COTA Review: Twist and Turns in Texas

0:00You are listening to Miss Apex Podcast. We love MojoGP. Hello and welcome to Miss Apex MojoGP Podcast. This is a show put together by MojoGP fans pretending to be experts. We aim to have a race of you show ready for a midweek commute, who may just be punters, but we love to talk. Bumps, crashes, loose screws, and controversy. Cota once again served as up some dramatic races, but with an oddly familiar, a pretty afflavoured theme. Jorge Martín returned to winning ways, but his teammate Marco Bosecchi continued his Sunday dominance. I am your host Kyle Power, and I'm joined by some fellow MojoGP enthusiasts. It's booting jewels out the way to get on for the first time this year. It's our tire obsessed trumpeter, Matt, to run pits. How's it going, Matt? All's fair, but especially in MojoGP, I just, on a personal note, want to say it was so nice of those apprilia boys to take turns this weekend.

1:01You just don't see that very often in this sport, and I was very proud of them. I know, Sharon's caring. It's all good. And we're delighted to be joined by our very own trackside reporter and smooth talking techs in Adam Masale. How's it going, Adam? Hey, doing good. It feels good to be home. I've been all over the place for the last six weeks, and yeah, home track, home race will go a little bit of Sunday, but are good. Yeah, absolutely. So Adam was, you've been the last two races, haven't you? So you're in Brazil and then Dakota. And you're also Melbourne for the Formula One. Adam is a crazy superfan. He just goes all over the place. I think it's easier to count the races he doesn't go to than the races he actually go to. So I'm pretty much really, really impressive. And we'll plug your Grand Prix travel a bit later towards the end of the show. So coming into this weekend, then, Marco Bazeki has an 11-point championship lead over his teammate Jorge Martín with Pedro Acosta in third place. Then we have a pair of the Catties in the gin Antonio and Marquez with Iagura in top six. So and coming into this weekend,

2:04we're back to normal tire casings again, which I think the Cattie was going to be relieved about. Someone who wasn't relieved was Maverick Vignales who had to pull out of the weekend because the screw has come loose in his shoulder, which is holding his tendon down. Pukes, nasty, horrible. So his flown back to Spain to have some more surgery. But all of the headline stealing, I think, on the Friday was a huge crash, scary crash for Marquez. Into the barriers. Didn't actually seem hit the barriers, but I think he hit the air fence pretty hard, bit beaten up, but comes back to top Friday practice, which is really impressive. Someone else who was really impressive as Iagura, rapid on the Aprilia, all weekend, P2 on the Friday. And what was really lovely to see was Bastionini coming back straight through to Q2, and it's good to see Bastionini start weekend in a strong manner. But they were pretty much everyone crashed. I think there were lots and lots of crashes. So going into quality, it was mere and outer gear came through Q1, really impressive from outer gear again. But Q2 was belated by

3:05traffic issues. We had Mark, both Mark and Bagnaia were both blocked. Mark then messes up his second lap and then kind of blocks Bastionini as well. But whilst all his chaos was going on, it was Fabio de Gen Antonio, he continually strong form, who put in a new lap record to take pole. The second and second, across the third, Bagnaia and fourth, mere fifth, and Marquez only managing fifth in the end. But at the end of the session, it was Bez, Marka Bezeki and Luca Marini, who both got two plays grid penalties for impeding Mark. While Mark himself, controversially, maybe you could argue, escaped being penalised for his instant where he held up Bastionini. So it sets up a salivating prospect for the sprint. Okay, so I wanted to sprint with you and guys, I want to jump straight into it, Adam, from track side, that Digi and Mark battle. Obviously, Mark, I think was a brash move.

4:09What did it look like from where you were sat? The Mark and Digi collision, obviously, because straight to that. So the crowd was pretty into it. There was a lot of incidents that happened throughout the back section of the track, which unfortunately wasn't fully, you know, there's no grandstand back there by turn 11. There's a lot of general missionaries. And so that some of those sections were kind of just watching them from the TV screens. And then when they come down to turn 12, that's where there was a little bit of carnage, but it was a good fun. The crowd was having a good time. Because you were at 15, which is like the really slow left before the fast quadruple right hand. I say, could you see turn 12 from where you were sat? Yeah, yeah, you can see turn 12. You kind of can't, you miss a little bit of the braking zone, but you could see them right through the apex. If they run wide, the martial barriers are kind of blocking part of it. So I didn't see them go down or whenever, you know, Mark went down, but you could see him just kind of slide off into the distance behind a barrier. But if you're in the upper rows, you could definitely see it. So, yeah, so your thoughts on the crash and then trumpets, yeah, actually, let's get

5:12you in on this silly brush move. Well, certainly watching it with no other context. You're like, oh, yeah, that's just over eager to be back in front. And maybe for good reason, because certainly tire pressures and things like that wound up being important on the day. But reading after the fact, he was quoted about that as saying, well, really, I actually locked the rears. Then I locked the front. So I tried to roll up the inside, but there's a camber there that kicked me out. And just I couldn't, you know, it was just, it was my fault. I accept responsibility, but it wasn't just me trying to be brash there. So the thing that taking to account was that there was so much different weather this weekend. And throughout every session, everybody was running wide in a turn 12. So I don't think anybody ever really had their breaking down besides the apprilius. Everybody was just kind of all over the place during the

