Hairpin Commentary

The rookie may no longer need his learner plates, we have a new championship leader, history was made and two multiple world champions took each other out. MotoGP 2024 is already a roller coaster of twists and turns, how fitting coming off the roller coaster track that is Portimao.  Lets get straight into it, shall we? The name on everyone's lips right now is our rookie sensation, Pedro Acosta. Every pundit has compared him to the greats; Marc Marquez, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, but Pedro Acosta isn't the new anyone. He is himself, and he is glorious. With Portimao being the first track where the rookie had not done any pre-season testing, this past weekend was his first demonstration of what he can really do, and my word, that boy is coming for the crown.  Acosta began the weekend rather hesitantly, having to go through a Q1 session, but he ended up qualifying in a very serviceable P7 - ahead of all world champions on the grid other than Pecco Bagnaia. Similarly, his perfor...

A tussle in the desert, a rockstar rookie, and a dream opening campaign from the defending champion. This is MotoGP 2024, and it seems we have picked up from where we left off in 2023. The opening round in Qatar always feels anticipatory, the great holding of the breath being released as the floodlights go on, and the racing finally gets back underway after the excruciatingly long winter break. It is the round where the rider's dreams and expectations are levied, where their new machines are finally put to the test - for better or worse.  Shall we get the painful part out of the way? The Japanese manufacturers seem to have made no real headway from their disaster 2023 season, in a heartbreaking revelation that saw none of the riders for these teams managing to score even a single point in the Saturday sprint race. To rub yet more salt in the wound, not a single rider from these factories could place within the Q2 session, with Johann Zarco on the satellite bike of the LCR Honda sco...

Welcome one and all, to the first race weekend of the 2024 MotoGP season! And my god what an epic we have waiting in the wings for us! 2023 saw the successful defense of his crown by Francesco 'Pecco' Bagnaia, who will thus go into this season with the covetous Number 1 plate proudly displayed on the front of his Ducati Lenovo motorcycle. But there are plenty of hungry young riders just waiting for the opportunity to steal away his crown, and with 2024 continuing the Tissot sprint races introduced in 2023, combined with a record breaking 21 races this season, every single point matters. So what are the big ticket news items before the season starts? Well, if you have any interest at all in MotoGP, you will have heard about Marc Marquez. The Spanish sensation roared to infamy in our sport even before joining the top league, bringing with him two crowns from the lower leagues, but what really secured his name as a legend was his first year in MotoGP, where he became not only our ...