P128
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
M
otoGP 2021 is a soap
opera on speed. Who
needs fiction, when fact
sings with such sentiment and
surprise?
Business resumed in Portugal
following Qatar's double, with
already a tangled mass of plots
and subplots, and a menacing
underlying note of potential teen-
age tragedy, a growing chorus
of concern for the dangers of
ultra-close Moto3 racing, fraught
with too many narrow escapes
for comfort.
There was—among scary
crashes galore—brutal bad
luck for Qatar's rookie hero
Jorge Martin, the new Ducati
rider badly beaten up after his
second-race pole-to-podium
revelation. And similar for
early runaway Moto2 leader Sam
Lowes, with a flying first-corner
high-side. There were more fist
fights in the run-off area, wildly
changing Suzuki fortunes, plus
the evil influence of overbearing
rules-fixers, punishing Moto3 rid-
ers for natural enthusiasm, with
a hatful of ruinous pit-lane starts,
and also denying Pecco Bagnaia
pole for a truly notional yellow-
flag offense.
Another story overshadowed
all this.
The central drama was the
return of the man Cal Crutchlow
nicknamed "The Cat" because,
"he always lands on his feet."
While he was away the mice
have been at play. And how. So,
all eyes were on the progress of
Marc Marquez.
No pussycat, he, as he
proved with an instant display of
contempt for the laws of physics,
third in the first free practice,
gaily flirting with disaster.
THE RE TURN OF
THE CAT,
AND OTHER
DRAMAS
IN TRUTH IT WAS
RATHER TOUCHING.
IT WAS A CLEAR
DISPLAY OF JUST
HOW DIFFICULT HIS
LONG ABSENCE HAS
BEEN AND JUST
HOW MUCH HE
LOVES RACING.
