P102
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
Y
ou have to love Jorge
Lorenzo. Or perhaps you
don't. He doesn't give a
hoot either way. Always his own
man, with a unique view of his
place in the world, Jorge made
a marvelous meal of team orders
at the final grand prix at Valen-
cia.
Team orders are controver-
sial enough anyway. Perhaps it
was in the interest of decency
and sportsmanship, of truth and
beauty, that Jorge held himself
aloof. More likely, because his
opinion of himself over-rides
such petty considerations as
following direct orders from the
people paying truly enormous
sums into his (probably off-
shore) bank account.
At Valencia, his Ducati team
was sending completely trans-
parent coded messages to his
dashboard Twitter screen, and
even more direct instruction on
his pit board.
The code was as used in Ma-
laysia, and will now pass forever
into motorcycle folklore: "Map-
ping suggestion: mapping 8."
Slow down, it means. Lose
one place. Let your teammate
SUGGESTED MAPPIN,
MAPPING WHAT?
