#unfortunately dovi and now apparently pecco are too mid at phillip island valentino was too washed and casey too retired

[batsplat]

I know Marc kinda took over Sachsenring and stopped it from producing its regular amazing races but I feel like he made up for that partly by being a major part of all three absolute classic Phillip Island races 2015, 17, 24 (and the absolute clowning that was 2013) Marc once again proving this year that in order to finish a race at PI he needs to be engaged in battles.

Not PI but he also gave us Assen 2018

I haven't rewatched it recently enough to know if I completely stand by this opinion, but my potential hot take is that 2019 phillip island was substantially better than 2024. had a way more fun battle at the start and also low key felt more up in the air who would win that particular duel until the very last lap. 2024 has a fun gimmick with marc's problems off the line, a genuinely exciting moment mid-race when all three of them converge... but idk man, late in the race I didn't really feel any doubt that marc had the pace to make that pass and make it stick. in 2019, for all marc's dominance and my scepticism at vinales' race craft, it did feel more uncertain. the gimmick is neat and objectively it's an extremely impressive win, but it's also one of those races where you see some of the reaction and do feel like the baseline we're setting for race quality is pretty low this year. and, look, I cannot stress this enough - it's not primarily the fault of the riders themselves, it's the current formula being actively hostile to w2w racing. it's not their fault!! and phillip island was fairly fun to watch this year, it'll probably make my end of year top five. even if the tv direction should have maybe showed us a bit of the dogfight that was apparently raging for fourth place. it's still not going to crack my top ten favourite phillip island races any time soon, let alone my top ten favourite marc wins

but yeah it's true lol, marc's got such a bizarre phillip island record. if you're valentino late 2016, you do have to look at it and feel like he's taking the piss. though I reckon marc's contribution to fun racing was really more substantial at other circuits like austria - it's not that impressive to make phillip island racing great, but going by recent evidence you'd have to say marc on a honda was the only reason worth going to the red bull ring every bloody year. basically the pattern in his prime tended to be that he contributed the most to fun racing at the worse circuits for himself/honda. (you'd think this would be stating the obvious - but this is not true at all for valentino, who showed his love for circuits by winning by the skin of his teeth year after year. different approaches. with the other aliens, where they produced their best races is a bit more random.) the mugello's, catalunya's, silverstone's, austria's, qatar's of this world... basically anything that's either fast and flowing (minus pi) or has a bunch of long straights

phillip island is a bit of an exception in that he's obviously accomplished there but has never been particularly dominant (tougher to do at that circuit anyway but casey showed that it is possible). the closest he got to winning there in dominant fashion was 2014, until his tyre choice bit him and he went down. otherwise it's always been quite dramatic... and speaking of assen 2018, that's another example of a fast and flowing track where he's not particularly strong and was involved in a bunch of very fun races (2015, 2017, 2018). which meant that in 2018 you could have like. a genuine feeling of suspense about who would end up winning. until marc ends up easing away from the pack late on. in retrospect, sure, marc did always have something more in his back pocket than everyone else, it did feel a bit like he was toying with his food - in some ways one of his most valentino-esque wins. but you can't fault his commitment to the dramatic arc. assen's obviously another track known for great racing anyway, but yeah. marc's always at his most interesting when he's out of his comfort zone. got to poke him with a stick

as for the sachsenring, yeah, he did kind of ruin it! admittedly you can't point to much of the racing behind him being all that great either, but this is a circuit that was regularly producing classics. even in the alien era, which was renowned for its shit racing! off the top of my head, you had really fun races in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. that's an incredible hit rate! consistently one of the best races in the season! 2011 arguably it's top of the pile, and maybe you could say the same for 2006. 2023 also managed to produce an extremely rare last lap battle for the win between title contenders, and 2024 could've easily been headed the same way. it's a sneaky good track for racing - narrow and technical, does have overtaking hotspots but is weighted somewhat in favour of the defending rider. which ideally helps prolong fights. the poster child for this is 2006, where valentino gradually works his way up the field from tenth on the grid, gets to the lead but can't shake his pursuers, seems to have a pace deficit towards the end of the race... but makes use of some rather sturdy defending to keep the three hondas behind him. 0.307s covering the top four! where's that gone!

idk, maybe there's also been a decline over time unrelated to marc, something about how the current bikes work on that track. and obviously we are in for a couple of years where the track can be written off completely again. ah well. looking forward to that last lap duel in mugello at least