6:14practice sessions constantly people running wide. And I can't imagine how the arrow of lead follow other bikes wasn't affecting you. And so likely just got dragged into somebody's air awake. And it just sucked them into like a weird breaking zone. That section also gets really bumpy right on the racing line from all the cars. There's a ton of track days that happen to Kota. And so there's just a lot of breaking bumps. And so all the things together can definitely invite just some kind of error like that. Then when if there's a little bit of red mist in there, it's a recipe for disaster. Absolutely. I was just about to say that here, I think that's a great description there by Adam because Mark himself said, I don't think he was aiming for an overtake. He got sucked in, struggling to stop it. And when you hear, did you see the video of him and Digi and Digi having there not so warm words afterwards? Mark was trying to explain it saying, I was even going to crash into the back of you because there was a space where all or was going to go to the left Adam. All I heard was his ambition outweighed his talent. Yes, I was waiting for that line to come out.

7:18It's absolutely perfect. That's what reminded me of, but yeah, it was it seemed pretty tame. Yeah, yeah, it was fine. I just like Digi's fingers like, well, watch yourself tomorrow. And people thought I was quite like more realistic. I don't think he's not in his language. He was basically saying calm down. Afterwards, it seemed like reporters were kind of fishing for comments. And I feel like Digi took a very, I had a responsible approach. He was just, I want to focus on myself. I'm not going to waste any energy on that anymore. I'm moving forward. And I feel like that was a mature way to do it. Yeah. And you just, you have to appreciate Mark being willing to say, yeah, you know what? I will absolutely own this. I didn't intend for it to happen, but it did. And it's my responsibility. So I, the stewards will give me a penalty. I deserve that penalty because it was my fault. I wish other people sometimes could have such good examples for us. Oh, absolutely. It's one of my pet hates. Whenever I've done any of my racing or in the team, just one of my big brief for my drivers or whenever I've been running teams and just like,

8:19you own your mistakes. Like, don't try and say it was someone else because you punt someone off, stick your hands up and own it. It's the least you could do. So I'm with Digi thing, I think, yeah, he did own it. And he, he didn't own it. I mean, he carried it really, really well. Didn't want to think and I, him and Mark don't really get on. And he could tell us a bit of needle there, but Digi was super mature about it. Super good. And again, I think playing into all this, not the overreaction, still probably plays into how Mark reacted to the Biseki thing last year, which is still effective. And it was just like, put it behind you, get on with it. This happens. It's my GP, but I definitely do think I think Mark was being limiting with the truth maybe when he was saying with Digi, I definitely think there was some red mist involved because Digi put a really good, hard move on him. And Mark, I think Gavin Emmett on the TNT commentary said it brilliantly. He was like, don't worry, Mark will keep the receipt. And in the very next corner, just sort of, exactly. He's not going to forget about something that just happened while he's got his helmet on. He's definitely going to dig in and find a way to kind of just poke back a

9:21little bit. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think there was kind of half and half. I do think as soon as he got on the race, he could see he was carrying too much speed. And there was no way, even for the outboard shot, I didn't, you could see it happening. There was no way he was getting that stopped. So I know moving on from that, then we can dwell on it all day. But Mark gets quite, I think, a deserved long lap penalty. And so some people are like calling for a double long lap. Yes, lap one. I think maybe a single long lap was pretty fair enough. There was nobody injured. It wasn't crazy dangerous. It was a silly, and I think a brash mistake from Mark really, because he knows it on the back foot. He knows it on the back foot anyway with pace this weekend and struggling. So a bit silly at him. Yeah. And so some stuff I noticed just from being at Brazil, Aguania and also in Coda, Mark doesn't look like himself the way he's riding. He's just very stiff. He's not hanging off the bike like he normally does. He just, yeah, he doesn't look 100% and you can tell just by watching him ride through a few corners. It's just something is up and I don't think it's necessarily the bike. It seems like it's almost like he's on his way out.

10:26I don't know. It's weird. I haven't never seen him ride like that. Yeah, I think he's much more injured than he's been riding on this season. I think he's been putting a very brave face on it, trumpets. Yeah, I would agree. That shoulder injury is not one to heal quickly or easily. And when it's not healed, you can't train. And when you can't train as I'm coming to understand more and more as I try and learn about the technical side of the sport a little bit, there's a tremendous amount of force required to have these rapid changes of direction, all of which requires using your shoulder, your arms out wide. If that's not healed, you are going to struggle. I'm kind of impressed to see the level at which he's able to perform, but you know what, doesn't help hitting the air fence at 190 kilometers an hour. Yeah, he was going to be sore to begin with. And who was it? I think it was Peter Baum said, after 30, you don't bounce like you used to. And yeah, you know, like I know, I know you fall down. May you feel it for a couple of days. And he fell down really hard on the Friday. Not a

11:29surprise at all. He's going to have extra less double fun on the Saturday and Sunday. I'm pretty sure Friday, that crash on Friday was his 230th crash in his GP career. Not just, that's, that's the, that's included. I have to go on evil carnival from now on. And so another thing about this, about Austin or about Kota is that this is a very physical track. And it's one of the longer tracks on the calendar that turns, there's a lot of heartbreaking. There's a lot of fast corners. And then just it's one of the most physically demanding circuits. And so being hurt or, you know, in recoveries, this place is not the place to, to try to bounce back from that. No, absolutely. And well, we might, but we talked a bit about Mark now. We'll take his little section out later. We've got a bit of the county section later, but, but we're on the topic now. We might as well talk about it. And yeah, Mark himself said, it kind of goes into the Grand Prix as well. Where he's really struggling as the opening laps when the bike does have a lot of grip. And you have to use the most physical force. You could tell, look at the opening up to the Grand Prix. Just him

