MotoE: Spain, Race 2

The silent, electric motorcycles of MotoE, the identically prepared Energica Eco Corse bikes, are ready to take on their second race of 2020, and their second race in Andalusia at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Jerez, Spain.  19 bikes will be on track to do battle. The race for MotoE, is go!  Six laps scheduled, once again for these bikes, to preserve enough of a battery charge for them.  A battle ensues for the lead right from the start.  Polesitter Dominique Aegerter of Switzerland (former Moto2 racer), is being pressed by experienced Spaniard Jordi Torres, who has raced in Moto3, Moto2, and for a few years in World Superbike.  Torres takes the lead, but he runs wide.  Bikes scatter as a rider goes down!  That's the #70 machine of Tommaso Marcon of Italy, riding for Tech3 E-Racing.  Ouch!  Even on an electric motorcycle, you can still have quite the skid, and that is what he's got, big style.

These bikes might be silent operators but they are just as precarious to ride as their gasoline powered cousins in MotoGP, Moto2, or Moto3.  Meanwhile, Aegerter has his hands full, as on the outside line, bike #11 is going for the lead.  That is Matteo Ferrari of Italy on the Tretino Gressini MotoE bike.  Ferrari gets the best of Aegerter as we are approaching the halfway mark in this race.  Not so fast, says Ferrari.  He comes back on the outside and uses electric jet propulsion to try and get back around Aegerter.  The Italian vs. the Frenchman.  Whoops!  We have another rider down.  It looks like the #66 of Finland's Niki Tuuli has gone down.  Tuuli riding for his countryman Niklas Ajo's team.  Ajo is a former Moto3 and Moto2 racer who is now a team owner.

Tuuli looks to be down and out as we have three laps to go.  We're past halfway in round two of the MotoE championship for 2020.  Eric Granado of France, he has moved up to second place on the #51 Avintia Esponsorama Racing bike, and he is giving Dominique Aegerter all he can handle.  Oh!  This is a mess!  Aegerter and Granado are down and out!  They make contact, and like an explosion, both riders are pitched off their bikes in a cloud of smoke!  Aegerter restarts his bike, and he is going to come back and win this MotoE race here in Spain!  Wow!  How could you have scripted that ending?  You couldn't have.  That was a wild finish!

#77 Dominique Aegerter    CHE.   Dynavolt Intact GP

The Dynavolt Intact GP team can celebrate!  Aegerter leads the points standings on 41 points over Jordi Torres 11 markers behind, followed by Eric Granado, and Italian Mattia Casadei.  Aegerter, Jordi Torres, and Casadei, are your podium finishers in MotoE race two, here in Spain.  So, round two of MotoE is in the bag.  Now, the MotoE riders get a break during the month of August.  We will not see them until the middle of September when they are slated to race round three of the championship, in San Marino, at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on Italy's Adriatic coast.  See you for coverage of that race, when it happens, here on 2 Wheelin'.  So long, for now.

Moto3: Spain, Race 2

It is time now, to bring the action, in Moto3, for the second consecutive week, in Andalusia at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.  It's time for the young riders, the future motorcycle racing stars, to strut their stuff.  It is a quick getaway as we begin the Moto3 race, the second one, here in Spain.  #24 Tatsuki Suzuki is off to a fast start and so is #79 Ai Ogura.  A couple rapid Japanese riders are on the move already.  Gabriel Rodrigo of Argentina has taken the lead on bike #2, the Kommerling Gresini Moto3 Honda.  A good number of these bikes in Moto3 are Honda's and there are Husqvarna's and KTM's as well.  Wow.  Suzuki really wanted to take Rodrigo into the turn, and Rodrigo is having none of it and does the over under on Tatsuki Suzuki!

Ouch.  Two riders have already spilled in turn one.  Andrea Migno, the Italian, on the #16 Sky Racing Team VR46 KTM, (another one of Valentino Rossi's young charges who's career he is helping to develop), and also, the #71 Red Bull KTM Tech3 team rider, Ayumu Sasaki of Japan.  Like VR46, Red Bull KTM has riders they are developing for the future who will move up the ladder to Moto2 and MotoGP in years to come.  For now, these two riders are out of this race.  There's still more crashing!  It's not over yet.  A nice aligned order, turns into a crash, bang, wallop, in the space of a couple turns.

