P152
MotoGP
2018 FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON REVIEW
announced his retirement before
the summer break, was victim of
his own light weight on the bike,
and more particularly, the latest
Michelin tires, which needed
physical strength and heft to get
the best out of them.
Ducati's strong year was
backed by the top satellite team
of Alma Pramac Ducati, where
Danilo Petrucci did well enough
to be recruited to the factory in
Lorenzo's place, while teammate
Jack Miller jumped off three years
on a second-rate Honda to a
year-old Ducati that immediately
rewarded his press-on style—never
better than in Argentina, when a
high-risk run on slicks on a drying
track netted him an epic pole.
Jack scored a string of top-10s,
had a bit of a mid-season slump,
but was back among the fast
guys at the end. He fully repaid
the faith Honda had shown taking
him straight from Moto3. But on
a Ducati. He will lead the highly
favored Pramac team on a factory
bike next year.
KTM's second year didn't
seem to maintain their momen-
tum. In fact, the bikes had clearly
improved and were finishing
closer to the winner, but with
more bikes in between them, so
that top-10s were hard come by.
The loss to injury of chief tester
Mika Kallio and for five races Pol
Espargaro cost them dear in de-
velopment terms; the Spaniard's
hard-won third in the high-attrition
final round in a flood in Valencia
was a welcome fillip.
Aprilia had a tough year, with a
miss-step in development—lead
rider Aleix Espargaro only three
times in the top 10. A re-boot next
year sees Andrea Iannone join him
on a much-revised Aprilia RS-GP.
It would have been the longest-
ever season, with 19 rounds, but
ended up on only 18, with the dis-
grace of cancelation of the British
GP, on a resurfaced track that was
dangerously flooded even in light
rain. A bad leg break suffered by
Tito Rabat in a multi-bike aquaplan-
ing incident was a further black
mark against Silverstone, with the
future of the British GP in doubt.
Valentino Rossi leads at Brno. Had he not fallen in the
last two races, he'd have netted an incredible second
place overall to Marquez despite no wins all season
and no podiums in the second half of the year.
