#misano 2014

[sebmaxrc]

hell hath seen no misery worse than a yearning twink

[tinysamu20031012]

never done an edit in my life, and damn, to those who do that regulary, I'm in awe

like the work you have to do for less than a minute of video- chapeau

PS: I know the formats are not the same everywhere and quality vary but I just wanted to try something new, so please be indulgent

PS2: @sammyche c'est pour toi 💫💫

[moonshynecybin]

was vale watching the podium? cause if yes then that's no doubt why marc was making sex faces during the national anthem. not only did he win on the track closest to vale's home while he knew vale was watching but he also made facial expressions that vale hasn't seen in yearsss but sometimes still sees in his nightmares

he actually had a helicopter come and fly him the 17km back to the ranch like he disappeared in a valentino rossi shaped puff of smoke he was DONE

[motogp-museum]

Tag Navigation and Intro

Hi!! It's @kissingwalls (this is not a side blog though)

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Rider filtered by year

To find the rider's posts from a specific year, type their initials, rider number, a colon, a space, and then the year into the search bar. For example mm93: 2013 (there are a couple of people I haven't done this for, so check their main tag first)

Here are a few common ones :) (i would put them all but the link limit is humbling me)

Vale:

vr46: 2013

vr46: 2014

vr46: 2015

vr46: 2016

Dani:

dp26: 2011

dp26: 2012

dp26: 2013

dp26: 2014

dp26: 2015

Jorge L:

jl99: 2011

jl99: 2012

jl99: 2013

jl99: 2014

jl99: 2015

Marc:

mm93: 2012

mm93: 2013

mm93: 2014

mm93: 2015

mm93: 2016

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Some of these are just people who are together a lot.

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espargabros

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type: gif

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indy

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Circuit with year

You can also search by circuit: year (eg. catalunya: 2015). Just make sure you put a space after the colon. Unless the post said where it was though, I did not put a location tag.

----------

Intro:

(i'll just put it at the bottom so i remember to delete it)

I have been hoarding all of these (there are like 1000 more in my draft and queue lol) for a while now in my draft bc even tho they are like 3 note gifs, they are historical artefacts to meeee.

Anyway, I've got a cold, and so to occupy myself, I decided to just make a blog so that everything can be organised and easy (ish, this is tumblr after all) to find!

I know heaps of my fellow ✨motogp tumblrinas ✨have made archives for their favs, and you are all braver than me, bc I would lose all the gifs immediately if I tried to create new archival posts. So I just reblogged everything and am going to hope for the best in terms of copyright lol

But yeah, these aren't just my favs. This is more just a snapshot of the fandom at different periods. I only reblogged the deactivated ones, but, y'all, use the posts as little gateways to blogs from that time period, it is FACINATING.

As always, peer review is welcome! If i completely messed up a tag (very likely, since i used the mass tag editor), you're welcome to let me know. Also if there's a ship tag, fun tag or something you want me to add in the mass tag editor, lemme know! more than happy to add literally anything ✨✨

I only started this today, so it's very much a work in progress! All the things without a link are because the posts that match up with them are in the queue. I also need to add the ones i forgot

[toni-peperoni]

I am begging you to share more of your mechanic alex vision

Okay so: We know that Alex actually wanted to be a mechanic for Marc rather than a rider himself, but Marc pushed him to at least try.

And Alex subbed in in Moto3 for the first time in 2012 and then did the entire season of 2013 and for this we have to pretend it didn't go as well as it actually did, so he decided to stop, focus on school and pursue his dream of becoming a mechanic.

I'm not very familiar (at all) with the Spanish school system, but it would probably mean, he'd finish school in 2014 and after that find a university to study remotely at. Finishing the school in Spain had meant almost a year of barely seeing his brother and that just wasn't something either could or would choose (love my codependent babes), but it would also lead to Alex being a little less dependent, because he knows basic life can work without Marc there, though for Marc basic life was racing and Alex was still present at every European race if possible.

The public would of course know Alex as Marc's brother and very rarely bring up that he used to race too, but they would know them more in the way Carola is known as Pecco's sister rather than Luca is known as Vale's brother, if that makes sense?

He'd start his apprenticeship at a racing team shortly there after, spending his first year learning with the Moto3 bikes, but his talents didn't go unnoticed, so he was moved up to learn about the difference of the 250cm³ and 765cm³ engines.

He finished his apprenticeship there in 2017 having made some appearances in the Repsol Honda factory already, seeing as he also needs to learn about the 1000cm³ bikes after all. That meant he had lots of experience with racing and working under pressure already and without hesitation, he was signed as one of Marc's mechanics at the beginning of the 2018 season.

They won two championships together and Marc knew no matter what, no matter how shit something went, he could always return to the garage and have his brother's support no matter how often he crashed, how much pain the bike caused him, his brother was there in and out of the garage.

There's two ways to go from here:

1. They became even more codependent and Marc leaving Honda was like a slap to the face for both of them.

2. They drifted apart a bit always aware, that they could rely on eachother for everything and have someone to talk to no matter, but Marc learned through seeing his brother work through the night on the bike, that he wasn't doing it only for Marc, but also for his love of bikes and Alex learned, that no matter how hard he tried, how much he wanted it, he couldn't always make his brother happy.

Either way, there were long discussions held and many tears fell, while Marc thought about whether he should leave or not.

In the end Marc left and Alex stayed. Why? Because he basically had only worked with Hondas for his entire life, there was no set up, no aero, no engine, he knew as well as the Honda. He lived for that bike.

While Marc's crew chief switched over to the other side of the box, now working with Joan, Alex stayed on his side of the garage and started to work with the new guy. Luca.

He knew Luca, of course he did, well at least by name and from the few stories Marc had told, when he and Vale were still okay.