#5 Jaume Masia from Spain, riding a Leopard Racing Honda (no debates this time on Leopard or Leo-pard, please), and #79 bike (who we saw on the front row) Ai Ogura of Japan, on the first of the Honda Team Asia bikes, have crashed out.  They both went for a ride, right together, and as you can tell from the pictures, the Honda Team Asia mechanics are none too happy.  One long conga line begins to develop, as is so often the case in Moto3 competition.  We've actually fast forwarded the tape, ladies and gentlemen.  Yours truly didn't even notice, but between turns nine and 11, Tatsuki Suzuki has gone around Gabriel Rodrigo.  Another fall, another sliding fall, at turn 11.  Albert Arenas, from Spain, on the #75 Husqvarna for another famous junior motorcycle team, Aspar, that has also seen success in the big leagues, is down.

This race is 22 laps in duration and we've pressed the fast forward button once more.  Suzuki and Rodrigo run 1-2 and if and when points are awarded when this race is done and dusted, Suzuki will have a five point cushion on Rodrigo for second in the championship.  Albert Arenas fell and might be out of this race but he still maintains a six point cushion on Suzuki in the championship table right now.  Suzuki leads Rodrigo with John McPhee, Raul Fernandez, and Darryn Binder, younger brother of MotoGP KTM star Brad Binder, following.

Oh my!  Speaking of Darryn Binder, he is third now, and he is putting the move on Rodrigo for second spot!  Where did he come from?  He is now second behind Suzuki.  It is now the final corner, the final corner of the last lap.  Darryn Binder, we were singing his praises a bit earlier on, but he's gone backwards and is fifth.  So, he will get a top five out of this race today.  He is actually still in contention.  It's a five way battle for the victory.  Tatsuki Suzuki, John McPhee, Celestino Vietti, and Spaniard Jeremy Alcoba, are all battling for victory.

Suzuki looks like he is going to hold off the challenge of everybody as they come to the line!  Yes!  Alcoba looked like he wanted to make a move, but tucked back in line and so, Tatsuki Suzuki is victorious in Moto3 in the second event here at Jerez de la Frontera.

#24 Tatsuki Suzuki     JPN.     SIC58 Squadra Corsa Honda

This is a great victory for the team that was founded for and by the late, great MotoGP legend, Marco Simoncelli.  A great victory for them!  Suzuki, McPhee, and Vietti, are the podium finishers.  The next event for Moto3 is coming up, in two weeks, along with Moto2 and MotoGP, at the Czech Republic Grand Prix, at the Brno Autodrom in a couple of weeks.  Stay tuned for that one.  Adios, from Andalusia for now.

Moto2: Spain, Race 2

It's time now, for the second Moto2 race of the season, and it's deja vu as we are back, or still in, Andalusia, in Spain, for this race.  Pole position is held by #72 Marco Bezzecchi.  It's red lights, out, and we're off and racing in Moto2 race number two at Jerez!  A good getaway for Bezzecchi as the other riders in the back of the pack are scrambling for position already. There's a whole swarm of Moto2 riders ready to take the fight to Bezecchi on the Sky Racing VR46 bike.  Bezecchi is one of the riders for the team owned by Valentino Rossi, hence the VR46 part of the team name.  Jockeying for positions already is happening, as we move to the first turn on the first lap of 23 scheduled for this race.  Everyone seems to be through the first few corners cleanly.  They fly onto the back straight for the first time.  Marco Bezzechi leads Enea Bastianinni and Luca Marini. 

Marini takes a peak to the outside but thinks better of it.  Nope.  He still wants it.  Bastianinni has challengers on all sides.  Marini and Bezzechi are both right there and they want to sandwich the Italtrans Racing Team rider.  Marini and Bezzechi are both on VR46 Sky Racing bikes.  Bastianinni isn't taking the heat sitting down.  He's fighting back and opening a lead, or trying to get away from the Marini/Bezzechi duo.  The bikes all run single file and we are now on lap four.  #22 Sam Lowes, #88 Jorge Martin, and #9 Jorge Navarro are all pushing hard.  A Brit and a couple of Spaniards, scrapping for position.

Martin and Navarro and now nose to tail.  Whoops!  We have a crash in turn nine.  This has been calamity corner.  We did see a spill at this turn in the MotoGP race.  Lap ten, and we are trying to see who the rider who fell, was.  I think it was Navarro who was just in the battle for position that was being described.  Jorge Navarro has ditched his motorcycle.  The marshals attend to the bike and Navarro is fine, but he's out of this race.  Turn eight on lap ten, and it's a battle for the lead of this motorcycle race.  Turn nine is earning it's name as calamity corner.  We've got another rider down on the deck.  Can't tell who it is.  Trying to get a read on the leathers and what the sponsorship says. 

