#assen 2019

[batsplat]

after 2015 until 2018 it seemed that things had calmed down a bit between valentino and marc, in the sense that they had started to be polite between them again and valentino no longer seemed to be on a war footing. then after argentina obviously the situation worsened again. in the podcast where valentino spoke in 2021 if I'm not mistaken, when he talks about marc,however, he only refers to the events of sepang and not to what happened in argentina which instead seemed to have been the final “divorce”. so my question is, during 2016 and 2017 did valentino just pretend to put up with marc? because in that podcast you can feel valentino's resentment is still a lot even after many years, so I imagine it must have been even greater in the two years immediately following sepang, even if it didn't seem if you see how he behaved

well. look. it was reflected in how valentino behaved... I think sometimes if you see isolated photos and gifsets, you can maybe be left with a bit of a mistaken impression of what that dynamic actually looked like for those two years. they got to a point post-catalunya where they were civil to each other, and maybe they'd exchange two lines in greeting, at podium celebrations, when somebody in a presser made a joke... and maybe marc at the very least was sincerely hoping they could get back to something like what they had before 2015. in reality, though, it was still very very far away. it wasn't open hostilities... at some point in 2016, valentino realised he simply couldn't go on like this. I talked about it a bit here:

you get this discrepancy in his 2016 output, actually. if you compare what he's saying that autumn for written press interviews vs what he's saying with marc right next to him... he'd clearly decided there was zero point in directly fanning the flames. at the sepang 2016 presser when marc and him are quizzed on what had happened the previous year, he just goes with marc's response and decides against reopening the controversy by adding anything from his side. but he still made it clear he hadn't changed his mind in interviews from the exact same time period! at times, he tolerates marc's tentative advances - at other times, he's almost accidentally sucked in, like he can't quite help himself from laughing at something marc has said. but there was never a period where he forgave marc for what he'd done... for various reasons he just decided he wasn't going to harp on about it too much. he did basically say as much post-argentina 2018:

but yeah, argentina 2018. it's an interesting one, isn't it? the stuff that valentino says there doesn't actually feel... quite in line with anything else he's said about marc. typically, when valentino criticises marc, it really is all about sepang 2015 - it's very focused, very specific, he's talking about being unable to forgive marc on a personal level for something marc had done to valentino... but it's not like he's really coming at marc for anything else... when other riders have gotten into spats with marc, he's stayed out of it - and generally he remains pretty neutral when he talks about everything else concerning marc. so, for example, there's a world where the moment alex rins is saying marc doesn't respect other riders in 2019, valentino immediately jumps at the opportunity to offer his hot take... but he doesn't do that. and yes, he had criticised marc's riding before, in particular in marc's moto2 days, but obviously those criticisms were considerably more restrained and sounded at times quite worried for marc's sake. (he also got close to that in silverstone 2016 when he remarked marc had 'something special' for their battles, but a) he's not wrong, except insofar as it's clearly mutual, and b) he explicitly said he didn't have a problem with that fight and considered it hard but fair). in 2017, when valentino was criticising other riders for being too aggressive... well, he wasn't doing so with marc, and he even conceded the point to marc in subsequent races after marc had obliquely criticised valentino at cota for his rhetoric not matching up to his own riding. when valentino's young riders have gotten into their own spats with marc, he's not waded in either, at most saying stuff about marc's fight with pecco that from his lips sounds almost like something akin to praise. radio silence after bez's run in with marc at the end of last year... argentina 2018 is the exception not the rule

and you know... at the end of the day, that was an emotional reaction. valentino might be wearing the habitual smile on his face during the media debrief and sound reasonably calm and composed, but he was furious. which, it's always worth remembering, isn't an entirely unreasonable reaction to that specific situation. yes, valentino doesn't have a clean track record either, but you're going to struggle to find such a... weaponised carelessness, a blatant disinterest in his fellow riders while shoving them aside, in the way marc was exhibiting that day - and indeed that whole weekend. looking back, of course argentina 2018 ended up being an isolated blot on marc's track record that he's not come close to repeating since (yes, he's made high profile errors that took out other riders, but it's different)... but we didn't know that at the time. also, I doubt valentino much appreciated being treated just like an obstacle in marc's path! the fact that valentino wasn't the only marc victim that weekend kind of has an interesting effect, because you have to doubt whether it would have helped if valentino felt like he was being targeted specifically by marc, but on the other hand... well, it's almost disrespectful, isn't it... being singled out is in a way still better than being brushed aside like any other rider