He had even raced against Luca, one single race in 2013, when Alex did his one and only podium in Misano in the Moto3, Luca had subbed in for an injured rider.

But it wasn't Alex to bring that info to the table. It was actually Luca, who after Alex had introduced himself with the rest of the crew had told him that little fact. Alex would have forgotten about it.

That was the first encounter Alex had with Luca's very observant nature, leading to him noticing the smallest details about people's habits and making positive remarks about those.

Away from the track Luca was kind, gentle and always in for a laugh, but on the track, he was just as fierce as everyone else. Despite the Honda being... well the bike that it currently is, he never once tried to blame his mechanics, rather giving feedback about the bike, than telling them in a condescending voice how shit it was. That would have been very understandable and Alex had been rarely actually mad, when riders had done that, he understood the emotions and knew that most riders would come around to apologize later, because it had been a heat of the moment thing.

They were working very close together, going over data until late at night, because Luca was as determined to make that bike work again as Alex was. So it became natural to them to spend time together and they were starting to become friends and eventually more...

[strawbunni-shortcake]

This has been sitting in my drafts for almost a month and im only just getting around to posting this as a way to procrastinate doing my readings, but if you wanted to see the full pictures and races for (almost) all the pic Marc used in his post thanking Red Bull here they are bellow the cut

2008 (this is the only picture i really couldn't track down at all, not even sure which circuit this was taken at. most likely is that its misano, where he finished fourth, but i couldn't find an exact match)

Jerez 2009

Valencia 2010 (also could find the full version of this one so its just ripped from the post)

Aragon 2011

Malaysia 2013

Japan 2014

COTA 2015

Japan 2016

Aragon 2017

Thailand 2018

Thailand 2019

Jerez 2020

Austria 2021

COTA 2022

Madrid All In Premiere 2023

Aragon 2024

[thechicanedoll]

‎ ‎ 

CHEQUERED FLAG, LOOK AT HOW FAR SHE'S COME!

Gear up for the fast lane and relive the rise of one of the most untouchable icons in motorsports. From her highest of victories to her lowest of failures, take a look at her greatest triumphs and the legacy she's built over the course of almost 14 years in racing.

SECTOR 1: KARTING TO FORMULA 4

Griffiths took up karting at the age of 8 in 2009 in West Wales before she progressed to the cadet class in 2012, becoming the MSA British Champion and British Open Champion.  ‎ ‎  In 2013, she moved to the Rotax Mini Max category before she soon graduated to the KF3 class in 2014, where she earned the SKUSA Supernationals title and became the CIK-FIA European Champion, which she successfully defended in 2015. In her final year of karting in 2016, she finished 3rd in the KF1 CIK-FIA World Championship.

‎ ‎ 

In the beginning of 2017, Quinton moved on to compete in the BRDC Formula 4 under the TRS Arden Junior Racing Team, wherein she had a very close fight with fellow TRS Arden Junior Racing Team driver, Oscar Piastri, for the championship, and ultimately won the championship by 65.5 points. ‎ ‎  At the end of her rookie season, Griffiths won the Autosport BRDC Award while also earning the privilege to test Formula 2, DTM, and GT3 cars. At the young age of 16, she had become the youngest-ever winner of the award following the previous achievements of fellow driver George Russell who was 17 at the time of awarding. Afterwards, she was selected for the BRDC’s Superstars Junior Driver mentorship programme, where she had once again become the youngest-ever selection.

SECTOR 2: FIA FORMULA 3

Although Griffiths was rumored to spend the entirety of 2018 competing for Arden International, her BRDC award had given her the privilege to skip directly to the European Formula 3, wherein she debuted as part of Prema Theodore Racing, alongside Guanyu Zhou and Ralf Aron.

‎ ‎ 

She made her debut in Circuit de Pau-Ville, where she finished 1st in the Drivers’ Championship with 365 points – her best finishes being first in Round 3 at Spa-Francorchamps, Round 2 at Silverstone, Round 1 at the Misano World Circuit, and a total sweep in Nurburgring. She continued her streak up until the second round of the season at Red Bull Ring. She finished ahead of her teammates, which ultimately helped Prema secure their Team Championship the very same year.

SECTOR 3: FIA FORMULA 2 (2019 TO 2020)

Griffiths moved up to Formula 2, wherein she was signed to DAMS and set to race alongside Nicholas Latifi. She would end the season, finishing 4th behind Luca Ghiotto and short of 62 points for the championship. With her and Latifis place in the championship standings, they were able to secure DAMS their team championship for the year.

‎ ‎ 

However, in the sprint race in Monza following a double rear collision with Ghiotto, Griffiths suffered a rear right puncture on her car after Ghiotto misjudged his braking for Turn 1 that led to a collision with de Vries, simultaneously hitting Griffiths. Going into Variante della Roggia, her car lost control and violently smashed on the safety barriers. Unfortunately, due to the sheer impact at the speed she was going, Griffiths suffered a break in her fifth metacarpal on her right hand which gave her about 3 to 6 weeks to fully heal.

‎ ‎ 

Griffiths would unfortunately depart from DAMS the following year and temporarily resign from professional racing due to her aforementioned injury – with the rigorous training she had been subjected to before the beginning of the 2020 season, too much strain was put into her injury which only worsened her condition, hence her temporary departure from the sport.

SECTOR 4: FIA FORMULA 2 (2021 TO 2023)

Griffiths made her awaited comeback on the track in 2021 with her previous team DAMS, racing alongside Guilherme Samaia and Roy Nissany. However, on her comeback race in Bahrain, Griffiths experienced a major power loss which caused her retirement from the first Sprint Race of the season.

