MotoGP Round 7 Preview - Catalan Chaos

Apologies for the delay in this getting out, reality has bitten this writer fairly hard this week and Saturday is the first chance I've had to write anything. So with that out of the way, let's go racing.

My issues with going to Spain four times in a year have been previously documented, but this one even defies standard motorsport logic. Having two Spanish races within a month of each other, when the next one isn't until the end of September. If you're going to have four races in one country, spread them out Dorna!

With that said, the Barcelona circuit will be familiar to Formula One fans as a track that could be so much more. It's a nice enough circuit, but it's not a patch on the better tracks on the calendar.

At least we don't have that godawful last chicane like the F1 circuit does, which means turn 13 is taken at a staggering 145 km/h, or 90mph in old money - it doesn't sound much, but on two wheels? Here's a lap of the circuit, as seen by a factory Yamaha last year.

In The News

The big news this weekend so far has been the blistering pace of the Suzukis - no, really. Aleix Espargaro topped Friday practice, while Maverick Viñales headed the field in FP3 - with Valentino Rossi just, just sneaking in to Q2 at the last minute, along with an impressive Yonny Hernandez. Q1 sees some big names still battling it out to make Q2 though, with Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone among those who'll have to put in two sessions.

Tito Rabat has recorded chatter on his bike so far, Johann Zarco thinks tyres will have a big part to play in the race, and Sam Lowes has already crashed once this weekend. Moto2 is never without incident, so this is hardly a surprise.

In Moto3, Maria Herrera has shown some great pace in one of her home stomping grounds. Whether that can transfer to the race remains to be seen, but it'd be great to see one of the Spanish ladies make an impression on the field. Enea Bastianini suffered a huge highside, demolishing his bike in the process, but still set the fastest practice time in the race to see who can make any sort of impression on Danny Kent's domination of the championship.

Last Time Out - Mugello

Mugello didn't let me down after my big hype job on the place. Read the recap by clicking here.

Last Year In Catalunya

This tool is brilliant. Use the slider to find the year, and pick the race you want. Have a look.

Race Times

Qualifying for Moto3 was underway as of writing this, so I'm not going to include those session times.

MotoGP
13:00 BST - 08:00 EDT

Moto2
11:20 BST - 06:20 EDT

Moto3
10:00 BST - 05:00 EDT