still, valentino's pushing it with his criticisms, he's out of line, and he clearly did lash out in the heat of the moment - which was of course largely a product of the resentment he'd been holding onto those past two years. calling marc's behaviour that day dangerous? sure, you'd find a lot of agreement for that. saying that marc was ruining the sport? that he was intentionally causing other riders to crash? ... well, hold on one moment. I reckon the simplest explanation is the best one here: valentino was angry and said stuff he wouldn't otherwise say, which we know because he's not done so before or since. of course, he was never going to retract what he said about marc that day - he wasn't ever going to apologise for it. not with their history, not when there was still just enough about those argentina comments that he meant... so he wasn't going to feel too much regret about the bits he wouldn't have said under any other circumstance. the problem post-2015 for valentino is that constantly signalling his fury to the world wasn't doing him much good... but pretending like everything was just fine clearly also took a bit of a toll. argentina 2018 wiped the slate clean - even though they gradually crept back towards basic civility after that. and valentino really didn't continue with that line of critique... since then he's basically completely reverted back to a sepang 2015-centric approach. maybe a few hints at it... in 2021, he said something along the lines of how he doesn't feel good when he's on-track with marc, but that's pretty generic while also crucially being personal - he's not saying marc is a problem for the series, he's saying it's them specifically that have an issue with each other

which doesn't mean he didn't believe what he said in argentina 2018 in the moment... when they reconvened in cota and had marc and valentino do separate media debriefs from the main presser, valentino said he stood by his comments - but also didn't actually repeat them or elaborate on them or anything. he's back to terse short responses to the press' questions, saying he wants to focus on the race ahead: kind of the go-to approach when it comes to marc post-sepang (with notable exceptions). he's walked his strongest comments back as much as he was probably ever going to - by simple virtue of the fact that he's left it at that. and you know, he's a complicated guy... 2016-17 was both pretending and it also wasn't. he didn't act like everything was forgotten, but he certainly was willing to let people believe that this relationship might end up being mended - which quite frankly was probably never going to happen. mostly, he was just sort of sick of the whole thing, struggling to enjoy himself in what had become such a charged, hostile environment for all the riders involved. at the same time, look - fundamentally, the interpersonal chemistry with marc was always fine. they click as people! they click as riders! marc makes valentino laugh! sometimes, that line between 'pretending' and 'letting yourself pretend' and 'actually not pretending at all' can be quite thin. when valentino talks in that time period about how much he enjoyed a battle with marc, of course he isn't lying - because he really does enjoy those fights! that's what racing is all about for him, and that's something him and marc still share! as long as marc isn't barging him aside and causing him to crash, that is. maybe it'd be easier if it were all a pretence, but it wasn't... sometimes, when you say you thought a race was hard and fair, you really do mean it and you really did have a lot of fun. sometimes, the struggle isn't actually acting nice for the cameras, it's trying to bite down the temptation to laugh alongside your sworn enemy

see also assen 2016... like, isn't this kinda wild? you've just had catalunya the race before, you've just had the mere semblance of a tentative start to a possible reconciliation - then they return to the place that was really the beginning of the end for them. they go on a few track familiarisation laps, including to check out the resurfaced final chicane (aka the scene of the crime). they race each other on said track familiarisation laps. then marc brings it up in the presser, giggling about the whole thing, and apparently valentino also finds it pretty funny - before he visibly swallows up his grin. later that weekend, marc pointedly decides to try out valentino's final chicane move himself during the warm up session. this is all obviously deranged, but it's a type of deranged where they are fundamentally on the same wavelength. it's the kind of ridiculous behaviour they're both incredibly fond of... you see it in how valentino shrugs off the towing at catalunya 2019, and thinks it speaks to marc's smarts and wiliness - unsurprising, really, because they're so similar in that regard, and valentino has never shaken his admiration for marc as a competitor

