The 2020 MotoGP season is, at long last, about to get underway. The Gran Premio Red Bull de España will take place at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto. Back in March, the primary question facing the sport was whether Marc Marquez would be ready to contend for another championship after having to undergo shoulder surgery. Now, though, the rider with the most questions is Andrea Dovizioso, who hurt his collarbone in a training read several weeks ago. Will he be ready to race? Will Valentino Rossi and Fabio Quartararo push hard in the standings? Alex Rins and Joan Mir put up some terrific numbers in testing, but will those carry over into real races? Take a look at the MotoGP betting odds for the riders as well as our thoughts about the contenders.
MotoGP Gran Premio Red Bull de España Preview (July 19)
Rider Odds
- Marquez -118
- Quartararo +333
- Vinales +350
- Rins +1100
- Morbidelli +1400
- Dovizioso +1800
- Miller +2800
- Rossi, C. Crutchlow +3300
- Mir +4000
- Espargaro, B. Binder +5000
- Petrucci +6600
- Zarco +15000
- Espargaro, F. Bagnaia +20000
- Marquez, T. Nakagami +50000
- Lecuona +75000
- Oliveira, T. Rabat +100000
FIELD (all unlisted riders) +100000
MotoGP Gran Premio Red Bull de España Analysis
The 2020 season in MotoGP will be different, limited to just 13 races that will take place on eight tracks in Europe. The majority of the races will take place in Spain. There will be no fans, and while the races will be broadcast on television, there will be no fans in the stands. There are still three tentative rounds outside Europe, but MotoGP will cancel those if the pandemic in those places does not improve to the point where fans can attend. Media will not be allowed at the race sites.
This brings some questions that have already impacted NASCAR and Formula 1. How will having two races back to back on the same course impact outcomes? Which riders will emerge from the lengthy months of training (when they were not allowed to use their race bikes) ready to ride at race speed? Michelin has introduced a new rear tire for the 2020 season — what impact will that have on the riders? In early testing, the riders have indicated that this tire could help bikes that feature high speed at corners, such as the Suzuki and the Yamaha.
The lineups for the teams are largely the same in 2020 as they were in 2019. Alex Marquez was going to join his brother Marc, but that went by the wayside. Jorge Lorenzo’s retirement is the biggest difference in the racer lists. Marc Marquez and his Honda enter the season as the favorites, as they should, until someone else unseats him. Dovizioso has become entrenched in second place; can he break out, or given the fact that his Ducati team has dysfunction, will he slide down the standings? Dovizioso is frustrated with the state of the team, and Danilo Petrucci is likely on his way out. Ducati reportedly wants to cut Dovizioso’s salary, and his manager has said that he might walk away from the sport for 2021 if he cannot get the contract that he wants.
There was a pre-race test this past week for all four classifications at Jerez. The MotoGP riders had two sessions of 90 minutes each out on the track. The top time went to Maverick Vinales, but the top 15 times were all within a second of his, and the sessions were too short for observers to make significant conclusions.
So the smart pick for the opener is Marquez, given his track record as the longstanding champion in MotoGP. Obviously, Vinales is someone to consider because of his testing. Alex Rins put up some quality times last year and could push Suzuki to some wins this year, and in the chaos that this type of opener will likely present, he could make his way through to a surprise win.
