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With the manic 2020 MotoGP season finally consigned to the history books, it’s going to be a year that’s looked back upon with a mix of love, hate and sheer incredulity.
Compressed by COVID-19, a previously-dominant Marc Marquez absent and run under extremely high pressure conditions, it was a year when the usual pecking order was turned on its head.
With that in mind, we took a look at some of the standout moments and performances of the year, some of the people and actions that disappointed the most, and some of the events that will ensure that 2020 is talked about in the future the same way we currently describe Nicky Hayden’s shock 2006 title win!
Best race
In a year of high drama and much excitement, it’s perhaps surprising that there’s no real standout for race of the year.
That’s in part due to the calendar, stealing some of the series’ most-loved and most-competitive circuits like Assen, Silverstone and Phillip Island from us.
But there were still great races to be had, and while some of the action at Valencia (rather surprisingly) was a great show, it was the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring that delivered the most.
Already set up to be a high-tension affair after the drama of the previous weekend’s huge crash, a second red flag caused by Maverick Vinales’ brake failure and fire was just what the season didn’t need.
While denying Joan Mir a first win and Taka Nakagami a much-needed first podium, the restart set us up for one of the finest final corners in a very long time – even for the Red Bull Ring.
It looked set to be a dice between Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro as the two went in neck and neck – but it was the intelligence of Miguel Oliveira that came out on top, timing his strike to perfection as the other two drove each other wide.
Best bike
Perhaps the easiest award to hand out, there’s not many who would argue against Suzuki’s GSX-RR being the best bike on the 2020 grid – thanks in large part to what seemed to be a complete lack of weaknesses versus its competitors’ machines.
A huge amount of work went on in Suzuki’s Hamamatsu base over the previous winter to ensure that Alex Rins and Mir were lining up on a radically different bike this year – and the engineers back in one of MotoGP’s smallest race departments seem to have absolutely nailed exactly what their riders wanted from it.
It went faster in a straight line – although not quite as fast as the Honda, Ducatis and KTMs. It went round corners quicker – although perhaps not as fast as a Yamaha. It stopped well, although perhaps not quite as stably as the Aprilia.
But MotoGP races aren’t won in one particular area of the track, and the cumulative effect of the GSX-RR’s speed in every area that counts (combined with two very talented riders onboard) means that the overall effect was of a machine that proved almost unstoppable.
Worryingly for the opposition, there are still things to be ironed out for 2021 too. Should Suzuki get a grasp on qualifying (something that’s only a matter of time) then it’s going to be even easier for Mir to defend his crown next year.
Best ride
Everyone in MotoGP always knew that 2016 Moto3 champion Brad Binder was something special long before he got promoted directly from Moto2 into KTM’s factory team for 2020.
But no one expected him to be as strong as he showed himself to be at Brno, when he kept his cool, put on the ride of his life and took his and KTM’s first premier-class win only three races into his career.
In the end, it turned out to be a bit of a flash in the pan for him, with inconsistency ultimately the main trend of his 2020 season.
But it’s important to remember that race winner or not, he’s still a rookie in the class – and that next year, more experience and a year of tough lessons will mean that Binder’s able to show what he’s really capable of.
Luckiest man
After the crazy year we saw in 2020, there are a few more contenders than usual for the title of luckiest man on the grid.
But thanks to the events of not just one weekend at the Red Bull Ring, but two in a row, surely Vinales has secured that title as well as using up two of his nine lives.
The Yamaha rider came close to complete catastrophe in the first of two races in Austria along with his team-mate Valentino Rossi, when a high-speed crash behind them involving Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco fired two MotoGP bikes over their heads.
It says a lot about the reflexes of a racer that there are images showing Vinales ducking out of the way of a tumbling bike as it sails over his head.
But those same reflexes got tested only a week later at the same track, when his front brake system exploded as he braked for the first corner.
Realising what happened, he took the split-second decision to jump from his M1, leaving it to explode into a fireball as it hit the wall. It meant Vinales walking away completely unscathed for the second weekend in a row.
Best overtake
Sometimes there’s more to an overtake than just a do-or-die last lap lunge, even though there were plenty of them this season too (Oliveira at the Red Bull Ring or Morbidelli’s attack on Miller at Valencia both spring to mind).
But the stand-out move was eventual champion Mir’s pass on his team-mate Rins in the first Valencia race to finally break his duck and ensure he didn’t become the first ever premier class champion to win a title without a race victory.
What made the pass so special was not just the skill but the tactics behind it. Sitting behind Rins as the pair pushed to break away from the pack, Mir was obviously aware that neither man could afford a DNF with both still firmly in title contention.