valentino can clamp down on his animosity towards a rival during his direct interactions with them... lord knows if you watch a few of the casey and valentino face-to-face interactions over the years, you really wouldn't match that up with the sheer vitriol of some of the stuff they were concurrently saying about each other in the press. that rivalry was never really personal (on valentino's end), it was never fraught in the same way (for valentino anyway) - still, it shows he's theoretically capable of separating this stuff out when he needs to... and he just about managed with marc for two years. if he had just been waiting for an excuse, surely you would have heard at least a hint of that when him and marc swapped paint in 2017. you never quite knew how he was going to answer the inevitable questions about marc's riding, but no direct criticism was forthcoming at any stage. the post-argentina 2018 rhetoric wasn't in any way premeditated from valentino's side, and personally I don't think he was just waiting for an excuse either. it was the result of a constant internal conflict between knowing that engaging in any more active beef with marc wouldn't do anyone any good, and the fact that he still hadn't forgiven marc... and then a race came along that simply pissed him off enough to push him over the edge

from 2016 onwards, valentino both very much wanted and very much did not want further conflict with marc, and neither of those impulses ever quite go away. usually, he's disciplined enough to avoid stoking the flames any further... potshots to the press outside of the paddock are essentially a free and harmless outlet in that regard, and even there you can tell he was trying to scale it back in the years where he was being forced to directly interact with marc. he was pretending and not pretending and sometimes pretending like he wasn't pretending and sometimes pretending like he was pretending. maybe it would have always just taken one major on-track confrontation for things to fall apart between them again... but you do kinda have to acknowledge the whole thing was really unfortunate. I've long thought that something like sepang 2015 was pretty inevitable as long as valentino managed to put himself in title contention once marc had joined the premier class, but I don't actually feel the same way about argentina 2018. an awful marriage of circumstance and coincidence and bad choices caused the relationship to fall apart again this badly. valentino might have had some more or less sincere misgivings about marc's riding, but at the end of the day he wasn't going to ever express them unless it got personal - because all of these people are incredibly self-centred and valentino wouldn't have felt like it was worth it. he lost his temper, he said some stuff he might partly but not fully believe, he's not inclined to bring it up again. that's that

[collecting--stardust]

Today I offer you:

this baby picture of ai. Tomorrow who knows?

[charlespecco]

fav race win by one of ur boys?

regional food u want to share?

fav season and why?

All of them! There haven’t been enough lmao! 😭 But if I had to choose right now I would say Pecco’s win in Mugello this year ❤️

Oh man I love me some štruklji. It’s essentially a cottage cheese roll type thing but it’s also so much more than that… You can have them sweet or savoury and I prefer savoury which really tells you they’re special cos I’m usually a dessert person.

Autumn before the clocks go back my beloved… All the colours, the mild weather, the outfits, but sunset isn’t at 4pm yet. Ideal imo 🍁

Thank youuu! ❤️

[repsolhonda]

Recently started watching motopg (I've become a huge marc fan). I wanted to watch some of the old races, and sooo... which races do u think are the most iconic/ which ones are entertaining to watch (no pressure, u don't have to answer this ask<3)

HIII welcome to motogp 🥳🥳🥳 okay so i’m terrible remembering old races so if you want something older than 2013 (i rewatch 2013-2019 races A LOT during marc’s injured days so they’re like branded in my brain) i would invite other mutuals to reblog this with their recs. OKAY SO LETS GO

1. assen 2018 aka everyone’s favorite race. THIS is the race everyone and their mothers will name drop when people from other motorsports start coming for motogp okay… i’ve converted 3 people into this sport from that race alone 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️

