Motorbikes or F1 single-seaters on two wheels? As well there is Marquez…

If you like overtaking and overtaking, in true Superbike style and you missed the Jerez Grand Prix, don’t bother watching the race. It’s not for you.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those who like to be suspended for 25 turns, do not read this and start the video: you will not be disappointed. OKAY? Now that you’ve abandoned this article, can we continue? Alright, I’m starting…

Nothing happened in Jerez, but it was precisely this “nothing” that was exciting because we saw two distinct Grands Prix: that of victory between Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo who, as expected after qualifying, did their own race and that of third place between Jack Miller, Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargarò.

Two identical battles with profoundly different endings, because while the Ducati rider never gave the world champion the slightest chance of overtaking, always riding on the razor’s edge, but apparently with total control and the bike(s) always on the same line as on a single track , Marc Marquez hosted the other confrontation, sandwiched between Jackass and the Aprilia rider, and absolutely determined to fight for a good result. At all costs.

A first winning attack on Miller, a loss of control but with a stoppage like in the good old days with the result, however, of finding himself fifth behind Aleix and Jack and then an improbable deep braking movement, all on the outside, going sideways to close the line, which allowed him to stay ahead and finish the Grand Prix just off the podium.

Marquez: a 4th place celebrated as a victory

A fourth place celebrated as a victory with lots of glove throwing to the audience. A gesture that says a lot about the satisfaction of the champion Cervera who drove the Honda RC213-V to the limit of its possibilities, not to its own.

A fact confirmed by the 7th place of Takaaki Nakagami, still fast in Jerez, behind Mir, just two seconds behind Marc.

The last five laps of this trio, and the last of Pecco and Fabio who crossed the line separated by less than three tenths, were enough to animate a Grand Prix. run by these five runners always on the razor’s edge. Never mind that the Bagnaia-Quartararo battle was particularly sharp compared to the trio of pursuers: this hyper-technological MotoGP has now accustomed us – whether we want it or not – to such battles. Because all you need is something that doesn’t work to turn a winning runner into a supporting actor.

This is the case of Enea Bastianini whose efforts only earned him an eighth position, which he recovered by a hair’s breadth over the less experienced but extremely promising Bezzecchi.

Today’s MotoGP gives little to the show if everything works perfectly

The rest was undercard stuff with falls for Zarco and Bradl and Martin, who then returned to the race dead last.

Unfortunately, this MotoGP leaves little to the imagination if the electronics and mechanics match perfectly, and I’m sure the protagonists will forgive us if, after six Grands Prix, we can say that classification, with Quartararo and Aleix Espargarò at the top of the world championship standings separated by just 7 points, ahead of Bastianini by 20 points does not convince us.

The first two, in fact, are the only ones that don’t even have a zero on the scoreboard. In boxing, they always stayed in the center of the ring. And if you think Marquez with a no-show and a zero is in ninth place, 45 points off the top, well, you can expect a lot of emotion to come.

We saw strong and physically very good boxers, but on the mat, sorry on the asphalt, the only one dancing today was Marquez who, as our man Carlo Pernat rightly says, is a Marc ‘less something’, but still in possession, inside his right glove, of a knockout. Once, of course, he will have recovered…

That said, the world championship begins now, with Pecco fifth overall after catching up the first 5 points on Quartararo and who is now at -33.

We’re back in two weeks, May 15, at Le Mans. It would be nice to be able to say ‘seconds’, but here we are thinking of tenths and hundredths. A stellar comparison? Yes and no. You have to get used to these new, more and more sophisticated machines, which are still called “motorcycles”, but they are closer and closer to F1 single-seaters with only two wheels…