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/1528904
VOLUME ISSUE NOVEMBER , P127 Could Ducati's badly battered challengers, especially KTM, glean some hope? Are things looking up at last? Can they engineer their way out of the slump? All the more so, given that top non-Ducati finisher Pedro Acosta's recent improvement has come since getting a new chassis at the final European rounds. A clear demonstration of actual technical progress. Yet the major factor had nothing to do with engineering of any sort. The difference in Thailand was weather. A wet track skews everything. No surprise, really. This has been demonstrated time and again over the years. Rain evens out machine differences. Rain hands power back to riders. The best of them can forget about the problems that ruin their dry races. So, if these good results were not necessarily reassuring to belea - guered engineers, they meant everything to the guys wielding the twist grips. The best-rewarded at Buriram was Acosta, lining up after four crashes and one missed start over the last five outings (Satur- day's Sprint tumble brought his total for the season so far to 25, two more even than serial faller Marc Marquez). Acosta's podium, his ninth in his first season, came after a scary moment early on, drop - ping to eighth after failing to get enough heat in his brakes for the turn-two hairpin at the end of the one-kilometer straight. By the closing laps, he'd pushed through to prevail over factory KTM riders Binder and Miller. It had been a joy to watch. The fight between Miller and Acosta was a high point for fans and a low point for the Austra - lian, who from laps 14 to 24 (of 26) had been a strong third. A most welcome transformation after a season with just three top 10 finishes for the four-time GP winner. Miller's problem has been severe chatter. It has struck over and over, leaving him drop - ping back for race after race. Thankfully for him, a sharp-eyed Dorna cameraman caught it in the act at Motegi. Shown in slow motion the vibration was intense. At last, the hapless rider's excuses became totally plausible. Chatter is a mysterious ail - ment, afflicting different riders in different ways, even on the same bike. Other KTM riders have suffered a bit, though not as much as Miller. But on a slippery surface, the forces on the bike are not enough to set it going. In this way he and factory teammate Binder were given a chance to prove that it's the bikes, not the riders, which have been spoiling their averages almost all season. The other rider to achieve a talent redemption was Zarco, whose move through to eighth on the last lap, past earlier GP winner Espargaro's Aprilia, was the best result for any Honda rider this year. Again, it follows upgrades to the beleaguered bike, but mostly it was down to the Frenchman. As significantly, however, the same two riders dominated in the wet as they have done in the dry at almost every race this year. Just because rain freed other riders to give a better account of themselves didn't detract from the fact that Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are in charge of the championship, for reasons beyond just having the best bikes. Their results have been helped, but their riding skills have not been flattered, by the quality of Ducati's dominant GP24. Rain helped them prove the point as much as it did those often-forgotten men of the championship who, for once, finished much closer to them. Perhaps rain should be com - pulsory. CN THE DIFFERENCE IN THAILAND WAS WEATHER. A WET TRACK SKEWS EVERYTHING.