12:30getting beaten up. And you don't really see that much. And he, yeah, that was right. You can see something is clearly, clearly up. And he can't perform the miracles that he does. Trump is like, I can see what itching to say. I am because who looked exactly like that last season on your Ducati? Bagnaia. He would manage a good qualifying. And then people would just fly past him. They would absolutely fly past. What's happened is whatever special thing Mark had on this bike. He can't really do so much right now. So he's falling into the same issues that Bagnaia and probably Digi had as well, which is, okay, if I get the tires working at the beginning, they're gone by the end. But I can't get them working in the shape that I'm in right now. And nobody else knows how to do it except me. Yeah, maybe. Well, I think he, I think he can get the tires working. He just doesn't have the physical strength at them to actually use them today for extent. Yeah. And the big difference in the weather across the weekend is like they didn't really have sufficient tire data for the GP stance. I feel like Friday afternoon was kind of hot for

13:32for practice too. But then the, the temperature on Sunday was sunny, but the wind was cool. And so it was just weird all weekend. I just don't think that they had the data to do that. But one thing I noticed on like Friday was a lot of the bikes were struggling on edge grip. Getting on the throttle. It seemed like certain bikes were standing up, certain ones were chattering somewhere all over the place. Like the Hondas and Yamaha's were just, they, every time they would accelerate, leaned over it, they just would bounce all over the place. And then the, over the throughout the weekend, I noticed that Mark and Peca were both standing up their bike quite a bit before they really got on the throttle. And it seemed like, especially during the GP on Sunday, like their tires were just falling off towards the end of the race. And it seems like maybe they get too much rear grip and it's pushing the front, especially in some of those slower corners, like 13, 14, 15, where there's just basically a full lean while shifting and breaking and accelerating. And so it just kind of, and then you go right into turn 16, 18, 17, 18, which is just chubo right handers. Coming out of 15, it was really cool because there were double shift, short shift up. And so you

14:36just hear every single bike kind of bang through the gears and then just steady throttle. And those front tires had to be dead by the end of the race. That's great observations. And yeah, you don't notice these things, unless you're stood track side, it doesn't come through on TV. You know, you mean, but at double shift, it's good trying to keep the front wheel on the ground as well, before going for that quadruple apex right hand. But whilst all this is going on with diverge a little bit with digress a little bit, there was a crazy sprint race going on. It was really, really good. So once Mark had skittled Digi out the way, we've got bagnail leading. So return of bagnail to form. Oddly, he's leading a Costa in second. And me, like you have me on the Honda, like come through Q1, like really quick. You have mirrors in, is in third. But as we know, like going on to the final lap, me just loot just tucks the front into turn one, absolutely gutted because he was fighting really, really, really hard. But of course, before we get to that final lap, Trump, it's there was a Biseki was coming through looking hot. Martin was looking

15:39really good. But as one thing we're talking about, we haven't mentioned, we'll go to you in a minute, Matt, Martin's the only rider on the medium retire. I absolutely love this because he, that was a him thing. I've really, we're going to put him on the soft tire and he tore them out of it. According to his, according to his own accounting of this, he talked them out of it, said, look, put me on the medium tire. And if it's if it's if it's catastrophe, I'll do what you tell me tomorrow at the Grand Prix, where the big points are. They put him on the medium tire. And he said, I he got about halfway through the race. And he's like, I could just feel the tire was cooking. Everybody else was falling away. It was the best thing. He was so happy with that choice. And yeah. So, but he's chasing Biseki, his teammate. And, you know, he's, is he 100% race fit? I don't think so. So it was it was it was a very interesting setup. And it actually ties into the mirror thing. Once we get to the end of the race, why he wound up crashing. All right. Yeah. So, so the big thing here is Biseki again. Silly mistake. And you can see it

16:44from Hoy Mart is on board. He just passed Martin. He just put the, he just put the move on him is just starting to pull away. And he could see he pops the rear wheel in the air, lands it a bit sideways and then panic scrubs a bit too much front brake. And down Biseki goes with three laps to go. It would have been fascinating to see where he done, whether Hoy Marting would have got in. Because this is just when Hoy Marting comes strong. But I think Peco had like a 1.7 lead or something by this point. And he was looking like done. So going onto the final lap and all of a sudden the leads down to like point eight, going onto the final lap. And then Trump, it's going up into turn one is where mere mere phrase it down the road. Yeah. Well, what had happened was he had noticed Biseki was gone. So at that point, he's, he's thinking, oh, I can now smell podium. So he's, he was just like, I was not going to leave the track without having giving it absolutely everything I could. And everything he could was slightly too much for the bike to handle. So proper win or been attitude. Exactly. The crazy start coming from thing.

