All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
ECONOMY

The Greek Minister of Labor explodes against Yolanda Díaz: "You may want to ask us for advice to reduce unemployment in your country, which is now champion"

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The Greek Minister of Labor, Adonis Georgiadis, has exploded in the face of criticism from the acting vice president, Yolanda Díaz, dedicated this weekend to the new Labor Law Project of the European country. “Dear Mrs.. Díaz may want to ask us for some advice on how to reduce unemployment in his country, which unfortunately is now his champion,” the Greek representative exploded on his social networks this Sunday.

The controversy dates back to last Friday, when the Greek Government approved a labor reform that, among other things, opens the door to the implementation of a sixth day of work a week and allows working days of up to 13 hours.. Also through Twitter, Díaz referred to this new framework, which will allow the company to vary workers' schedules to adapt them to production needs, as the path towards “involution”, a comment that has raised blisters in the Greek government.

In an extensive message flooded with figures, Georgiadis assured: “We received Greece in a much worse situation than Spain and today we are in a much better situation than it.”. In addition, Díaz has been referred to as “the new iron lady of Podemos”.

In detail, the Greek Parliament on Friday gave its green light to a labor reform, promoted by the conservative Government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which in addition to the above allows workers to voluntarily opt for a second job of up to eight hours a day, which Added to the main activity of eight hours a day, it allows workers to work up to 13 hours a day.

It also introduces a contract for “on-call employees” which in reality means that workers will not have a fixed schedule, but will work when the employer requires it, as long as there is prior notice of at least 24 hours in advance.

Once the details were known, Yolanda Díaz declared that she was “very worried” and asserted “this is the path of involution: less time, worse lives, low-cost economy.”

In response, Georgiadis has resorted to a battery of figures that, in his opinion, demonstrate that the evolution of employment and the Greek economy has been better than that of Spain since 2019.. “Your mention gives me the opportunity to demonstrate our great ideological and political superiority with irrefutable evidence.”. Politics is applied art, not theory,” the Greek minister emphasized.

HEALTH

SIBO: the evil of the microbiota that triumphs on TikTok

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In addition to being another of the trends that are popular on TikTok, SIBO corresponds to the acronym for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowht, which we could translate as “bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.”

People with SIBO have more bacteria than normal in the small intestine. Bacteria that are misplaced because, although their natural habitat is the colon, they have remained “trapped” there for different reasons. And as usual, quality is as important as quantity.. There are some especially “damn” bacteria like E. coli o K. pneumoniae.

To know more
Health. SIBO: the risks of self-diagnosing the trendy disorder on networks
  • Editor: CANDELA HORNERO

SIBO: the risks of self-diagnosing the trendy disorder on networks

These bacteria, while they watch life pass by in the small intestine, ferment the carbohydrates that arrive with the food.. “Fermenting” means that the bacteria eat the sugars and, in exchange, they make other compounds and make a kind of mess.. This “excess gas” generated in the small intestine (where there is no need for bacteria to fart) leads to common symptoms that come and go, such as bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea, gas and nausea. There are also more serious associated symptoms such as weight loss and malabsorption, which as its name indicates is the difficulty in absorbing nutrients with its possible associated nutritional deficits.

Why does SIBO appear?

The small intestine has many defense mechanisms to prevent bacteria from setting up camp there.. For example, the movement of the digestive tract itself that “pushes” them forward, the gastric acids that create an environment hostile to bacteria or the ileocecal valve, which acts as a gate preventing the fecal contents of the colon from returning backwards.

When these mechanisms fail, bacteria spend more time in the small intestine, they have more time to grow and it becomes a breeding ground.. And in a river where the water flows, less debris will grow than in a place where the waters are stagnant.. Some reasons why these defense mechanisms fail may be alterations in the anatomy (due to surgeries, obstructions…), problems that alter motility (irritable bowel syndrome, drugs) or problems that alter the pH of the digestive tract (drugs). ).

