We had to make the right choice of machine for this season, because apart from Honda there is no salvation. Riders equipped with motorcycles from the world's leading manufacturer occupy the first six places in the provisional World Championship standings, with Joan Mir ahead of Romano Fenati, Arón Canet, Jorge Martín, John McPhee and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Joan mir, teammate of Fabio Quartararo last year at Leopard Racing, was one of the favorites at the start of the season after the Moto2 starts of Brad Binder, Jorge Navarro, Francesco Bagnaia and Quartararo. We opposed him Enea Bastianini, Nicholas Bulega, Romano Fenati, and why not Andrea Migno and Fabio di Giannantonio, without forgetting to keep an eye on young people in the category like Aron Canet and Bo Bendsneyder.
Half of the drivers on the list of favorites would quickly be removed, due to the lack of competitiveness of the KTM and Mahindra. After the fifth Grand Prix of this year, no KTM rider made the podium. The best result for a Mahindra (Peugeot included) was the recent eleventh place of Jakub Kornfeil at Le Mans.
The change in the competitiveness ratio between the different manufacturers was detrimental to drivers who had made the wrong choice by changing brands during the off-season. Thus Joan Mir, fifth in the 2016 Championship on KTM, is now first on Honda. Jakub Kornfeil, eighth on Honda, is now twenty-fourth on Mahindra-Peugeot.
Joan Mir, the current leader of the Championship, is in some ways atypical. Thus in 24 Grand Prix contested, he has only achieved one pole position, last year in Austria. This season, he only started once from the front row, in Texas. Otherwise he always started from far away on the grid, for example from sixteenth position in Argentina... which did not prevent him from winning the race! Because if Mir is not the king of qualifying, on the other hand he is formidable in racing, with this year three victories and a second place in five events.
Romano Fenati was distraught last year when he was ousted from Sky Racing Team VR46 mid-season. At the start of the year, it turns out to be quite a blessing with his move from a KTM to a Honda from the Snipers Team, where he is the teammate of Jules Danilo. The Frenchman is also having a good start to the season with currently thirteenth place in the provisional standings of the World Championship and a very commendable seventh place at Le Mans, in the fight with Enea Bastianini and Andrea Migno.
In the Championship, the situation settled down a little after the French Grand Prix. Mir arrived in Sarthe with 74 points, 9 ahead of Fenati and 15 ahead of Martin. Everything changed when Mir won while Fenati and Jorge Martin fell. Mir now arrives at Mugello with a 34-point lead over Fenati, while Aron Canet, superb second at Le Mans, snatched provisional third place from Martin.
Mir finished seventh in last year's Italian GP, in the second group at 1.5. Fenati and Canet did not finish, and Martin ranked fourteenth at 2.0. However, watch out for Fenati, performing well at home (winner of the Italian GP in 2014, second in 2012 and third in 2015).
After the first quarter of the 2017 season, the main trends are starting to emerge. This is particularly the case in terms of equipment, with the insufficient performance of the KTMs. When will the Austrian manufacturer react, whose racing department is very busy with its arrival in Moto2 and MotoGP? And above all how? Pit Beirer, Competition Director, attributed the modest results to the lack of skill of his RC250GP riders. Danny Kent, Moto3 World Champion in 2015 on a Leopard Racing Honda, was hired at Le Mans to assess the possibilities of the KTM, and consequently the competitiveness of the riders. He ranked tenth in qualifying, as well as in the race (6.1 behind Mir).
KTM will obviously react sooner or later. The only question is whether, when that happens, Joan Mir, Romano Fenati, Arón Canet, Jorge Martín, John McPhee and Fabio Di Giannantonio will not have opened up an unbridgeable gap. Start of response Sunday at Mugello at 11 a.m. for the start of the Gran Premio d'Italia Moto3.
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Joan MIR-Honda 99 points
2 Romano FENATI-Honda 65
3 Aron CANET-Honda 63
4 Jorge MARTIN-Honda 59
5 John MCPHEE-Honda 53
6 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO-Honda 51
7 Andrea MIGNO-KTM 43
8 Marcos RAMIREZ-KTM 36
9 Juanfran GUEVARA-KTM 34
10 Enea BASTIANINI-Honda 31
11 Nicolo BULEGA-KTM 22
12 Philipp OETTL-KTM 20
13 Jules DANILO-Honda 16
Provisional classification for the Manufacturers’ World Championship:
1 Honda 125 points
2 KTM 60
3 Peugeot 5s
4 Mahindra 4
Photos © Repsol Media
