MotoGP’s break is over as it returns to action this weekend for the Czech Grand Prix.
How is it looking at the top?
Marc Marquez leads the championship by fifty eight points having finished inside the top two for the last six consecutive races, four of those being victories.
Behind him are the two factory Ducati riders who are separated by six points with Andrea Dovizioso ahead of Danilo Petrucci. They both finished outside the top three in the two races prior to the break, with Petrucci’s last podium finish coming at the Catalan Grand Prix, while Dovizioso’s last podium finish came at the Italian Grand Prix.
Although Maverick Vinales finished first and then second in the previous two races, it is Suzuki’s Alex Rins who is fourth, sixteen points ahead of Vinales and twenty behind Petrucci. However while Vinales entered the break on a high, Rins retired from the two rounds prior to the break.
Valentino Rossi is only five points behind Vinales in the standings having managed to end a run of three consecutive retirements just before MotoGP’s break, finishing eighth in Germany.
Behind the top six
Ten points behind Rossi are Jack Miller, Fabio Quartararo and Cal Crutchlow who are separated by three points. Miller heads to Brno having finished inside the top ten in the previous three rounds while Quartararo has finished inside the top three in two of the last three rounds. Meanwhile, Crutchlow has finished inside the top ten twice in the last three races, of which one was a third place in Germany.
Behind this group of three is another group of three consisting of Pol Espargaro, Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami. They are however separated by six points with Espargaro having finished inside the points in every race so far this season, Morbidelli finished inside the top ten in two of the last four races, the other two being retirements. Lastly Nakagami has finished inside the points in three of the last four races, the other being a retirement at the Dutch TT.
Rookies
Fabio Quartararo is the highest placed rookie in eighth having achieved two podium finishes and three pole positions. He has had misfortune during the season however which has denied him scoring more than the current sixty seven points he has so far in 2019.
Embed from Getty ImagesJoan Mir on the Suzuki is the next best placed rookie in thirteenth, his highest finish of the season being a sixth at the Catalan Grand Prix.
The remaining two rookies currently place eighteenth and twenty first in the standings with Miguel Oliveira on the Tech 3 KTM ahead of Francesco Bagnaia on the Pramac Ducati. Oliveira’s best result to date is an eleventh in Argentina while Bagnaia’s best result is a ninth at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Motorsport Critic 