With series organisers Dorna continuing their never ending drive to expand the global profile of MotoGP, the series hits unfamiliar territory this weekend as Argentina hosts a Grand Prix Motorcycle race for the first time since 1999. The new Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo will be the scene of a Motorcycle World Championship event for the first time, and after the events of Texas two weeks ago, that should set alarm bells ringing for everyone in the MotoGP paddock. Well, almost everyone…
For the second year in a row, Marc Marquez dominated the entirety of the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, but to find out just why the defending champion must surely be favourite to make it a third consecutive win at the start of 2014 this weekend, you have to go back to that first visit to Texas in April 2013. Then, in a race at a circuit where no rider had previously competed, the then 20 year old dominated the weekend to become the youngest ever MotoGP race winner. He wasn’t even old enough to drink the champagne on the podium. Now, with a full season’s experience (and a Championship to boot) on his résumé, his first flag to flag victory under his belt and as much experience as any of his main championship rivals at the Termas de Rio circuit, it is hard to look past Marquez making it three wins from three. Hard, but not impossible.
He may already be a massive 44 points behind Marquez in the title race, but Jorge Lorenzo is still the man who will surely pose the greatest threat to the charge of the young Spaniard. After his first lap crash in Qatar and his jump start catastrophe in Texas, the pressure that has already left its mark on Lorenzo will continue to pile upon the shoulders of the Yamaha man until he is able to break Marquez’s hold on top spot on the timesheets. Looking at the layout of the Argentinean circuit, its wide variety of corners (many long and fast), will suit Lorenzo’s smooth riding style through the bends, although as Marquez has shown on a number of occasions, he is capable of competing for victory regardless of the style of track. If Lorenzo wants to keep his already worryingly slim title hopes alive, he will have to do what he did so spectacularly last year and meet Marquez head on.
Until Lorenzo actually goes wheel to wheel with Marquez, it will be hard to know just what he can hope for this season, but for the title race’s third Spaniard, the signs are looking ominous. Last year in Texas, Dani Pedrosa had pushed Marc Marquez all the way in the battle for the win. Two weeks ago however, Pedrosa barely got close to his young teammate, trailing him home by over four seconds. It was a margin that probably would have been even greater had Marquez not decided to provide some entertainment to what he described as a boring race with a major last corner moment that almost threw 25 points into the gravel. While Pedrosa has always been slow to get going at the start of the season, the increase in the deficit to Marquez would seem to suggest that even when the series gets to the European circuits where Pedrosa goes best, he will face a huge task if he is to have any hope of lifting his first MotoGP title. One man who knows all about lifting that title is Valentino Rossi, and after being hampered by tyre issues on race-day in Texas, the nine times World Champion once again must attempt to get to grips with a new circuit. It is something which Rossi is not renowned for, but prior to those tyre problems that arose in Texas, Rossi had been showing promising signs of being able to adjust to new tarmac. “The Doctor” will be hoping that will translate through to this weekend, and after the performance of Andrea Dovizioso to take third place, Ducati’s first podium since Rossi himself finished second in San Marino in 2012, the incentive is greater than ever. The Yamaha veteran will be desperate to get back in the mix, if only to try and withhold the memories of that nightmare two years at Ducati that blot his otherwise impeccable mark-book.
For Dovizioso himself, the podium in Texas has left the Italian in something of a Catch 22 situation. While Dovizioso will now want to go on and prove that Texas was not a fluke, if he takes just two more third places at any point this year, he will lose part of the fuel and engine allowances permitted by his bikes entrance as an Open Class machine. Based on his performances on a satellite Yamaha in 2012 – six podiums in a single year – Dovizioso has the quality to return to the rostrum, but with the threat of what is effectively a punishment for doing so hanging over his head, the former 125cc World Champion finds himself with a big decision to make. Even so, it is a position that teammate Cal Crutchlow would undoubtedly swap with his own, after the Brit was ruled out of action in Argentina with the broken hand he suffered during the crash that brought a premature end to his race in Texas. It is hard not to see this as a missed opportunity for Crutchlow, he is one of just a handful of MotoGP riders to have already ridden at the circuit, having tested there last year. Crutchlow will be replaced by Michele Pirro, who impressed for the Pramac squad while filling in for Ben Spies in 2013.
Two other men who tested in Argentina last year were the satellite Honda riders, Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl. Both will want to put that experience to use in the fight for the podium this weekend. Having been beaten by Dovizoso’s Open Class bike in the battle for third two weeks ago, Bradl will feel the growing need to prove himself, while incredibly, Bautista is still searching for his first points of the season after two crashes in two races.
Joining them in that battle will likely be the Tech 3 pair of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro. Smith is already looking extremely promising this year, and took his first top 5 finish last time out, with Espargaro just one place behind. Two Open Class bikes which could potentially get in among the podium fight are Forward Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro, who has been on the edge of the top three in both Qualifying and Race-day already, and Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone, who spent much of the first half of the Texan race in what looked to be a comfortable third position.
In Moto 2, championship leader Esteve Rabat has a new rival in the shape of Maverik Vinales, after the reigning Moto 3 Champion took his first Moto 2 win in Texas with a stunning performance that means he has now broken the record for the fewest number of races to take a win by a rookie in Moto 2, taking the honour from a certain Marc Marquez. After an impressive recovery to take 16th having been caught up in a first corner pile up, Sam Lowes will now hope for an incident free weekend to allow him to push to prove what he has already shown to be podium potential.
Moto 3 meanwhile looks set to introduce Australia’s heir apparent to the legendary figure of Casey Stoner, as KTM’s Jack Miller took his second win from two at the start of 2014 to establish an 18 point lead at the top of the standings. Only one other man has finished in the top 5 in both races this season, Efren Vazquez having twice finished third, meaning that things are looking good for Miller should he maintain this consistency.
But while at the end of the weekend, the points and the trophies will go to the riders and the riders only, it would seem that in Argentina, there will be much more than the riders who will have a say in who takes the prizes, and one of these factors stems from something that fans of motorsport quite literally never tyre of debating. In Texas, a number of riders faced significant tyre problems; the crashes of both Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding – his first DNF in MotoGP after a promising weekend, one that saw him once again challenge former World Champion Nicky Hayden on the Open Class Honda – were blamed on tyre issues, as was Valentino Rossi’s drop down the order. Now at a new track that, on the basis of an onboard video released by the Marc VDS Moto 2 team, is in far from perfect condition, tyre wear could once again play definitive part in the battle for glory in South America. Throw in volatile weather conditions overhead, and there is enough uncertainty to catch out even the smoothest and the most confident of riders.
So with a defending champion bang on form, his greatest rival desperately searching for a way back to the top, and a rider leading a resurgent factory with a big decision to make, there are stories to be followed up and down the grid. Add in the fact that Argentina is a complete step into the unknown capable of catching out any rider on the grid, and this weekend is one that could have major repercussions for any number of riders come the end of the season. Marquez is favourite, but when the external factors are as uncertain as this, anything can happen.
By Toby Wilding