‎ ‎  Her misfortune was soon followed up in the second Sprint Race wherein she climbed to 6th place by the 13th lap, but was unfortunately dropped to 10th after a safety car was deployed and rivals with fresher tyres were able to pass her. Griffiths ended the 2021 season 13th in the Drivers’ Championship and 8th in the Teams’ Championship.

‎ ‎ 

The following season in 2022, Griffiths was set to race for DAMS alongside Roy Nissany once again with high hopes to come back from the arguably worst season she has ever had in her career. Her steady positions within the points led to her finishing 5th in the overall Drivers’ championship, beating her teammate by a huge 121 points in the final standings.

‎ ‎ 

At the end of the season, however, it was announced that Griffiths would once again depart from DAMS and join ART Grand Prix in the 2023 season, joining Victor Martins. 

‎ ‎ 

Her unexpected move to ART Grand Prix was exactly what she needed to start the season on the right foot, finishing 5th and setting the fastest lap in the Bahrain Sprint Race in 2023 and 1st in the Feature Race, while also starting from pole position. Throughout the entire season, Griffiths consistently finished within the points, rarely ever getting arguably terrible results which led to her winning the Drivers’ Championship for Formula 2 in 2023 with 203 points and an 11-point gap to rival Frederik Vesti. ART Grand Prix also went on to finish 1st in the Teams’ Championships with the efforts of both Griffiths and Martins, who finished 5th in the Drivers’ Championship.

SECTOR 5: FIA FORMULA 1

Throughout her achievements in the 2023 season and given her performance all throughout her career, Griffiths was offered a chance to test for Scuderia Ferrari back in Fiorano to be part of the 2024 grid. Despite performing well, she was offered nothing more than a reserved driver role — one she thought would not suit her, hence the spot being given to Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman.

‎ ‎ 

Griffiths respectfully declined further negotiations from Ferrari, believing that the Scuderia did not have enough faith in her talent to offer her a much more enticing position in the team.

‎ ‎ 

At the end of the 2023 season in December, Griffiths was once again invited to test in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, this time for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, alongside fellow driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

‎ ‎ 

Despite performing with little to no mistakes, she fell short compared to Antonelli’s results in terms of pace and ultimately, did not secure a seat for herself — one that Antonelli secured the following season, to be able to race in 2025 for the aforementioned team. 

‎ ‎ 

It was in January of 2024 when Griffiths received a call from Oracle Red Bull Racing and their Team Principal, Richard Martin, offering her an opportunity to test for the senior team directly in Silverstone. Clawing for a seat in Formula 1, Griffiths made quite the first impression for herself, finishing just fifth-hundreths of a second behind 4-time Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen.

Martin was incredibly impressed by the performance shown by the rookie, offering her another reserve driver role for the 2024 season. However, in her contract, a condition set by the team was that her role would put her at the forefront of consideration should a driver be taken out of Oracle Red Bull Racing. 

‎ ‎ 

Griffiths sat in the shadows of this news throughout the 2024 season, waiting to hear from Red Bull once again but after not receiving a call from them until the Qatar Grand Prix, she slowly started to lose hope.

‎ ‎ 

It wasn’t until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that she received a call to test for them one more time at the Yas Marina Circuit, alongside VISA Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda. This time, Griffiths was determined to learn from her mistakes during her test drive in Mercedes the previous year. 

‎ ‎ 

Griffiths ran a lap time ahead of Verstappen’s performance in 2024, which would have placed her in P5. She would finish a half a second behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, which only further solidified Oracle Red Bull Racing’s decision on choosing Griffiths to be their second driver for the 2025 season.

‎ ‎ 

This news was announced to the general public last 23rd of December, 2024 via the official social media platforms of Oracle Red Bull Racing, following the departure of Sergio Perez from the team. Since then, Griffiths has been continuously preparing for her upcoming season with Red Bull with the expectations of fans worldwide hanging on her shoulders. 

‎ ‎ 

[sebmaxrc]

found this lil gem

[thechicanediaries]

THE CROWNING OF THE PADDOCK PRINCESS.

Take a look through her journey towards the pinnacle of motorsports. Why don't we count her achievements together?

I. KARTING TO FORMULA 4

Griffiths took up karting at the age of 8 in 2009 in West Wales before she progressed to the cadet class in 2012, becoming the MSA British Champion and British Open Champion. In 2013, she moved to the Rotax Mini Max category before she soon graduated to the KF3 class in 2014, where she earned the SKUSA Supernationals title and became the CIK-FIA European Champion, which she successfully defended in 2015. In her final year of karting in 2016, she finished 3rd in the KF1 CIK-FIA World Championship.

In the beginning of 2017, Quinton moved on to compete in the BRDC Formula 4 under the TRS Arden Junior Racing Team, wherein she had a very close fight with fellow TRS Arden Junior Racing Team driver, Oscar Piastri, for the championship, and ultimately won the championship by 65.5 points. At the end of her rookie season, Griffiths won the Autosport BRDC Award while also earning the privilege to test Formula 2, DTM, and GT3 cars. At the young age of 16, she had become the youngest-ever winner of the award following the previous achievements of fellow driver George Russell who was 17 at the time of awarding. Afterwards, she was selected for the BRDC’s Superstars Junior Driver mentorship programme, where she had once again become the youngest-ever selection.

II. FIA FORMULA 3

Although Griffiths was rumored to spend the entirety of 2018 competing for Arden International, her BRDC award had given her the privilege to skip directly to the European Formula 3, wherein she debuted as part of Prema Theodore Racing, alongside Guanyu Zhou and Ralf Aron. She made her debut in Circuit de Pau-Ville, where she finished 1st in the Drivers’ Championship with 365 points – her best finishes being first in Round 3 at Spa-Francorchamps, Round 2 at Silverstone, Round 1 at the Misano World Circuit, and a total sweep in Nurburgring. She continued her streak up until the second round of the season at Red Bull Ring. She finished ahead of her teammates, which ultimately helped Prema secure their Team Championship the very same year.