17:46Me if I think, I think from TNT, I can't remember the actual numbers, but mere has crashed in something like over 55% of all of his races on the Honda. It's absolutely insane. The amount of this guy crashes, but you can never blame him for not trying. You can never accuse him of not trying. He maybe tries a little bit too hard. So going to last lap and back, back, now I'm looking mega, but lost the rear tire completely. And then Jorge Martín, like Adam, did you see the move from where you were sat? Jorge Martín puts a brutal move on him, but ultimately fair down into turn 12. Yeah. Yeah, it happened around in front of me. Just on the other side of the section, but Crown went loud. You could see, I thought they ran wide because it seemed like Martín was going so late on the brakes where it looked like he was just going to go straight into the runoff. But then when he came back, once I could see past the barrier, I realized, holy, he got the move done. Last lap, turn 12, it was like, what happened? It came out of nowhere, just that gap closed. And yeah, I was hoping for Peco, but it's such a good

18:48comeback story for Prilya. Well, I think it's also lucky because as I understand it, his initial instinct to follow, I don't know, that might have been a cost, but he came, he was behind, like he was very close, coming down towards turn 12, because I was watching obviously on TV. And as they're coming into the braking zone, he actually checks up really early, like easily an extra bike length suddenly between them, almost back, almost back now, a light. But what he does is then he lifts off the brakes and his bagnaia is hard. He just scoots right past him. I think what he did was just check up, give himself some room, take just like that top 10% off. And then you can get so much closer and still have control of the bike. This is my theory as a cyclist, like, yeah, sometimes you back off a little bit, then you can, you can really judge it better going into the actual apex. And I think that's how he pulled it

19:48off. It's also the carbon brakes. They would be act differently. And so maybe he took a little bit of a bite so that they get hot so that he can really kind of release a little bit and then dive in a little bit further and kind of make sure that Peco didn't think he was there. So he didn't think that he was going for a block pass right away. So maybe something like that, I don't feel like that really makes sense now that I think about it. But when it does you see it in actually in car racing, when you get like the football things, particularly like a V8 Aussie Supercars and stuff, like you see the drivers have a quick pump of the brakes and who can forget them? Kaley Pirro crash going in in a cell when he got the yeah, the padlock and he didn't. So so that's not uncommon for riders to do that. I just think back and I was a demon on the brakes was really late. And Martin, when he got on the brakes, we can all do it. Oh no. And just let the brakes are saying, I have to this is my chance. This is my only chance. And I just have to do it. So very, very rude move. He kept the bike. He didn't he he turned in late to give himself as much stopping power as Trump has just said. And of course, pick a bag. He took it well. He took it on

20:51the chin. He called him me. He he called him a fluffy bully as was picked up on the ball cast afterwards. That was hilarious. I was standing there at the at the theater. I'll come over to you now to have it. It was the first thing he said when he walked out. It's hilarious. Brilliant. As big. So he took on a chin. But I think bag. Nyer was happy. So Jorge Martin spectacularly and fantastically returns to winning ways. Bag Nyer. Bag Nyer comes home second. He would have been pretty happy and a cluster of brilliant third. But no, he gets the dreaded tire pressure penalty has to drop eight seconds, which demotes him down to eighth, which means he still scores points. But he was in third. But all of that. This is after the race promotes bastionini to a sprint podium. Who could have predicted that at the start of the year? Mojah GP is becoming tops of the turkey and crazy. But really unlucky for a costa because obviously he was right up there in the championship. So that was really unlucky. And of course, after the race, it was announced that Marquez gets a long lap penalty for the Grand Prix on the Sunday. So that concludes a rather

21:56dramatic and tasty sprint. Let's move on to review the Grand Prix. So as always, we like to split down into topics. And as of late, we've been lucky to focus on the manufacturers. So the first thing we've got to talk about the Aprilio Armada. I mean, it's it's it's crazy. We have all four brilliers in the top seven of the championship. Five on the bounce for Bez now. Trump, it's like the the form that Bez has gone Sunday at the moment. It's crazy. Yeah, there's an interview actually with Tordazi where he reckons that they have put seven or eight tents over last season, whereas Ducati has only gained one or two. And it is the thing you were beginning to get a picture of it last season that really they have the best bike. They have had the best chassis bike overall. And it's just been playing catch up on the arrow side and on the engine side.

23:03But now they put all the pieces together. Yeah, you know, and it I don't want to say Ducati went down an entirely wrong path. But you know, when you're that dominant because in 24, they had everything. But that you leave yourself not a lot of room to find new stuff. And I think their path might be kind of exhausted, if you know what I mean, maybe. But one thing they do they don't have Adam is a lot of testing. These concessions seem to be working a bit. Yeah. And you got to keep in mind last year. They really only had one rider developing the bike. And because Martin wasn't really around. He couldn't ride or when he did, he was just trying to test himself rather than the bike. So, you know, that's one other thing to keep in mind is that how far they've gotten ahead with, you know, having, you know, 50% development, you know, you know, whatever that math math adds up to from last year. But last year, it looked like they were one of the fastest bikes, if not the fastest. But their corner exit was just dialed in last year. And that's where they

24:06were able to just get that top speed. This year, they just look all around smooth, fast, and they look stable. And I think that's where the arrow comes in. Like Matt, you touched on with the arrow. They just look very smooth through the mid, mid high speed corners. They look great on the brakes, they look good on corner exit. They're not running away from corner exit, like the way they looked last year. But it just seems like the most balanced smooth bike that, you know, I could see on track. Yeah, absolutely. And they've got, they've addressed their, I mean, they've never been slow on the top end. But I think they ran more aerate than everyone else. But man, that bikes quick. They were even out like dragging like the KTM. And and they made the Dekati almost look slow on the straight line. They were, they were really, really, really quick. What they were looking like coming out of the very slow stuff, then, but they did they visibly look like the best bike out of turn 15. Yeah, easily. It's whenever they were running in the harder compound tires, you can tell as they would accelerate out of the corner while leaning, they just like stable smooth, not a lot of wheel spin.

