Misano Moto GP. Was it Divine Intervention?

Chaos surrounded Pedrosa on the grid as bad luck struck once again

The very rapid Livio Loi who also has has a full factory barber!

I’m still buzzing from an amazing weekend of Moto GP in Misano. It took until Saturday lunchtime for the sun to get his hat on but from there on in the atmosphere at both the circuit and the nearby beachfront was first class. As usual on race day we had epic Moto 3 and Moto 2 races with respective champions elect Cortese and Marquez once again taking victories by just fractions of a second. The passionate Italian crowd were going mental as home heroes Romano Fenati in Moto 3, and Andrea Iannone in Moto 2 both led before dropping down to the third step of the podium at the chequered flag. The Moto GP race may have been less exciting but what surely could only have been divine intervention delivered a fascinating end to the day. Someone upstairs is clearly not a Dani Pedrosa fan as once again, just as the likeable Spaniard gets the title within his sights strange forces take over. After qualifying comfortably on pole, what are the chances of another rider causing the start to be aborted, his front wheel locking solid, being forced to start from last place on the grid and then getting taken out by another rider on the first lap of the restart? Pretty slim I’d say. And while this chain of events was a complete disaster for the Repsol Honda Team, these incidents(two of them down to satellite Ducati Teams) helped to give Marlboro Ducati and home circuit hero Valentino Rossi their best dry race result in two years, OMG!

And I can’t leave out the incredible Red Bull Moto GP Rookie Cup with twenty four of the world’s fastest kids on identical 125 KTMs (next year Moto 3 machines) giving it their all for glory. In Misano we had six leaders with Czech rider Karel Hanika eventually winning after squeezing past Livio Loi at the penultimate corner on the last lap. Loi won last time out in the Czech Republic and the diminutive fifteen year old Belgian is certainly a star of the future as the Marc VDS team already see him as a long term prospect. Last year’s Cup winner, Australian Arthur Sissis was rewarded with a factory Red Bull Moto 3 ride proving it is still possible to come from zero to hero in a few short years. These youngsters start the process (from anywhere in the world) by simply applying online (redbullrookies.com) and in most cases their talent will decide how far they can go.