III. FIA FORMULA 2 (2019 - 2020)

Griffiths moved up to Formula 2, wherein she was signed to DAMS and set to race alongside Nicholas Latifi. She would end the season, finishing 4th behind Luca Ghiotto and short of 62 points for the championship. With her and Latifis place in the championship standings, they were able to secure DAMS their team championship for the year.

However, in the sprint race in Monza following a double rear collision with Ghiotto, Griffiths suffered a rear right puncture on her car after Ghiotto misjudged his braking for Turn 1 that led to a collision with de Vries, simultaneously hitting Griffiths. Going into Variante della Roggia, her car lost control and violently smashed on the safety barriers. Unfortunately, due to the sheer impact at the speed she was going, Griffiths suffered a break in her fifth metacarpal on her right hand which gave her about 3 to 6 weeks to fully heal.

Griffiths would unfortunately depart from DAMS the following year and temporarily resign from professional racing due to her aforementioned injury – with the rigorous training she had been subjected to before the beginning of the 2020 season, too much strain was put into her injury which only worsened her condition, hence her temporary departure from the sport.

IV. FIA FORMULA 2 (2021 - 2023)

Griffiths made her awaited comeback on the track in 2021 with her previous team DAMS, racing alongside Guilherme Samaia and Roy Nissany. However, on her comeback race in Bahrain, Griffiths experienced a major power loss which caused her retirement from the first Sprint Race of the season. Her misfortune soon followed after in the second Sprint Race wherein she climbed to 6th place by the 13th lap, but was unfortunately dropped to 10th after a safety car was deployed and rivals with fresher tyres passed her. Griffiths ended the 2021 season 13th in the Drivers’ Championship and 8th in the Teams’ Championship.

The following season in 2022, Griffiths was set to race for DAMS alongside Roy Nissany once again with high hopes to come back from the arguably worst season she has ever had in her career. Her steady positions within the points led to her finishing 5th in the overall Drivers’ championship, beating her teammate by a huge 121 points in the final standings. At the end of the season, however, it was announced that Griffiths would once again depart from DAMS and join ART Grand Prix in the 2023 season, joining Victor Martins. 

Her unexpected move to ART Grand Prix was exactly what she needed to start the season on the right foot, finishing 5th and setting the fastest lap in the Bahrain Sprint Race in 2023 and 1st in the Feature Race, while also starting from pole position. Throughout the entire season, Griffiths consistently finished within the points, rarely ever getting arguably terrible results which led to her winning the Drivers’ Championship for Formula 2 in 2023 with 203 points and an 11-point gap to rival Frederik Vesti. ART Grand Prix also went on to finish 1st in the Teams’ Championships with the efforts of both Griffiths and Martins, who finished 5th in the Drivers’ Championship.

V. FIA FORMULA 1

Throughout her achievements in the 2023 season and given her performance all throughout her career, Griffiths was offered a chance to test for Scuderia Ferrari back in Fiorano to be part of the 2024 grid. Despite performing well, she was offered nothing more than a reserved driver role — one she thought would not suit her, hence the spot being given to Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman. Griffiths respectfully declined further negotiations from Ferrari, believing that the Scuderia did not have enough faith in her talent to offer her a much more enticing position in the team.

At the end of the 2023 season in December, Griffiths was once again invited to test in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, this time for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, alongside fellow driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Despite performing with little to no mistakes, she fell short compared to Antonelli’s results in terms of pace and ultimately, did not secure a seat for herself — one that Antonelli secured the following season, to be able to race in 2025 for the aforementioned team. 

It was in January of 2024 when Griffiths received a call from Oracle Red Bull Racing and their Team Principal, Richard Martin, offering her an opportunity to test for the senior team directly in Silverstone. Clawing for a seat in Formula 1, Griffiths made quite the first impression for herself, finishing just fifth-hundreths of a second behind 4-time Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen. Martin was incredibly impressed by the performance shown by the rookie, offering her another reserve driver role for the 2024 season. However, in her contract, a condition set by the team was that her role would put her at the forefront of consideration should a driver be taken out of Oracle Red Bull Racing. 

Griffiths sat in the shadows of this news throughout the 2024 season, waiting to hear from Red Bull once again but after not receiving a call from them until the Qatar Grand Prix, she slowly started to lose hope. It wasn't until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that she received a call to test for them one more time at the Yas Marina Circuit, alongside VISA Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda. This time, Griffiths was determined to learn from her mistakes during her test drive in Mercedes the previous year. 

Griffiths ran a lap time actually ahead of Verstappen's performance in 2024, which would have placed her in P5. She would finish a half a second behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, which only further solidified Oracle Red Bull Racing's decision on choosing Griffiths to be their second driver for the 2025 season. This news was announced to the general public last 23rd of December, 2024 via the official social media platforms of Oracle Red Bull Racing, following the departure of Sergio Perez from the team. Since then, Griffiths has been continuously preparing for her upcoming season with Red Bull with the expectations of fans worldwide hanging on her shoulders. 

