MotoGP’s lack of spectacle under fire again after “no show” Misano round

Last weekend’s Misano round featured the exact same top four in both the sprint and the grand prix, with Jorge Martin leading Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnaia and wildcard Dani Pedrosa.

Across both races, there was one overtake between the top three, when VR46’s Bezzecchi passed Bagnaia for second – though his move in the sprint was a result of the factory Ducati rider running wide.

This led to criticism from several riders over the lack of spectacle currently enveloping MotoGP, which has been blamed numerous times this season on increased aerodynamic development, ride height devices and the controversial tyre pressure rules.

Marc Marquez, who was involved in a last-lap dice with Fabio Quartararo in 2019 that saw six overtakes for the lead on that one tour, has long been critical of the current ruleset.

When asked if Misano’s races were now the norm in MotoGP, Marquez – who was seventh in the grand prix - responded: “Of course, but it’s not new. If it’s a big circuit with long straights, then with slipstreams it’s possible to overtake more.

“But in this circuit, it’s two things: you overtake like [Brad] Binder [in the sprint], where all the overtakes were on the limit, but were very good and was impressive to watch because it’s so difficult.

“So, you overtake in that way or it’s impossible to overtake. For example, last three laps, I was riding in 1m33.0s and [Luca] Marini was coming in 1m32s lows.