Michael Scott | May 5, 2019
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019 Sunday
It was an all-Spanish podium party in the premier class, after a race that started out processional but came alive as the laps wore down under blazing sunshine in front of capacity crowds.
Marc Marquez raced his Repsol Honda to a flag-to-flag victory Sunday in MotoGP action before a packed house at Jerez. (Gold & Goose photo)
By the end of it, the indomitable Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had led from start to finish, and could back off on the final lap to win by better than 1.5 seconds. Compatriots Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) and Maverick Vinales (Monster Yamaha) completed the top three.
“It was more difficult mentally than physically,” said Marquez, who crashed out of a strong lead at the previous round. “But I am confident in my ability and my bike … it was a big help to know why we crashed in Austin.”
Marquez got the hole shot. In his wake, the first ten laps saw the front-row qualifiers of the Petronas Yamaha satellite team giving close and steadfast chase, with Franco Morbidelli ahead of youngest-ever pole qualifier Fabio Quartararo.
It was on lap 11 that Quartararo moved firmly past, and while he was a couple of seconds behind Marquez, he was soon gapping his team-mate. Until it went heart-breakingly wrong: his bike stuck in third gear as he ran onto the back straight on lap 14. He toured back to the pits, in floods of tears.
By now, Texas winner Rins had picked past both factory Ducatis and Vinales, no mean feat on a hard-to-pass track, after finishing the first lap sixth. As Quartararo retired he was also ahead of Morbidelli, and able to keep smoothly on track for second.
Morbidelli was fading, his tyres shot, but while Vinales easily took over third, he came under fierce pressure on the final lap from Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati).
Second factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci had lost touch in the end by a couple of seconds, but was comfortably clear of Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha), who had qualified only 13th, but by race end was moving forward steadily.
Morbidelli was seventh, able to fend off Cal Crutchlow, who was just a couple of tenths clear of LCR Honda team-mate Takaaki Nakagami. Honda test rider Stefan Bradl completed the top ten; with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro 11th, survivor of a collision with a fading Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati), which left the angry Australian in the gravl.
It was a dire Sunday after a strong start to the weekend for Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda), who managed to get back ahead of Pol Espargaro’s Red Bull KTM by the finish for 12th.
Joan Mir and second Pramac rider Pecco Bagnaia also crashed out.
Thus Marquez regained a narrow championship lead, one point ahead of Rins, 70:69. Dovizioso has 67, Rossi 61, Petrucci 41.
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019 Moto2 Race – 15 laps (shortened)
Lorenzo Baldassarri scored his fourth Moto2 victory of the season, extending his series lead in the series. (Gold & Goose photo)
The first start descended into chaos when second-row starter Remy Gardner got up to third into the first corner then high-sided on the way out of it. Front-row starter Alex Marquez (EG-VDS Kalex) was unable to avoid the XOXONE Kalex, and he fell; a little further along Honda Team Asia rider Dimas Ekky Pratama also fell after hitting Gardner’s bike, and was run over by Marco Bezzecchi (Red Bull KTM), who fell on Turn 2.
The red flags came out: Gardner and Ekky Pratama were taken to the medical centre (both reported as “conscious”), Marquez pushed back down the hill to the pits and Bezzecchi remounted.
Marquez only just made it in time to start from pit lane, his chances ruined; first-time pole qualifier Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) fluffed the start, to finish the first lap fifth.
It was returned injury victim Augusto Fernandez and Flexbox HP40Kalex team-mate Lorenzo Baldassarri who took advantage, surging away from Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kalex) and Xavi Vierge (EG-VDS Kalex).
Fernandez led convincingly for the first six laps, but Baldassarri pounced before half distance, and was in control for his third win of the season.
Navarro, his bike set up for strength towards the end of the planned 23 lapper, was up to fourth on lap three, took five more to catch and slice past Luthi, and now started to hunt down a gap of almost two seconds to the leaders.
