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To celebrate an action-packed year of motorsport that produced nail-biting title fights, thrilling racing, shocking twists and plenty of controversial moments, we’ve asked our writers to recount their standout motorsport memory or feeling from 2021.
Sure, MotoGP had a whole new winner in the shape of Joan Mir in 2020 – but with class veterans like Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci winning races and with the absence of Marc Marquez hanging over the whole series after his opening-race broken arm, it didn’t quite feel like a brand new era for the sport despite lots of changes.
That changed conclusively in 2021, though, as Mir was followed by Fabio Quartararo and Pecco Bagnaia in dominating the championship for most of the year. All part of the rather exceptional 2019 crop of rookies alongside KTM rider Miguel Oliveira, three of the four won races – and the only rider who didn’t, Mir, was still third in the standings.
They all hinted at their abilities in pre-season testing; Mir obviously started the year as a pre-season favourite, as did Quartararo given his strength in the previous year.
Oliveira too was expected to shine, given a strong end to the season and a promotion to factory bike from the year previous, and while some of us predicted that Bagnaia would need another year to truly fight for championships, he too was very much a star on the rise.
In the end, it went on to be a rather quiet year for both Mir and Oliveira, of course, with both hampered by machine development woes at their respective factories – and it was Quartararo who ended the season as the untouchable and well-deserved new champion.
But if there’s one moment that encapsulates the changing of the guard that MotoGP is currently under, it’s the final laps of the Aragon Grand Prix, when Bagnaia came under intense pressure from Marquez at a circuit where the eight-time world champion has dominated in the past – and where Marquez found himself completely lacking against a very different type of rider.
Finally finding his mojo again after the best part of a season and a half sidelined due to ongoing complications with his arm, Marquez for the first time looked able to attack again – but there was just nothing at all that he was able to do about Bagnaia, as the Italian literally rode circles around him to take the win.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the whole performance is just how unflustered he seemed – simply doing what he had done all race, sticking to his own lines, and knowing that Marquez wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.
We’ve seen plenty of relative rookies finding themselves in a similar situation against the King of MotoGP before; names like Johann Zarco, Jonas Folger, and Quartararo have gone toe to toe with Marquez before.
But they’ve all been found wanting in the process, perhaps not quite able or perhaps even a little intimidated by being in a knife fight with the master.
And that’s why Bagnaia’s performance was so stand-out for me; not necessarily because he won, but because he did it in such a calm and cool manner – in a way that very much said ‘I’m not afraid of you, old man.’
The times are indeed a-changing.
Other 2021 standouts
It’s been another punishing year for many on the MotoGP grid, with a number of big injuries and, unfortunately, tragic death at Mugello when Jason Dupasquier lost his life. Yet amid those incidents, the championship’s attitude around concussions had seemingly remained frankly medieval.
Thankfully, it looks like the pressure being placed on MotoGP to do something about it is working, with a whole raft of new concussion protocols announced after the season had concluded, from extra examinations of helmets to more rigorous medical tests to be cleared as fit again. It can’t come soon enough.
In retirement, we got a chance to see a very different side to Valentino Rossi, with a new magnanimity and a lot of the bitter feuds that in part defined his career well and truly buried as he bowed out of the sport after an incredible 26 years.
Yet it’s impossible to completely discard those feuds just because they’re in the past simply because they were so important to the Rossi myth. His rivals might not have been as successful as he was, but they were as much a part of his story as the loyal team around him – and well worth celebrating as the Doctor steps down.
No one could have predicted the absolute mayhem that was the story of how Maverick Vinales left Yamaha mid-season and defected to Aprilia – but while it might have come as a shock to nearly everyone, there’s one rather surprising person who was chipping away to make it happen behind the scenes – his new team-mate and erstwhile agent Aleix Epsargaro.
A friend since they were Suzuki team-mates in 2015, Vinales’ Andorran neighbour was, it seems, the precursor to making it all happen – or at least, that’s what Aprilia team boss Massimo Rivola told us once the dust had settled.
