“Pedro, we must awaken your Bozo blood.”
Welcome to another early morning edition *yawns* of Dre’s Race Review, and in this one, we’re reviewing MotoGP’s Japanese Grand Prix and the last of this block of flyaway races. And again folks, I’m not going to lie to you, this was not a classic. You can probably guess the reasons why but once again, we’re leaving a MotoGP race with a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Let’s talk about it, and Pecco’s double victory.
Glitch In The Matrix
There was yet more drama and controversy in qualifying on Saturday morning, with Pedro Acosta claiming his first pole position in MotoGP’s premier class, becoming the third youngest rider in history to do so (Only Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez were younger). But it came off the back of Marquez losing his pole-setting lap time due to track limits and bad timing.
There’s no doubt about it on the video footage, Marquez puts a wheel on the green on the exit of Turn 4. But because the overnight right started spitting in the final two minutes, Marquez didn’t have a chance to go faster. At the same time, there was a delay in Race Direction announcing the penalty due to a software glitch, so the penalty had to be applied manually, rather than automatically like the system usually does. It led to a rather bitchy Marquez hitting MotoGP’s social media with a saucy comment about “The notification times being the notification times”.
Race Director Mike Webb eventually explained the situation a couple of hours later and I have no issue with it – sometimes technology doesn’t work, it happens to us all. But it’s another rough case where the series has had some egg on his face because procedures haven’t worked properly.
So with it, Marc Marquez was demoted to ninth, another qualifying disaster for the Ant-Man, and behind him on Row 4 was Jorge Martin after a crash in the session forced him to start 11th, the first time all season the Spaniards qualified that low since Austria last year.
During the Sprint itself, Martin utilised his brilliant recent starts and was P5 by Turn 3, but a spread out field at the front limited him to fourth. At the front, Pedro Acosta was leading and riding a brilliant race… until he wasn’t. A classic front tuck on his KTM ruined what could have been a first Sprint victory for him and for Tech3. Bagnaia would take control from there, pulling away as Marquez and Enea Bastianini had an excellent scrap for second, one the Italian won.
Yarışa pole'den Pedro Acosta 2. giderken yerde kaldı!
— Race Result (@result_race) October 6, 2024
Acosta dün de lider giderken yaza yapmıştı.#JapaneseGP #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/RD4gVwEWQr
Sunday was more of the same, a processional affair as Jorge Martin made his way through the pack and ended up second, but without any extra pace to handle Bagnaia at the front, who comfortably won, becoming just the fifth rider in MotoGP-era history to win eight races in a season.
Pedro Acosta was running second before yet another crash at Turn 14 to take him out of the running. I love the kid, he’s a charismatic, funny, engaging character and is extremely fast, but he has had the whiff of the bozo gene about him. A bit of that is expected as a rookie, but it’s frustrating when you can see the best of his talent, quickly followed by the worst of it. His fifth DNF of the year, and third crash in a race in the last four Grand Prix.
Not to make another Tekken reference here (It’s the last one, I promise), but it’s the final scene from the recent game, where in SHOCKING news, the newest member of the Mishima family has the Devil Gene. Welp.
It’s a podium that said it all about the series – Pecco Bagnaia reduces the deficit to 10 points with his eighth GP win of the season, while at the same time carrying 7 DNFs if you include the Sprints. Jorge Martin hanging in there for dear life via the Sprints himself and having to go from 11th to 2nd, and Marc Marquez being hindered by poor qualifying all year and having to go from P9 to P3 twice in a weekend. What is it with this series and unseriousness?!
The Lightning Round
If you’re curious, this was Bagnaia’s third Sprint win in a row. After struggling in that regard, he’s turned it around. His deficit on Saturday once stood at over 60 points. It’s now just 28:
Sprint Only Standings: Jorge Martin – 131, Pecco Bagnaia – 103, Marc Marquez – 95
Credit to Simon Patterson at The Race for originally reporting the story, but it seems the Ducati GP23 deficit to this year’s 24 has only grown larger, with it seemingly the case that the factory had to revert to a recent flywheel upgrade after Marquez’s Mandalika fire. It turns out it was increasing wheelspin and overrevving the engine, giving it a mild case of explosions. Ducati’s been pretty tight-lipped about it, but any chance of the GP23 closing on the 24s this season is seemingly all but over.
A lovely tribute from Trackhouse Racing to dedicate the weekend to Ryoto Haga after his tragic passing last month. A team who “gets it”.
Motegi is traditionally really tough on fuel management – Pecco was very close in the Sprint and in the race itself, Aleix Espargaro ran out as he was crossing the line, and the same happened to Fabio Quartararo for the second time in three races. Welp.
Hard to argue that Alex Marquez wasn’t at fault for ploughing into Joan Mir on that one, a Long Lap penalty is more than fair for a first offence this season. Mir was rightly incensed.
Fun Moto2 that was restarted due to the rain kicking in early on, and great to see Manuel Gonzalez pick up his first win in the series. Meanwhile, in the title fight, fortune favoured the brave with Ai Ogura starting on slicks and keeping his head down for second place. With Sergio Garcia once again struggling with his shoulder in 14th place, it’s now a 60-point lead for Ogura with four races left and the Japanese rider has an outside chance of wrapping it up on Philip Island in a fortnight. Remember when this championship looked close in Aragon?
And many congratulations to David Alonso, who once again won in Motegi to make it his 10th of the season and now, Moto3 World Champion. He has dominated the standings this year with sensational outright speed, exceptional racecraft and intelligence, and learning from his errors. It’s the most impressive Moto3 season I can remember, even more than Joan Mir or Miguel Oliveira’s campaigns. It also helps he’s a disgustingly nice man and has been brilliant with the celebrations too, he gets it. A star in the making, and still only 18. Congrats to Colombia’s first-ever GP World Champion.
Dre’s Race Rating: 3/10 (Poor) – NOW do you see why I was so pissed off with Michelin and scrapping a 2025 front tyre that could fix so much of the sport’s problems? This was a procession, Bagnaia was never losing this one, Acosta being the fun protagonist didn’t last long, and the action behind wasn’t worth showing in the eyes of TV direction. Skip this one, you won’t be missing much. See you on Philip Island.