It's one of the Hewlett Packard/Flex Box riders.  It is one of the bikes for the Flexi Box HP 40 team.  It's either #7 Lorenzo Baldassari from Italy, or #40, Hector Garzo, from Spain.  That #40 bike has become famous in Moto2.  A lot of riders who have moved on to MotoGP have ridden that number and that particular team's bike.  Not much else has happened in this race.  It's a near wire to wire victory for Enea Bastianini on the #33 Italtrans Racing Team Kalex Moto2 bike.  The celebratory wheelie and the slam of the fuel tank, and Bastianini celebrates!  Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

#33 Enea Bastianini     ITA.   Italtrans Racing Team Kalex

So, a fairly quick Moto2 race is done and dusted.  Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi round out the podium places.  Tetsuta Nagashima remains in the points lead with 50 points, just two ahead of Bastianini, who gains more with his win, and Luca Marini, five points behind in third.  50, 48, 45, the points tallies for the top three in points in Moto2, headed to the next event at Brno in the Czech Republic in a couple weeks.  Excited to bring that race to you.  See you soon, for more Moto2 racing, right here on 2 Wheelin'.  Bye bye, for now.

MotoGP Round 2: Spain, Race 2

For the second consecutive week, MotoGP is ready to race in Spain, in Andalusia at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.  Fabio Quartararo won the race last week.  He wants to go back to back.  Can he accomplish that feat?  We are about to find out.  It's time to race, for a second time at Jerez de la Frontera!  Fabio Quartararo is the man starting from pole position.  Remember, Marc Marquez is not in this race as his arm is healing.  So, there will be one less contender today, but it should still be a sizzler of a motorcycle race.

Red lights, on.  Red lights, out!  Away we go!  Fabio Quartararo is the one who gets the jump on the rest of the fiueld but he has other riders ganging up on him already right from the off.  Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller, and Francesco Bagnaia all want a piece of the pie and we've not even reached the first corner yet!  Oh!  Oh!  We've got a rider down in the middle of the field already!  Ouch!  Miguel Oliveira is pitched off his motorcycle in spectacular fashion!  He is on the #88 Red Bull Tech3 KTM, one of the four in the field, and the second of the satellite team bikes.  There are two teams.  A factory squad and a satellite squad.  Well, Oliveira got the worst of the deal on this one.  He has taken a tumble.  25 laps scheduled for this motorcycle race as the race continues.

The two Yamaha factory bikes are up to challenging Fabio Quartararo already.  Maverick Vinales is on the inside, going for the lead, and right there with him is his team mate, the legend, "The Doctor", Valentino Rossi.  Wow.  Vinales runs wide into the corner, look, and that allows Oliveira to get by and pass for the lead of this motorcycle race.  The other riders are going to be in a mess of trouble because if he gets a head of steam and he clears off from the rest of the pack, there will be no catching him.  There will be no stopping this fast Frenchman.  Rossi makes a move around Vinales for second spot.

Meantime, the Ducati's are going for it.  It's the two Pramac Racing team mates, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, having a fair old dust up for third.  Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati is also there.  It's either Dovizioso or it's Danilo Petrucci.  Actually, both of them are squabbling for position as well.  Pol Espargaro is right behind these two on the second of the Gresini Aprilia RS-GP motorcycles.  He is team mates with Bradley Smith for 2020.  We watch the four riders dice from the overhead drone camera.  Whoops!  One of the KTM riders has gone down.  This was a fairly gentle low side wipe out and not a tank slapper. It looks like Miguel Oliveira went down and is back up and in the race again.

We were watching a strong battle for fourth place between Jack Miller, Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli, and Takaaki Nakagami before all that other action happened.  Yes.  It comes up on the television screen that Aleix Espargaro has crashed in turn two.  It is game over, perhaps, for the Gresini Aprilia rider.  Rossi is opening a margin, meanwhile, over the third place scrum that we can see between Vinales, Miller, and Bagnaia.  Bagnaia is pouring on the steam now, look.  He's rocketing up on Vinales!  Will he nab him before the braking zone into the next turn?  I was about to say, no, but look at Bagnaia!  It's "Francesco the Flyer!"  Maybe that will be a nickname for him.  He's diving on the inside of Vinales in the center of the corner!

