Before the German GP

*Enea “la Bestia” Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama Ducati) was subsequently punished by the FIM for something that the number 93 had done several times since Marquez returned.*

Bastianini 3 punished – Yamaha faces the toughest weekend yet

The FIM stewards struck again and, as so often, left a bad aftertaste. Since the introduction of the nonsensical track limits, the Commissioners have been playing a strange game, which always smells like arbitrariness. As an example, you can take Mir and Oliveira in Mugello, who were not relocated, but also the 2020 race in Spielberg, where two drivers left the target curve, strangely enough, went unpunished at the time. Now Enea Bastianini has been punished for something that Marc Marquez has been doing since his comeback, but consistently went unpunished. The Italian strolled a little conspicuously at Turn 8 on the Sachsenring in Q1, and the rookie was promptly punished with a 3-position setback on the starting line-up. If he were a Spaniard or if his name was Marquez, he would certainly have been unpunished.

Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT), together with his teammate Morbidelli and the reigning world champion, is one of the beneficiaries of the relocation of Bagnaia, which moved the old master one row forward.

Yamaha and Marc Marquez before the acid test
In Mugello, in addition to Pole sitter Quartararo and Morbido, there was only one Yamaha and also very narrowly made it into the top of the grid. While 3 pilots of the brand with the crossed tuning forks in the logo were among the top four at the season opener in Losail, Rossi is now the second-best Yamaha on P15. The old master even benefited from the relocation of his compatriot Bastianini by three positions. The German Grand Prix is therefore something of an acid test not only for Valentino, but also for his two brand colleagues Morbidelli and Viñales. All three will soon have top results, which is also true for Marc Marquez. The former top driver has had a total of four falls in the last 3 races. Should the MotoGP record winner, who has been unbeaten since 2013, fall again from the Sachsenring, he will slowly make himself a laughingstock. Always wanting to win would be a disaster for his team too, should things go wrong again.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati Racing Team) had every reason to be happy after qualifying – here he showed his leather suit, which had been worn down after the crash in Q2, after having achieved pole position anyway.

Is Suzuki threatening a second debacle like at Le Mans?

The success-spoiled team from Hamamatsu is often the worm this season. After finishing 6th and 4th in Losail, Alex Rins did not see the checkered flag four times and at the home race in Montmeló he even had to pass with a broken arm after a training accident. However, because Joan Mir will only start the race from row 6 on the winding track in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Suzuki’s hopes weigh heavily on his team-mates. But although the “Inspector Gadget of MotoGP” will start two rows ahead, he has never seen the checkered flag in Saxony in his two races so far. It will be exciting to see whether they can really make it forward on the narrow and winding track with few opportunities to overtake. Somehow, we can’t get rid of the feeling that we’re going to have a lot of crashes in the MotoGP race, but hopefully we’re mistaken.