofmotorsport]

Grand Prix of Styria Review

It was not as chaotic as we thought it would be, as it seems the Red Flag put a stop to all the madness we saw beforehand! Whilst it was a dramatic crash, we are all glad to see that the riders are OK, although Savadori may be slightly injured. When the race did restart, we got a tense one, with a worthy winner!

When Martin rode incredibly well in only his second race at Qatar, it was clear he had the potential to go far, but a crash at Portimao severely affected his season. Now that he has fully recovered from those injuries, we once again witnessed the majesty of this Spanish star! With pole and the win, leading most of the laps, it has been a pretty perfect weekend for him, and will love the fact that we are coming back here next weekend! For the rest of Ducati, it was a rather underwhelming race, with Zarco in 6th, Bagnaia barely in the points, and Miller crashing out! They needed to score well here, to put Quartararo under pressure going forwards towards the season finale! As it is though, once again Ducati are not making the most of their chances of a title!

Despite their lack of power, this has been a strong track for Suzuki in the past, and all weekend Mir has been towards the front of the times. He was able to do it again in the race, as he was the biggest challenger for Martin for the win, although even he couldn’t keep up with the Pramac rider! The brand new rear ride height device looks to be working wonders under acceleration for the team, as Mir wasn’t losing out too much to the Ducati’s! He may only have gained slightly on Fabio here, but more importantly, this suggests that he could be strong at all the remaining tracks they go to, and knows what it takes to win a title now! Rins also ran a brilliant race, especially as he was struggling with brake issues. 7th isn’t spectacular, however he just needs to rack up finishes, and score good points for the team’s title, if he wants any hope of staying in the team!

On possibly Yamaha’s weakest track, for Quartararo to end up on the podium, is a rather formidable result for his competitors! They have clearly got on top of all the issues they had here last year, as both factory riders had pace all weekend. I do think that the bike is lacking something around here still, and if Ducati can get their act together for next weekend, they should be able to beat him. The Fabio we see this year, shows so much more maturity from last year, which could be what allows him to achieve his first world title! Vinales was the one most hurt by the race restart, in that he was right up front to begin with before the Red Flag, before then stalling the bike on the restart grid, and having to go from pitlane, thus ruining his race! The Petronas SRT were rather anonymous all race, a rather sad way for Rossi to announce his retirement from the sport. At least Crutchlow got plenty of time to get used to racing again, as well as two proper starts!

This weekend was a typical weekend for KTM in 2021, as they were nowhere in practice or qualifying, with no rider in Q2, but when it comes to the race, they all of sudden are able to climb up through the field, with Binder ending up in 4th! The tyre compounds must still be a problem for them in that case, and is something they can’t fix overnight! Olivera was running with Brad, until he seemingly had a bike problem, so had to retire from the race. Both factory riders are really coming into their own, given how far they can drag a rather difficult bike up the field! Similarly, for Pedrosa, who turned up this race weekend, and looked to be the fastest KTM rider for most of it! As for the Tech 3 squad, a tough weekend got worse, with news of the 2nd seat at the team being given to Raul Fernandez, which apparently had Lecuona in tears. It was harsh to announce it during a session, but the rider line up they have chosen was probably the right one to make!

One incredible stat from this race, was that 5 different manufacturers finished in the top 5 places, which means that Honda, who had a pretty good weekend, are not being given so much credit! It is actually the LCR team I have been really impressed by this weekend, as they have been outperforming the main team a lot of the time, including in the race! Marc Marquez wasn’t as much of a threat as I thought he would be, it was instead Nakagami who made a late charge, to only just be beaten by Binder. Alex Marquez was back where he should be, after being nowhere all year. He needs to keep riding like that, as his future is not safe yet! Pol Espargaro has not been living the dream since joining Honda, as much as the bike is not perfect, nor is he, as his pace compared to the other riders has not been where we expected it to be! Honda still has a long way to go to get back to winning titles again!

It seems that Aprilia either have solid weekends, or terrible ones, as first Savadori got caught up in the incident with Pedrosa, which caused his bike to burst into flames. Apparently, he has sustained some injuries after the crash, and could well miss the next race, so I wish him a speedy recovery! Then Aleix retired whilst fighting inside the top 10, however, the team can still take solace from the pace they had, on a track which needs power that they simply don’t have!

The first of 2 races at the Red Bull Ring are finished, with new storylines emerging, more upsets, although no new challengers to Fabio for the title! Will he be put under more pressure when they return to the hills this coming weekend?

-M

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[ariworldjapan]

How Pedrosa and Savadori's fireball MotoGP crash happened - The Race

A relatively innocuous crash in MotoGP's Styrian Grand Prix led to a fireball and a very lucky escape for returnee Dani Pedrosa

The more I read, the more frightening I become. Lorenzo Savadori's judgment saved Dani Pedrosa. Savadori, thank you, and I think Dani Pedrosa has already apologized, but I'm sorry I fractured it.

“Pedrosa made a relatively uncharacteristic error at the notorious Turn 3.

He fell at one of the slowest corners on the MotoGP calendar and was left stranded alongside his bike in the middle of the track.

Left with no option but to hit either Pedrosa or his KTM RC16, Savadori hit Pedrosa’s bike.”