25:08And then they would just bang through the gears and then, you know, go into the right handers. But yeah, they just look smooth all weekend while the other bikes are kind of bucking all over the place whenever they get on the throttle and edge grip. Even compared to Dekati or Pili, it just looks smooth, just butter, just coming into the corner out of the corner, just everything. Just looks like the Dekati we got used to back in like 2019 when it was quote unquote easy to ride. And Dovey was getting those wins. It just seems like a Pili is kind of at that level right now. Question for you more experienced gentleman. One, given the lack of testing time, do you think it maybe turned out to be an advantage? I really only had a rider to satisfy last season? Well, focused. Maybe, but it seems to suit everyone, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, it worked out. So obviously, his writing style is neutral enough that a lot of people might be able to access it or maybe they had enough martine data to sort of consider that. Second question, do you think Dekati might have just sort of been looking a bit farther

26:15ahead than the season? And that might have something to do with it as well. Maybe we can maybe talk about that when we talk about the castle. Dekati, okay, fair enough. Thanks. Yeah, like, yeah, the apprilia, I don't know, I think I think the concessions have helped them massively and they've used that to their advantage. Adam like usually. But it's a good point, Trump, which brings up the one. One of the other things I just wanted to mention was track house. Track house is really good too. They look just as smooth as the factory guys. It looks like, I mean, I grew up killed at this weekend. He was looking so good. He tends to throw it down the road a little bit, but I feel like he's got potential and he can really grow into the role into being, you know, a consistent putting contender if he can keep it on two wheels and manage the bike, manage the tires. I feel like he's got a good chance to kind of be there, especially being this fast Dakota through the GP until the very end proves his fitness is there. He's got the stamina. He can manage the tires. I feel like it just adds a lot of different pieces to his

27:19puzzle that are coming together. And I just, it'd be really cool for him to get a sprint win. I feel like the opportunity is going to become up at some point this weekend or this year. Yeah, because Matt, it was looking like a guru, like in, in the afterwards, I think he would have podied him. It was like, I think it was, um, when he breed it up five laps for the end, he was the fastest on track. And then his engine decided, nope, need to go into self-eck mode. It sounded, uh, it sounded like it went pop like right in front of me. It just sounded completely broken. Oh, such a shame. Yeah. No, and it did give, I think, Mazema Rivala a heart attack. Because he had a, oh, he, they didn't, they didn't know why that happened. And they're like, oh, would this be all of our bikes now that could potentially decide to limp home? Um, I like, I like, I, I, the thing that I'm curious about is he, he reminds me a bit of bastionini and that he seems to prefer these late rays. Wait till my tire advantage is really big

28:21and go, but I've seen him get trapped behind riders that other people get past. Is this, uh, learning thing? Or is this just, uh, this is how I ride. So this is what I'm going to do. I mean, part of, part of, uh, what people have, like they, what they mentioned, whenever they follow somebody, like a rookie following Marquez for the first time in a practice session, it, or, you know, or race or sprint, it seems like they, the top riders all kind of do these races and stages. And so it's like, turn, the first, the first quarter of the race is push and settle the race. If I get positions, try not to kill the tires right away, but they definitely push them to get them up to temperature. And then the second stage, they kind of manage them from overheating. And then third stage is really dependent on how good of a start you get or if you need to push. And then the fourth stage is usually how much tired do I have left? And let me increase these laps a little bit more. And that's where I think a guru kind of failed where he started to push and he was closing that gap. But on that fourth stint, I'm called a stint now, um, he kind of

29:23just took a gamble the little too much and pushed that front end. Or I guess that was more of this sprint, but it just seemed like whenever you started pushing more, it just seemed like there was a little bit more of an issue with maybe the bike. Um, but yeah. Yeah, maybe because he plummet, he did drop the, he was, he was really quick in the, uh, he was really, really quick in the sprint. And he ended up sixth, which was promoted to fifth in the end. But I think all through the weekend, he had shown better pace than that. So when he actually go during the Grand Prix, when his engine sort of clapped out, he was, it looked like he'd solved that problem. He was a quick rider on track. And he was looking at all three Aprilia podium at that point. It really did. It was hunting a cost to down. I was actually gutted for him because only a matter of time. Um, his teammate, Fernandez, oddly, another two weekends on the bounce now. He's been oddly off the pace. Um, I don't know what's going on there. But all four of the Aprilia's are in the top seven of the championship. I mean, that's saying that's saying something, um, big time and they go really well. And Matt, like Biseki's now record winning streak. What's the stats? Well, um, uh, this obviously won't

30:29have been something that I will have been following from its inception. But it turns out, and all of the records, one of them they do is consecutive laps in the lead. And the previous holder of that record was Jorge Lorenzo at 103 laps. But Biseki had a chance to surpass that this weekend. And well, he did. So that's going to be one of that, that's, you're not going to see that very often, kids. So if you didn't know about it, go back and watch it. Enjoy it and full. Was that from like 2010? I didn't realize. Yeah. Oh, while I mean, but also everything becomes a record at a certain point when you're promoting a sport. So, I don't know how much attention anyone pays to it, but just as a measure of unbelievable consistency. And I think it's quite quite a stat because exactly he just demonstrates that. There hasn't, there haven't been scrappy last lap snatch in the wins. They've been, he's been pulverizing you up a bit, like, a bit like Mark in the mid to late season last year. Yeah. Yeah. And it does seem that the longer races are better for him.

