MotoGP: Still plenty to decide as Portimao hosts 2020 finale

This weekend the 2020 MotoGP World Championship heads to Portugal and the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for the 14th and final round of the season. 

Although Joan Mir wrapped up the Riders’ Championship, and Suzuki Ecstar the Teams’ Championship, last weekend in Valencia, there is plenty left to fight for in the premier class in 2020, particularly the second and third places in the Riders’ Championship; the Manufacturers’ Championship.

With Suzuki lying first and third in the riders’ standings at the moment, it is no surprise that they head into Portimao this weekend leading the Manufacturers’ standings, it is level on points with Ducati, and Yamaha are just 13 points behind in third place in the standings, meaning all three are in with a shot this weekend. 

Suzuki, though, will be the favourites. Their GSX-RR has been the most consistent motorcycle on the grid this year, and has worked in almost every track and condition this year. Portimao is a new circuit to MotoGP, and only three riders in the premier class have raced there: Joan Mir (CEV Repsol); Cal Crutchlow (WorldSSP, WorldSBK) and Danilo Petrucci (STK1000 FIM Cup), where all three have found some success. Mir won in the Moto3 Junior World Championship in 2015; Crutchlow took pole in WorldSBK in 2009; and Petrucci won the STK1000 race in 2011. 

Of course, while this will be the beginning of something for Mir – his first race as a MotoGP World Champion – for Crutchlow and Petrucci this weekend will be the end of something: for Crutchlow his full time racing career and for Petrucci his time as a factory Ducati rider.

Crutchlow’s final race for LCR Honda will be an emotional affair, at least on the side of the team if not on that of the rider: Crutchlow has won three races with the team, two in 2016 and another in 2018; and the team in turn brought Crutchlow to the top step in the premier class for the first time, immortalising the #35 in British MotoGP hearts as he became, in Brno, 2016, the first Briton to win a premier class race since Barry Sheene’s final victory in Sweden, 1981. 

For Petrucci, there is a similar ending in process. Although Ducati had won many races between 2016 and 2019, piloting a Desmosedici to victory in Mugello will bring love to any rider from the Ducatisti, and that is precisely what Petrucci achieved almost 18 months ago. His win in Le Mans earlier this year seemed a fitting way for the #9 to close his final season with Ducati, with whom he has been affiliated since 2015 when he took his first podium with Pramac Racing at Silverstone. On the positive side for Petrucci, the current age of MotoGP, as well as the way KTM is set up, means that his transfer from the factory Ducati team to the satellite Red Bull KTM Tech 3 team is not an out-and-out step down. Things will be different, and this will be Petrucci’s first MotoGP season outside of an Italian team, but the bike to which he is moving is a strong package, and the team has proven this year with Miguel Oliveira that it is capable of winning races. 

There are also endings elsewhere in the MotoGP class this weekend, in particular Pol Espargaro’s time in KTM and the era of Valentino Rossi as a factory rider.

Starting with Espargaro, the Spaniard has yet to achieve a maiden win with the Austrian brand, but this year has transformed over the course of the season from a seemingly desperate hot-head who made too many mistakes to one of the most consistent riders in the championship. The #44 has taken five podiums in 2020, the most of anyone bar World Champion, Mir. Additionally, as he approaches his final race for KTM, Espargaro is seventh in the standings, but only four points away from Maverick Vinales in fourth. Such a result would be massive for KTM, in just their fourth full season of premier class Grand Prix road racing.

Moving on to Rossi, and since 2002, when he moved to Repsol Honda, the #46 has worked within factory setups and, of course, with great success. In 2021, though, as he turns 42-years-old, Rossi will work in a satellite team for the first time since 2001 when, of course, he won the final 500cc world title, as he makes his way to Petronas Yamaha SRT to replace Fabio Quartararo, who in turn replaces him in the factory Yamaha squad, and to partner his protege and original VR46 Rider Academy member, Franco Morbidelli. This final race as a factory rider is another sign of the changing tides of this moment of MotoGP.

