A piece of Silverstone (the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel sequence), another of Hockenheim, yet another of Tuzla (turn 8): COTA, an acronym which stands for Circuit of The Americas, took inspiration from the English track, the German one and the Turkish one in Istanbul. After 3 weekends without a world championship – thanks to the cancellation of the Termas de Rio Hondo race because Javier Milei, the new Argentine president, said enough to public funding: goodbye race – off to the third event of the season on the Texan route of Austin, with the iconic left turn after the uphill start and the impressive viewing tower. All eyes on the Ducatisti: Bagnaia and Marquez veterans of the Portimao accident, Martin he is leading the world championship and wants to extend his lead, Bastianini aims to repeat the success of 2022. Naturally, the title is at stake but also the future: from here to Mugello, in a month and a half, the entire paddock – apart from the reigning world champion, Quarterly who has just renewed with Yamaha and a few others – the next 2 years of his contract are up for grabs.
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The Cannibal “ranch”, only one Ducati success
Twenty curves and almost all left-handed, a track much loved by the Cannibal of Cervera who he was the youngest winner ever: he was 20 years and 63 days old, in 2013. Marc Marquez he won 6 consecutive times and then in 2021. In 10 editions of the 2-wheeled Cota (the date was postponed in 2020 due to Covid), except for that time at the Beast of Rimini, the Spaniards have always won: 2 successes for Rins, riding first a Suzuki and then a Honda. The only Ducati success is that of Bastianini, but also Bagnaia he swears he loves the American track: it will certainly be a wonderful challenge over 20 laps (5.51 kilometres).
At turn 12 the brake temperature rises to 690°
According to Brembo technicians, who work closely with all the MotoGP riders, the circuit is “averagely” demanding on the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 6 it deserved a difficulty index of 3, because in the first 10 corners the brakes are used only on 3 occasions and just once more from turns 14 to 18. On average the brakes are used for the 26% of the race. The hardest curve is curve 12: you go from 338 to 65 km/h in 5.8 seconds, covering 293 meters (the temperature of the carbon discs rises to 690°).
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TV times: sprint on Saturday at 10pm, GP on Sunday at 9pm
There is a 7 hour difference in the time zone between Italy and Texas: get ready to watch the weekend races at dinner time. Tests and races live on Sky Sport, streaming on Now and free-to-air on TV8. We’ll take to the track tomorrow, Friday, with Moto3 free practice at 4pm Italian time, followed by those of Moto2 (4.50pm) and MotoGP (5.10pm); later pre-qualifying 1 of Moto3 (8.15pm), Moto2 (9.05pm) and MotoGP (9pm). Saturday pre-qualifying 2 of Moto3 (3.40pm) and Moto2 (4.25pm), then free practice 2 of MotoGP (5.10pm) which goes directly to qualifying at 5.50pm; Moto3 qualifying is at 7.50pm and Moto2 qualifying at 8.15pm; there sprint race on Saturday MotoGP will start at 10pm. Sunday the Moto3 race (over 14 laps) is scheduled for 6pm, the Moto2 race (4pm) at 7.15pm. The MotoGP race (20th) is scheduled to start at 9pm.
#MotoGP #restarts #Texas #Martin #extend #lead #Bagnaia #redemption #Austin #Marquezs #kingdom
– 2024-04-12 04:23:23
