Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1483620
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 8, 2022 P127 often through no fault of their own, but are still a million times better, more courageous, and more insanely competitive and dedicated than I in my journalistic languor might ever have hoped to be. This is a hard year. The title has been decided more by mis- takes than doggedly racking up solid points—the technique that reliably wins championships. At the time of this writing, it looks like Pecco Bagnaia is go- ing to be champion. Unless he falls off, for a sixth time this year, and Quartararo wins, for a fourth. Stranger things have happened, but it's hardly likely. At the time of this writing, however, it's still a guessing game. Bagnaia on the marvelous Ducati Desmosedici GP22 has the clearly superior motorcycle, and his greater challenge than beating the Yamaha has been to do better than several other excel- lent riders on the same Ducati. Or last year's Desmo, which is pretty much equally good. Has Bastianini helped him? The satellite-team GP21 rider has now twice hung back from a winning challenge (Misano, Malaysia)? We will never know whether he really couldn't pass him or was being quietly cautious on the senior rider's behalf. Something he couldn't be bothered to do at Le Mans or Aragon. Quartararo by contrast couldn't dream of help from fellow Yamaha troops. All year, he's far exceeded the disappoint- ing 2022 YZR-M1's potential. For race after race, he's been miles ahead of the other Yamaha riders, even when one was the redoubtable Dovizioso and the other Morbidelli, who beat him in the championship in 2020. Dovi was so disillusioned by the bike's lack of potential that he didn't even finish the season. And then there's the remark- able Aleix Espargaro and the Aprilia, whose early challenge was undermined by the rider's mistake (celebrating second too early at Catalunya); Fabio's mistake—pushing him off at Assen; and the team's mistake, an electronic blunder and zero points at Motegi, where he felt capable of taking a second win of the season. More than 40 points sacrificed, and he arrived in Valencia just 46 behind. So, which has been the best rider? I'm inclined to think maybe none of them. Certainly, achieving results be- yond the bike's ability is more ad- mirable if you tend to support the underdog (and who doesn't?). But then there is another rider who over fewer races has done even better than Fabio on a bike that is equally uncompetitive for any of its other riders. It is, of course, Marc Marquez, whose sublime skills since his return—all patched up with his arm lined up straight at last—have yielded results far, far in excess of anything achieved by the other Honda riders. Two of whom, Alex Marquez and Pol Espargaro, have three World titles between them. In the four flyaway races, Marquez broke Honda's podium duck, inches short of victory in Australia, and scored 63 points. Pecco was close on 57; Espargaro had 18, Fabio had just a hapless 16 after a disastrous run. I await the Valencia finale for the final totals in this subsidiary three-way contest. I don't have to decide just yet who to put on top of my list. It will be hard for it not to be Marquez, however. And Bagnaia above Quartararo? Hmmm. I wonder what the readers think? Answers on a postcard, please. I don't do Twitter. CN But does the best rider always win? Is the championship much more than a sometimes- cynical game of percentages, rewarding reliability and a knack of playing percentages as much as speed?