He took second on the penultima lap, and was just 0.35 behind the winner at the end. Had the race been a lap longer …
Luthi retained fourth; Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder managed to defend fifth from Vierge, more than two seconds adrift second XOXONE Kalex rider Tetsuta Nagashima narrowly defended seventh from Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Kalex) gaining speed at the end to defeat not only team-mate Nicolo Bulega but also Iker Lecuona (American Racing KTM), who completed the top ten.
Baldassarri’s fourth win of the year handily extended his points lead, 75 to Luthi’s 58. Marcel Schrotter, a dismal 15th today, has 48, then Navarro 44 and Gardner 38.
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019 Moto3 Race – 23 laps
In the Jerez Moto3 race Niccolo Antonelli scored his first victory in over three years. (Gold & Goose photo)
Niccolo Antonelli and Honda-mounted team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki took a sentimental one-two at the track where the team-owner’s son Marco Simoncelli won his first-ever race back in 2004.
The SIC58 team is named after the late Italian rider, and the result by far the best ever – Antonelli’s first win since the start of 2016, and Suzuki’s first podium.
The result came by inches after a 22-lap brawl, with third-placed Celestino Vietti (SKY VR46 KTM) taking a second podium in only his eighth GP just six hundredths adrift.
There were wildly changing fortunes in a lead group that was more than 15-strong for much of the race, with several riders lucky to escape without serious injury from frightening collisions, while erstwhile championship leader Jaume Masia crashing out in the early stages.
Now fourth-placed CotA winner Aron Canet (Sterilgarda KTM) takes over the title lead by one point from Antonelli.
Albert Arenas (Sama KTM) made a strong return after missing two races injured, taking fifth after coming through from and erstwhile 15th.
Less than a second adrift Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) had an even more impressive run from 27th on the grid.
Jakub Kornfeil (KTM), pole starter and occasional leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Honda) narrowly ledaAi Ogura (Honda) and Andrea Migno (KTM) to complete a top ten that was covered by 1.441 seconds.
Canet and Antonelli have 58 and 57 points, then Masia (45), Toba (41) and Dalla Porta (40).
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019 – Saturday Practice and Qualifying
MotoGP
It was a smashing afternoon at Jerez. Not only were lap records pulverised, but also preconceptions … as the two satellite Yamaha rider (one of them a rookie) seized control of the front row of MotoGP, consigning even Marc Marquez and the Repsol Honda to third.
The front row starters for the Spanish GP with Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (center) the pole winner ahead of Petronas Yamaha SRT teammate Franco Morbidelli (left) and third-place qualifier Marc Marquez (right). (Gold & Goose photo)
Top of the times went to Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, in only his fourth outing on the Petronas M1 Yamaha – last year’s bike, for the most junior of four Yamaha riders. Quartararo, who just turned 20 on April 20, took the “youngest-ever” pole record from Marquez, who was quick to congratulate him on the feat.
Slotting in to second was team-mate Franco Morbidelli, less than a tenth down, on a resurfaced track where the top 12 of Q2 were all within seven tenths of a second, and all inside the previous best lap of the 4.423km circuit.
Erstwhile leader Marquez might have changed the order, after taking a two-stop strategy in the 15-minute session – but a big slide and yet another trade-mark great save spoiled his final run, on a front tyre that was now past its best.
While the new boys celebrated, two veterans were down in the mouth. Jorge Lorenzo’s strong start to the weekend came to naught when he slipped off the Repsol Honda, qualifying only 11th on row four. Worse still, Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha) didn’t make it to Q2, and will start from 13th, heading row five. He was knocked out of the important second place in the Q1 session by his own protégé Pecco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati).
It was Quartararo’s fourth career pole, his first also coming at Jerez, after he was admitted under-age to Moto3 after winning the CEV Junior championship twice. “This is the big one,” he said.
After a blazing Friday, conditions were still dry, but cloudy and cooler. This also favoured the factory Yamahas, which have trouble on a hot track. Rossi’s team-mate Maverick Vinales did make it through to Q2, and qualified fifth, starting from row two, in between Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) and last year’s pole man Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) in sixth.