[batsplat]

Your post about sete/vale rivalry is literally so informative it's like a pivotal post to fully understand the way valentino's mind works. You're his friend just up to the point you are not (mainly after perceived crimes not backed up by any real proof apparently). Valentino literally turbodivorced every guy he was friendly with in the paddock (and the irony of two of those turbodivorces happening in the same place isn't lost on me)

I did do my best to keep marc out of that post and let the parallels speak for themselves but like. yes

what's interesting to me about this rivalry is that it's... kind of his first rodeo. I mean he'd obviously had rivals before and a feud and all that and him and biaggi were constantly *gestures* - but one of the most common complaints about valentino is that he switches up towards you when you actually become a serious threat. which!! I still fully believe to some extent is natural, this is sports, they're competing, and I take more seriously with some of valentino's victims than with others. (melandri is always the one where I'm a bit? valentino no offence but why would you bother, in 2005 there wasn't a title fight and in 2006 valentino actually got on really well with two of the four other main contenders and at the very least didn't actively have a problem with dani. so maybe just a melandri problem question mark.) but I do feel like sete was... maybe not the first, but the first that was this extreme. and, very much topic for another post, but he really does learn a lot from the sete rivalry. a lot of the tactics and performance art and all of that, how he uses all of it to demoralise his enemies - this rivalry was kinda the blueprint

but, at the same time, of course it was a different valentino that marc ended up fighting, and not just in terms of how fast and competitive valentino was at that stage of his career. this is something that's quite hard to get across sometimes, because the natural inclination is to just... look at all the past instances in which valentino was a dick and conclude that he has, in fact, always been a dick. but he wasn't just statically malevolent for a twenty plus year career, and it's important to... reinsert context to assess how he developed as a rider and as a character during that time. it's not twenty non-stop years of valentino feuding. and marc is facing a valentino who had inevitably changed as a result of years of injury and poor results on a poor bike. valentino was pretty open in 2012 that he was returning to yamaha after two years on a donkey of a bike to, y'know, see if he was still fast, if he still had it in him - because he genuinely did not know (stop me if this reminds you of anyone more recently). he was so frustrated in 2013 with constantly finishing in fourth place that he took the truly radical step of firing his crew chief jb. one more try, one more change up to see if he could still be fast

it was only in 2014, where, okay he was losing to marc, but he could feel that he was competitive again, he could semi-regularly beat jorge and dani at the very least... then comes misano and he beats marc in a direct fight, draws an error out of him, gets him to crash, and marc shows up at his ranch and manages to strongly signal that he does actually really want to beat valentino. and that, in a way, shows that he was beginning to take valentino seriously as a competitor again (which I would suggest he wasn't doing at the end of 2013). that's something that's easy to miss about the ranch episode: yes, it's notable how much they were treating each other like hardened rivals, but it was also notable they were doing so in 2014, given the kind of season marc was having. maybe it truly was the worst possible timing. maybe it truly was the race in misano that made both of them go. hey. this really could be happening

but it's still a humbled version of valentino, it's still a version of valentino who has already kind of had to make his peace with the fact his time might very much be over. to me, in a way it's more dramatically satisfying if he did make peace with it, if he was more or less all right with marc making the sport his own. okay, there's always going to be a little bit of bitterness, a little bit of envy... because he wished he could still do what marc was doing, of course he did. but by the end of 2013, he knew it was more likely than not he would never be involved in another title fight. he thought his career might be ending after the 2014 season. he told the world if he wasn't competitive in the early races in 2014 then that would be that, and I think he meant it

there was no guarantee he'd have a season like 2015 - sure, he was working harder than ever and making radical personnel choices, all in the hope he still had something more to give... but he didn't know it would happen. it was really really unlikely!! there's a giddiness to him in early 2015, almost like he couldn't quite believe himself he'd get that chance. and then, yes, he does withdraw from marc, he does go back into title fight mode... but relatively speaking, this is still a more agreeable version of valentino. this is still a version of valentino who is determined to not start shit with jorge - it's odd to watch, but in those 2015 pressers valentino is constantly engaging him in conversation, at a time in which the marc chatter was already dropping off pretty sharpish

(incidentally, I think vale was proper pissed off at how jorge reacted to the whole sepang thing and how jorge was angry with valentino, which is very funny to me. like at catalunya 2016 vale's going!! I actually made an effort with this bitch!! I was nice to him for three years, does that count for nothing??)

valentino also doesn't blow shit up over assen, even though by his standards marc should be giving him plenty of reason to. he's definitely cooled off towards marc, but he's still giving him the benefit of the doubt where he wouldn't have done so with past rivals - which, yes, I do think partly reflects how he felt about marc, but also reflects how he was approaching that year and that phase of his career as a whole. he didn't really want drama; he wasn't really looking for any distractions from the actual title fight. which doesn't mean that he wasn't already changing his behaviour towards his competitors in response to the demands of the season - it's just a question of the extent. here from a write-up of assen 2015 (I don't entirely agree on the point of the effectiveness of valentino's mind games, though I do agree - like valentino himself does - with the general idea that most of the work needs to be done on-track):

in the end, he cracked. I guess that's what generally happens when you put someone under that kind of pressure - you make them revert to type. valentino wasn't arrogant or entitled or over-confident in that season, he was desperate. he'd been given this unexpected chance and he was throwing everything he had into making it work. body, mind, soul, all of it, wringing himself out in pursuit of this dream. he could feel it slipping away at several points that season... that four race jorge win streak where he led every single lap and it was kind of like? okay, you just can't do anything about that. valentino can't match that, not at this stage of his career. or brno, after which they were level on points and jorge led on countback and it just felt like valentino so obviously had a consistent pace deficit that surely this could only go one way. all these moments where it felt like it might actually be over, in the least dramatic way imaginable. in many ways, this wasn't really a title fight that should ever have been so close - and it's to valentino's credit as a rider, his versatility and willpower, that he was even able to push things as far as he did. but he did know he was hanging on by a thread, and he ended up playing the last hand he felt he had available

