weakness. Now, they can show
just how good they are.
Rain at Buriram for the Thai
GP proved the point.
It came one day after yet an
-
other new record for Ducati—the
top
eight places in the Sprint. A
first in MotoGP, and the first in
history since Honda in Barce
-
lona in 1996. A week before the
Desmos
had taken the top six
in the Australian GP, a first since
Honda in France in 1997.
Then on Sunday a mini mon
-
soon brought welcome relief.
Only
three Ducatis in the top
nine.
Admittedly those Ducatis
were first, second and fourth,
and three fast riders (Marquez,
Bastianini and Morbidelli)
crashed. But KTM took third,
fifth and sixth (Acosta, Miller,
Binder); Aprilia's Vinales and Es
-
pargaro were seventh and ninth,
and
(gasp) a Honda eighth with
Zarco. Only in 10th Alex Mar
-
quez on the next Ducati.
I
think it was F1 supremo
Bernie Ecclestone, many years
ago, who said that the way to
make racing more exciting was
to introduce subsurface irriga
-
tion systems that could wet the
track
at random times.
That was for cars, but the
same is true for bikes. But luck
-
ily, we already have such a sys-
tem. It's called "rain." And what a
joy it
can be. Especially for those
riders whose progress is crippled
by their motorcycles' technical
P126
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
RAIN, RAIN, COME AGAIN
Rain, like we saw in
Thailand last week,
has a way of evening
out the playing field.
