MotoGP Czech GP 2020 Pre-Race Talking Points

Expect the unexpected. Cliched but applies perfectly for the crazy year that is 2020. And perfectly applicable to qualifying for the MotoGP Czech Grand Prix where Johann Zarco took pole in a year old Ducati! And on a day when three time premier class championship runner-up and factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso couldn’t make it out of Q1. 

Vive la France

Two French riders in the top two positions after qualifying was surprising enough given the dominance of French and Spanish riders in the MotoGP’s premier class. Even more surprising was that both riders - Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo - ride for privateer teams. It was Zarco’s first pole position since his days at Tech 3 when they used Yamaha bikes and his name was mentioned as a potential factory Yamaha rider. The hot and dry conditions at Brno, the venue for the Czech GP, made things tricky on track for some of the more fancied riders. That included Quartararo who crashed out at the very end of Q2 when he was trying to secure his fifth consecutive pole position - going back to last year’s Malaysian GP. 

Private rules

Fabio Quarataro has the exact same specification Yamaha bike as the factory riders Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi. Therefore, despite him riding for the privateer Petronas Yamaha SRT squad, his current dominance is not that surprising given his talent. Quartararo’s teammate Franco Morbidelli has a lower spec bike, though, and he is still faster than both Vinales and Rossi in qualifying. And of course, the pole sitter for Sunday’s race is riding for not only a privateer team, but one with the lowest budget on the grid. No factory bikes on the front row of a MotoGP grid is not something one sees often. 

Hard luck for Pol

If not for a yellow flag infraction, a surprising qualifying session would have been even more so with KTM’s Pol Espargaro’s on the front row. His best time was deleted, however, after he was found not slowing down sufficiently when he rode through a yellow flag zone after Cal Crutchlow crashed out. 

Missing in action

It’s been a brutal 2020 MotoGP season, no two ways about it. We saw that at the very first round of the season when Cal Crutchlow, Alex Rins and defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez suffered pretty severe injuries after crashes. Probably no more so than Marquez whose humerus in his right arm was broken and which forced him to sit out the second round of the season. Unfortunately the titanium plate holding the bone together was damaged and a second operation forced him to miss this race weekend too. Whether you are a fan of number 93 or not, you have to admit that his ballsy and flat out riding robs a MotoGP race of a fair amount of excitement. Now another name can be added to those missing in action as Francesco Bagnaia crashed in practice and suffered injuries bad enough to miss not only the Czech GP but also the Austrian GP.