At the end of the 2016 season, as the last Grand Prix ended in Valencia, the first predictions for 2017 pitted the reigning World Champion Marc Marquez against his vice-Champion Valentino Rossi, with the third in the Championship Jorge Lorenzo as an outsider. who went to Ducati.
That was on November 13, 2016. Now, on June 16, 2017, seven months later, Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso are at the top of the rankings. There was no shortage of surprises for the forecasters: who would have guessed that after seven Grands Prix, Marquez, Rossi and Lorenzo would only have one victory between them (Marc in Texas), less than Dovizioso alone ?
Nothing is lost yet for Marquez, who is only 23 points behind Vinales, nor for Rossi, who is at 28. Both are capable of managing a championship in MotoGP, while for Vinales and Dovizioso, it remains to prove.
In terms of the manufacturers' ranking, if the situation is desperate for Suzuki and Aprilia, on the other hand Honda must absolutely react, with less than one victory in three races on average, 14 points behind in the Championship over Yamaha, and only 3 points behind. advances on Ducati.
Marc Marquez counts the points, assesses his title chances, and especially those of his main opponents. And in this little game, it’s always Dovi’s name that comes up.
For Marquez, “ Yes, Andrea is for me a candidate for the title of World Champion. He is now second in his provisional ranking. The way he achieved his victories at Mugello and Barcelona is strong. He is fast.
“But it will certainly be interesting to see how it performs at Assen or at the Sachsenring, because they are two completely different tracks. It is clear, however, that it will be very fast in Austria. They can also be strong in Brno.
“Right now there are two drivers in front of me. That means they did something better than me. »
The vision is roughly similar for Dani Pedrosa, former teammate of Andrea Dovizioso at Repsol Honda and current teammate of Marc Marquez within the same team: “ I see things the same way. Andrea has a lot of experience, rides well and knows his machine exactly. That's why he can be at the front with this bike every race.
“Besides, he’s still very consistent. He has two consecutive victories. Certainly more drivers than before have a chance. All these factors play together when you want to win a title. »
Photo © Repsol Media
Source: Frank Aday for speedweek. com