Crutchlow crashed heavily in the morning, bringing out red flags after he punctured the air fence. Free practice leader Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati), the first rider to circulate below 1m 37s, fell at the end of Q2, and placed seventh. He leads row three from Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and CotA winner Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki). Bagnaia was tenth, ahead of the luckless Lorenzo (celebrating his 32 birthday) and Joan Mir (Ecstar Suzuki).
Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) was out of the top five for the first time year, placed 15th after slipping off at the end of Q1; wild card Stefan Bradl (HRC Honda( was 14th.
Moto2
Speed-Up rider Jorge Navarro scored the pole for the Moto2 race in Jerez. (Gold & Goose photo)
Speed-Up rider Jorge Navarro put himself in the perfect position to deny Kalex a 100th victory when he claimed his first-ever pole in the middle class by one hundredth of a second.
The second rider on the Italian-made chassis, class rookie Fabio Di lGiannantonio, placed a strong seventh, fewer than three tenths down.
In between, a phalanx of Kalex-mounted hopefuls were all up close, with all 18 of the Q2 riders inside under eight tenths.
Alex Marquez (EG-VDS Kalex) had Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40 Kalex) alongside. Australian Remy Gardner (ONEXOX Kalex) leads row two from Nicolo Bulega (SKY VR46 Kalex) and points leader Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP40 Kalex).
CotA winner Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kales is in between Di Giannantonio and Tetsuta Nagashima (ONEXOXO Kalex) on row three.
Only then the first of the KTMs, the official Red Bull bike ridden by Brad Binder, who had to come through from Q1.
Sam Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex) was 11th and Xavi Vierge (EG VDS Kalex 12th; with Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Kalex) dropped to 13th after earlier leading the session.
Also with a big job tomorrow: Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Kalex), starting from 14th, in the middle of row five.
American Joe Roberts qualified 27th.
Moto3
Lorenzo Dalla Porta scored his career-first pole in Moto3 at Jerez. (Gold & Goose photo)
Only in Moto3 did the old (2017) record remain inviolate, by less than a hundredth; with a dozen riders inside a second of Lorenzo Dalla Porta’s career-first pole. The Leopard Honda rider, second in the opening round, was just four thousandths ahead of SIC58 Honda rider Tatsuki Suzuki, with close to two tenths then to third-fastest Celestino Vietti (SKY VR46 KTM).
Both Suzuki and Vietti were through from Q1.
Friday leader Niccolo Antonelli, Suzuki’s team-mate, lost his bid for pole with a late moment at the final corner, but will lead row two from Dennis Foggia (SKY VR46 KTM) and new Honda rider Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini),
A late crash denied CotA winner Aron Canet (Sterilgarda KTM) any hopes of improving, and he qualified seventh; Albert Arenas (Samar Nieto KTM) made an impressive return after missing two races with serious internal injuries from a training accident, placed ninth alongside Marcos Ramirez’s Leopard Honda.
News
New Pavement Means Faster Times at Jerez
As predicted by Michelin, Jerez’s new surface and an extra allocation of tyres saw the outright lap record smashed to smithereens, with cool overcast conditions contributing further to a string of new best times, each one topping the last.
The previous best lap, set by Cal Crutchlow (Honda) in qualifying last year stood at 1m 37.653, an average speed of 163.0 km/h.
That narrowly survived the first day, but in Saturday morning’s FP3 the top 14 riders – from Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) to Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) – all went faster.
Petrucci was the first to dip under the 1m 37; but by the end of Q2 later that day three more riders had made it: pole-setter Fabio Quartararo, and front-row companions Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez.
Quartararo and Morbidelli are team-mates in the new Petronas-sponsored Yamaha satellite team, with a double front-row start in only its fourth race.
“I speak for both of us,” said Morbidelli, “when I say it is a great team. It is new, but there are some very experienced people in it, and there is a lot of passion and a lot of energy.” The team is managed by former 250 racer Johann Stigefelt, and includes ex-factory team rider coach Wilco Zeelenberg.
MotoE Coming July 7
The interrupted MotoE championship, which had been due to start at Jerez, will be ready to get under way at the German GP, the ninth round of the season on July 7.
This was confirmed at a meeting of participating teams at Jerez, by series chief Nicolas Goubert.