Will you look at that!  He made the pass stick!  This race has been so exciting, we're already on lap 11.  Yours truly has not even been counting laps and this motorcycle race will be half over on the next one.  That's how exhilarating the action has been.  Oh no!  There's a crash in turn nine.  We've got a rider going one way and the bike going the other.  It's one of the Pramac Ducati's, and it's Danilo Petrucci who just crashed out.  He low sided the bike and wiped out in the gravel.  It could be game over from here.  Actually, Petrucci is just on a Ducati Team bike, but I think he just went off. 

Timing and scoring indicates it was Petrucci who fell off.  Half distance and Bagnaia puts a move on Rossi for second.  Look out!  There's another wreck!  It's another KTM, over and out, and this time it's Brad Binder, the South African rider who is team mates at the KTM factory squad with Pol Espargaro.  He put his knee down, and the bike just spits him off!  It's like riding a bull.  When the bull doesn't want the cowboy on his back, he just rolls him right off, and here, it's like the old 500cc days where an ill handling motorcycle would just fling a rider over the handlebars and into orbit.  Binder is going for a ride!

He lands hard on his side in the gravel trap, praying that the bike won't land on top of him!  That one gives you the shivers watching the replay.  Game over for Binder.  Lap 17, and also game over for #21 Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas SRT Yamaha.  He's just coasting.  What happened there?  My best guess is that the electronics system on the motorcycle is playing up and it just shuts it down.  He either has a gearbox full of neutrals or the engine just shut down unexpectedly because of an electronic default.  Morbidelli pulls to the side of the track, and it's a DNF for the Italian.  Speaking of DNF's we have more mechanical misery and mayhem.  There's blue smoke billowing from the tailpipe of a Ducati.

Halfway through the race and Bagnaia's bike is smoking.  That looks like blue oil smoke.  It's probably blown a ring or gasket seal and is puking oil out the back all over the place.  The marshals best get a slippery surface flag, the yellow flag with red lines.  Meanwhile, the Monster Energy Yamaha boys are in a ding dong battle all their own.  Vinales shoots down the inside of Rossi.  But "The Doctor" is going to give his team mate a dose of his own medicine.  As this battle rages, the Ducati with the blown motor chugs its way into retirement.  Francesco Bagnaia, head in his hands, can't believe it!

That's the emotion of racing at a top level like this, especially in MotoGP.  These guys are the equivalent of Formula 1 drivers, just on two wheels.  Vinales is going to try Rossi again!  He's right on the rear tire of bike #46.  Rossi slams the door in his face at the end of the backstretch at 290 kilometers an hour!  That's 181 miles an hour for non metric measurement users, if you are keeping score at home.  Vinales, I believe is in his second year at Yamaha and he's in no mood to give anything to "The Doctor".  He's a real scrapper, and here he comes!  He is on the outside, look.  Bish, bash, bosh, he makes the pass.

Rossi is not going to play dead here.  The old dog still has fight in him.  Meantime, none of these shenanigans are going to bug Fabio Quatararo.  Fabs, is fabulous, and he's going to sweep up for a second straight week, in Andalusia!  Break out the broom!  Fabio Quartararo wins again in Spain!

#20 Fabio Quartararo     FRA.    Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamahaz YZM R1

Quartararo says it was the hardest race of his life because it was so hot.  In the hot air, the riders can barely breathe.  You have the ambient heat, and the heat coming off the engine and the bikes around you.  The blokes of MotoGP have earned their money today in Andalusia.  The next MotoGP race is in two weeks, at the Brno Autodrom in Brno, Czech Republic.  Join us there, for more action packed MotoGP mayhem.  Adios from Andalusia, everyone.  Take care.

Despite his injury clearance, Marc Marquez won't race MotoGP Sunday

Marc Marquez will not race in the Sunday MotoGP event at Jerez de la Frontera in Spain even though he has been cleared by doctors after breaking his arm and it healing steadily.  He just does not feel ready physically to do so.

https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2020/07/25/marc-marquez-wont-race-motogp-repsol-honda-team-alberto-puig-alex-marquez-fabio-quartararo-jerez/

MotoE Spain: Race 1

Just like their petrol powered counterparts, the relatively new MotoE championship for electric motorcycles, is resuming, or maybe even beginning, their 2020 campaign, here in Spain at Jerez de la Frontera, and they too, will also race here next weekend in the Andalucia Grand Prix.  These motorcycles are much like the cars of Formula E and being powered by electricity, compared to a regular motorbike, make very little noise.  Something for new fans to get used to, and yet, perhaps, a way to conserve and clean up the environment, if indeed electric motorcycle batteries are recyclable.  All riders and teams in the MotoE championship, use identically prepared electric motorcycles, supplied by Energica.  The Energica Ego Corsa.  So, this race will have a level playing field and it will all come down to rider skill. 