So, instead, piling on the pressure and never letting up, he forced a tiny error from Rins – and was in the right place at the right time to strike afterwards.
Dullest race
With some of the best tracks of the regular calendar ruled out of action in 2020 thanks to COVID, we were instead left with a schedule that could arguably have led to some rather dull racing. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case – but there were still a few races that definitely won’t go down as classics.
Perhaps the dullest of all of them was the second race at Jerez. The first time ever that MotoGP raced consecutive weekends at the same track, Fabio Quartararo’s disappearing act didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the rest of the season being anything different.
Winning by five seconds from fellow Yamaha rider Vinales with Rossi another second back on that, the 36 seconds covering 12 riders who finished the event meant it was far from close racing.
In fact, the only real ‘excitement’ was a series of engine failures for Franco Morbidelli and Pecco Bagnaia that denied the Italian duo their first podiums – but given what we’ve been spoiled by in recent seasons, that’s hardly enough to keep everyone entertained, is it?
Stupidest decision
As the FIM Stewards Panel continues to make strange and unpredictable decisions weekend after weekend, there’s plenty of contenders for this category.
From badly-enforced rules to bizarre punishments and rulebooks that seemingly only apply to some classes and not others, it was far from a stellar year for the group led by past champion Freddie Spencer.
Yet while they’re responsible for the most bad calls in 2020, the dubious honour of stupidest has to go to Andrea Dovizioso and his decision to play hardball with every team interested in signing him, only to end up with nowhere to sit when the musical chairs ended.
Rejecting a KTM offer for not being financially rewarding enough, demanding more money from Ducati even as his season turned to dust, shunning Aprilia for not being competitive enough and even attempting to push bizarre contractual obligations on Honda to join it as a test rider, the end result was an unemployed Dovizioso – a terrible outcome for someone who was being chased by four factories early in the year.
Forced into a so-called sabbatical in 2021, in reality it means retirement for the 2017-19 MotoGP runner-up unless things take a huge swing in his favour now.
Bluntest comment
There are a few people on the MotoGP grid who you expect to deliver blunt one-liners. It’s been a staple of Rossi’s career, Jorge Lorenzo loves firing off a broadside or two, and the likes of Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez have been known on occasion to say how they really feel about their rivals.
But there are a few you don’t expect it from, too, and chief among them is a quiet man of the grid like Oliveira, the Portuguese sophomore riding for Tech3 KTM.
Yet, it was he who managed to absolutely bury fellow KTM rider Pol Espargaro in the aftermath of their clash at the Austrian Grand Prix, when Espargaro tried to pin half the blame for their fall on the younger rider.
Oliveira hit back instantly, telling TV cameras that Espargaro “gets too emotional and doesn’t think so much. Unfortunately not everyone is born with the same intelligence… It is not something that is given to everyone”.
Harsh words indeed, but not entirety unreasonable given that Espargaro showed something of a trait of cracking under pressure in 2020 – and it was Oliveira who got the last laugh only a week later, taking his first MotoGP win in the last-corner scrap at the Styrian Grand Prix – and celebrating on the podium with an Einstein impression!
Most disappointing season
It says a lot about how disastrously everything went for Dovizioso in 2020 that he’s the only person to pick up two awards on this list – but then, to call 2020 an unmitigated disaster for the three-time runner-up is something of an understatement.
With Dovizioso having been unable to beat Marc Marquez since 2017 but having got closer than anyone else, the absence of the reigning world champion looked like a golden opportunity.
Instead he just got to watch his dreams turn to dust before his eyes. Never finding the right set-up to understand Michelin’s new grippier rear tyre even as fellow Ducati riders Miller and Bagnaia made it work, Dovizioso’s year turned from bad to worse as it progressed.
Ending the year fourth in the title race, only once a race winner, and unemployed for 2021, disappointing doesn’t quite cut it for just how bad his year was.
Most COVID-19-hit
It’s hard to talk about MotoGP in 2020 without mentioning the C-word – but there are riders and teams who managed to do their best to avoid the virus and others who seemingly couldn’t walk down a street without someone catching it, either with or without symptoms.
Chief among all those teams was the factory Yamaha squad, though. It had engineers, key members of riders’ crews, tyre technicians, press officers and even team boss Maio Meregalli isolating after testing positive or being in close contact with a COVID case throughout the year.
Of course, the most high-profile case was Rossi’s, with the nine-time world champion not only missing out on two races but missing the Friday of a third after a false positive conspired against him again.
