Quartararo already threatens in this unusual World Cup

Updated:19/07/2020 02:04h

save

With masks and facial protections, with a distance of two meters between the riders, with a paddock reduced to a minimum, with random tests and temperature control and daily symptoms, the bikes have finally left the garage. Four months after the interrupted start of the World Cup in Qatar, where only the Moto2 and Moto3 categories could compete, and with the coronavirus still as a threat, MotoGP already roars this weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, at the Jerez circuit. It is a rare course, shortened, for the moment, to thirteen races, expandable outside Europe if the Covid-19 allows it, with doublets on five routes – in addition to Jerez, Austria, Misano, Alcañiz and Cheste-, almost without time between one grand prize and another, and the stands turned off, but with the same adrenaline as always.

Yesterday, the grills of the three categories showed that there was a desire for motorcycles, speed and wins. In MotoGP, Fabio Quartararo He took the first position for today (2:00 p.m., Dazn), in an aggressive exercise with time expired that helped him catch his third consecutive “pole” (with Malaysia and Valencia 2019) with a record included -1: 36,705- when their rivals were already celebrating their rhythms. “I made a mistake because someone had fallen and I didn’t think the last lap would have been so good. Marquez was better in practice, but we have a good rhythm for race Sunday. The Frenchman once again claims to be the fastest one lap, and he hopes, this year, that his candidacy for the title will also be confirmed with more than 20 laps.

The one who defends, one more year, Marc Márquez, recovered from his shoulder operation and always a rival to everyone else. Yesterday, third best time to start the course on the front line. He grazed the pole, but first Maverick Viñales and then Quartararo indicated that this course will have opponents who will take advantage of any circumstance, including this shortened format, to dethrone it. «Main objective accomplished, the Yamaha were better at one lap. morning [por hoy], to suffer in the race in this heat », first smile. He will leave behind a Viñales that also extends optimism since the end of 2019, when he was finally able to put his Yamaha at the command of his ambition. “It was rolled very fast because the track is very good in the heat.” Between first, second and third, 2 thousandths.

It is the first year without Jorge Lorenzo, but he is still in contention Andrea Dovizioso, still recovering from his fractured clavicle just a few weeks ago. The Italian, three consecutive courses runner-up in the world, suffered a fall yesterday in the qualifying session and finished in eighth position, one behind Pol Espargaró, future teammate of Márquez in 2021. And he is also the fireproof Valentino Rossi, 41 years old, who did not have his best day yesterday – eleventh – but he does not intend to stop enjoying while he can or be competitive while he knows.

Injured

Everything, for the moment on the track, similar to how the World Cup was left in 2019, despite the coronavirus. But everything, also very different, from the coronavirus. In this very compressed course, any small error, a zero in the locker and injuries will harm twice as much, with no time for the drivers to recover from a mishap because the next race is seven days away. Thus, this 2020 could not have started worse for Álex Rins, another of the key names to fight the title to the Honda de Márquez. The Suzuki suffered a fall at turn 11 in which his right shoulder was dislocated. After a first evaluation on the circuit itself, before being transferred to the hospital, the doctors declared him “Not fit” to compete today. And he will have less than a week to look for any solution that may allow him to race in the next Grand Prix, the Andalusian one, also in Jerez, this July 26.

In Moto2 (12.20 pm, Dazn), Jorge Navarro It started as if three months and a pandemic had not happened. First place on the grid for him, just as strong as in Moto3, now in his debut in the medium category. «I didn’t expect it at all. Second or third line was ideal, but look, the bike gives me a lot of confidence. I hope I can hold on in the lead group. He comes out ahead of Jorge Navarro and Sam Lowes. In Moto3 (11.00am, Dazn), Tatsuki Suzuki added his second pole position of the course and will be ahead of Andrea Migno and John McPhee.

The bikes roar, armored against the coronavirus, so that everything is as it should be in March. «Really, when I arrived in the morning and listened to the noise of the motorcycles … it is something that I have missed so much these months! For us it is very important that MotoGP and the show are the same as before the pandemic, ”said Carmelo Ezpeleta, director of Dorna, who urges individual responsibility so that in the 2020 World Cup there are only motorcycles at last.