OK.  It's time for MotoE action, in Spain.  On the pole, is bike #51 ridden by Brazilian Eric Granado for Avintia ESponsorama Racing.  Granado looks like he has the lead going into turn one for the first time as the red lights are out and we are racing here at Jerez de la Frontera.  Granado is opening a gap on second place rider Niki Tuuli of Finland on bike #66 for Avant Ajo MotoE owned by former Moto2 racer and fellow Finn Niki Ajo.  This is a short race.  Just six laps and we're already on the last lap of this MotoE race.  There's probably only so much charge in the batteries on these motorcycles that they can only run fairly short distances compared to their petrol fueled counterparts.

But that doesn't mean the racing is any less exciting!  The stewards have dinged Alex de Angelis on bike #15 for a jumped start.  He will have to do a ride through penalty in the pit lane to redress that.  de Angelis, the Argentinian rider has raced in MotoGP and in FIM World Superbike if my memory serves me correctly, and now, he is a contender in MotoE in it's second season, albeit an abbreviated one, as we know due to the virus pandemic.  Big time action and a battle for the lead as we see Niki Tuuli challenging Eric Granado for that top spot.  It's the Finn and the Brazilian, going for it hammer and tongs at the front!

Granado maintains the lead and guess what?  He opened it up and dominated this race to the flag!  Lap six of six.  MotoE in Spain, the first go around, is done and dusted.  Eric Granado is your winner!  Celebrate your victory!  You've got it.  Matteo Ferrari and Dominique Aegerter, riders who have run classes like Moto3, World Supersport, and Moto2 in the past, round out the podium in MotoE.  Lukas Tulovic of Germany and Mattia Casadei of Italy round out the top five.  In sixth through ninth it's Jordi Torres, Alejandro Medina, Xavier Simeon, (Moto2 veteran from Belgium), and Australian World Superbike and World Endurance rider Josh Hook.

#51 Eric Granado     BRA.

That'll do it for the first race back for MotoGP in a while, and we get to do all of this again, this weekend.

Moto3: Spain, Race 1

It's time for the resumption of the season for MotoGP's junior category.  We are ready to rumble in Moto3 for the teenage riders who hope to make the big time and move into a coveted place in MotoGP, on the big bikes, in the not too distant future.  The revs are up!  We're ready to start!  Red lights, on.  Red lights, out!  Away we go!  On the front row, we have Tatsuki Suzuki from Japan on the #24 SIC58 Squadra Corse Honda and Andrea Migno from Italy on the #16 SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM.  Migno is another young talent under the tutelage of multiple MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi and his team.  We have 22 laps scheduled for the Moto3 race. 

Into the first turn for the first time, and we've got two motorcycles down in the gravel trap at the back, already.  They will not complete any laps.  Zero, zilch, nothing.  Carlos Tatay of Spain on the #99 Reale Avintia KTM and the unlucky #7 bike of Italian Dennis Foggia for Leopard (or Leo pard) Racing, are out of this one.  Trust me, folks, it's Leopard, not Leo pard.  Tatay has an expression like, "what the heck was that all about?" as he walks away.  Game over.  We watch the race unfold from overhead either via drone or helicopter.  More than likely its a drone camera.  Back on terra firma, and it's a huge pack snarling away at the front.  We're already at halfway!  Lap 11 of 22!  Tony Arbolino of Italy leads Jeremy Alcoba from Spain.  Since there's so many bikes in this one pack, here's the order.

1. #14 Tony Arbolino     ITA.  Honda

2. #52 Jeremy Alcoba    ESP.  Honda

3. #75 Albert Arenas    ESP. KTM

4. #40 Darryn Binder     RSA. KTM

5. #13 Celestino Vietti   ITA.   KTM

6. #17 John McPhee      GBR. Honda

7. #24 Tatsuki Suzuki    JPN.  Honda

8. #2 Gabriel Rodrigo   ARG. Honda

9. #16 Andrea Migno    ITA.  Honda

10. #25 Raul Fernandez ESP. KTM

There's your top ten as this race gets underway.  These younger riders, many in their teenage years, are really competitive as we see the bikes fan out three, sometimes four wide on the straightaways.  They can run at least two wide into the corners.  Albert Arenas leads this motorcycle races now from Tony Arbolino, who was leading before, and he's putting all kinds of pressure on the Spaniard.  Now we fast forward to money time.  The chips are all on the table now, with two laps remaining, here, in Spain, in Moto3.  Moto3 veteran John McPhee, is leading, after having his Honda down in sixth spot at the completion of lap one.

