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ASSEN 2025 | Some easy Thursday afternoon banter between David Alonso and Tony Arbolino.

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又見面啦

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look at this diva! football jersey and raffia tote bag.

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a charity doodle for @xoxogossipzoe thank you!!!!!

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people complaining about marc fans on here when it’s the only plateform where we can post about marc without an italian dude commenting “vr46 better” underneath

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just fabio lmao

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maximo has a whole account for his cat... why is he so cute🥹

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📷 by Jesus Robledo ‬

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Whatever happened in Brno 2025

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@.fabioquartararo20: P3 on the grid and P5 on the sprint. Let’s find some details especially for rear tyre to improve our pace

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MOTOGP 2025 SEASON

BRNO, 2025 - Fabio Quartararo

📸Hazrin Yeob Men Shah/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

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The vid of gemma and Julia running - that's so cute

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WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE HE'S ABOUT TO CRY AND SUPER MAD ABOUT IT

Got these pics from tiktok

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A big component of rosquez that I think doesn’t gets explored enough is the idea that Vale thought Marc’s lovefor him wasn’t genuine. 

Marc worshipped Vale. From an outside perspective that's pretty obvious. It makes sense for Marc to like Vale–his childhood idol, larger than life personality, talented, charming, attractive. So many people, so many young drivers exactly like Marc worshipped Vale the same way. Marc’s attitude towards Vale wasn’t unique at all. And up until Sepang, Vale’s attitude towards Marc wasn't noteworthy either. Vale was friendly with a lot of younger drivers. He always liked taking on a mentor role.

You could be forgiven for interpreting their feelings towards each other as superficial up until Sepang 2015. Vale's actions after the "divorce" are the damning part. The fact that Marc wasn’t even his main rival, and the fact Vale was STILL ahead in the championship up until his penalty in Sepang (which happened as a direct result of the drama with Marc). It’s the fact that all of Vale’s past rivalries were way more consequential to his results. AND YET he is on good terms with all his other rivals. The only one he hasn’t made up with is Marc, in spite of Marc continuously trying.

Marc doesn’t get close to others easily. The MotoGP riders are a very cliquey bunch but Marc has always kept to himself (Alex being the exception to this). But he is fiercely loyal and dedicated to the few people in his circle

I don’t doubt Marc had real affection for Vale. However, I think you can forgive Vale for doubting whether Marc was genuine or not. Vale, the ego maniac control-freak that he is, was probably very comfortable in their dynamic at first because he so clearly had the upper hand. He was Marc’s childhood idol, Marc worshipped him. Vale probably had a sense that the relationship was very one sided, and that gave him a sense of control. I’m sure at first, Vale liked giving Marc attention and praise because I mean we’ve all seen the clips, how could anyone, let alone an egomaniac like Vale, not preen at receiving that much unfiltered adoration.

But at some point, I think Vale grew to care about Marc very deeply and I don't imagine it was a pleasant experience for Vale. He goes from feeling in control of their dynamic, very literally having the upper hand, to feeling very vulnerable.

I can imagine him not quite understanding it at first (or ever). If Vale didn’t care about Marc outside of racing, he wouldn’t have been bothered by Marc's move at Laguna Seca 2013. And I don’t think he was at the time! Because he didn’t really care that much about what Marc thought of him outside of racing. Yes, it was annoying at the time but I think it only became painful in restropect.

Marc and Vale have both said Laguna Seca and the episode at the ranch in 2014, were the first fracture events. I think the problem was Marc's actions hurt Vale and he didn’t really know what to do with that. I think Vale could understand being annoyed that this short twink used HIS move against him and that he showed up to Vale’s place and BEAT him. I think Vale could rationalize being annoyed, and though he probably wouldn’t want to admit it, I think he also could accept that Marc beating him made him feel insecure. BUT! Vale didn’t only come away from Laguna Seca and the episode at the ranch annoyed and his ego a little bruised, he was HURT. Because Marc was treating Vale like he would anyone else, like a competitor. Those two events communicated to Vale “you’re not special”. But theoretically, that should be fine right? Vale sees Marc as a competitor too and it would be worse is Marc LET HIM win just because he was Marc’s idol. But those two events were a problem because Marc was special to Vale. Vale cared about how Marc acted towards him.

And that completely changes the power dynamics of their relationship. All of a sudden Vale is very vulnerable to getting hurt. In Vale’s fucked up little power balance equation, whoever cares less holds the more power, because they are less likely to get hurt. Everytime Vale feels hurt by Marc it’s evidence he’s losing the idgaf war (so to speak) and that’s terrifying. Because, at this point, what evidence does Vale really have that Marc, genuinely cares about HIM, as a person, and not just Valentino Rossi, the larger than persona that he fell in love with as a child on TV. 

I imagine the part of Vale that wanted love and connection was probably desperately searching for evidence that Marc loved him, HIM, and not just the persona. But does Vale even know where does one end and the other begin? Especially in 2013-15. That being said, could he ever be sure that Marc really loved him and not just the persona? (listen to Young and Beautiful by Lana del Rey and picture it from Vale’s perspective for maximum brain damage)

The part of Vale that was scared probably jumped at every bit of evidence that Marc’s hero’s worship wasn’t genuine. I also think this is why his friends were able to convince him to buy into this crazy narrative that he’s sticking with to this day. In a fucked up way, I wonder if he was relieved when uccio showed him the telemetry. Now, he could say Marc was a villain. If Marc was evil and most importantly DISINGENUOUS, he could be angry and that would be safer than being scared. Deep down I think he knew that Marc was genuine (at least to some extent) but even the remote possibility of Marc rejecting HIM or the more plausible scenario where he cared more about Marc than Marc did about him, were just TOO much for him to deal with. 

If you were to make a pyramid of the delusional things Vale tells himself to justify everything… Vale’s first line of defense, the excuse he actually gives other people, is that Marc was evil and conniving. And this works because Marc do be committing war crimes on track and how could you have a relationship, let alone a friendship with someone like that. However, I think Vale only really believes his own bullshit about Marc being a supervillain like 5% of the time. His second line of defense, the one that he tells himself most often, is that Marc wasn’t genuine and he was doing the rational thing by protecting himself and pushing Marc away. In the end, I think all of this mental gymnastics is to protect himself from thinking about a scenario where he lets Marc in and Marc sees the real him, and still decides to leave.