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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1506555
VOLUME ISSUE AUGUST , P121 and Bastianini had to take big detours through the countryside to avoid the carnage, ruining their chances in the short, in- tense 10-lap Sprint. Martin's greatest sin may have been not only to stay on board but to gain six places after qualifying 12th, a lowly grid position itself the result of a Stewards' sanction for touching the green paint in qualifying. (A very marginal offense that cost him a front-row lap time and was a repeat of a similar slight touch that robbed him of a win in the Styrian Moto2 GP of 2020. The beneficiary that time was none other than Marco Bezzec - chi, his first win in the class. That's how irony works.) Martin went on to a worth- while third in the Sprint. It was long after the race, later that evening, that the Stewards, up in their Ivory Control Tower, decided how to punish Martin. Fatefully, rather than applying the more usual three-second penalty to his Sprint race time, which, in fact, wouldn't have altered his result—"That was why I rode really hard to get a three-second gap," he said—they applied the long-lap penalty to the next day's full-length main race. Especially unfair, Martin— rather refreshingly not a Rossi protégé—complained. Any loss of position potentially cost more since Sunday's race carried full rather than half points. "It's just about someone being punished," he told press. He did escape sanction for a hard pass later in the Sprint, tak - ing third off Marini, who fell off from the contact. Martin hadn't exactly sneaked up unexpect - edly and that was, quite fairly, adjudged "a racing incident." No penalty required. Bezzecchi, luckily not serious - ly hurt, was even angrier than the aggrieved Spaniard. His weekend had started so well—fastest on Friday with a new track record. A double race winner this year to Martin's single victory, he continues to shine as the all-Italian Rossi gang's Next Big Thing. Rookie of the year in 2022, the 24-year-old is both heir and challenger to the incumbent Bagnaia. But he, too, had a disap - pointing qualifying, ending up seventh, then came the Sprint race disaster. Sunday was finally kinder to him, eventually mak- ing it through to third, his eighth podium this year, while Martin's penalty condemned him to seventh. Was there some natural justice in that the pair, cur- rently disputing second in the championship, ended up taking equal points home? Martin is 62 points behind Bagnaia; Bezzec - chi just six points behind him. The Bagnaia bulldozer might look out of reach for the cham - pionship, given his current form. Barring accident. But accidents can happen, as he has shown before, and though gaps of more than 60 points look big, we are only just halfway through the year, and there are still a maxi - mum of 370 points to be had. By the way, Brad Binder is creeping up even, as his Red Bull KTM keeps closing on the Ducatis, just 23 off Bezzecchi. But he's an outsider. Martin and Bezzecchi are very much focused on one another. This is a personal battle that has been going on for some years, from even before they disputed the Moto3 title in 2018 (Martin first, Bezzecchi third). They battled again in Moto2, and now they are at it again. This adds depth to Bezzec - chi's comment in Austria: "We are not friends anymore." In truth, they never were. It is spicy rivalries like this—in contrast to the "deadly rivals on the track, best of friends off it" ethic beloved of mealy mouthed Dorna PR folk—that in turn add depth to racing. Will it take them all the way in '23? CN THE ANATOMY OF THE CRASH WAS SOMEWHAT COMPLEX AND DEPENDED TO A POINT ON WHO WAS TELLING THE STORY.