obviously, it wasn't really rational calculation that made him do what he did in sepang - though there probably was an element of, y'know, might as well. but he believed he detected a pattern of behaviour in marc - not entirely incorrectly, because it did feel like marc approached his battles with valentino differently - and fashioned himself a conspiracy on the basis of it. he hoped it could change the momentum one last time; he decided to make one final roll of the dice. and then, of course, marc reacted in a way that has ensured valentino will never stop believing in his conspiracy theory. because of course marc did, because of course he never would have taken it lying down. because valentino knew from the moment marc engaged him in that battle at sepang that it was almost certainly all over, because he lost his temper - which usually helps him, except when it doesn't. because they both lost their tempers and ended up just wanting to hurt each other, to prove a point. because that's who they both are

the main point I'm trying to make here is kind of.... it's just how I personally read the sete stuff - yes, these are the same patterns of behaviour, yes, a lot of parallels do obviously present themselves. I've long felt that sete is the single most significant valentino feud to understanding what happened with marc. he's the only other one who valentino was friends with, the only other one valentino felt hurt by on a personal level, the only other one who valentino changed his behaviour towards from one day to the next. and I think under the right circumstances, if you give valentino enough of an excuse and enough of a prize to aim for and have planted enough seeds of suspicion in advance... you can get this situation where the competitive paranoia takes control and he buys into this whole betrayal narrative and he decides he needs to go nuclear. and it also gave him a script to follow - one he knew could work because it had. except of course it could have gone very wrong in 2004 too. what happens if he's so desperately determined to ruin sete that he bins it in phillip island and finds himself only barely ahead in the points going into the title decider? compare that race to phillip island 2009 - obviously, there's a sizeable difference between the level of opposition (especially at that circuit) and the '09 race probably wasn't winnable, but he still ends up eventually deciding to settle for second behind casey because he doesn't want to risk losing the championship to jorge. he's not casey's biggest fan either, but he never came close to losing his head fighting him. it's different. he might do some of his finest riding when he's angry, but where there's anger there's also volatility. and, on occasion, there's also some really bad choices

if 2004 is the moment where he's properly learning to play these games, then 2015 is him falling back on these tools when he really had basically discarded them. it'd been five years since he'd engaged in mind games in earnest (I know him and casey were constantly at it in 2011-12, but whatever the hell that was about, whatever part of their psyches they were appeasing there, it obviously had fuck all to do with on-track competition). that's a long time! there's a 2014 interview where he's asked about his work on the 'mental side' against his rivals:

the first thing he immediately stresses is that there's zero point in doing any of this if you're not fast enough on-track to back it up. if you are fast, sure, you can do some off-track 'work', especially if you know it makes your rivals suffer :) but it won't have the same effect without the on-track performance. so even if we want to say valentino hadn't mellowed post-2012, even if he hadn't grown one jot humbler in his heart of hearts, even if he wasn't swayed by any genuine fondness for marc, he still knew the maths just didn't work out in his favour with his current opponents. he couldn't deploy his favourite tactics against jorge because jorge insisted on spending the entire season either two spots ahead or three spots behind valentino, and the off-track stuff just can't work if you're never sharing space on-track. it could and did work against marc, but he wasn't trying to score psychological victories against marc! certainly not by the time they reached assen and marc was basically out of that title fight. so there wouldn't have been any point in trying to fuck with either of them in that way off-track and, well, it could easily backfire. which is something valentino understood perfectly well until they were 88.9% of the way through the season, and then he changed his mind at what was almost the very last possible moment. which I think speaks to how desperate valentino was to make a mistake like he did at sepang: he felt it was all he had left to try

the other way in which marc comes into this whole thing is that.... I mean, he knew about all this stuff! this is the thing right, maybe he wasn't watching the sepang 2004 press conference as an eleven year old and later going 'huh' but broadly speaking, he will obviously have been aware of how this went down, qatar controversy and all of it. he's sitting right there in that jerez 2015 presser when valentino is asked about sete and in response valentino says sete played 'dirty games'. he's obviously aware of the whole jerez 2005 situation, not least because he copied valentino's overtake in his third ever premier class race. which in turn sete was watching unfold, and is still having thoughts about in 2023:

so it's kind of... y'know, you've got marc, you've got someone who's still very much the heir apparent despite all the drama between him and valentino. if you're sete, do you look at marc and see somebody who valentino hurt in similar ways to what he did to you, or do you look at marc and see another version of valentino? do you see both? it's again that thing of, if you have a problem with some of valentino's more aggressive riding then you will definitely have a problem with marc. because of course marc is the escalation, because valentino generally picked his moments a bit more and adjusted his levels of aggression more to the situation, whereas marc is mostly just Like That. so sure, if you're sete gibernau you can look at marc and see another one of valentino's victims, but at the end of the day you're also going to see his legacy

and this from 2017:

not an original thing to say obviously, half of motogp has said it at one point or another. but. still. meaningful to me!

that tension between 'fellow valentino rival' and 'valentino's successor' is imo inherent to the jerez pass situation, because (along with laguna seca) it's an example of marc actively inserting himself into valentino's legacy. and the thing is, right, these aren't just neutral fun passes that everyone remembers because they looked cool: they're the biggest flashpoints of their respective feuds. marc did to jorge what valentino did to sete - and then he did the most valentino thing imaginable and went to jorge when he must have known jorge would still be furious, making him publicly reject his handshake and starting up a whole lot of discourse™ that would take forever to die down. marc knew immediately how controversial what he did would be and was completely at home in the chaos. it's not just the pass that does valentino proud, it's the shamelessness

while that race might not have had the same repercussions as '05, at the end of the day you do have to remember that those passes have a lot of baggage and controversy attached that marc is also making himself a part of. in the case of laguna, it's valentino addressing livio suppo in the presser because of all the grief suppo and casey had given valentino over the '08 overtake. in the case of the jerez pass, it's sete talking about how alienated he is by this whole approach to riding that marc so completely embodies. and the whole thing has come up quite a few times since 2013, because everyone loves bringing up last corner passes at least once a year when they show up again at jerez