2. any phillip island races are instant classics sooo you can pick any of them no matter the year (shout out to 2015 and 2017 personally)

okay now moving forward to marc centric races bc i am a marc fan first and foremost sooo:

sachsenring 2016 brno 2017 and san marino 2017 for introduction to mixed condition specialist marc marquez <3

silverstone 2013 mugello 2016 austria 2018 bc i love good old marquenzo duels <3

if u want to see recent good ol marc comeback races assen 2021 and cota 2022... p20 to p7 and p24 to p6.... in THAT honda.... everyone pls bow down.....

aragon 2021 is also fun i love a good honda marc duel with ducati.... sachsenring 2017 or '18 (?) duel with folger is also fun.....

i think some motegi ('17? '16?) and aragon '18? were fun too.... okay my brain blanks out i forget all races now pls i need my mutuals to intervene sorry KJSKSJHSJKS i have memory of a goldfish….

[42bakery]

when I saw they declared pecco fit i thought here we go again !! declared fit doesn't mean anything to me anymore until they go to an actual hospital

Hi there anon 👋👋👋

My first year watching bikes was 2020, and in 2021, I saw Jason pas away. He was told to be conscious, but then the medical team was covering him with a white sheet, and quickly put in a coma. I haven't trust these people in a long time regardless of medical decissions.

Also it doesn't help when you learn that a rider fake a concussion to get a red flag out (thanks to the dickhead of Aegerter in WSSP). So if they know the symptoms to fake a concussion, they do know how to mask those same symptoms.

In my opinion, the medical team that declares a rider fit can't be on the pay roll of the championship due to the things like the mentioned above. I do agree a doctor is needed, but just to look at the medical histories and treatment someone else is doing. And that someone else is the one that needs to declare the rider fit and submit the paperwork. The organization, DORNA and IRTA all want the maximum number of riders fit, and they are just rushing the riders and letting them race with concussion symptoms (Nagashima in 2019 or 2020, Remy Gardner in 2020 or 2021 (a year after Nagashima), Öncü and so on and on. Please Jorge Lorenzo in Assen race the same weekend after he broke his collarbone. Dani has raced with broken hands a lot. This is not acceptable, and we let them get away.

Did they check for internal bleedings? Did they check for bruised organs? Because I remember García (or Rodrigo) racing or trying to race with a bruised spleen because no one checked on him properly. And they complained of back pain! The medical protocols and the person in charge of making sure they are followed are just shit

Okay sorry for the ranting

[flyingfabio]

Hi hello so sorry to report I’m here to bring the vibe down. Partner insists that although Fabio is on his own level with clear tarmac in front of him he “just never knows what he’s doing” when passing even back when the M1 was working.

I don’t know exactly what my ask is other than sharing the misery but if you threw some good Fabio vibes at me my partner might be able to survive the night.

(Also to be clear I’m not delusional I know Fabio has his strengths and weaknesses like any rider but every time he insists Fabio isn’t winning because he doesn’t know how to pass I want to crawl the walls. This sort of argument makes me want to quit my job and do a four year analysis on Fabio’s races please don’t let me do this.)

hey don't worry about bringing your vibes i'll always be ready on the front line to defend fabio 🫡

well first i would suggest to your partner to look back some races from 2021 and tell me how fabio doesn't look like he knows what he's doing? qatar, portugal, assen at the top of my head. 2021 (and 2019 his rookie year) is when he felt really comfortable with the bike and he was always really fast alone, and since the bike could still qualify consistently well (only in fabio's hands, mind you), fabio had less trouble with bikes in front of him in the race. but it was still hard work (overtaking in corners and getting overtaken back on the straight, you know how the story goes) and he was the only yamaha rider capable of doing it consistently which i think is a feat in itself.

the thing is, people judge fabio's overtaking abilities when he's only ever been on the m1 which we know is a shit bike to overtake with. with running different lines than other bikes now throw in also front tyre overheating and v4s turning better then ever and it's an almost impossible task today. just look at mandalika a few weeks ago, fabio was clearly faster than maverick and pecco at the end of the race, but when he caught them he just couldn't find a way to overtake the aprilia.

so i wouldn't call overtaking a weakness of fabio considering the machinery (a scooter) he has. weakness of the yamaha? sure. but not fabio's. if i had to say a weakness of fabio, i would rather say setting a fast lap in mixed or wet conditions.

