MotoGP Emilia Romagna: Riders of the day
We witnessed some fantastic races in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP in the Emilia Romagna race, here are our riders of the day.
Moto3 – Ai Ogura
Ai Ogura lined up in 11th place on the grid and was able to convert this to a P3 podium finish, a great result. ‘But this is Moto3′ we hear you say, we get it, Moto3 can be chaotic at the best of times, however, the way Ogura managed his race was outstanding, he is under pressure to take his first win and we know this, he is closer and closer every race and will be there soon enough. His race didn’t begin in the way Ogura wanted it to, dropping down to P13 at the start of the race, not where the title contender wants to be.
However, lap by lap Ogura was able to make places up, overtaking every rider who stood in the Japanese riders way, it took a little while to get to the front, out of the 23 laps available, Ogura only arrived in the top 5 on lap 19, cutting it pretty fine. From there he was involved in a scrap with Celestino Vietti, Jaume Masia, Romano Fenati and title contender Albert Arenas, cutting and dicing with one another to try and take the race win. This is where the racecraft of Ogura really shone, he was calm and did not make any stupid moves, also whilst being incredibly defensive and somewhat aggressive when overtaking riders to get past them.
His lines were inch-perfect and he fended off Albert Arenas to take the third-place spot today, cutting Arenas’ title lead down to just 2 points at Misano.
Special Moto3 mentions go to Deniz Oncu and Kaito Toba.
Moto2 – Sam Lowes
Sam Lowes again? Yep. Lowes started his race well from P4 on the grid, not having too many problems in qualifying however seemed to come under attack in the race, dropping to P8 in the opening laps before the race was halted at lap 6 due to rain with Lowes sat in seventh place.
The race would then restart in a 10 lap scrap for the win with Lowes once again starting in fourth place, on lap one Lowes would drop way back down to P9, a fight on his hands to take it to the front guys, this did not halt Lowes’ challenge for a result, the British rider began to pick off every rider in front of him, gaining a place a lap to Enea Bastianini, even overtaking title leader Luca Marini on lap 5. On lap 7, Lowes would be in third place, the bottom step of the podium.
He had unbelievable race pace, he was lapping significantly faster than Enea Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi ahead of him, Lowes and Bezzecchi were closing down on Bastianini every lap, eventually cutting his lead by a full second before the chequered flag put an end to it. In previous years, it is likely we would have seen Lowes crash whilst pushing, yet in 2020 we are seeing a different Lowes, a rider who is not spending much time in the kitty litter and is instead standing on the podium, he had pace for the win today and we are sure it’ll arrive soon.
Special Moto2 mentions go to Jake Dixon, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Lorenzo Dalla Porta.
MotoGP – Joan Mir
Joan Mir, what can we say? He was in another league at the second race at Misano, Mir has now taken 69 points in 4 races, his points tally is only 80 meaning he is on a huge run of form and even when he starts the race in P11 you can’t stop him, the cream always rises to the top!
In the opening 2 laps, Mir gained 4 places to sit in a comfortable 7th place, moving to 5th on lap 5. From here, Mir spent the next 14 laps following and catching up to Fabio Quartararo and Pol Espargaro ahead of him before being promoted to fourth place thanks to a crash from Francesco Bagnaia. Whilst this was going on, Fabio Quartararo was on the heel of Pol Espargaro who was expertly defending the advances made by Quartararo, it was clear to see that Quartararo was the fastest rider, yet he could not get past thanks to Pol Espargaro’s defensive lines and braking techniques, braking later and harder than the Frenchman.
This pace from Espargaro allowed Mir to catch the pair and show Quartararo how it is done, overtaking the pair of them to take second place, Mir didn’t feel like waiting around and within 2-3 corners of overtaking Espargaro he had disappeared into the distance, coming home in second place, closing the championship gap from 16 points to a ‘Mir’ 4 points, well into championship contention, the best part? He hasn’t even won a race yet!
Special Moto2 mentions go to Alex Marquez, Iker Lecuona, Franco Morbidelli and of course, Maverick Vinales.
Featured image – www.motogp.com
