MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

"I will not talk today about the race because I think it's not really important today," Pedro Acosta said. Even though both Alex Márquez and Johann Zarco came away from Barcelona with just - "just" - serious injuries, it is hard to think about what in other circumstances would have been an entertaining race. But the fact is, Alex Márquez was extremely lucky to come away with his life - saved in part by his own skill and ability - and Johann Zarco was not far off meeting the same fate.

On Sunday evening, after an afternoon that seemed to go on forever, Luca Marini managed to express to Italian and English-speaking journalists how a lot of us felt. "Bikes are dangerous," the Honda HRC Castrol rider said. "We're all here ready to risk our lives every corner, every lap. Unfortunately, it's part of our sport, and also its beauty, so if that feeling reaches the fans, I think it gains even more value."

Barcelona is a strange track, full of contrasts. On paper, the layout is fast and flowing, yet it was a bike notorious for being good at stop-and-go tracks which took pole, Pedro Acosta almost converting that KTM pole position into a win. It should favor the bike that turns best on the grid, yet with the exception of Raul Fernandez, the Aprilias were anonymous, appearing on screen mainly while barreling through the gravel trap. And at a track where rear grip is at a premium, the Honda, which has none, started from the second row and finished fifth.

It is also a track with one of the most glorious layouts, a track which challenges most aspects of a MotoGP bike and where you can really give it free rein. Yet the grip of the surface is terrible, not really worthy of MotoGP and in desperate need of new asphalt. And making that worse this year is the fact that it is unseasonably cold, air temperature barely reaching 20°C, where pushing 30°C is normal.

To say the times were tight at Barcelona today is something of an understatement. Pedro Acosta in first and Fabio Quartararo in tenth were separated by just over a quarter of a second. Enea Bastianini finished eleventh and missed out on Q2 by just eight hundredths of a second. There were 14 riders within half a second, and 19 within nine tenths. If you blinked on a fast lap, it was enough to put you out of Q2. It was the closest top ten ever seen in timed practice in MotoGP.

It was balanced too. All five manufacturers were present in the top ten, with two riders each making it straight through to Q2. There were some surprising names on that list. We are used to Pedro Acosta being fast on the KTM, but not his teammate Brad Binder joining him in Q2. For Fabio Quartararo to go through on the Yamaha is one thing, but for him to be beaten by Jack Miller, who finished one spot ahead of him in ninth, is another.

Why are factory rides prized so highly over competitive satellite rides? Why would Alex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio leave the safe haven of a proven race-winning Ducati to take seats in the factory KTM team, aboard a bike that has not won a race since Miguel Oliveira won in a downpour at Buriram in 2022?

Money, obviously. But not just money. An underrated perk is having everything arranged for you. Having someone organize all your travel for you. Being picked up from your home and driven to the airport. Having someone check in your bags, then pick them up again at your destination. Being able to concentrate on training, preparing, riding, racing, and nothing else. Life as a factory rider is very much easier.

Of course, neither Fabio Di Giannantonio nor Alex Márquez have been officially announced at KTM. Nor has Marc Márquez and Pedro Acosta at Ducati, Pecco Bagnaia at Aprilia, Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura at Yamaha, nor Fabio Quartararo and David Alonso at the factory Honda HRC Castrol team. Because the MSMA and MSEG are yet to come to terms about their contracts for the five-year period between 2027 and 2031. And we will not get official rider announcements until that deal is done.

From the start of the weekend, we were waiting for the rain to fall at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Thursday and Friday were gorgeous. Saturday started a little cooler, but soon warmed up. MotoGP warm up was dry, but not long after it finished, the rain started. The 112,000 fans who had turned up on Sunday were undeterred, screaming with enthusiasm as they do at Le Mans, rain or shine.

The 21 MotoGP riders being shepherded onto the fan parade trailer were a lot less happy about being dragged around the circuit in the wet. "To be honest, the only thing that I think is too much is that that we had to make the lap in the trailer in the heavy rain that we had this morning," a disgruntled Pedro Acosta said after the race. "I think this is too much, and I think that we have to start to put limits, because this doesn't make sense to make us to be under water for 35 minutes."