31:33I don't know if the full tank to slightly slower speeds allows him to have a little more, I don't know what you call it, like to be a little more thoughtful about it. Yeah, a bit more calm, a bit more chill about it. So yeah, I think I think I've sort of wrapped a brilliant up amazing, so good to have Jorge Martin. And I do have a quite question, a tiny little question from my panel, actually for this. Yeah. Go on Matt, go on Matt, just come into your head. Yeah, dude, because it turns out he said he wouldn't have been able to catch Bezzan in event, but he said his left arm gave out about seven laps from the end. So this also made me think of Mark and raise fitness. He just, he was like, yeah, I thought I was going to have a push, but then I, my tire pressures and by the time I got to the end, my left arm was just, he said, yeah, no, I was not placing that place into my question, actually, to both my panel, we'll do Adam first and then Trump hits. If Jorge Martin gets fit, who is your money on starting from now to the end of the season, assuming it's a catch, you don't catch up. Who would you put your money on

32:36right now? If you had to make a bet as right now, would you put it on Bezz or would you put it on Martin, Adam? I am going to go for Bezz, because I feel like Martin, he's going to get a few wins, he's going to fight, but then he's going to fall and he's going to get hurt. It just seems like that's almost inevitable for that guy. He just does not have good luck. Yeah, he doesn't bounce very well. Does he map? Who is it? I would say from a talent point of view, I think Martin, but I think if you're going for a winner's point of view, Bezz has the process. You can look at him Grand Prix after Grand Prix. He did so well last season with just I'm putting the bike as far up the road as it's going to go. I mean, yeah, he had the mistake with a couple of times, but I think he's got more consistency and he realizes that's his advantage. So he will press that and that would serve him while the long run. Okay, well, I can't agree with both of you. So I'm going to go Jorge Martin in that sense. So let's move on to our next subject then. I want Bastineini returns. I want to get in that, but generally KTM as a whole after their disastrous start last year

33:37are now finding some consistency. A Costa is right in there, but another GP podium, but yeah, Adam, how shocked were you to see Bastineini from seemingly nowhere on the pace this weekend? I mean, at first I thought it was Binder because I wasn't expecting to see, you know, as technically a set of like KTM way up there. I was very surprised. It's good to see him back on form. It seemed like for a while he was getting hurt or, you know, get taken out and things like that. I feel like things are kind of starting to align for him and the team seems to kind of have their their situation together. And I think that he deserves a spot to be at the factory team kind of with this pace. If he can manage or manage to finish the season, keep this one momentum up. Hopefully, I feel like it could be as, you know, foot in the door towards the factory team. Yeah. Well, that's interesting because Matt, they've apparently, Maverick Vignoli's was signed for the factory team. Wasn't it in the panic that put that on ice for now to put that on hold

34:38because we don't know what's going on with the shoulder. Yeah. And, you know, just again to keep on bringing it up. I think that is one of the reasons Mark has is given to about his contract. Just when you're not certain of your health, it's not fair to any of the parties to sign long-term deals. So I don't see that as being a bad thing. I do, I'm beginning to wonder a little bit if their, if their form last season was partially a leading indicator of the business distress that the corporate team went through. And so what we're seeing now is essentially, well, yeah, they, they have stabilized it. And we're therefore able to concentrate a little bit on the stuff that matters most because the bike looks so much better. It does. They found a direction, haven't they? Yeah. So it looks to go in. And oddly, they changed a little bit direction this weekend, because I think a Costa said, um, Bastineini, he saw what Bastineini's settings and spec he was running on things. I'm just going to go with that spec because it looks better. So they did this last year. Wasn't it was Maverick who showed them the way initially and they got completely lost

35:42start of last year, followed Maverick's direction. Now Maverick's out of it. They're actually following Bastineini's direction. It kind of indicates that maybe a Costa's a bit inconsistent with his feedback, maybe, and doesn't know because he seems to be following the directions of the tech to our guys quite a lot. But whatever he's doing, it seems to really, really work, because Bastineini, like mega quick, like really, really quick at the GP, but he was, um, yeah, and Sprint, he was like sick from the last lap, come up to third and he ended after the penalty, but in the actual Grand Prix itself, his airbag, did you notice, I read a comment from him that he actually had a little clash with Zarko, he had a massive moment, had a clash with Zarko, and actually set his airbag off in his leathers. So his riding round for a few laps with his airbags, deployed as well, all sorts of distractions, and still come back to have a really, really strong showing. And he was still sick in the main Grand Prix in the end, really, really quick. And is, you know, there's only four seconds off a Costa. So really, really, really good stuff there. And yeah, Adam, you mentioned Binder earlier. I'd like to talk about Binder a bit, because