But he has a whole snarling back of at least half a dozen riders behind him, nipping at his heels.  Blink and you'll miss something.  The top five are all in this.  John McPhee, Tony Arbolino, Albert Arenas, Xavi Vierge, and Darryn Binder.  Two laps to go now as we watch Arbolino pass McPhee for the lead!  This is intense!  Oh dear, and we have a rider down.  nIt's a chartreuse green and white bike.  Trying to see the number.  Oh my!  It's Darryn Binder on the #40 bike!  Binder is one of the riders you always expect at the front.  He tucked the front wheel and went over and out.  Well, not over, but tucking the front wheel results in a low side slide and he's in the gravel trap for good.

Game over for Darryn Binder as we reach the final lap and a mano e mano battle for the win.  It's going to be down to a fight between John McPhee and Tony Arbolino to settle this one, ladies and gentlemen.  Lap 22.  Mano e mano fight?  Not hardly!  The pack is swarming once more.  Now, the order has changed?  Where's McPhee gone?  He's third.  He's still on the podium.  But now it's the battle of the Italian vs. the Spaniard.  It's Arbolino vs. Arenas.  It looks like McPhee may not be defeated yet.  ...And, we have another fallen rider.

Someone in the middle of the pack gets clipped and loses their balance, tumbling onto the gravel trap.  Arenas in the lead and a photo finish for second between #14 Arbolino and #79 Ai Ogura of Japan!  Who is it going to be in Moto3 at Jerez?  Arenas wins it!

#14 Albert Arenas    ESP.     Rivacold Snipers Team Honda

Albert Arenas is victorious in his home race!  Ogura second, Arbolino third.  That's the podium.  Andrea Migno and Celestino Vietti round out the top five, the two Italians.  Sixth through tenth, the order is Raul Fernandez, Gabriel Rodrigo, Tatsuki Suzuki, Niccolo Antonelli, and Jaume Masia.  We get to do all of this again, next weekend, at the same circuit.  See you next week for more Moto3 action as all three divisions in MotoGP have officially resumed their seasons in style.  So long for now.  Can't wait for racing next week!

Moto2: Spain, Race 1

If you thought the action was done and dusted with MotoGP, you'd be mistaken, ladies and gentlemen.  We've got two more races to get to this weekend.  Moto2 is coming up, now, and tomorrow, right here, you will read about the Moto3 race and how it went.  Your pole sitter in Moto2 is Spaniard Jorge Martin for Red Bull KTM Ajo, on bike #88.  Red lights, out, and they're off in Moto2 at Jerez de la Frontera!  Martin is in the lead of the motorcycle race as once again, the rest of the pack is scrambling, just like we saw in the MotoGP event.  23 laps scheduled.  We've got a fallen rider straight away.  That bike, rotating on the curb, is, I can't tell.  Closer inspection confirms, two bikes have hit the deck.  That's Jorge Navarro of Spain on the #9 HDR Heldron Speed Up and #72 Marco Bezzecchi of Italy, on the Sky Racing Team VR46 Kalex.  This team is owned by Valentino Rossi, the great MotoGP champion, multiple times.  So, his name and number are quite recognizable even as a team owner.

But Rossi might not be so happy with Senore Bezzecchi hitting the tarmac so early in this race.  He might recover.  Get back in the saddle and keep on trucking, mate.  Jorge Martin leads Aron Canet and Luca Marini.  They are the top three right now.  More riders are coming for the top spot, and fast.  Marini is going for the lead around Jorge Martin.  He does it!  Bike #10 is in P1.  This is the other VR46 Sky Racing bike, the other bike owned by Valentino Rossi.  The Moto2 riders are single file on the third lap of the race.  More moves being made down the order.  A battle is ensuing for the lead of this motorcycle race between Marini and Martin.  Marini has the advantage and keeps it for now. 

Bezzecchi has his hands full with Germany's Marcel Schrotter for fifth place.  It's the Kalex vs. the Speed Up.  These bikes have different chassis brands and constructors, but the same engines.  Schrotter is demoted by the Italian.  Tetsuta Nagashima of Japan runs second on his Red Bull KTM Ajo Kalex, but the battle is still on for third place between Schrotter and Bezzecchi!  Oh dear.  We've got a fallen rider, in a low side incident.  That's in turn ten and it's one of the Sky VR46 bikes.  Bezecchi!  It's Marco Bezecchi who has fallen off his motorcycle!  Thank goodness for the air fence.