"I don't like to cry in front of a microphone," Marc Márquez told MotoGP reporter Jack Appleyard after the sprint race in Le Mans, before leaving the track to fly back to Madrid for surgery on his shoulder. A problem which he had told nobody about - it's not just the microphones he doesn't like to cry in front of, it's any media. But a problem we all suspected, and which was clear from his results.

Marc Márquez' spectacular 2025 championship season was marked above all by a metronomic consistency. In the 17 rounds he took to win the title, he started on the front row all but 4 times, taking 8 pole positions. Of the 34 races - 17 sprints, 17 GPs - he started, he missed out on the podium just 3 times: at Jerez, Misano, and Austin. He won 14 sprints and 11 GPs. He only faltered after he wrapped up the title, qualifying ninth in Indonesia, finishing sixth in the sprint race, and then getting taken out by Marco Bezzecchi on the first lap of the Mandalika GP.

Will it last? That is what the massive record crowd at Le Mans is asking itself. And by that they mean both the fabulous weather that bathed the circuit in sunshine on Friday, and the fact that once again, Johann Zarco is leading the field at his home round of MotoGP. The fans can hardly believe it. And they couldn't get much louder if they tried.

But let's get to the weather first. The forecasts are not looking good. As of Friday evening, it looks like we are in for a wet FP2 and qualifying, but a dry sprint race, followed by a very wet Sunday. But as we saw last year, the fact that the weather won't hold doesn't mean that Zarco's reign in France can't continue.

The LCR Honda rider said he was happy it stayed dry. "Luckily it was not raining today, if not I don't know what I would have done. But I'm very happy that I started Friday on a decent level," Zarco told reporters. Even more important is that he and his team are starting to get their collective heads around the 2026 Honda RC213V. "Now with the team we understand better the bike and we can adjust very small things to give me the right feeling and still improve my confidence on the bike."

As I wrote last night, if you want to know how to put on a MotoGP event that can draw in the crowds and keep the fans - hardcore or casual - happy, just go to Le Mans. While Liberty Media CEO Derek Chang was on a quarterly results call with investors explaining how they are looking at a race on the F1 street circuit in Miami, my friend and colleague Neil Morrison was sending me a video from in front of the main grandstand at Le Mans, where Fabio Quartararo had faced ex-racer and now Canal+ TV presenter Randy de Puniet in a go-kart race on a tiny circuit on the front straight, with loud and excited commentary by the circuit speaker. The grandstands were absolutely rammed, and the sound of the crowd was deafening.

Le Mans is like that from the middle of Thursday afternoon to 4pm on Sunday. One long joyous celebration of, well, not even MotoGP. Just of being at a special place, surrounded by passionate people who have come to enjoy themselves over the course of a weekend. The action never stops at Le Mans. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

If I wanted to get my writing flagged as AI, I might start my notes from Sunday at Jerez for subscribers with a suggestion that Jerez was a weekend of contrasts. Which is a shame, as Jerez really was a weekend of contrasts. Saturday was a headlong rush into madness, a frenetic chase from wet practice to qualifying on a drying line to a bizarre but thoroughly entertaining sprint race.

Sunday's full-length grand prix, on the other hand, was another tedious procession, the trademark of the current era in MotoGP, another victim of ride-height devices, aerodynamics, and Michelin's front tire. A crash by Marc Márquez was the only constant in both.

Even those two crashes were marked by contrast. The crash on Saturday was a small get off, that allowed Márquez to enter the pits (for the legalities of that exploit, see Saturday's subscriber notes), and then go on to win the race. The crash on Sunday was fast, early, and put him out of the race altogether.

What they had in common was they exposed a weakness in Marc Márquez' armor. One which may be more concerning than he is letting on.

I love flag-to-flag races. They create drama, excitement, and throw the entire MotoGP grid a curveball. They allow riders to overcome bike deficits, and they give them a chance to gamble. Come in early, change to wets, and be gapping the field once they are forced to come in and change. Or go in late, and bet on it not raining as hard as others fear, and try to open a big enough gap to keep your lead when you have to come in. And really get luck if it stays dry enough.

It is safer than the old way of doing it. Red flagging a race and then restarting is twice the risk of a normal race, given that the start is by far the most dangerous part of any race. Sending 22 riders (or usually fewer, if a couple have crashed out earlier) barreling into the first corner all together is always a massive risk. Better to give the riders control over the risk, let them sort it out. If they have made it to MotoGP, they should be smart enough to handle those decisions.