36:44with ATN going so well, what on earth is going on with Binder? It seems like he's having issues with the front. Just the way you could tell, but the way Bastineini and Paco were kind of riding, it was a little bit more stable through corner entry, and it's, I mean, I've seen Binder lose the front both in Brazil, which turned one with a high speed corner, but he lost it early. It wasn't mid corner whenever they released brakes and switched throttle. It was when he was on the brakes and same thing it turned 15 over here in Coda. It was, he was on the front brakes and at full lean and then just lost the front. It seems like both the way his pace dips and just the way that he's been riding, it seems like they're having some front and issues. Maybe it's just he's not liking the balance compared to what Paco and Bussineini are doing. And maybe it needs a little bit more of a, you know, secure front end or pointy front end rather than trying to use the rear and slide it a little bit. That's a good observation. And yes, that very last comment you made, I think you've

37:44just touched on exactly what it could be. So when Michelin bought in this new rear, which is a couple of seasons ago, I think when they didn't bring the new front in, all the bikes started pushing the front. That's what screwed up the GP 23, wasn't it? Or the 24? Yeah, it was 24, all the chatter it was getting. Yeah, and yeah, well, the chatter and I think this is completely nerfed, Binder's whole riding style because as you say, he likes to slide the rear into the corner to get the bike rotated and he can't really do that now because the front, the rear is pushing the front. But talking about balance, if you think we've got a nice balance or a bad balance, then you can tell us by sending us an email to MrapixMoto at gmail.com. That's MrapixMoto at gmail.com. And again, if you are enjoying the show, then why not drop us a like, give the channel a follow on YouTube, or give us a favorable rating on your podcast platform of choice. If you'd like to flex your MotoGP knowledge and prove me and Danny to be complete numpties, then why not join our MotoGP fantasy league? Danny and I are being absolutely awful. I think Adam's looking pretty good in there. So

38:47the link will be in the description of the video and in the show notes. So come and join our fantasy MotoGP league and prove your knowledge against ours. So we're rapidly running out of time because we've waffled on Farty Long as normal, but I want to talk about the catty briefly. We're not going to talk about Mark. We got all the Mark stuff out the way. I think he's struggling. I don't think he's panicking too badly at the moment. 36 points off the lead. But if he hits the brain form and if he ever gets fit, we could be taking it to the affiliates. But Digi, we haven't mentioned Digi too much. He's been really strong. He's been really strong. That that delivery I thought was awful. I didn't like the Sunday delivery of named it Friday night pavement because I think it looked like vomit on concrete. But what did it look like from the stands, Adam? I mean, I thought it looked great. So one of my pet peeves is I got a lot of races. And for some reason, MotoGP when they have a special delivery, they only run it on the race. And it sucks when it's all the bikes because you don't

39:51know who's who because they only ran it for one session when it's the race. And I don't understand why they do it. Well, I mean, I get why they do it's because there's a lot of crashes and they only have one set of fairings apparently. But if you're going to do a delivery, do it the whole weekend because it doesn't make any sense why they only run it for one session. Sorry. That's a little bit of a rate, but I absolutely hate that. Now, I I was victim of this. Not last year. It's almost in the year before and they did it because it wasn't the 60th anniversary and it ran in every Sunday. So I turned up and I had from trackside and you couldn't see the numbers. And I was like, I have no idea who's who. And I was looking for the helmets and it was every single bike in the field. And I was like, well, I have no idea who's who and it was really, really frustrating. And so yeah, it's and then it's even more different when they run a special delivery and then a different helmet. It's like you you see the traditional helmet. But then with the combo, both of us like, dude, come on. Like I it's hard enough to see the screen. Let let alone if somebody said a distance. Yeah, that's one thing it's annoying. But okay, back to

40:54the positivity. I did like delivery. I thought it looked great in photos. The whole review revealed thing in New York was cool. Yeah, I thought there was a lot there. I don't know why they didn't do the reveal here in Austin. I mean, there's a lot of scenic places. But yeah, yeah, New York's New York's more cool. I take it. But did you seem to be putting a delivery to good use? He was again, look like arguably the strongest to Cati package. Mark's rate, rate, rate, rate, rate, rate, rate pace was really, really good. But did he has been two weekends really consistent now? And like his teammate, morbidelli, who's just vanished off the face of the earth for some reason, really struggling for pace for whatever reason. And I want to talk a little bit about a bag, bag, nine mystery because again, he was doing really well. He was really well. He was in fifth. He said he'd been struggling the whole Sunday, but fifth for three laps to go, but then plummeted to 10th after the tire issues. That wasn't looking too good, Matt. And it looks like the back in our evolve, but he's strength used to be looking after tires. Well, yeah. And that tells you everything you need to know about what's gone wrong at Ducati.

