Michael Scott | September 21, 2018
Here is the latest MotoGP news heading into the Aragon weekend.
Fenati Done For Season
The Italian’s FIM license is withdrawn until the end of the current calendar year.
Racing bad-boy Romano Fenati has had his two-race ban from Race Direction extended to six races by the FIM, keeping him out for the rest of this season.
Without a team or a bike, however, the ruling will make little difference to the 22-year-old Italian, who told Italian media in the week after the Misano GP that he in10ded to retire and resume his studies for a career outside racing.
Meanwhile, riders rallied round the miscreant, decrying the roasting he has had in both the mainstream and social media, where some went so far as to issue virtual death threats.
Fenati earned the opprobrium for an extraordinary attack on Moto2 rival Stefano Manzi. Seeking revenge for having been pushed wide by his crash-prone countryman, the 10-times Moto3 race winner pulled alongside on the pit straight, reached across and squeezed Manzi’s brake lever. Manzi wobbled, but did not fall off.
It was in full view of the TV feed, and the next day photographs appeared worldwide, along with wholesale condemnation. Rossi expressed his disgust that the incident had been the subject of much more coverage than Dovizioso’s home-race win on the all-Italian Ducati.
Crutchlow repeated his original assertion that a life-time ban would be an appropriate punishment, saying: “I’m no angel, but for me this was the limit.” But both Marquez and Dovizioso deplored the harsh judgement meted out by social media. Said Dovizioso: “The media spoke too much about stupid things, not about racing, and the social [media] in most cases reated a very bad answer. I hate people who speak because they are able to, and the they don’t understand the situation.”
Fenati has been replaced at the Marinelli Snipers team by 20-year-old Andorra rider Xavi Cardelus, now in his eighth GP after seven wild-card appearances this year on a Team Stylobike Kalex.
Yamaha Looking To End Win Drought
Maverick Vinales hopes to get Yamaha back to the top of the box in Aragon. Photo: Gold & Goose
Unless one of its riders can work miracles on Sunday, Yamaha is facing the worst slump in its racing history, after already equalling the longest win drought at the San Marino GP two weekends ago.
Aragon would be the 23rd consecutive race without a Yamaha victory, one more than the dire spell that started at the first race of 1997, and was only ended by Simon Crafar’s single win at Donington Park in 1998. The last victory before that had been by Loris Capirossi at Eastern Creek in Australia, although only because Honda rider Mick Doohan had been knocked off by his teammate Alex Criville comfortably ahead of the Italian. Crafar’s win was followed by another 17-race drought.
At that time, Honda and latterly Suzuki were taking the honors; in the modern era it is Honda and Ducati. And there is no clear sign of relief, in spite of an unexpected mood swing at the pre-race press conference for Maverick Vinales, who said (of his fifth at Misano): “I was really happy, though the race didn’t show our poential. All the time I was on the bike I felt good, and I could ride with my style.”
He added: “The focus for me is to win one race this year.”
Teammate Valentino Rossi is now taking his turn to be downbeat, telling media “it is a miracle” that he was still third overall, and had been second until the last race.
But at Aragon he denied reports that he was pressing Yamaha to make a V4 engine like those of the top bikes of the moment, Honda and Ducati. “The in-line four is Yamaha philosophy, and we don’t need to change,” he said.
Jordi Torres Filling In For Rabat
Jordi Torres will fill in for the injured Tito Rabat.
With Tito Rabat still out injured, the Reale Avintia Ducati team came up with a new replacement for the Aragon GP – former Moto2 race winner and current World Superbike rider Jordi Torres.
But while the placement was marginally more acceptable to full-time MotoGP riders, thanks to his higher status and greater experience than Misano substitute rider Christophe Ponsson, there was still plenty of criticism for the practice of a rider having his first MotoGP experience at a race weekend.
And a hatful of criticism also from Ponsson, who put out an aggrieved press statement that he had been contracted for four races for the Avintia team, and the contract had been summarily terminated without even telling him.
The Spanish team had at Misano spoken about how difficult it was to find an experienced substitute for Rabat, who is expected to be out for the rest of the season after sustaining serious leg injuries at Silverstone. But it emerged at Aragon that Ponsson had paid the team for the ride, adding to his dismay at his dismissal.
His statement blamed Crutchlow and Miller as the ringleaders of a Safety Commission movement that had persuaded Dorna to deny further participation, after he had scraped inside the qualifying minimum at Misano, and finished the race a good lap behind the field.
Ponsson’s statement spoke of “a mixture of disappointment and disgust”, and that he was contemplating quitting racing. He had viewed Misano as his first test on a MotoGP bike, and expected to show his po10tial at the next three races, and perhaps until the end of the season.
Although Torres was accepted as a rider with more status, experience and history than the unknown Ponsson, as at Misano top riders agreed that there should be a system preventing riders from taking part in a MotoGP race without first at least having a test.
Crutchlow said: “Me and Jack [Miller] got blamed for him not riding, but it’s not the case. We had a big meeting, and I said we should have different guys coming in. But these bikes are hard to ride – you have to learn the tires, the brakes, the engine, the chassis …”
Dovizioso said, “This is a bit of a different story from Misano, because Torres has more experience. But I think we have find a way to manage this situation. I think we need to make a rule so that before you race you have to have a test.”
He agreed with Marquez, who said: “A rider will take the chance to ride MotoGP, so we have to manage about having that chance. It is very difficult to debut in MotoGP in a race weekend, because you don’t have time to adapt.”
Aron Canet Okay To Race
Aron Canet will race this weekend after crashing at the last round.
Misano’s Moto3 horror crash that took down five riders remarkably left only one victim unable to make it to Aragon – Petronas Honda rider Ayumu Sasaki, with a double wrist fracture. EG Honda rider Aron Canet was also injured in the pile-up, triggered in the front group when Spanish teenager Jaume Massie high-sided, but not out of the race.
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