The three challenges of SIBO

Having SIBO is a trend and precisely for this reason it also has its dark side:

  • The diagnosis. There is great concern within the healthcare sector about the “self-diagnosis” and “overdiagnosis” of SIBO. This is largely due to misinformation on social networks where we can find hundreds of testimonies from “supposed” patients.. The “home” self-diagnosis kits sold online can be a tool to take into consideration, but they are also a double-edged sword since it is a difficult disease to diagnose, even for doctors themselves.. There are diseases with common symptoms such as celiac disease or irritable bowel syndrome and it is necessary for a health professional to make a complete assessment to be able to make a differential diagnosis.
  • · The treatment. The antibiotic, which is capable of annihilating the “bad bacteria”, is the key weapon. However, if SIBO is not correctly diagnosed, using antibiotics can alter the microbiota and the remedy will be worse than the disease.. The objective of the famous low FODMAP diet (low in some types of sugars found in fruits, vegetables, legumes or nuts) is to avoid the favorite foods of the bacteria that camp in the small intestine.. If we take away their food, they can no longer produce flatulence. It is important to know that the FODMAP diet helps improve symptoms but SIBO will not be cured without antibiotics.
  • · The communication. Thanks to social networks, having SIBO has become a trend and a kind of justification for many of our problems. Although it is human to want to label our ailments, the presence of gas and flatulence can have multiple origins. We are faced with a problem that is difficult to diagnose and treat. If our doctors are struggling to do both, it would be very bold for us to think that we can do it ourselves with a home test or because we identify with the symptoms described by an influencer who advertises probiotics with his discount code.
HEALTH

NASA OSIRIS-REx mission: 250 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu reach Earth

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It has been 10 minutes of vertigo but the capsule with 250 grams of material from an asteroid called Bennu has already arrived in the Utah desert, in the United States.. These are the dust and rock samples collected on October 20, 2020 by a NASA spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, which was launched in September 2016 and which this noon diligently released the capsule with the material into space. when it was about 100,000 kilometers from Earth, culminating a seven-year adventure. Afterwards, the spacecraft has diverted its trajectory to begin a new mission, OSIRIS-APEX (OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer) to explore the asteroid Apophis, which it will arrive in 2029.

Meanwhile, the capsule with dust and rock from the asteroid Bennu, which at 4:42 p.m. entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 44,500 kilometers per hour, slowed down with the help of two parachutes until it fell into the desert.. The capsule touched down at 4:52 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time), three minutes ahead of schedule.. Immediately, the rescue team deployed at the Dugway military testing ground went to recover the capsule, whose contents will help study the origins of our solar system and prepare future planetary defense missions to deflect asteroids that may pose a threat to our planet. .

The helicopter took just 20 minutes to reach the landing site, which was first inspected by an Army specialist to ensure that there were no explosives in this area of the training field.. The next person to approach was a Lockheed Martin engineer, who checked the condition of the capsule and measured the gas levels around it, wearing heat-resistant gloves (the capsule was hot after enduring very high temperatures during its flight). interaction with the atmosphere) and a gas mask to protect against possible harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide that could have been released if the capsule's battery was damaged. According to visual analysis, the capsule was in good condition.

To know more
Space. Live, the OSIRIS-REx mission: A “time capsule” with 250 grams of the asteroid Bennu heads to Earth
  • Editor: TERESA GUERRERO Madrid

Live, the OSIRIS-REx mission: A “time capsule” with 250 grams of the asteroid Bennu heads to Earth

stories. Earth watchers from the Italian countryside: “Sooner or later an asteroid will fall but we are working to discover them and be able to deflect them with a ship like DART”
  • Editor: TERESA GUERRERO Frascati (Italy)
  • Editor: JAVIER AGUIRRE | INFOGRAPHIC

Earth watchers from the Italian countryside: “Sooner or later an asteroid will fall but we are working to discover them and be able to deflect them with a ship like DART”

The procedure to minimize the chances of the valuable contents of the container being contaminated upon contact with the Earth's surface has been meticulously and long tested, and includes taking samples (both soil and air) from the landing zone.. The Lockheed engineer placed covers over the capsule's vents, which are designed to let air in through a filter and adjust the pressure inside the capsule during space travel.. Once it cooled, the container, weighing about 45 kilos, was placed in a metal box and wrapped in several layers of Teflon material and a tarp.

With a harness, she has been attached to a cable to be transported by helicopter to a mobile clean room at the Utah base. In this clean room, where there are only six people, they have checked its condition, they have opened the capsule, removed the container with the sample and have prepared it so that on Monday it will be transferred to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which will guard most of the samples.

