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By Riccardo Tafà| Posted October 19, 2014 | In MotoGP, Motor Racing, Motorsports
After a long and eventful Moto3 race, Australia has its new favorite. Local hero Jack Miller has won his home Grand Prix in front of more than 77.000 people, who probably collectively became fans. No wonder, since the farewell of Casey Stoner in 2012, the aussies are waiting for a new, australian top rider. It seems that Miller is the one they were looking for.
The KTM factory rider started eighth position, but with the possible world title in mind, made his way up as fast as possible. His main opponent Álex Márquez instantly took the lead in front of his teammate Alex Rins, so Miller had to catch up quickly.
Through the first laps of the race, the leadership changed countless times. The leading group included eleven riders, with Márquez, Rins, Miller and Efren Vazquez up front and Danny Kent, Romano Fenati, Brad Binder, Isaac Viñales, John McPhee, Juanfran Guevara and Alexis Masbou following behind. After a contact and the resulting crash between Guevara and Viñales, the group shrank to nine riders.
The race was marked by fast overtakings, that mostly costed a rider several places at once, or, the other way around, made it possible to pass more than one opponent with a single maneuver. Partly this meant, that up to four or even five riders raced next to each other, all trying to outdo the others.
Althrough the younger Márquez tried his best to stay up front, he made a mistake and fell back to fifth place, with his rival Miller leading. The aussie had an advantage when it came to breaking, especially in the tight „Honda Hairpin“ passage, but on the finish line, the higher topspeed of the Hondas showed.
Nevertheless the local hero managed to ride a perfect last lap, never giving his by now again pursuer Márquez the slightest chance for an overtaking. With 0,029 seconds ahead of Márquez, Miller crossed the finish line first. Alex Rins completed the podium, with Efren Vazquez, John McPhee and Alexis Masbou behind him.
Due to a contact in the „Honda Hairpin“, Danny Kent and Brad Binder fell out of the leading group, which made it easier for Miguel Oliveira, Jakub Kornfeil, Niklas Ajo and Niccolò Antonelli to complete the Top Ten. Also Romano Fenati crashed out of race after a contact with Efren Vazquez. Luckily every rider remaind without further injuries.
After this enormous success for the australian fans followed the Moto2 race. Esteve „Tito“ Rabat had a good chance to already become world champion this weekend. If he had won and his teammate Kallio only made it to fourth place or worse, he would have achieved his goal.
The spaniard started well, but unfortunately went straight into the „Honda Hairpin“ and fell back to sixth position. His teammate Kallio jumped on that chance and took the lead in front of Maverick Viñales and a surprising Sam Lowes. But Rabat didn’t hold back and after passing Johann Zarco and Tom Lüthi, who completed the leading group, made it to the top again.
Unfortunately the Kalex rider made the same mistake twice again, always struggling while going through the Hairpin, but made up the lost positions to fight in the Top Three.
While Rabat fell back, the lead changed several times. Every rider in the leading group, except for Lowes and Zarco, had taken the lead throughout the race, but finally it was Maverick Viñales, who could prevail.
The Moto2 rookie leaded a strong race and once again showed, why Suzuki decided to sign him for their new MotoGP team, along with Aleix Espargaró.
After a little fight with Rabat, Viñales managed to free himself from his fellow countrymen and while Rabat lost his second place to Lüthi, Viñales crossed the finish line as the winner of the Australian Grand Prix.
Behind Lüthi and Kallio, alongsideViñales, on the podium, followed Mika Kallio and fourth and Sam Lowes in fifth position. Sandro Cortese, Marcel Schrötter, Dominique Aegerter, Xavier Simeon and Jordi Torres completed the Top Ten. Besides Zarco, also Mattia Pasini, Hafizh Syahrin, Thitipong Warokorn and Ratthapark Wilairot ended the race earlier, without a rider being hurt.
This series of crashes continued in the MotoGP race.
Polesetter Marc Márquez lost two places at the beginning to Yamaha factory rider Jorge Lorenzo and Tech3 rider Bradley Smith, who had started as fourth. Through it didn’t take long, until the two time MotoGP world champion passed first Smith, than Lorenzo and successfully tried to free himself.
Behind him, the fight continued, since Valentino Rossi appeared on the scene. The „Doctor“ went into the race as eighth, but due to a good start, he quickly caught up with Lorenzo. After a thrilling back and forth between the two teammates, Rossi prevailed and tried to follow Márquez, who by now was two seconds ahead of the field.
Behind them, Cal Crutchlow made his way up, passing one opponent after the other. The Ducati rider looked strong throughout all training sessions and continued to prove it. Unfortunately he crashed while being second at the end of the race. Crutchlow’s second place was due to the crash of leader Márquez, who lost the front wheel and wasn’t able to rejoin the race again and a slow pace from Jorge Lorenzo, who had chosen the wrong tire and therefor couldn’t go for 100 percent.
This made Rossi first, with his teammate and Bradley Smith following him. The rest of the field was pretty much decimating itself. Pedrosa, who had struggled since friday, had to give up due to a technical problem on his RC213V Honda while riding in ninth place. Same goes for local hero Broc Parkes, who had similar issues earlier in the race.
With even less laps, Karel Abraham also trashed his open Honda. Tech3 pilot Pol Espargaró crashed at the very end of the race and leaving his good, fourth place to Andrea Dovizioso. His brother Aleix Espargaró was hit by Stefan Bradl, who overtook someone on the inside. Espargaró couldn’t evade and while the german crashed out right after the contact, the spaniard had to give up, since the rear end of his open Yamaha was demolished.
Pramac Ducati rider Andrea Iannone was just as unlucky, but was, compared to Espargaró, responsible for the crash himself.
All this made the Top Ten a little different to the previous ones this season. With Rossi, Lorenzo and Smith on the podium, it was the first all-Yamaha podium since Le Mans in 2008. They were followed by Andrea Dovizioso in fourth, Héctor Barberá in fifth and Álvaro Bautista in sixth place. The Top Ten was completed by Scott Redding, Hiroshi Aoyama, Alex de Angelis and Nicky Hayden.
The MotoGP circus’ penultimate stop is the Sepang International Circuit next friday. After the Malaysian Grand Prix, the paddock gets together one last time at the season finale in Valencia, Spain.
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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