The two-month delay was caused by a disastrous fire in pre-season tests at Jerez, which destroyed not only much of the MotoE paddock equipment, but also all 18 of the Energica Ego Corsa bikes, specially built for the series.
“Everything looks on track; everything will be ready for a test at Valencia in June,” said Goubert, former technical director at Michelin.
Zarco Seems Unhappy with KTM Progress
Battered by two Friday crashes at a track where last year he scored a podium on a Yamaha, new KTM rider Johann Zarco let rip to his team, before qualifying 18th, one place behind team-mate Pol Espargaro.
This was a further indignity, after Espargaro had finished a best-yet eighth after qualifying fifth, and the highly regarded Frenchman was a distant 13th.
After his first crash on Friday morning, Dorna’s cameras caught an expletive-rich moment in the KTM pit, where he described both chassis and electronic power control as “effing shit”.
The team had tested a new chassis at Le Mans during the break, but with little improvement, according to the former double Moto2 champion, who had frequently
given the factory Yamaha riders a headache during his two years on a satellite Yamaha.
“Staying calm in this difficult time is a challenge,” he said later, in his press debrief.
His problems stem from a severe mismatch between his silky riding style and a bike that responds better to a much more aggressive approach. Team-mate Espargaro conforms to the latter.
So far, Zarco’s attempts to change his style have been fruitless. “I try to push into the corner like never before, with my body out as though I am a passenger on the bike.”
Moto2 Struggles for KTM as Well
Nor was the Austrian manufacturer’s Moto2 experience bringing happiness, as Kalex was preparing to consolidate its position as the dominant factory by clocking up a century of wins. Chief rivals KTM are struggling to regain momentum after a slow start to their third season in the class.
Should one of the German marque’s 17 (out of 32) riders win tomorrow, it would be a 100th victory.
With 99 races so far out of 161, Kalex’s winning average is a hair short of 61.5 percent. This is in spite of missing the first 17 Moto2 races in 2010. Kalex entered the series in 2011, winning the first of eight rider titles at the first attempt with Stefan Bradl.
KTM joined Moto2 in 2017; and in 2018 challenged strongly for the title, with Miguel Oliveira finishing just nine points adrift of Kalex-mounted Pecco Bagnaia. Oliveira and Red Bull KTM team-mate Brad Binder took six wins between them.
However, the 2019 iteration of the steel-tube-framed bike for the new 765cc Triumph three-cylinder motor has been disappointing, with riders complaining of poor feel and grip issues, which continued at Jerez in spite of chassis updates at the last two races.
Brad Binder qualified only tenth; while the plight of substitute rider Mattia Pasini was also indicative. At CotA Pasini rode as substitute on a Flexbox HP40 Kalex, qualified seventh and finished fourth. Switching to a KTM at Jerez as substitute for the injured Jake Dixon, he qualified only 24th.
Jerez MotoGP Results 2019 – Friday practice
Perfect weather and a resurfaced track saw fast times but no new records on the first day of practice for Sunday’s Spanish GP … and a surprise name at the top of the time-sheets.
Danilo Petrucci’s afternoon time of 1m 37.909 put him just over one hundredth ahead of Marc Marquez’s morning time on Friday at Jerez. (Gold & Goose photo)
It was Mission Winnow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci, whose afternoon time of 1m 37.909 put him just over one hundredth ahead of Marc Marquez’s morning time, at a track where in recent years the Italian bikes have struggled.
Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was less than a tenth down in the afternoon, and on combined times the two red bikes sandwiched the Repsol Honda.
Hotter conditions in the afternoon probably accounted for the small deficit of a quarter of a second on the track best time; but good weather forecast for the full weekend suggests there is more to come … and for once today’s FP2 times are unlikely to be the benchmark for who goes straight through into the top-12 Q2 tomorrow afternoon.
This means not too much sleep lost for Valentino Rossi, (Monster Yamaha), placed 16th, albet just three quarters of a second down, with another chance tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo’s promise that he would be getting up to speed at this race came good, with the Repsol Honda rider a close second to Marquez in the morning, and fourth overall, also not improving his time in FP2.
