MADRID, 3 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Silverstone circuit will be the scene from this Friday of the return after more than a month of hiatus of the Motorcycle World Championship, with the dispute of a Grand Prix of Great Britain, the ninth event on the calendar that opens a second part of the season important for Jorge Martín (Ducati), Dani Holgado (KTM) and Pedro Acosta (Kalex) and which is expected to be more positive for Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda).
The first part of the campaign left the Italians Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) in the lead, in the MotoGP category, and Tony Arbolino (Kalex), in Moto2, and the Spanish Dani Holgado, in Moto3. The three will start the second demanding and long stretch of the championship, which will consist of twelve races, and in which Bagnaia arrives in the best position.
The current world champion is asserting the ‘1’ in the ‘Desmosedici’ and went on vacation with a good advantage of 35 points over Jorge Martín, who is emerging as the best national asset to fight for a title that, except huge surprise, it will be for a bike from the Borgo Panigale factory.
Ducati is being practically unbeatable and, with the Italian Marco Bezzecchi, dominates the first three places in the World Cup general classification, managing to take 18 of the 24 podiums that have been disputed so far in Sunday’s races. The ‘Desmosedici’ have won all the Grand Prix except for Las Americas, where the Spanish Alex Rins (Honda) won, and they will seek to maintain that ‘dictatorship’ on the asphalt in an appointment where the rain could cheer things up.
Bagnaia, who has won four Grands Prix, commands with 194 points, followed by Martín, who underwent surgery after Assen (Netherlands) to solve a minor leg problem and be at the top to try to rub shoulders with the man from Turin. that he will want to open his gap more on a track where he already won last year and where there were four Ducati in the ‘Top 5’, including the one from Madrid (fifth), who also has to defend his point of advantage in second place against Bezzecchi.
After the three pilots of the Italian factory, there is the South African Brad Binder (KTM), the only one who has passed 100 points (114) without being on the back of a ‘Desmosedici’, but who borders better on the Sprint than on Sundays, while it will be necessary to see if Aprilia takes advantage of Aleix Espargaró’s podium in ‘La Catedral’ to take that long-awaited step forward to compete more regularly for the top positions.
Less rosy is the outlook for Yamaha, whose official team has been the first to begin the ‘dance’ of transfers with the arrival of Rins by Franco Morbidelli to accompany a Fabio Quartararo who has suffered a lot except in COTA (third), and for a Repsol Honda that holds on to Marc Márquez.
The eight-time world champion is experiencing another difficult year, now mainly due to a motorcycle that is far from being competitive and which has brought him to the ground too many times, causing new injuries that prevented him from racing in the last two races before the break at Sachsenring ( Germany) and Assen.
Now, the man from Cervera hopes that this break of more than a month has helped him improve his physical condition, especially with a sore ankle, and that he can thus get the most out of his Honda to improve his results without taking too many risks and thinking already more in 2024.
At his side will once again be Joan Mir, absent due to injury since the French Grand Prix and who will try to improve his discreet results so far with his new team with only five points from the Portuguese GP Sprint. It will not be the only comeback as the Catalan Pol Espargaró (KTM) will also race again, already with the ‘ok’ doctor after his hard fall in Portimao.
HOLGADO DEFENDS LEADERSHIP IN MOTO3, ACOSTA WANTS HIM IN MOTO2
On the other hand, in the Moto3 category, Dani Holgado will seek to establish himself in the leadership that he has held since the first race of the year. The driver from Alicante went on vacation with a bad taste in his mouth after scoring a ‘0’ in Assen and saw how his good advantage in the general was reduced to 16 points.
At that distance is now his compatriot Jaume Masiá (Honda), who took advantage of the leader’s failure with his first victory of the season ahead of the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna), third in contention, but who cannot take the lead from Holgado since it is 26 points away.
Finally, the Moto2 championship has been the closest of the three World Championships so far, with the Italian Tony Arbolino (Kalex) and the Spanish Pedro Acosta (Kalex) as the two best placed after the break and separated by eight points.
The young driver from Mazarrón closed the gap with his third place in the Grand Prix of the Netherlands to a fairly regular leader up to that day and who at the Dutch track added his worst result to date with a seventh place. The British Jake Dixon (Kalex), winner in Assen and 44 points behind Arbolino, will try to present his candidacy, while the Spanish Alonso López (Boscoscuro) and Arón Canet (Kalex) will want to rejoin.