The medics are on the scene to make sure he is OK.  He seems to be hurt, just a little.  Hope he's OK.  Back in the garage, he's favoring his right foot.  Turn nine now, look, and another tumble.  Who's lost it this time?  Couldn't tell who fell of there bike there.  Had no access to the world feed graphics in that replay.  Meanwhile, this race is nearly done and dusted, and it appears Luca Marini, the Italian, riding for Valntino Rossi is going to win.  Marini keeps it clean through the final turn and onto the front straightaway, and he wins Moto2 in Spain, in the first race!

Rounding out the podium, Tetsuta Nagashima and Jorge Martin.  Completing the top five, Sam Lowes and Aron Canet.  Sixth through tenth, Hafizh Syahrin, Remy Gardner, Lorenzo Baldassari, Enea Bastianini, and Xavi Vierge. 

#10 Luca Marini     ITA.     SKY Racing Team VR46 Kalex

The top five in points are reflected once again, by the race results, although, Moto2 did have an opening race back in March in Qatar right at the beginning of the pandemic.  Tetsuta Nagashima leads the rider's points championship ahead of Lorenzo Baldassari, Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini, and Remy Gardner, who is of course, the son of multiple 500cc World Champion, Wayne Gardner.   Moto2 in Spain, the first go around, is complete.  See you next time, at the same circuit for next weekend's Anadlucia Grand Prix.  So long, for now. 

MotoGP Round 1: Spain, Race 1

We finally are ready, to kick off the 2020 MotoGP season, after a long, long delay due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world.  Let's try to find something positive, and go racing.  This is the first of two consecutive race weekends for MotoGP in Spain.  The first of two back to back rounds in Andalusia at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.  We race in honor of the front line healthcare workers, fighting the good fight, against the Coronavirus.  The front row sees Fabio Quartararo on pole on his #20 Petronas Yamaha, with Spain's Maverick Vinales in second on the factory Monster Energy Yamaha, bike #12, and at his elbow, Marc Marquez, the four-time MotoGP World Champion, aboard the Repsol Honda, #93. 

Red lights, on.  Red lights, out!  Away we go!  Quartararo rockets out of the starting blocks!  They stream towards turn one for the very first time!  25 laps scheduled today for the season opener, here at Jerez.  As we get a better view of the riders, we can see them stringing out, single file for the most part.  There's some double wide and triple wide racing in the back of the pack.  Maverick Vinales has taken the lead with Marc Marquez glued right to his tail.  Jack Miller, Francesco Bagnaia, and Fabio Quartararo complete the top five.  Six through ten as this race starts, we have Andrea Dovizioso, Pol Espargaro, Brad Binder, Franco Morbidelli, and in tenth, multiple World Champion Valentino Rossi.

We've got a battle for the lead right away on lap two!  Marc Marquez dives down the inside of Maverick Vinales!  Vinales has also stolen Marquez's lap record set here, last year.  Check that.  He's not set a new record.  Vinales, 1:38.445.  Marquez's 2019 record was 1:38 dead.  1:38.051.  Vinales, no wonder his first name is Maverick!  He's a real scrapper and he gives Marc Marquez a taste of his own medicine, right into the next turn, look.  Down the long straightaway on the back part of the course they come.  Marquez is not done yet.  The big dogs are scrapping right now, for P1 in this motorcycle race and we've only put two laps on the board!

Marquez does best Vinales going into the corner, for now, as a swarm forms behind these two blokes.  The other riders are just as hungry as the two in front.  They want a slice of the pie as well!  Look out!  Marquez in turn four, he's off the course!  Lap three or so and Marquez, wiggles the bike with the rear tire digging into the gravel trap!  Hang onto it, sunshine!  That motorcycle has become a bucking bronco!  Marquez is really having to steer through the skid there, and hold the bike upright so he doesn't hit the deck.  Marquez has clearly lost ground after that little mishap.  Now then, Vinales is still your leader, but there's a new challenger, look.

Jack Miller on bike #43, the Australian, aboard the Pramac Racing Ducati, is giving Maverick Vinales everything he can handle.  He's applying the blowtorch to the Spaniard who is leading at this moment.  Miller is going to get right under Vinales' rear wheel.  Going into the corner, that's the ideal passing place.  Jeepers!  Vinales looks as if he's run wide!  Check that.  Miller might have gone off the road.  Fabio Quartararo has now taken the lead of this motorcycle race and Miller in the meantime, has Vinales right on his rear wheel!  Vinales, all over Miller like the proverbial cheap suit. 