Joan Mir is World Champion having only debuted in Grands Prix in 2016, and the oldest factory riders on the grid next year will be the Espargaro brothers, with Aleix at 31 and Pol at 29 at the beginning of the season in (provisionally) March. Additionally, with Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow leaving the grid in 2021, Aleix will be the only rider within 10 years of Rossi’s age, and the only other rider to have competed in the 800cc era of MotoGP.

At the moment, it seems something of a ‘frying pan to fire’ move for Rossi to partner Morbidelli in 2021, since Morbidelli has won three races this year, as many as Rossi has achieved in the past five seasons combined. Indeed, Morbidelli’s victory last time out in Valencia was one of his best, a controlled ride for 26 laps under pressure from Jack Miller, before a brutal, yet fair, last lap battle from which the #21 emerged victorious.

This weekend, Morbidelli will try to secure second in the World Championship, which seems to be Italy’s place in the World Championship in recent years. The last three years, when Marc Marquez has dominated, Andrea Dovizioso has finished as runner up, and in the three years before that the second-place spot was taken up by the aforementioned Rossi. A silver medal this year for Morbidelli would be Italy’s seventh in succession, but with Alex Rins just four points behind him a Suzuki 1-2 in the Riders’ standings is far from impossible. 

Although Morbidelli has taken three wins this year and two in the last three races, it is Rins who is the in-form rider as the season comes to a close. The #42 has taken three podiums in the last four races, missing out only in Valencia last week when his fourth place helped Suzuki to wrap up the Teams’ title for the first time in their history. A second win of the season this weekend would guarantee Suzuki the Manufacturers’ title and Rins the silver medal, and that would certainly complete a perfect season for the Hamamatsu brand. 

In Moto2 and Moto3, things are far from decided. Starting with Moto2, there are 23 points covering four riders coming into this weekend, with Enea Bastianini holding a 14-point lead over Sam Lowes, who in turn has four points on  Luca Marini, who is separated by five points from his teammate, Marco Bezzecchi, who was back on form in Valencia where he finished on the podium both times including a win in the European round. 

Bezzecchi might come into this weekend as the favourite to win, but it is his teammate, Marini, who is one of only four riders with knowledge of Portimao on a Moto2 bike, courtesy of his time in the European Championship back in 2015 with the Pons team. Other than Marini, only Xavi Vierge, Augusto Fernandez and Hector Garzo, who took his maiden World Championship podium last time out in Valencia, have knowledge of the Portuguese circuit on a middle-weight Grand Prix bike. However, their experience was gained with the 600cc Honda motors, and only Marini has ridden in the Algarve before with a Kalex: Vierge and Garzo both ran Tech 3 frames in the European Championship, and for Fernandez it was a Suter and then a Speed Up. 

Perhaps their prior knowledge of Portimao will lead to an advantage in the early sessions, but it would be a surprise for the likes of Sam Lowes, who won at Portimao in WorldSSP in 2013, or Enea Bastianini to be able to make the difference over the course of the weekend. 

In terms of the championship, a top four for Bastianini will suffice regardless of what the others do, and if Sam Lowes does not win, a top eight will be enough for the Italian to clench his first world crown. The odds are stacked in the favour of the #33, but in motorcycle racing anything is possible. 

Moto3 is in a somewhat similar scenario, but the frantic nature of the racing means that there is nothing certain in the lightweight class, which is led by Albert Arenas. The Spaniard has eight points over Ai Ogura, who is still yet to win a race in 2020 but was confirmed to be moving up to Moto2 with the Honda Team Asia squad in 2021. Behind the Japanese rider is last weekend’s winner, Tony Arbolino, who has somewhat ghosted his way to being only 11 points behind Arenas heading into the final round. For all three, this will be their final Moto3 race, as Arenas and Arbolino join Ogura in moving up to Moto2, for Arenas with Aspar and for Arbolino with Liqui Moly Intact GP – therefore the chance at the lightweight title will not come around again.