NASA's plan is that approximately 20% of the capsule material will be distributed among the more than 200 scientists who are part of this mission.. The Canadian Space Agency will keep 4% and the Japanese agency, JAXA, will be given 0.5%. A small portion of the sample will also be stored in White Sands, New Mexico, for safekeeping.. The rest, approximately 70%, “will be preserved for posterity, for when better instruments are available and so that future scientists can study it,” as Lucas Paganini, NASA planetary scientist, explained to this newspaper on Friday. during an interview from Dugway training camp.

The parachute has allowed the capsule to slow down during its landing in the desert NASA

Until now, only Japan had managed to bring material from an asteroid to Earth, through the Hayabusa 2 robotic mission, which in December 2020 brought 5.4 grams of rocks and dust from the asteroid Ryugu to our planet.. The pioneer was the eventful Hayabusa 1 mission, which in 2010 became the first probe to bring particles from an asteroid to Earth for analysis.. But due to various technical problems, instead of obtaining several grams of dust, it brought less than a milligram of particles that were also contaminated by material from the ship itself.

As Paganini relates, “asteroids are fossils or time capsules, the remains of the formation of planets and moons that took place 4.6 billion years ago.”. These remains allow us to understand how they were formed and in addition, we have theories that maintain that asteroids or comets could have brought to Earth the essential elements for the beginning of life, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen or even water.”

Explosion in the sky after the NASA capsule enters the atmosphere

Scientists believe Bennu formed from the pieces of a much larger asteroid in the asteroid belt after a catastrophic collision that would have taken place between 1 billion and 2 billion years ago.. Astrophysicists argue that asteroids like Bennu could have released organic molecules and water through collisions with Earth billions of years ago.

The other important aspect to undertake a mission like this, adds Paganini, is planetary defense: “The study of these components allows us to better understand their composition in the face of possible asteroids that may have a dangerous course for Earth,” he points out.

Two helicopters from the team that recovered the samples NASA

This asteroid approaches Earth approximately every six years – which has also made it easier to send a spacecraft there.. Although until recently NASA estimated that there was a one in 2,750 chance of Bennu colliding with Earth on September 24, 2182, the latest revisions of the orbit suggest that the risk is lower than previously estimated, and it seems that even In the year 2300 there would be practically no risk of collision, since NASA considers that a collision “is very unlikely”. In the more distant future, this 500-meter rock could potentially collide with Earth or Venus, but at the moment, NASA admits, they cannot make accurate predictions.

A year ago, NASA managed to divert the trajectory of an asteroid for the first time, with a mission called DART with which it tested one of the techniques that are expected to be used in the future when a rock is detected heading towards the Earth: Was able to alter the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos around the asteroid Didymos in 32 minutes.

SPAIN

Separatism resurrects the rapporteur, the demand that already strained the PSOE and forced Sánchez to call elections

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If Carles Puigdemont has an obsession, it is to internationalize the independence “conflict”; that of proposing a fight between Catalonia and the State “on an equal footing”. This fixation is answered by the fact that among the conditions posed to Pedro Sánchez to support his investiture is the implementation of a “mediation and verification mechanism”, which the independence movement once called “rapporteur”.

The fugitive has been brewing that idea since he organized the illegal referendum in 2017. Puigdemont maintains that, after 1-O, states like Switzerland were willing to mediate between the Generalitat and the Government to find a way out of the constitutional crisis that would lead to the unilateral declaration of independence on October 27, in the subsequent flight of his promoter to Belgium and in the intervention of Catalan autonomy after the application of 155.

But it would be two years later, at the beginning of 2019, when the escapee would manage to drag the Executive led by Pedro Sánchez to accept that a “rapporteur” would supervise and “attest” to the bilateral negotiation that inaugurated the Pedralbes Declaration, the conclave held in Barcelona on December 20, 2018 in which the Government assumed for the first time the existence of a “conflict over the future of Catalonia.”

Quim Torra then held the presidency of the Generalitat as Puigdemont's supporter, who was the one who, from Waterloo, would telegraph the rapporteur's demand.. The then vice president of the Government, Carmen Calvo, accepted the requirement at the direction of ERC, the one in charge of greasing the relationship between the central and regional Executives through Pere Aragonès, in those days vice president of the Generalitat.

