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/1517996
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P125 the top 10 in Q2, to guarantee a start in the front four rows. Only on Saturday afternoon, there were another 30 minutes of genuine free practice, plus 20 minutes of race-morning warmup. By the end of last year, Fri - day's two sessions, up from 90 minutes to 105, were timed; Sat- urday morning had 30 minutes of free practice. Race morning warmup was cut to 10 minutes. Thus, total practice time, both timed and free dropped from 185 minutes to 145 (not count - ing the qualifying sessions). Given the restrictions on testing away from the races, this pinched saddle time even further. A significant side effect was to emphasize the impor - tance of electronics and the use of AI simulations to short-cut the task of arriving at gearing and chassis/suspension set- tings. This favored the richer teams. The Sprint did make this worse, but it was the same "worse" for all. Then, the matter of trivializa- tion. The compromise to dignity. The half-point Sprints do muddy the waters, but when you consider that Bagnaia won only four of them to Martin's nine but seven full races to Martin's four, you understand why he was the champion. The main races remain more important. His was clearly a conscious approach. While Martin charged off, Bagnaia used the Sprints to gain further knowledge and ammunition for the main race. All while minimizing the risk by avoiding close engagement when there were only a handful of points on the table. Apply the same thinking to the rest of the grid, and you might conclude that the Sprints aren't real races and should not be taken seriously. And you may be right. But then again, an intel - ligent rider views every race like that anyway, not as an isolated dash for cash, but as part of a championship campaign. So, are any of them real races? The final accusation: Mo - toGP was copying F1, which introduced Sprint races in 2021. Perhaps so, but also not quite. F1 has only six rather than at every race, while the car series has actually imitated MotoGP this year by expanding its Sprint points system from the top three to the top eight. MotoGP's new marketing chief, Dan Rossomondo, new last year and fresh from NBA, didn't invent Sprints, but he likes them (surprise, surprise) as "a product that people can use as a trial for our main race." A sort of less tax - ing hors d'oeuvre on a Saturday afternoon for those who find the main race too tiring. Me? I like them, too. Not as "a product" but because they fulfill the basic requirement of a world championship event by being "only a motorbike race." And the more, the merrier. CN THE HALF- POINT SPRINTS DO MUDDY THE WATERS, BUT WHEN YOU CONSIDER THAT BAGNAIA WON ONLY FOUR OF THEM TO MARTIN'S NINE BUT SEVEN FULL RACES TO MARTIN'S FOUR, YOU UNDERSTAND WHY HE WAS THE CHAMPION.