It’s not the fault of world By God!, but Friday, which used to be a day to get in touch with the circuit, to adapt the bikes to the track, to feel the curves, to decide the set-up of the bike, to test where to be strong and where To keep the pilots, engineers and telemetrics, to measure the time and take good notes, to press firmly the next day, Saturday, has become pure vertigo with the new grand prix format, which includes a sprint race. , that is to say, with few laps, on Saturday afternoon.
The first day of every GP is going to be, like yesterday, a day where no one will be able to doubt, where you have to push from minute one, from the moment you set foot on the new track, to be able to get into the top 10 that qualify, now! to qualifying on Saturday, with which the grids for this mini-grand prix and the big race on Sunday are made up.
very ugly fall
And in that wanting and needing to be fast, very fast, lightning, already on the first day, the mistakes, the forgetfulness, the falls, the injuries, the ambulances, the helicopters fly very low and, in one of them, in the medicalized the brave flew yesterday Pol Espargaro (GasGas)with a strong bruise on his chest and back (he will lose this first double date, for sure), when he was chasing, like everyone else, with 13 minutes 55 seconds to go, one of the top 10 places that give the right, I insist, to the ‘quali’ today in Portimao.
There was uncertainty, there was fear, well, respect, doubts, but when we saw Dr. Ángel Charte move serenely, who rushed to the wall of tires into which ‘Polyccio’ crashed, we thought he had hurt himself (it was seen hanging an intravenous line and the place where he was treated was covered), but he was conscious and well cared for. Later, he was late in leaving, but the ambulance took him slowly to the heliport and, now, he is being controlled in a hospital in Faro, where he will soon see the light and recover his strong gladiator health.
The harsh fall of @polespargaro ?
The pilot is conscious, although he has been transferred to the Faro hospital after suffering chest and back trauma ?#PortugueseGP ?? #MotoGP ? pic.twitter.com/bCIw0qJ5Vt
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) March 24, 2023
‘Polyccio’, like the rest of his teammates, was looking for a suicidal lap to get into Q2 tomorrow
«It is evident», commented Joan Mir, agreeing with the opinion of Marc Márquez, «that by tomorrow (that is, today, Saturday) an ‘air fence’ must be installed, an air defense, at that point, because it is dangerous what happened to ‘Polyccio’, who crashed into the tires and that’s like hitting a wall, because there is usually cement inside the tires». And the two-time Majorcan champion added, not so much as self-criticism, but also as an experience: «On Thursday we should have realized that, at that point, there is not enough escape and we needed an ‘air fence’. But, well, we already know how this is going, until something happens we don’t think about the solution ».
And it is that everyone, everyone, had to run, sometimes, more than necessary, because getting into the top 10 was very expensive, so expensive that you had to run two seconds faster than in the morning. And, of course, all the predictions made and to be made came true, except for the one who would get the best time, which was the brave and intrepid Jack Miller, one of those crazy Australians, like Casey Stoner, who set the time (1.37. 709 minutes) with a suicidal, atrocious, frightening return, a return that he celebrated by flying off, I swear! flying! from the change in elevation of the straight, to land with the front wheel, boooom!, stay that way, one wheel, 25 meters and land with the rear, while he sang victory.
“This is the new Friday. Everyone at the top, but you have to think that this year we have 42 races”
Maverick Viñales / Official Aprilia Racing rider
Everything else was very predictable. The Hondas, all of them, starting with Joan Mir, Àlex Rins and Marc Márquez, who finished more than half a second off the best time, specifically, at 0.710, will receive the punishment of having to go through Q2 purgatory today to win, either It will be easy, a place in Q1, otherwise they will start in the middle of the grid and, there, anything can happen, not just crashing, but crashing in the middle of the pack.
“Nothing new, the predictable,” said Márquez, who was not so desperate for his pace, which is good, but regretted that his Honda is still slow, ineffective, one lap away, that is, when he does the ‘time attack’ , vital to be able to aspire to get ahead on the grid. “Things have gotten tough not having the ideal bike yet and if you start in the middle of the grid, when you reach the first corner you are already two seconds away and bye-bye podium. So that’s our most urgent improvement: to be able to do a fast lap, even if it’s suicidal.”
Vinales, happy
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And, it must be said, one of the revelations of the pre-season is in the same situation, Àlex Márquez, who on Gresini’s Ducati came to be leading the times yesterday. But, I repeat, that batch turned into a vertiginous hell where having been the fastest was useless. “I am very, very happy with what I have done,” said the “hermanísimo.”
The person who was helped by the ER was Maverick Viñales (Aprilia, second) who really enjoyed it. “Well, we have seen what a Friday in 2023 is like: everyone goes to the sack, everyone rides soft, fast tires, one after the other and everything changes a lot. I like this vertigo, although it is dangerous because you have to measure the risk very well, since there are going to be 42 races and you cannot get lost, fall, hurt yourself, because you lose many, many points ».