Names like that of the former president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz were being considered in Palau; that of the former president of Uruguay José Mujica or that of the former Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi. Although they would never be tested for two reasons: the Government refused to let the mediator be an international figure, as the Catalan independentists claimed, and because the reaction of the constitutionalist parties, which called for the Colón demonstration to denounce Sánchez's surrender to separatism, and the internal reluctance that the issue had generated within the PSOE ended up pushing the Government to back down.

The consequences are known: ERC and the PDeCAT – the formation heir to Convergència had not yet dissolved into Junts – knocked down the General State Budgets and the socialist president was forced to call elections.

The residue of that terrible memory still lingers in the socialist ranks, hence, of all the claims raised by Puigdemont, the rapporteur's is the one that bothers the Government the most.

“Typical of armed conflicts”

The former deputy of the commons Jaume Asens, who has been acting as a link between the Executive and Junts, recognized after Puigdemont's conference that a “mediator” is “typical of armed conflicts” and that he finds it difficult to fit this controversial figure into the investiture talks. “When we talk about an international, neutral rapporteur, it seems to me that it is difficult to accept, because it would lengthen the process a lot and it is still a negotiation between parties,” concluded the former parliamentarian who promoted the first contact between the Government and Puigdemont through of Vice President Yolanda Díaz.

Asens saw it as more feasible to appoint a “facilitator to coordinate the work”, a type of supervisor who should not necessarily have an international profile.. In the Government, however, they work with another idea. They consider that the former president was sufficiently ambiguous when speaking of a “mediation or verification mechanism” so that he ended up tolerating that this function be exercised by “a monitoring commission.”. The formula is too similar to the negotiation table agreed between Sánchez and ERC, which will probably end up being discarded by Junts.

The post-convergents demand “collecting the investiture in advance” and that means leaving the amnesty law approved, but also agreeing on this mediation mechanism so that the subsequent negotiation on self-determination has “guarantees” of moving forward.

Basically, there is a fear in Junts of ending up being singled out by the secessionist parish, which has been cruel to ERC for its negotiation with the Sánchez Government and which has punished it by leading it to lose more than 300,000 votes in the municipal elections and 400,000 in the general ones. The fugitive wants someone to prove that his negotiations with the State were compromised before the investiture and that he is successful so as not to suffer wear and tear like that suffered by Aragonès.. His ultimate objective in this negotiation is to return freely to Spain without going to jail or being disqualified in order to once again run for the presidency of the Generalitat.

SPORTS

Red Bull closes its sixth title in Suzuka after a difficult race for Sainz and Alonso

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The celebrations for Honda's 75th anniversary were carried out to the letter in Suzuka, where Max Verstappen added his thirteenth victory of the year and Red Bull secured the Constructors' World Championship. The sixth in its history, the second in a row, a simple prelude to what awaits with Mad Max, already 177 points ahead in the table. With Singapore's doubts gone, the next champion did and undid as he pleased against McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, resigned to sharing the other two places on the podium. Just two decades later, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri repeated a double success for the Woking team in the Japanese GP, while Carlos Sainz, sixth and Fernando Alonso, eighth, fought without luck.

Verstappen was able to win with the difference he would have liked, although he crossed the checkered flag with 19 seconds ahead of Norris. Without losing sight of the bonus of the fastest lap (1:34.183), he only missed the honor of the grand chelem after giving up the lead during two of his stops in the pits.. Today he has 400 points and manages the greatest distance from second in the history of F1. His overwhelming supremacy is even more accentuated in contrast with Sergio Pérez, protagonist of a disastrous career.. Despite the Mexican, Red Bull must toast in a big way for this sixth crown, one for Lotus and two for McLaren and Mercedes.

At 16, still untouchable, Ferrari remains, although a lot of work will have to be done in Maranello to, at least, consider another title.. Because just seven days after the victory in Marina Bay, Fred Vasseur's engineers made a mistake again with Sainz. Alonso, for his part, complained about the same thing at Aston Martin. However, the truth is that after riding for too long in the slipstream of Esteban Ocon, he only left Alpine behind thanks to the undercut posed by his wall. With too much temperature in the rear tires and little top speed on the straights, Fernando could do little else.

