MotoGP Bagnaia and Martin, duel like Agostini and Hailwood

Four rounds to go. At the end of this passionate MotoGP World Championship of 20 events in 9 months, four races remain: the Thai GP (Buriram, 29 October), the Malaysian GP (Sepang, 12 November), the Qatar GP (Losail, 19 November) , the Valencia GP (Cheste, 26 November). Four highly anticipated rounds, with 8 races between the Sprint Race on Saturday and the GP on Sunday, closing one of the most heated top class championships ever. Championship that sees the fight between Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, both on Ducati, in a world rider ranking that sees the Italian at the top with a 27 point margin, and which could be decided right at the last race in Valencia.

It wouldn’t be the first time, from 1949 to today, that a top class World Championship was decided at the last round, which also happened last year with Bagnaia world champion in Valencia in the fight with Fabio Quartararo. Among the most significant on a technical and competitive level, however, the 1967 World 500 race at the Nations GP in Monza on 3 September remains memorable (the 30 September appendix in Montreal changed nothing), where Giacomo Agostini (MV Agusta 4-stroke 3 cylinder) and Mike Hailwood (Honda 4 stroke 4 cylinder) renewed their epic duel at Monza the year before with even more exasperated accents, on and off the track. Other times, everything different, but same show, same risks, same passion as today.

In the 1967 Motorcycle World Championship, 13 races on three continents, the Japanese manufacturers came out on top: world champions in the 50 with Hans Anscheidt (Suzuki), in the 125 with Bill Ivy (Yamaha), in the 250 and 350 with Mike Hailwood (Honda). Only Giacomo Agostini on the new MV Agusta 3-cylinder manages the great feat of winning the 500 title. Five victories, three second places, two retirements (Tourist Trophy and Ulster) for Ago, while Hailwood boasted five victories, two second places and three races out, very unlucky, due to mechanical problems. It must be said that, for better or for worse, Hailwood had put his effort into losing that title, throwing it away: only he, after even a handler like Jim Redman had failed, could tame and bring that powerful “beast” to the limit. and grumpy; only he, bold and bold, could exaggerate in the decisive and penultimate round in Monza, not being satisfied, with 5 laps to go, with an almost 20 second lead over Agostini, but continuing to push the engine and gearbox until it locked up, even miraculously avoiding the crash at the Parabolica braking point. The day in Monza on 3 September 1967 was defined as the day of Agostini’s “great fear”, at least until the engine of Hailwood’s Honda fell silent, exhausted by the reckless effort to which he had been subjected. For the three-cylinder MV it is a triumph. For Ago the apotheosis. The English champion was left with the honor of the record lap: 1’41.4 at an average of 204.142 km/h!

The new attack launched by Honda on MV Agusta, in the premier class, to win with Hailwood the only title that the Golden Wing manufacturer still lacks, fails precisely in the prestigious round of Monza, where the Japanese giant is forced to raise the white flag . That defeat hurts Hailwood and Honda, which a few weeks later will announce, like a bolt from the blue, its withdrawal from the GPs, convincing Mike Hailwood to desert with a large check in dollars. Mike, besides being a champion, was a rebel. Just a year later, on 14-15 September 1968, Mike returned to the world championship at the Monza GP, with the MV 350 and 500, Agostini’s teammate. A hit and run, with Mike disappointed with his racing car, dumped in Saturday morning practice badly into the pit wall in front of the astonished Conte Agusta and passing in an amen “to the enemy”, on Renzo Pasolini’s 4-cylinder Benelli. Paolo Benelli, sporting director of the Pesaro company, would later say: “On 15 September 1968, only that unfortunate crash under the Hailwood flood on the Benelli 500 at the Parabolica deprived motorcycling of a superb technical-competitive show in the battle with Agostini’s MV. A triumph for Mike could have changed the fate of that Days of Courage motorcycling.”

Already. In the end the facts remain. The world title and the honors of glory go to only one driver, the champion. The second is the first of the losers. It was valid yesterday for Agostini and Hailwood, two extraordinary champions, it is valid today between Bagnaia and Martin. Who have four races to write their history. And this World Cup.