MotoGP Portimao - contains spoilers

[hiccy18]

Bit early perhaps but Marc had the okay to return to racing yesterday:

https://www.gpone.com/en/2021/04/10/motogp/marc-ma...

So now I gotta figure out who to take out of my fantasy team

Other highlights to watch out for:

Can Oliveira replicate his winning performance from last year?
Will feedback from Dovi help Aleix get a podium?
Are Ducati and Yamaha continuing to set the pace or can Suzuki, Honda & KTM join the party?

[hiccy18]

marky911 said:

I want to see some battles though, not just a couple of passes in the last laps. Who do we think is most likely to fight as hard as Marc when confronted with him on track? At the moment I honestly think it’s Zarco who least gives a st about upsetting anyone, so let’s hope they can end up in close proximity of each other on track.

Zarco I agree with, Mir & Martin are both fearsome competitors as is Brad. Frankie & Bestia both have the potential to "do a Dovi" on Marquez which is also fun.

epom said:

All eyes on free practice in the morning

Nope! To the cry of "FREEEEDOM!!!" I will be attacking *ahem* wobbling around apexes and exploring long missed roads in celebration of the Tartan Trumpette finally allowing us out of our local area.

Friday night catch up ofc

[hiccy18]

So what we're saying is MM93 is less rusty than me even though I've ridden all winter? That is a surprise!

Not watched it yet to be able to pontificate as I normally would but from glancing at the timings would it be fair to say the Suzukis looked good?

ETA: Feck it, swapped Vinales out of my fantasy team for MM93

Edited by hiccy18 on Friday 16th April 19:05

[hiccy18]

Pedro Acosta is one to watch huh? Stylin it like Marquez!

Sucks for John & Darren, my favourite two riders to root for in the class but still a good race.

[hiccy18]

Turn7 said:

Whispers are emerging that Franky is getting a bit fed up riding the wheels off the old nail, and that VR will set him up in the new VR46 Suzuki satellite squad.....


If Bagnaii hadnt lost that lap, he would have been pole for sure.......

Some huge talent from the youth coming through now.

Some weird crashes in the big class, Zarco for example.

Bloody Masia, hopefully Aki will kick has arse the length of the pitlane and he start to learn. Im convinced he is a champion in the making.

McPhee has to be drinking in the last saloon now, not all his own doing, but a shyte start to the year when he is expected to challenge for the title.

I can't agree re. Masia, never seen any great talent in the boy (apart from, obviously, he's a GP class front runner....), unlike Acosta & Raul Fernandez who both really standout compared to their rivals. Masia sometimes sparkles but is often absent, not WC grade.

Rins ably demonstrated why I rate Mir higher: too many mistakes from Alex throughout his career, even though he's a very classy rider. Fabio was awesome, nice to see Frankie back near the sharp end, Yamaha would be crazy to let him go elsewhere without an obvious replacement.

KTM must be working out how quickly they can bump Lecuona and Petrux, Gardner and Fernandez look like they'd do a lot better. I thought Zarco was nailing on a factory seat for next year until the whoopsie, the pressure is still on Miller though; good ride from Bestia again.

MM93 no real surprise as top Honda but they've got a lot of work to do having missed all of the pre-season testing; top six at Jerez for sure.

Gutted about Sam but the top four in Moto2 were great, fantastic showing from them all and I was impressed by Beaubier too, shame he got caught up in the Idemitsu tangle otherwise he was looking good for a top 6/7.

[hiccy18]

Yamaha had a problem with an incorrectly manufactured batch of valves last year, their engines lasted a ridiculous amount of hours; this year with correctly produced valves we're seeing a better indication of their engine performance, along with improved electronics and revised chassis parts.