Sunday had started on the right foot for the two-time world champion. While the top eight on the grid opted for the medium compound, while Alonso preferred the soft ones. And that choice produced immediate returns.. At the start, Sainz blocked Pérez, who in turn would send Lewis Hamilton to the grass. The Asturian emerged victorious from the altercations, who even had the luxury of overtaking Pérez to gain four positions and place sixth.. Behind, the collision between Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon led to a brief safety car period.

Internal tension in Mercedes

Before the first corner, Verstappen had had to defend himself from a very aggressive Piastri, although after the slowdown, his RB19 imposed an unapproachable pace for the McLarens.. Sainz, in the slipstream of Leclerc, contained Alonso and the Mercedes, while Pérez, forced to change the front wing, had fallen into the pit and was being investigated for violating the pit exit procedure.. There was no reason to get bored and even George Russell wanted to challenge Hamilton in the chicane. On lap 16, Toto Wolff was startled when his drivers were involved in another mess at Spoon, with the seven-time champion's illegal defense.

On lap 12, Alonso completed his first pit-stop (2.9 seconds) to ride the hard. From that moment on, the power of the undercut would be evident, with which even Piastri recovered a good bite against the leader.. Even Fernando himself had gained the position over Leclerc, because Ferrari left the Monegasque on the track too much time.. However, the Aston Martin's lack of performance would soon become apparent to Sainz, in Spoon, and Hamilton, who had the pleasure of a spectacular overtake inside the legendary 130R.. Two minutes before Lance Stroll retired, disappointment thundered over the radio: “You have thrown me to the lions for stopping so soon.”. Incredible”.

Pérez's calamitous Sunday was going to be crowned with another touch against Kevin Magnussen, which brought two consequences: a period of virtual safety car and endless repairs in the Mexican garage. At the halfway point of the race, five cars had said enough. Or so it seemed, because a quarter of an hour later Pérez returned to the asphalt with 26 laps lost.. Fortunately, common sense finally prevailed and Christian Horner retired his car..

Ahead, Verstappen minimized risks and chose not to get angry. Meanwhile, on the McLaren wall they tried to calm their boys, because Norris was desperate in front of Piastri: “He's ruining my race”. When the rookie agreed to the team orders, Lando had almost 20 seconds on Russell, whom he viewed as a potential threat for the podium.. At Ferrari, on the other hand, the minutes passed without a clear idea. Perhaps a more aggressive strategy would have been better than that blurry letting go.

On lap 37, after the second stop and rejoining seventh, seven seconds behind Hamilton, Sainz made a comment that almost sounded sarcasm: “I guess they undercut us.”. Unlike last Sunday in Singapore, Mercedes lacked steam during the final stint. Leclerc got rid of Russell to be fourth, just over six seconds off the podium, and Carlos did the same with Hamilton to finish sixth.

SPORTS

Assefa destroys the women's marathon world record with a reduction of more than two minutes

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Nobody knew the Ethiopian Tigist Assefa until a year ago. As a middle distance runner, a specialist in 800 meters, she barely became international, present at an indoor World Cup and at the Rio 2016 Games, but always eliminated in the first rounds.. That's why when he injured his Achilles tendon in 2017 and decided to try out on the asphalt, he didn't receive any offers.. Berlin, New York, Tokyo, London, Chicago, Boston…. The best marathons were unaware of its existence and it debuted at 42 kilometers in the spring of 2022 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a hot, hard, remote test.. She finished seventh with a time (2:34:01) consistent with her gray track record.. But suddenly, a few months later, boom! At 29 years old, Assefa's career and life changed.

In the Berlin marathon in 2022 he won with the third best time in history (2:15:37), he became a benchmark – and image of Adidas – and announced a splendid future. This Sunday on the same stage, again at the Berlin Marathon, he confirmed it in a big way.. In a dizzying race, Assefa broke any estimate, any calculation for history: not only did she break the women's world record for the distance, she destroyed it as if that were simple.. The previous record, from 2019, of the Kenyan Brigid Kosgei was two hours and 14 minutes (2:14:04) and the Ethiopian left it at two hours and 11 minutes (2:11:53), an unprecedented reduction. Eliud Kipchoge's men's world record (2:01:09) is just over 10 minutes away.