41:58Because he had an issue in the sprint race as well. He lost his lead to, or hey, because he started to pick up a vibration at the rear. Did he's rear tire went saw? I mean, there's a very common thread here, even the best of the best at managing that rear tire are not able to right now. And what that tells me is that chasing lap time. Ducati's gone down perhaps a bit of a cul-de-sac like we found this lap time over one lap in these conditions, but in a race where I have to deal with all the heat from other bikes, where I have to say not always take the optimum line, I'm not able to use the tire enough to offset how much management's going to be required later. And that's where I think they are. And you want me to end, but I'm going to give you the big pause and say, I think it's because Mark Mark has polluted their data pool. Get the tin foil out. He had no input. I'll do you

42:58add him. We'll be straight in on that one. That's all tin foil had for me, but I feel like Mark had developed a bike. He's always inherited a really good bike. And now that he's there, he's just alienating the team in a different direction. But he didn't develop rostias bike. That was back. No, and he didn't develop this year's bike because he was injured in the crucial test when he made the decisions. It's not it's not about the test. They're looking at data from the riders across the season. And they're seeing what Mark can do. Then they give it to the riders and ask for like refinements. That's what I'm saying is like his data is telling the engineers, Oh, look, you can't achieve that lap time with this setup. And that's what they were working off when they brought the bike to the test. That's what I think. But I reckon they're still going strong. And Gigi Delania will manage to find a way forward. That's in contrary to what maybe Yamaha are going on. Fabio Quattroir was a bit dejected saying Yamaha don't actually have a clue or how to fix any of the issues. But we're quickly going to do honorable mentions because we're running out of time. I want to give some top-track love. Top-track, guys, get top-track

44:02being the top Yamaha and his first Moto GP points Adam. I'm not going to attempt to say a second name anymore. Top-track was got Gliaglu. Do I say that right? I don't know. But he looks so quick during the race this year. He was on, yeah, Fabio, his retire and just looks smooth the whole time. He was really surprised. And especially compared to Rins, Rins was just falling back and back and back. And I could see top-track which is doing consistent with basically mirroring Fabio. Look like a ghost rider from a video game. Up until he was able to get the overtake and props to him, a really physical track, really demanding track. I know that Frontier was just screaming by the end of it. But he was able to pull a little bit of wheelies while changing directions out of 15. It was weird just the way that they accelerate. And then pop the two up shifts and then he was full lean. But yeah, top-track looked great yesterday. And it hasn't taken him that long. I thought he'd struggle a little bit more than this. But yeah, there were four Yamaha's right at the

45:03back. But he suddenly made a bit of a breakthrough in Adam. It looks like he's only made a breakthrough because he's lost his superpower in super bikes with just the crazy hard braking on the front. But he looked really strong on the bikes a weekend. Exactly that. And so one thing that really surprised me was, you know, Brazil was kind of a neutral territory for these guys because everybody was new track. And then this is it's circuit in America. It's awesome. We've been racing here since 2013. And so there's a lot of these guys have experienced from the different classes. And so they all know the track really well. This is top-racks second time at the track first race weekend. He did a track day with BMW recently on a camera. It's like a sup, it's like a reduction race bike. I was at the S1000 RR and it was like race version. And he said a faster lap time than a motor America super bike, which is a four race bike. Wow. And it's the first time I've had the track. So yeah, the guys on real and Matt, it was so good to see him actually yet started to come to the

46:03fore and just hope Yamaha can give him a good bike. Yeah, I'm sure they'll be delighted to have the next four weeks off to try and maybe bring some improvements to it. But he was saying that he found the bike to be surprisingly good. I think it was the first two sectors, but sector three, they were just absolutely getting trash. And you now see why they brought him on. Because to pick it up that quickly, like, oh, I'll follow Fabio around and I'll be, what was he like 13th in this Brent at one point? Like ridiculous to drag that bike there. And once it probably show up, that's what that's why he's here to begin with. But to see someone and especially at his size, like, you know, they're struggling to get the aerodynamics for him because he's so big to get the bike the way he really wants it. And for him to be able to adapt that rapidly, it's an arm and a sign if Yamaha get there. So together. Absolutely. And let's hope that they do. I just really want to touch on Honda quickly because Honda were fast on the normal casing rear tire.

47:10And again, they admit the disusual customary binning it, but they were really quick when he did bend it. He was looking really, really good. Marini as well was up there. The Ogre Marera, I want to quickly mention on as well. Zarko's had a really scruffy start to think, but Marera has showed positive signs. Difficult bike, young kid. And I think he's been looking really, really promising for the future. So we have run out of time. So we've got Marco Bazeki has snatched the short championship lead holding Jorge Martin, the championship back of him. Jorge Martin did lead after the spring action championship, but there's only four points in it between the teammates. Really, really good prospect there. We've got Pedro Acosta in third place in the championship with Digi, the top to Cateen IV with Markin V now as we mentioned before, 36. 36 points behind. So, Fessy, please follow my panel. Is it Matt as Matt PT 55? All your socials come say hi, tell me, teach me about MotoGP. I love it, but I have not followed it my whole life. Excellent. You did it and go and follow Adam. Is it Adam, is it

48:13Grand Prix travel? It's at Adam. Grand Prix travel on Instagram. I had a few people reach out this weekend at a bump into for the first time who both listen to the show and follow me on Insta's subreddit that I run, which is Grand Prix travel. Yes, good to meet people. There's a lot of fun people out there fluent in the town this weekend. Ask X and that's what MotoGP is all about bringing people together in their mutual love of the sport. But unfortunately, if you don't meet your love, we're going to have to wait. We've got at least to things a long three week break now, haven't we? Before we head back to Europe for round four at Hoeref, so we'll see you then. As always, thanks for listening to Mistake Vex MotoGP.