[bobendsneyder64]

So I was watching back the episodes from the special TT news they make every year in the week before the TT and learned some amazing things I wanted to share with you

This post will be about Assen

- the first ever TT was in 1925 and was 28 kilometers long. It was from Rolde via Borger and Schoonlo back to Rolde. It moved to Assen in 1926 because there was a part in the original circuit that was a sand road. This was only 800 metres long but the organisations and officials that organised it didn't wan't to put asphalt on this small part. Because it was a street circuit the whole circuit had to be asphalt. Assen immediately took their chance to host the TT from then on.

- while there have been a lot of changes to the circuit over the years, the place of the start/finish line never changed. Ever since 1926 it has been on the same place and never moved, not even an inch. The circuit has become shorter and wider, but the start/finish line never changed.

- in 2025 the TT exist a 100 years and it will be a special year. They want to do a lot of special stuff and release special material, like a book and a movie. This year, however, was only the 92nd edition of the TT but that is because in all these years, there were 6 years were they couldn't organise one. 5 years were missed because of WW2 and one year was missed because of covid. So the 100th TT will be in 2031.

- in the last 13 races in Assen there were also 13 different pole-sitters: Jorge Lorenzo (2010), Marco Simoncelli (2011), Casey Stoner (2012), Cal Crutchlow (2013), Aleix Espargaró (2014), Valentino Rossi (2015), Andrea Dovizioso (2016), Johann Zarco (2017), Marc Marquez (2018), Fabio Quartararo (2019), Maverick Viñales (2021), Pecco Bagnaia (2022) and Marco Bezzecchi (2023)

This is post 1 of 2. Find post 2 here

[batsplat]

marc marquez letting an italian pass him at assen? *insert here a generic joke about rossi being mad*

had marc been a real hater he’d take off the wheels and win by 16 seconds riding only chassis after receiving a tyre pressure warning

a sequel to phillip island 2003, I like it conceptually

this is his problem. (giving him a pass this weekend, see you after the summer break.) he's not enough of a hater these days, he needs to find his way again... he needs to remember some of his best work is fuelled by spite... I remember his misano 2017 where he simply refused to lose that race after those italian fuckers had gotten his head hot... he knows this is how his brain works, he can channel this, he's seen the script... misano 2019, let's not forget, he'd just lost two back-to-back dramatic last lap duels... sure, he might have been walking the championship with insulting ease, but he still had something to prove... and what does he do? he stalks the yamaha riders on friday. in misano. he comes out on track during saturday qualifying ahead of dovi and valentino, decides to dawdle and let them past. and then he jumps on valentino's rear tyre. in misano. in the first year in which valentino just wasn't an on-track rival any more he had any real competitive reason to fuck with. but had the intention of using valentino to go faster. in misano

and then he gets super mad about the resulting drama and ends up snatching the win in the subsequent last lap duel against the rookie brat who is way harder to be a hater of!! that was proper hating, like that was a weekend long masterclass in hating. man touched down on italian soil and had a mission

anyway unfortunately I do think it's harder these days, like you can't just do that to any italian? what's he gonna do at assen, get all heated up when fighting diggia - a man I regularly forget does actually have a proper vr46 link now courtesy of riding for their team - for pee five? back in the day, he did have the decency to only ever finish behind an italian at assen when one of said italians was valentino (on three occasions, '13 '15 '17)... he used to show some respect for the narrative... but y'know some good old spite probably really would help him in weekends like that to keep it together a bit more. he's got to get something going with pecco for his own sake. in assen he probably never had the pace with all the spite in the world... next year, we'd better be cooking something special

[raulfernandez]