Third factory Honda rider Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), who holds the ultimate fastest lap, did cut almost seven tenths in the afternoon, to end up fifth, edging out Maverick Vinales (Monster Yamaha), who was sixth on his morning time.
Taka Nakagami (LCR Honda) was another not to improve, ending up a close seventh, ahead of another morning guy, the consistently astonishingly fast class rookie Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha).
Honda test rider Stefan Bradl (Team HRC) was ninth; Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) tenth.
Then came Franco Morbidellio (Petronas Yamaha), CotA winner Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki), Pecco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) and Pol Espargaro on the top Red Bull KTM. Iannone (Aprilia) completed the top 15, ahead of Rossi and his Aprilia tam-mate Aleix Espargaro.
It was a bad day in general for KTM, with star recruit Johann Zarco ending up 19th after two tumbles, and Oliveira and Syahrin 23rd and 24th out of 24, the last-named missing most of the afternoon session after a heavy crash.
Bradley Smith, in a wild card ride for Aprilia, also crashed heavily, bringing out the red flags as he was stretchered away with less than three minutes of FP2 remaining.
Moto2
Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) set the pace at 1m 41.819s, a couple of hundredths ahead of Brad Binder. (File photo by Gold & Goose)
In Moto2 the new 765cc Triumph engines did manage to crack the previous 600cc Honda record, with 21 riders all within the same second, and only two of those running faster in the afternoon. The most noticeable of this pair was Marcel Schrotter, who shaved of 0.15 of a second to slot into tenth on the Dynavolt Kalex.
But it was rival chassis taking the top three slots. Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) set the pace at 1m 41.819s, a couple of hundredths ahead of Brad Binder and his Red Bull KTM team-mate Jorge Martin.
Tom Luthi (Dynavolt Kalex) was the best of the Kalexes, with Remy Gardner (ONEXOX Kalex) and Alex Marquez (VDS Kalex) fifth and sixth.
While championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed in the afternoon while trying to improve on 11th place, his FlexBox HP40 Kalex team-mate Augusto Fernandez, back from injury in Argentina, was seventh fastest, with Nagashima. Marini (both Kalex) and Schrotter completing the top ten.
American Joe Roberts was 31st, less than two seconds off the pace.
Moto3
Nico Antonelli topped the charts in Moto3 Friday at Jerez. (Gold & Goose photo)
Moto3 fell short of a new record, but promised the usual close action, with 22 riders within one second of the top time, set by Nico Antonelli (SIC58 Honda).
The Italian was the best of seven Hondas in the top ten, with team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki second; and rookie Raul Fernandez (Samar KTM) less than a tenth down in third.
Morning leader John McPhee (Petronas Honda) was one of a handful not to improve his FP1 time, but it was good enough to keep him fourth, ahead of Aron Canet (Sterilgarda KTM) and Romano Fenati (Snipers Honda); with the Hondas of Gabriel Rodrigo, Tony Arbolino and Riccardo Rossi; with Dennis Foggia’s KTM rounding
Argentine GP winner Jaume Masia (KTM) was 11th, the similarly mounted runner up at that race, Darryn Binder, was down in 21st.
News
Honda Questions
Mystery surrounds … part 94. As ever with Honda, only hints and persiflage were forthcoming to questions about the factory team’s double non-finish at the last round in Texas, and a new carbon-coated chassis that appeared for the first time at Jerez.
The Texas question centred on the reason for Marquez’s crash, and for new team-mate Lorenzo’s early race breakdown, after he had also suffered a chain jump off the sprocket in practice.
Marquez skirted the issue, but his answers seemed to suggest a possible engine management issue – especially engine braking control – that had caused him to lose the front and crash out of an assured lead.
He was riding, he said, as he had to victory in Argentina. “I felt I was rising smoothly, and not on the limit.
“We had a small problem already in Argentina,” he said. “I cannot say what it was, but we thought we had fixed it, but we didn’t. But it was just the third race, the engine is new … sometimes it can happen.”
The issue did not arise on every lap, he said, so it was an intermittent problem. Now, he continued, “after deep analysis, we think we have fixed it.”