so for instance we have this clip from 2016 (fourth race of the season, vibes still in hell), where the riders are asked whether they'd prefer to be in first, second or third position heading into that final corner. not all too much to say about this one, really. jorge, who it seems has at long last learned his lesson about what to do when you've got a lunatic sitting on your rear wheel headed into the final corner of a race, stresses that he'd protect the inside line - not least because these two fuckers would dive on the inside through the grass if you give them half a chance. also, decent gag from marc! good on him. not always easy for those who have decided they hate him so much so that they refuse to laugh at anything he says

then we have this from 2017 - where sete is in the room - asking four riders who they'd want to arrive at jerez's final corner with. three guys give pretty boring answers, though you'll note in 2017 valentino does actually mention his battle with sete (*gestures with his head in sete's direction*) in the same breath as the one between "marc and jorge". those three boring answers are followed by a great response courtesy of jorge. the question doesn't actually specify, but obviously jorge immediately zeroes in on valentino and marc since they are. you know. the two guys with a history of doing last corner jerez crimes. and they're also two confirmed lunatics, though jorge believes that valentino at least might be a little less reckless now that he's a little older. hey, maybe even marc has become 3% more sensible at the advanced age of 24 (funnily enough, vale when making that overtake in '05 was two years older than marc is in this clip). it's a sweet moment - but, without wanting to belabour the obvious, it's also another way of showing how irrevocably linked both the passes and the blokes executing them are. both valentino and marc are 'hard brakers', to put it lightly. two peas in a pod, from a man who would know

we do also of course get sete reacting to valentino's answer. idk what this facial expression is but I sure am compelled by it (thank u to dani pedrosa for working with sete in 2017 so that we'd get live sete reaction shots. I am very grateful)

okay so those two I included because. well it's just kind of neat and fun that this is a parallel they won't ever escape. linked legacies and all that. but I am actually building up to a point here, and it's to do with how even post-2015, it's not like marc is always overflowing with sympathy and compassion for valentino's other victims. he knows his lore! he will know at least the general details of the sete relationship and how it deteriorated and what valentino did to him afterwards! so let's bring in austria 2017, a time at which the vibes between the two of them aren't actually. catastrophic. exhibit a:

so in this presser, valentino is asked if his overtake on jorge at catalunya '09 is the favourite of his career, and he says it was special because it was the last corner - he can't remember any other examples of him making a last corner overtake in the premier class. at which point marc taps valentino to point out sete:

the expression marc makes in the thumbnail - that's how he looks when he's eagerly waiting for valentino to put two and two together. the thing is, right, this whole feuding business, the way valentino treated his rivals, how he was pretty awful to them... all of it will have been stuff that marc actively enjoyed as a fan. and even post-2015, when marc has experienced some of the very worst valentino has to offer, marc still finds the whole jerez thing pretty funny, not just the overtake but what it meant for the relationship between valentino and sete. he makes valentino aware of sete in the room, because of course he would never forget valentino's greatest hits. like, remember why this exchange is funny: everybody knows this overtake was a super controversial thing and a big source of tension between the two of them and valentino's forgotten about it. and marc's laughing at this!! in 2017!! "after we have a bit problems" and marc thinks it's hilarious!! buddy

one more presser moment, from 2019. just a bit of context here - earlier in the presser they were asked about dani getting a corner named after him at jerez and valentino went 'yeah good for him but I wouldn't want a corner named after me !!' and marc talked about how he'd gotten a corner at aragon named after him the year before. so now, the riders are asked what their favourite bit of the jerez circuit is. the joke here goes a) marc says 'last corner' the way he does because everyone knows he did a terrorism there, b) jack miller says 'you mean jorge lorenzo corner' because everyone knows it's funny marc did a terrorism on jorge there like a day after jorge got the corner named after him, and c) marc says 'it's valentino corner' because everyone knows his move was copying the move valentino did on sete. and... 'valentino corner'... first of all why would you do this to your literal teammate jorge lorenzo... but again the whole reason this exchange is funny is because the premise is that they did the same thing, valentino to sete and marc to jorge. implicitly, it's making the link between the pair of them and how they terrorised their rivals in the same way. still. in 2019

speaking of legacies, there's a moment in the 2016 catalunya presser where valentino is asked how that duel compares to his past duels in 2007 and 2009 at that circuit (notice the blatant and unchallenged sete erasure - 2004 and 2005 were really great but okay). and valentino says he counts it on the same level as the jorge fight - "was three great battles with three great opponents". which, y'know, I really love 2016, I think it's fantastic, but marc makes a mistake on the penultimate lap and denies us the most dramatic of finales. like I think it's completely reasonable and nice for valentino to count it in that same camp as the 2009 duel, but I also think it wouldn't have been crazy or disrespectful or anything if he'd gone 'yeah that was great but not quite the same thing'. this definitely might be reading too much into it (surely not) but given how valentino has since occasionally left marc out of the rivalries list, said he wasn't his toughest rival etc etc, I do think it's kinda notable that during that moment of 'reconciliation', valentino allowed marc to be part of his legacy - even if it's just in a small way. 'great valentino catalunya battles' is a pretty cool group of races to be a part of, y'know? the infamous overtakes, the duels, these are the things people remember. these are the things marc remembered, as valentino's fan - inevitably, it'll mean something to him. it's a legacy he wants to be a part of, by fighting valentino, by emulating valentino, and sometimes valentino lets him and sometimes he'd rather leave marc out in the cold. you'll note that in 2019 he doesn't really engage with the "valentino corner" gag from marc and instead goes with the far more neutral turn 5 as his own pick

in the very very immediate aftermath of sepang (aka december 2015), marc did openly make the comparison between himself and valentino's other rivals:

