The same year that Valentino Rossi retired as a MotoGP rider, in 2021, his brother (Luca Marini) ascended to the premier class with a Ducati with the VR46 logo. It was one more way to maintain his immense legacy in a championship that continues to be dyed yellow on many circuits. Last year the VR46 Racing team officially debuted in the main displacement, with his close friend Uccio Salucci as ‘capo’ in the races (Rossi now competes in cars and barely steps into the MotoGP paddock) and Pablo Nieto as boss in the box . Along with Marini, a rookie who already made a lot of noise in his first year, Marco Bezzecchi, came to the box, and who now, in his second season in MotoGP, has given the Il Dottore team their first victory in the premier class.
An undisputed win. Leading a race from start to finish and in very complicated conditions, with a completely flooded track that forced us to be very careful and penalized any mistake. Bezzecchi started second on the grid and took the lead from the first corner. From there, he set an impossible pace for his rivals and managed to open a gap of seven seconds with his pursuers in the middle of the race. That allowed him to loosen up in the last few laps, but also mentally manage a new situation for him. «It has been the longest race of my life. The first ones went by quickly, but the last ten have taken me forever. To stay focused I was talking to the bike and telling it that we were going to win.”
Bezzecchi put the Argentine fans in his pocket by celebrating his victory on the podium with an albiceleste shirt, with Messi’s ’10’… just like his mentor Valentino Rossi did eight years ago on this same circuit, although in his case it was he did with Maradona’s ’10’.
Ducati bathroom
When the MotoGP World Championship began at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit last Friday, the Aprilias were one step ahead. Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales dominated in the dry and, for the first time in a long time, the bikes to beat in a Grand Prix were not Ducati. All of that changed as the weather conditions changed. Álex Márquez’s pole position on Saturday, with the first rains of the weekend, was already a warning. But there has never been so much water on the asphalt as at the start of the MotoGP race. And in these difficult conditions, the Ducatis had no rival.
Bezzecchi was accompanied on the podium by Johann Zarco and Álex Márquez, with Jorge Martín fifth. And it could have been thrashed if Pecco Bagnaia didn’t go to the ground when he was second. Despite losing second position in the last lap, unable to contain a Zarco unleashed in the final stretch, the rider from Cervera signed the best weekend of his life in MotoGP: «If before coming to Argentina they tell me what to do a pole, a fifth in the sprint and a podium on Sunday, would have signed it ». After three difficult years at Honda, Álex Márquez is enjoying his dream start with Ducati and he still has a bike to discover. “Better things may come this year,” promised the Catalan, who is already fourth in the championship.
change of leader
Ducati not only made it to the podium in Argentina, but also dominates the championship with an iron fist. Bezzecchi is the new leader, taking advantage of a mistake by the hitherto infallible Bagnaia. The MotoGP champion crashed when he was riding alone and the worst thing is that he did not understand what had happened: «I made a mistake and I threw away a second place that he had tied up. But what makes me a little more angry is that we don’t understand what happened.”
Despite Bagnaia rejoining the race, he finished sixteenth and left Argentina with no points. This causes the classification to be compressed, since between the leader Bezzecchi and the sixth there is a race of disadvantage. Bagnaia’s zero was not fully capitalized on by his main rivals for the title either. Jorge Martín was not brilliant in Termas, but he finished fifth. Fabio Quartararo, with many problems all weekend, minimized damage with a seventh place. While Maverick Viñales, twelfth, and Aleix Espargaró, fifteenth, aspired to much more.
Among the candidates for the title, perhaps the one who won the most in Argentina (for which he did not lose) was Marc Márquez, who followed the event from home due to an injury to the finger of his right hand. The man from Cervera is already setting sail for the next race of the season, the Grand Prix of the Americas, a circuit where in the past he has dominated like few others, adding seven victories in the nine editions that have been held. That is if he recovers in these two weeks, of course, and if he does not have to comply with a double ‘long lap’ penalty that is currently under appeal and whose verdict will become official in the coming days.
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