Not so gentle reminder that in 2021, Mav got a podium in Assen and not even 24 hours later they announced that he'd leave them at the end of the season, a year earlier than planned. He had every right to be mad at a team that he did so much for. I know yall don't wanna accept it, but he ended their longest unlucky streak, dominated the 2017 preseason tests, won the first two races of the season and won Le Mans and came third in the championship even while the team struggled with grip in the whole second half of the season. The first half of 2019 wasn't too good but he won Assen and then got 5 more podiums including a Malaysia win and came 3rd in the championship again. He started 2020 strong with a double second place in Jerez and later a win in the Emilia-Romagna gp. Then it all started to go down and he only came 6th. Started 2021 of with a win in the first round which should also be his last for Yamaha

[celestinovietti]

What is your all-time favorite race in your favorite motorsport? 🤔✨️

oh god what a question- so my faves are motogp, moto2 and formula e.

motogp - assen 2022

i was there for a start in the grandstands. it was the turning point where pecco started to fight back against fabios dominance and it was so special to see. it was also marco bezzecchis first podium in motogp and it was sooo good to see it live, and also maverick was on the podium and it was like his first one since joining aprilia so it was a really special moment. but also styria 2020 as marco and cele both won in moto2 and moto3 respectively 🩷

Moto2: austria 2023 as like last year, celestino was one of the only people to beat pedro acosta and he did it on track and it was just perfect. he hadn't been doing great that season, the ktms were killing him and fantic were just like meh so it was so nice to see him succeed.

formula e - paris 2019.

the first wet race ever in formula e, i can't believe we went 5 seasons without any rain. this season will forever be the greatest anyways because of the streak ™️ but to have robin's first win there was perfect. he fought tooth and nail for the win and i can remember him getting a dutch flag and waving it around and it was such a good time!!

thank you for the question 🩷🩷

[callmecams26]

Jorge Lorenzo’s history with Assen is actually so insane:

He wins 2010.

Crashes together with Simonchelli in 2011.

Gets taken off by Bautista in 2012.

The whole collarbone thing in 2013.

Finished 13th in 2014.

Got a podium in 2015 <33

Finished 12th in 2016 (only due to a red flag, he was actually swarming around in 19th at some point)

15th in 2017 and 7th in 2018.

Cracked his back in 2019.

THAT is crazy.

[joostjongepier]

Wat?   Die Erwartung (2017), Das Kollegium (2019), Der Funke (2018), Winterwanderer (2017), Kogni (2017), Trost (2021), Szene in Blau (2016)en Grün (2013)

Waar?   Tentoonstelling Neo Rauch – Wegzehr in het Drents Museum, Assen

Wanneer?   4 maart 2023

Neo Rauch is vijf weken oud als zijn ouders om het leven komen bij een treinongeluk. Hij groeit op bij zijn grootouders in het plaatsje Aschersleben in de toenmalige DDR. Hij bezoekt de zelfde kunstacademie  als zijn ouders: de Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst. Vanaf 2005 geeft hij daar jarenlang les.

Naast werken op doek, schildert Rauch ook op papier. Hij zegt daarover: “Ik kan dan veel vrijer, soepeler het penseel laten glijden.” De expositie Wegzehr is geheel gewijd aan werken op papier.

Wegzehr betekent ‘eten voor onderweg’. Het is ouderwets taalgebruik. Rauch houdt ervan zijn werken en tentoonstellingen mysterieuze namen te geven. Dat past zeker bij zijn werk, want dat is raadselachtig. “Vergelijk het met een tuin. Is die volledig geordend, dan is dat doods en saai”. Voor saaiheid hoef je bij deze schilder van de Leipziger Schule beslist niet bang te zijn. Zijn werken zijn droombeelden, waarin allerlei motieven regelmatig opduiken. Zonder er uitgebreid studie naar gemaakt te hebben, noem ik er een aantal die mij zijn opgevallen: mythische wezens, industriële motieven (die sterk aan de DDR doen denken), musici en acrobaten, mensen met ezelsoren en mensen met een steek op het hoofd.

