The return of Termas de Río Hondo hopes to throw more certainties to the World Cup

MADRID, 1 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Termas de Río Hondo circuit will be the next stop in the Motorcycle World Championship with the dispute of an Argentine Grand Prix that returns to the calendar after two years of absence and that hopes to shed some light in the MotoGP category, where its last winner, the Spaniard Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), and where the riders will have another challenge due to logistical problems that have forced them to modify the training plan.

The beginning of the championship has started without a great dominator and with a marked Italian color since the three categories have leaders of this nationality thanks to Enea Bastianini (Ducati), in MotoGP, Celestino Vietti (Kalex), in Moto2, and Dennis Foggia (Honda ), in Moto3, while at the moment it is not being favorable to the interests of Spanish motorcycling.

After six races, there has still been no victory in any of the three categories for a national rider, although there have been four podiums, only one in the ‘queen’, the third place for Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) on the night of Lusail. At the moment, Arón Canet (GasGas) is the best asset, with his second place in Moto2, after climbing to the top of the box twice.

And after the peculiarity, for being the first and for running at night, of the Qatar Grand Prix and the uncertainty, plus terrible weather, of the Indonesian Grand Prix, the grid expected to have a somewhat more normal weekend in Argentina, which returns after two years of absence due to the pandemic, and where the weather forecast is friendly.

However, logistical problems with the transport of goods from Indonesia caused that part of the shipment of all categories did not arrive until this Friday, so that the free practices will go to a very ‘loaded’ Saturday where the qualifications will also be played and where only MotoGP will have a third practice session.

Furthermore, for the first time in the entire season, the riders will face two consecutive events without ‘rest’ since next week they will travel to the United States to race the Grand Prix of the Americas before making the leap to Europe, where A Marc Márquez who continues with his ordeal of problems will be safe again.

The one from Cervera suffered a very hard fall in the ‘warm-up’ of the Indonesian GP and the blow received left him unable to run and caused him again the annoying diplopia that I have separated him from this test that he dominated in his first and last year , and in 2016. The Catalan will add his second ‘0’ of the year and will try to be in his beloved COTA so as not to give up any more ground in a World Cup in which, at the moment, the big names are not in charge.

Thus, the victory of Bastianini in Qatar was joined by that of the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM) in Mandalika, and of the six podiums, only one has been occupied by a title favorite like the current champion, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha). , second in the last race.

The one from Nice, eighth in 2019 in his MotoGP debut at the Argentine track, will try to assert the good performance that the ‘M1’ has given on this stage since he has won on the other two occasions that Márquez or Honda did not ( Cal Crutchlow in 2018), with Valentino Rossi in 2015 and Maverick Viñales in 2017.

More in need are the official Ducatis, who visit a circuit that has not favored them and after a bad start to the year, especially with the Italian Francesco Bagnaia, who only adds one point after two races, for the 13 of the Australian Jack Miller, although on the positive side is the better performance of their bikes from their ‘satellite’ teams.

In the Repsol Honda, Pol Espargaró will take over the ‘leadship’ trying to forget the fateful weekend in Indonesia and fight again for the leading positions with the Honda, and KTM, which has two podiums thanks to the second place of the South African Brad Binder in Qatar, confirm the reality of his candidacy. Suzuki hopes to step up and be closer to the front positions with Joan Mir and Alex Rins.

CANET, IN MOTO2, AND GARCÍA DOLS, IN MOTO3, GOING FOR THE LEADERSHIP

On the other hand, in the Moto2 and Moto3 categories, the Italians Celestino Vietti (Kalex) and Dennis Foggia (Honda) will seek to defend their respective leaderships from the Spaniards Arón Canet (Kalex) and Sergio García Dols (GasGas).

Vietti has started the year well and his inaugural victory in Lusail added a second place in Mandalika for which he commands with 45 points, nine more than the Valencian driver, who has also risen to the top in the first two Grand Prix, with a second and third place, respectively.

The Murcian Pedro Acosta (Kalex), current Moto3 champion, hopes to improve and finally be ahead on a track unknown to him after a poor start to the campaign in which he had raised expectations due to his good preseason

Foggia, for his part, has already confirmed from the start his candidacy to take over from Mazarrón on the Moto3 throne and after his poor start in Qatar he recovered by winning in Indonesia to lead with 34 points, only one more than García Dols, and six more than the also Spanish Izan Guevara (GasGas), teammate of the Castellón native in the Aspar Team.

The Italian is one of the few in the category who raced in 2019 on the Argentine circuit, finishing eighth in a race won by the Spanish Jaume Masiá, now on KTM and one of the theoretical candidates who has not started the season well.