Assefa's feat can be explained through technological evolution, not in vain did she wear very light Adidas with a carbon fiber plate – and very expensive, with a price of 500 euros -, but many other runners used similar inventions. Her success can only be understood thanks to the adaptation to distance of an athlete born for it.. Due to her strange progression, it is only known that she trains near Addis Ababa, the capital of her country, under the guidance of Gemedu Dedefo and in a group that includes Tamirat Tola, Olympic marathon medalist and world champion in the World Cup. from Eugene 2022. But it is clear that his genetics, his technique and his work are perfect for the marathon.

“It is not easy for a middle-distance runner to jump into the marathon, but surely she was not a middle-distance runner,” her agent, the Italian Gianni Demadonna, explained to Runner's World magazine last year.. The representative also admitted that Assefa was very out of shape – eight kilos over his weight – when he agreed to run the difficult Riyadh marathon and that he had to force all his contacts to make room for him in last year's Berlin marathon.. “Her coach, Gemedu, had told me: 'I have never seen a woman run like Tigist.'. And that's why I risked it,” said Demadonna, whose work has now multiplied. Last Saturday Assefa opened profiles on Instagram and TikTok and will most likely now attract sponsors of all kinds.

“I didn't expect to run so fast, but it's the result of so much hard work,” the marathon runner commented this Sunday after forcing all her rivals to commit suicide in Berlin.. Until kilometer 15, up to six rivals followed her below the world record pace, the Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui and her compatriots Workenesh Edesa, Senbere Teferi, Helen Bekele, Zeneiba Yimer and Woldu Etageng, but then the majority paid for it.. Chepkirui finished second (02:17:49) without being able to surpass her best time and the rest had to let the Tanzanian Magdalena Shauri (02:18:41) pass between abandonments and fainting. Assefa's pace was too much.

Now the Ethiopian's next goal, she said, will be to win Olympic gold at the 2024 Paris Games, something her country has not achieved since 2012.. As strange as it may seem, he must first earn qualification for the event in a demanding Ethiopian team with other candidates such as Amane Shankule and Gotytom Gebreslase, current world champions and runners-up, Yalemzerf Yehualaw or Letesenbet Gidey. Then, it is assumed, Assefa will return to Berlin to improve himself again. After what he has experienced, and with his progression, now the question with Assefa is where he will leave the marathon world record. Can it get women under the 2:10 barrier?

Kipchoge wins without a world record

In the men's event, Eliud Kipchoge also tried the impossible, but in this case it was impossible. Like last year, the best marathon runner in history tried without success to take human beings to the unknown dimension that awaits them in less than two hours. Again close to the hour in the half marathon (1:00:22 this time), again he couldn't keep up the pace in the second half. At 38 years old, in his fifth victory in Berlin, his mark (2:02:42) was only a disappointment because of who he is: it was the eighth best time in history, but the fifth best of his career.

SPORTS

Bezzecchi's victory and Martín's coup in India

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Marco Bezzecchi hizo historia. The Italian, despite the initial harassment from both Jorge Martín and his compatriot Pecco Bagnaia, ended up winning the first MotoGP Indian Grand Prix in a completely incontestable manner.. The great advantage of the Italian with respect to his closest pursuers meant that all attention was focused on a duel for second place that was completely transcendental for the championship.. The side by side between Martín and Bezzecchi became a real coup for the World Cup just when the current championship leader seemed to be in a position to increase the distance with the second. His fall, when braking to take a curve, ended up causing the Spaniard to now be just 13 points behind the leader with his second place in Buddh. Fabio Quartararo, meanwhile, closed the podium.

“I'm very happy. It has been a very long and arduous race.. I wanted to vindicate myself, I was able to take the lead quite early and I set my pace. “I want to dedicate this victory to a friend of mine who, unfortunately, passed away a couple of days ago, Filippo Momesso,” said Bezzecchi at the end of the race.. “It was a difficult race, I gave it my all and my team leader told me that it was one of the best I have done and that I will be able to go to sleep peacefully tonight,” said the third-placed Frenchman. Fabio Quartararo.

Martín's second place was not without suspense. Almost, until the end. Quartararo, in the last lap, took advantage of a mistake to momentarily snatch second place. The aggressiveness of the Spaniard, not at all willing to let some very valuable points slip away, led him to return the ball in a few hectic seconds.. At the same level as the one-on-one that he had played with Pecco Bagnaia at the start of the test. Before that final fight with Quartararo, the Spaniard also gave another point of suspense to his promotion to the second step of the podium with an apparently insignificant detail that could have cost him dearly..