In de voormalige abdijkerk hangen grote werken, een etage hoger kleiner werk (A4-formaat). Opvallend is de veelheid aan materialen die de kunstenaar gebruikt. Dat varieert van aquarel en acryl tot potlood en viltstift. De meeste werken op papier zijn net zo enigmatisch als zijn schilderijen op doek. Uitleg bij de werken wordt dan ook niet gegeven en de film die wordt gedraaid, toont slechts de kunstenaar aan het werk. Bij Rauch moet je als kijker zelf het werk doen, of je er gewoon bij neerleggen dat je krijgt wat je ziet: raadselachtige taferelen waar je vaak geen sluitend verhaal bij kunt verzinnen. Maar misschien maakt dat het werk van deze schilder juist zo intrigerend.

[beardedmrbean]

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Police in Bulgaria on Friday discovered an abandoned truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants, who appeared to have suffocated to death inside a secret compartment under a load of lumber.

The Interior Ministry said that according to initial information, the truck was carrying about 40 migrants and the survivors were taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment.

Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said most of the survivors were in very bad condition.

“They have suffered from lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, they are freezing, and obviously haven’t eaten for days,” Medzhidiev said.

The truck was found abandoned along a highway near the capital, Sofia. The driver was not there, but police discovered the passengers in a secret compartment below the lumber the vehicle also was carrying.

Authorities did not immediately give the nationalities of the migrants. Bulgarian media reported they all were from Afghanistan.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 7 million, is located on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Europe. Only a small number of them plan to stay in the European Union’s poorest member, using Bulgaria instead as a transit corridor on their way west.

To prevent people from entering the country illegally, Bulgaria's government erected a barbed-wire fence along its 259-kilometer (161-mile) border with Turkey. But foreigners fleeing poverty or conflict in their home countries manage to enter with the help of local people smugglers.

While the deaths of Europe-bound refugees and asylum-seekers at sea are more common, the grim discovery in Bulgaria is not the first time groups of migrants have been found dead in abandoned vehicles.

In October 2019, British police found the bodies of 39 people inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled to England. Police said all the victims, who ranged in age from 15 to 44, came from impoverished villages in Vietnam and were believed to have paid smugglers to take them on a risky journey to better lives abroad.

Police said they died of a combination of a lack of oxygen and overheating in an enclosed space. The truck discovered in the town of Grays, east of London, had arrived in England on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Another similar tragedy took place in August 2015, when 71 migrants suffocated to death in the back of a refrigerated truck found on a highway in Austria.

A court in Hungary convicted an Afghan man and three Bulgarian accomplices in 2018 of being part of a criminal organization and committing multiple crimes, including human smuggling and murder, in connection with the deaths.

Ten other defendants, mostly Bulgarians, were given prison terms ranging between three and 12 years.

[sbknews]

