When is a recording not a recording?

Sounds like you have a VoD "bookmark", which is part of TiVo-firmware and is intentionally designed to look & feel like a recording, listing in your "My shows" view alongside recordings.

There may be a high-level push from the broadcasters towards streaming, but it's certainly not replacing recordings on TiVo or V6 boxes - I completely agree with you that recordings are always preferable.

Without checking the specifics of Moto GP, there's normally 2 ways that you get a VoD shortcut instead of a recording.

1: You have a series link set for either "streaming videos" only, or "recordings & streaming videos" - and no recording was available due to a clash.

2: You have manually set a VoD shortcut by following the EPG/search links for "add bookmark"

If you set a recording via your EPG prior to broadcast, then you will either get a recording stored to your box's HDD or an entry in "Recording Hiccups" explaining why.