Meanwhile, down the order, battles also simmer.  This is Marc Marquez, going to the inside of Danilo Petrucci on the #9 factory Ducati.  Petrucci is teamed at Ducati this year, with fellow Italian MotoGP veteran, Andrea Dovizioso.  Marquez is hauling the mail.  He's ninth, but he's running quicker lap times than Fabio Quartararo is, in the lead.  Marquez is a tenth up on Quartararo.  1:38.745 for Quartararo, and 1:38.555 for Marquez.  Marquez is cutting through the field like a hot knife through butter, dispensing of rival and one of the kings of MotoGP, Valentino Rossi.  The leaders come through and now we see Dovizioso making a move on the #63 bike of Francesco Bagnaia, team mate to Jack Miller at Pramac Ducati.

It's a race of the Italians and of the Ducati riders.  Factory bike vs. satellite bike.  Yours truly can't read the pit board.  Makes me wonder how these boys read their information going 200 miles an hour when their mchanics stick the pit board to let them know the gaps.  Wow, chaps.  This race has flown by.  We're well past halfway, working lap 17 of 25.  From the onboard camera on the Honda, we see that the fight between Marquez and Quartararo is heating up again.  Fabio isn't giving up.  Oh dear!  It's game over for Rossi.  His Yamah is stuck in the mud with only six laps to go.  The Italian legend's race is run, with mechanical problems for his motorcycle.

Seven laps to go now, and the battle is hot as Marc Marquez is putting a move on the #88 bike, that's the factory Red Bull KTM in the hands of Miguel Oliveira from Portugal.  We saw Oliveira over the years racing in Moto3 and Moto2, but now he's in the big league.  Andrea Dovizioso is the next rider on Marquez's shopping list as he makes up ground.  We know the Ducati rider is tough.  But will he be able to take the heat from the four-time world champ?  Quartararo leads Miller leads Marquez leads Oliveira.  The Honda pit crew cheering Marquez on.  His team mate, and younger brother, Alex Marquez on the #73 Repsol Honda, we've not seen today so far.

Six laps left in the opening MotoGP race of the season.  The Red Bull Grand Premio de Espana is coming to a close, quickly.  Jack Miller is putting a move on Marc Marquez on the outside.  Will he make it stick?  They're wheel to wheel, look.  Marquez says "no you don't sunshine", and slams the door in Miller's face.  Or does he?  Miller keeps the door open just a shade.  Marquez is having none of it, and now it's door slam time.  Marquez is now chasing Vinales.  Oh!  No, no, no!  Marquez loses it, and has a hard spill onto the pavement!  Ouch!  It looks like the rear tire just got out from under the bike and Marc Marquez was launched over the handlebars and into orbit.

Thank God for the leathers, a built in airbag, and a back protector to keep these riders safe.  Marquez tumbling in the gravel, separated from the motorcycle, thankfully.  Yes.  Yes.  From the onboard camera, he low sided that bike and got pitched off big style!  The bike careers into the gravel, riderless.  The Repsol Honda team can't believe it!  Marquez looks to be OK, communicating with the course marshals.  So thankful for the men and women around the world who wear the white uniforms and keep athletes on two and four wheels alike, safe. 

Vinales leads.  From the helicopter shot, or drone shot, we can see the gap tightening between the top three riders.  Two laps left now.  Miller and Andrea Dovizioso look to be in a battle and the Italian is harrying the Australian for position as we get closer and closer to the end of this opening encounter of MotoGP 2020.  Dovizioso makes the move.  But two into one won't go and Miller shuts off the rider directly behind.  But, it's Fabio Quartararo winning on debut in MotoGP!  He does a celebratory wheelie and deservedly so!

#20 Fabio Quartararo     FRA.   Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha

Congratulations all around for Fabio Quartararo as Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso complete the podium, here at Jerez.  Fabio Quartararo is now the leader of the points championship, earning 25 points for his race win ahead of Vinales, Dovizioso and Miller, the top five.  The race results today will reflect how the points look as the season begins.  Quartararo still can't believe he won.  He says he will realize it as he watches the replay of the race with his team.  He's elated.  Circuit Angel Nieto hosts another MotoGP race next weekend.  Join us, for all the action.