Alvaro Bautista secures 2022 WorldSBK crown

The 37 year-old rider secured the 2022 WorldSBK Riders’ Championship at Mandalika. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) fought hard during the 2022 season, resisting the charge of 2021 WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). He became WorldSBK’s 19th Champion, and the second Spanish rider to be crowned WorldSBK Champion after Carlos Checa in 2011; Checa was also Ducati’s last WorldSBK Champion. Bautista returned to Ducati for the 2022 season after two seasons away and did so in perfect fashion, taking his first win of the season in the Tissot Superpole Race at the season-opening Aragon Round. He also left MotorLand Aragon as the title leader following his Race 2 victory. Rea was able to fight back at Assen but that lasted for just one day as Bautista extended his lead again in Race 2, with the newly-crowned Champion leading the way from Assen’s Race 2 onwards. A Race 1 crash at Donington Park dented Bautista’s lead but he bounced back in style; taking 15 podiums in the 18 races that followed including a hat-trick at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. A crucial part of Bautista’s title-winning campaign was his fights with both Razgatlioglu and Rea, particularly with the 2021 Champion throughout the Estoril, Portuguese and Argentinean Rounds. Bautista began his career in the Spanish Championship from 1995 to 2002. In 2002, he was fighting for the title until the final race. In the same year, he made his first appearance in the FIM 125cc World Championship as a wildcard. He became a 125cc Grand Prix winner in 2006 at the Spanish GP. With eighth victories claimed that season, he secured his first World Championship title. The Spanish rider then moved up to the 250cc class, claiming 28 podium places including eight victories. Bautista stepped up to the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship in 2010. During his eighth seasons in MotoGP™, he claimed three podium places and one pole position, with a fifth place as his best classification in the Championship standings in 2012. In 2019, Bautista made his WorldSBK debut with Ducati, finishing his rookie season with 16 wins, 24 podium places, 4 pole positions and 15 fastest laps as he secured second place in the Championship standings. In 2020, he switched to Honda, racing for the Team HRC squad. Over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he claimed three podium places for the Japanese manufacturer before returning to Ducati and the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team for the 2022 season. With 14 wins and 29 podium places, Alvaro Bautista became the 2022 WorldSBK Champion at Mandalika. Bautista becomes the ninth different rider to take a Riders’ Championship for Ducati with the Italian manufacturer securing their 15th Riders’ Championship overall. He’s the third different rider in three years to take the crown, as well as being from a third different country and on a third different bike, emphasising the competitive parity in WorldSBK. The newly crowned WorldSBK Champion will remain with Ducati in 2023 and both will aim to continue challenging many records.

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.It Racing - Ducati: “It’s incredible, I’m so happy. It’s a dream come true, especially after the last two years and all the difficulties. I want to say thanks to everyone who trusted me, to give me this chance to fight for good places and we got the Championship at the first time of trying. Today was the first time I felt a bit nervous or stressed, but it was in Race 2 on the grid before the start. I tried to manage the emotions and when I was in first, I was making a lot of mistakes because I had too many thoughts in my head! I just preferred to stay second behind Toprak, but he was very strong, so I could just follow him. So happy. It’s difficult to know what to say. I’m just so happy. During the whole season, I was so happy because I had a lot of experience from the past. I tried to be the best possible rider, not make mistakes. I think our performance has been really, really high. I think I had the best performance level ever from Toprak and Jonathan. They performed at a really high level in all races. I was lucky that I made fewer mistakes than them. What’s important is also consistency. I could beat Jonathan, a six-time World Champion and Toprak, a one-time Champion, breaking all the records at all the tracks which means the level is so high. We can win with this amazing level.” Giulio Nava, Bautista's Crew Chief: “We worked really hard for this; this team and Ducati. I’ve been working with Alvaro for many years and I’m super happy to be here with him, seeing him achieving these results. It means a lot. I’m very lucky to work with him. You create very a strong relationship together. We joke together. Alvaro is like my brother. It’s difficult for me to explain what it means, but it means the world to see him winning.” Luigi Dall’Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager: “It is a wonderful day for us. We worked a lot with Alvaro in the past and in 2019 we did a fantastic job until the middle of the season. In the end, we could not win the crown. Today, in the end, and it was a fantastic emotion. It was a special day. This is probably one of the best seasons of his life. This year, and 2006, were two really amazing seasons for him. He won the 2006 125cc World Championship and today he won WorldSBK. He’s a real fantastic rider and I’m really, really happy he could get the title today.”

World Championship Career: 2002-2006: 125cc - First Race: Spanish GP 2002 | Best result: P1 2007-2009: 250cc - First Race: Qatar GP 2007 | Best result: P1 2010-2018: MotoGP™ - First Race: Qatar GP 2010 | Best result: P3 2019-2022: WorldSBK – First Race: Australian Round 2019 | Best result: P1 2022: World Superbike Champion Rider Statistics First round: Phillip Island 2019 Race starts: 130 Wins: 30 Podium places: 56 Pole positions: 5 Fastest laps: 27 Title: 1

For more info checkout our dedicated World Superbike News page World Superbike News Or visit the official World Superbike website WorldSBK.com Read the full article

[collecting--stardust]

Ai Ogura before the 2019 Moto3 Assen GP