For a while, he drove with the zipper of his suit slightly lowered, but he managed to put it back on and avoid a possible sanction from the judges that could have had serious consequences in his fight for the championship.. The effort was such that he even suffered an apparent drop in blood pressure once the test was over, which caused him to have to be briefly treated by doctors.

The fall of Márquez

Bagnaia's fall was the big shock and, in turn, the big splash of cold water on the race. Until then, the person who seemed to be going to win such a dubious honor was Marc Márquez who, after managing to get on the podium in the sprint race on Saturday and riding in fourth position for several laps at the start of the race, but went to the ground when crossing the finish line with 16 laps to go. Although he managed to hold on to his Honda and was able to get back into the race, he dropped to sixteenth position..

The one from Cervera, however, managed to climb several positions and finally finished the test in a creditable ninth position, after several pilots also abandoned the race.. Augusto Fernández, Aleix Espargaró and Fabio di Giannantonio, meanwhile, had to retire due to different mechanical problems. As for the rest of the Spanish drivers, with the already known absence due to injury of Álex Márquez, Joan Mir finished the race in fifth place, Maverick Viñales, in eighth, Raúl Fernández, in tenth and Pol Espargaró, in thirteenth.

SPORTS

Fernando Alonso, with a brilliant response to the complaints against his team: "You have thrown me to the lions"

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The day before he had predicted that it was not the ideal layout for Aston Martin, but the engine, turbo, MGU-K and MGU-H updates offered good results for Fernando Alonso in Suzuka. The eighth place at the finish line left the Asturian satisfied, the protagonist of an excellent start and eighth at the finish line after a Sunday where his AMR23 performed “better than expected”. However, the two-time world champion was quite critical of the strategy of his engineers, who were more attentive to Yuki Tsunoda than to the podium candidates..

“I think they called me too soon, to cover Yuki. Maybe today our race was not with him, but with Ferrari and Mercedes,” analyzed the fourth place finisher in the World Championship.. In fact, during one of the moments in which he was able to squeeze out the undercut, Alonso went one second faster per lap than Lando Norris, second at the finish line.. And in the final stretch, even though after Lance Stroll's retirement he had been warned to avoid the slopes, he lapped around 1:37, a pace only within the reach of Max Verstappen..

Aston Martin's strategy followed the first of the projections advanced by Pirelli before the traffic light went out: soft – hard – hard. “I think that after our first stop, unlike McLaren and Ferrari, having another two stints with the hard ones, we surely could have finished sixth or seventh,” warned Fernando, who also had George Russell's Mercedes under his radar..

“A difficult spiral”

Without wanting to get into controversy, Mike Krack praised the consistent driving of his leader, who had “taken home” four “very useful” points.. “Realistically, taking into account our overall performance throughout the weekend, we have achieved the best result with Fernando,” argued the main team of the Silverstone team.

The truth is that Alonso's discomfort with his engineers had already been evident in the middle of his career.. “You have thrown me to the lions by stopping so soon. Incredible,” lamented the man from Oviedo on the radio.. A few minutes later, his complaints focused on the top speed of his car: “They leave me behind on the straights.”. Think something!” According to official F1 measurements, Alonso was fifteenth in the first sector (277 km/h), sixteenth in the second sector (302 km/h) and thirteenth at the finish line (260 km/h ).

That deficit still stung Alonso when he spoke to the press in the Sukuza mixed zone. “We got into a difficult spiral, with a lot of traffic, to which we must add our lack of top speed. Even when we open our DRS the car in front escapes us. So when we encounter traffic the race becomes quite complicated,” he analyzed..

Even with a 24-point margin over Carlos Sainz in the World Championship, Alonso will have to maintain his form in the remaining six races, where perhaps Alpine will also join the fight. Relegated to the fight for the middle zone, one of the factors that can make the difference will be the skill in the exits. Like this Sunday in Sukuza, when before the first corner he took advantage of a touch between Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton to gain four places with the soft tires. “It wasn't bad,” he joked on the radio.

“The start, from tenth to sixth, was obviously very good,” the Asturian later acknowledged. Just a month ago, during the Belgian GP, Alonso went from fifth to third on the grid with astonishing ease. And on July 9, he also gained two places at the start of the British GP.