and it's informed his whole approach since then - it's a big part of why he's tried to be quiet about the drama with valentino over the years. he knows how valentino behaves towards his rivals, he always has. he knows he can't beat valentino off-track... but (beyond his undeniable mental resilience) he's just fortunate enough that with his talent and the way their career windows have overlapped, more often than not he's been able to out-perform valentino on the track. and y'know, it's an interesting element to the whole thing I feel... marc was a fan of valentino's for a lot of reasons - he was very much a fan of the complete package, if you will. including what valentino did to his enemies! it's not like that aspect of vale was some kind of closely guarded secret; it was like a top three valentino rossi talking point for years and years. (part of the subtext of assen 2015 is marc not really enjoying being on the receiving end of one of those classic valentino scam wins, when marc had been intending to do that to valentino.) again, those overtakes of valentino's weren't just famous because they were cool, they were famous because they helped valentino fuck with his rivals. it's not just about emulating his on-track aggression, it's about emulating how valentino did his best to get in his rivals' heads. when we talk about marc 'being a fan' of valentino, then it shouldn't be ignored that this involved marc being a fan of what an absolute and utter asshole valentino was. and like with all things relating to valentino, I'd wager marc has pretty complicated feelings about this. at the end of the day that's also part of his make up as a rider... but it also really burnt him personally...

it's almost like an identification thing, isn't it. if you're marc and you're thinking about valentino's past rivalries, whose shoes are you placing yourself in? in many ways it should be valentino's rivals, because of course some of their experiences mirror marc's. and there's a rare moment in the winter of 2015, when he's still in the process of trying to make sense of everything that's happened, where he does make the connection. but apart from that, he's shied away from it - even when he's criticising valentino, he's generally not framing what valentino did to marc as indicative of some broader character flaw. it's casey and jorge who explicitly make that link, not marc. he's still kind of... idk, separating that out. obviously, marc would far rather be valentino's successor than another one of valentino's victims, even if he hasn't really been given a choice in the matter and has ended up being both. I don't really have any evidence to back this up, but my guess is that deep down he feels like what valentino did to him was different from what he did to those other guys. and in some ways he's right and in some ways he's wrong

unfortunate, isn't it. you're a fan of somebody with a reputation for fucking with his enemies, which is fun and neat and you kinda want to copy how he does it - maybe put your own spin on the whole thing but you're still into the general vibe. you enter the sport at a time when you can still fight your hero, but he's kinda washed and he's too old to be starting new feuds (*bzzzzt!!* incorrect! you are never too old to start feuds) so there's no real danger. and you share a bond you think on some level is different from whatever those other guys had going on, even sete gibernau, whoever tf that is. and then you become real rivals and realise how extremely not enjoyable it is to be losing to him yourself and you really want to show him and maybe you do push it a little far along the way. but it'll be okay. it's all fine... until he decides it's time to destroy you. and on one level you do obviously see the parallels because you're not an idiot... but on the other hand, none of that stuff, none of what he did to those other guys - it wasn't ever going to stop you from being a fan of his. it's the bits he did to you that are the problem. and at the end of the day, you'll never quite be able to let go of the twelve year old boy inside of you who found jerez 2005 really, really cool

anyway

[werobminds]

[motocorsas]

niccolo antonelli says hi in a sideways glance at misano 2014

[strawbunni-shortcake]

Valentino crashes during practice at the Misano GP, 2014

📷 by Mirco Lazzeri

[fisididrosa]

For sleepover saturday: Top 5 races (can be a mix of any series!)

In no particular order...

Misano 2016. My go to when I need a pick me up. (MotoGP)

Spa 2009. I think it goes without saying tbh (F1)

Sao Paulo 2003. You never forget the first win. And that was a pretty memorable race win (F1)

London E-Prix 2014-2015 season. I don't think I breathed the last 10 laps or so, it's not often your fave wins a championship in front of your eyes. (FE)

Handbike Road Race H4 class. 2012 Paralympics. I don't think I have ever cheered as loud for someone as I did cheering Alex Zanardi on that day. There is a picture up at Brands of Alex crossing the line and you can see me in the background losing my shit.

Honourable mention goes to...

6 Hours of Silverstone 2016. That whole GD weekend was crazy and mental and some of the maddest times I've spent at a race.

Thank you :)

[waru-chan8]

Jack was trying to steal some brain cells from Rins but clearly it didn't work (Misano 2014)

Lol.

Rinsy has barely any functional brain cell, and this is what we can find in normal conditions in his head.

After a race, he only has this.

But I hope to see more day when he wakes up with this in his head, so he can win a race.

Images all courtesy of the anime and manga Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo property of Yoshio Sawai

[moonshynecybin]

the thing that worries me about pecco is that whilst he definitely has great tracks (qatar jerez assen le mans mugello etc) he doesn’t have any tracks that he’s like.. marc level good at (sachsenring cota aragon maybe misano) so whilst i can definitely see pecco being strong on all those circuits i can’t say he will win at all of them comfortably. i don’t even believe that he will em all. jerez last year was already closer than it should have been, le mans was el oh el and marc is good at assen and well might put up a good fight around mugello (tho this along woth qatar is still pecco’s best bet i’d say). i think the championship’s already decided but i would like to see a little more from pecco for the sake of my own entertainment. also it looks better for marc if pecco is regarded as a good rider who put up somewhat of a fight

in no way do it think the championship is already decided oh my god im walkin around my house knocking on random wooden surfaces like PLEASEEE…. anyway do you want to see a half baked serial killer post from my drafts that i dont entirely stand by but that might give some food for thought about where we stand vis a vis the current state of the championship? yea i am aware that using 2014/19 w marc is unfair but i wanted their most dominant seasons okay this was for MEEEE