Lorenzo’s chain-jump problem (the same thing happened to Marquez in practice in Argentina) has been blamed to possible flex in the carbon-fibre swing-arm, and is unlikely to happen again.
But his engine failure, also electronic, triggered serious worries, and his bike was sent to Japan for further investigation. Simulation had caused a repeat, he told press, and to avoid future problems “they changed something in the electronic side”.
The new RC213V chassis was shrouded in mystery in the same way as it was shrouded in carbon, and was only used by official test rider Stefan Bradl, with the factory team expected to get their first chance to assess it in post-race tests at the Spanish track.
Bradl placed an impressive ninth, less than half a second off the top time; but when asked about plans for the new chassis, HRC team chief Alberto Puig told Dorna’s Simon Crafar: “We are going to try to fly to the moon,” declining to expand further.
Honda, Suzuki and Ducati have all used bonded-on carbon sections to adjust stiffness ratios in the past.
New Corner name at Jerez
Goodbye Dry Sack, hello Dani Pedrosa Corner. The hairpin at the end of the back straight at Jerez was rechristened on race eve in honour of the recently retired former 125 and 250 champion, three times MotoGP runner up, and thrice Jerez MotoGP winner.
The career-long Honda rider, who was present at Jerez in his new KTM clothes, joins other Spanish stars on the list of Jerez corner names, with curves already
named after Sito Pons, Jorge “Aspar” Martinez, Alex Criville, Jorge Lorenzo and Angel Nieto, after whom the whole circuit is also named.
After surgery in the winter, Pedrosa had yet to turn a wheel in his new role as KTM tester. But having retired from MotoGP at the end of last season, he can at least avoid the corner-name curse that struck Lorenzo.
No sooner had the last hairpin been rechristened in his honour in 2013 than Marc Marquez barged him off into the dirt in a controversial battle for second. The race was won by none other than Pedrosa.
But perhaps Pedrosa had already had that moment … last year he played a key role in triggering an extraordinary three-bike crash at Dry Sack, when he and both factory Ducatis went flying.
While nobody can begrudge Pedrosa his honours, not everybody approves of the naming of too many corners without some special reason – one such (as Dovizioso pointed out) being Turn Three at Phillip Island named after Casey Stoner, whose tail-out technique at the fast left-hander was breath-taking.
Rossi, for instance, said: “Sincerely I don’t like. For me other names have more magic than the name of a rider. If they ask me in the future, I will say not.”
Jerez Resurfaced
The now-classic Jerez circuit, first used in 1987, has had a major resurfacing operation over almost full distance, eliminating bumps and improving grip, with Michelin motorsport manager Piero Tarramasso saying: “I am quite sure we will beat all records this weekend.”
To cope with potential difficulties, the usual tyre allocation had been upped from three to four at both ends, with a choice of two “hard” front and rear tyres, rather than just one.
Riders praised the grip after the first day of practice, when the top time fell just short of the record; but were looking forward to another day of dry practice to refine tyre choice.
More Aero Packages
After the failure of the four-factory protests following Ducati’s use of a swing-arm “tyre-cooling” attachment at the opening round in Qatar, there is now almost a full house of the under-belly scoops.
Aprilia, Suzuki, Honda and KTM had joined to protest the device, with only Yamaha standing back, but even after appeal they were over-ruled.
Now three of them, plus Yamaha, have at least tried a similar device … although in KTM’s case the attachment that appeared in the rain at CotA was said to be only to deflect water, and was not used in the dry.
Aprilia’s and Yamaha’s versions appeared in time for the start of the European season. Only Suzuki has yet to debut one, in spite of urging by rider Alex Rins.
These attachments, which jut forward under the rear of the fairing like a Mr Punch chin, and have up to three louvres contained by flat side-plates, were said by Ducati’s Gigi Dall’Igna to cool the rear tyre by as much as seven degrees. But he admitted there is a secondary aerodynamic downforce of around 500 grams.
The rules forbid any attachments whose primary purpose is aerodynamic. Honda’s version was at first declined, until they claimed it’s primary purpose was to improve swing-arm stiffness.
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