P124
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
T
he 2016 MotoGP season,
like all of them nowadays
since a summer break
was introduced, is a game of two
halves. We have just started the
second one.
Without the advantage of
knowing what will happen at the
first return to Austria and the
erstwhile A1-Ring, now running
under its new Red Bull identity,
I have a feeling that part two will
be much the same as part one.
There is always room for
the unpredictable, but if the
new grown-up Marc Marquez
doesn't go on to claim his third
world championship, it will have
involved something very unex-
pected.
His current form is also omi-
nous for his rivals. The one-time
merciless choirboy, scourge of
the smaller classes, has become
something quite different as he
has matured as a racer. And he
is still just 23, still almost a boy
wonder.
Meanwhile, his closest rivals
have been going down the other
side of the same hill he has been
climbing.
Nobody perhaps in all racing
history has fought against the
slippery scree slopes with more
success than the ever-aston-
REALLY QUITE REMARQUABLE
