P43
VOL. 48 ISSUE 23 JULY 19, 2011
nitz. But that wasn't all.
Stoner then succumbed to
an equally inspired last-corner
charge by Mugello winner Jorge
Lorenzo. Lorenzo and his factory
Yamaha had also led as the trio
eventually outpaced Repsol Hon-
da's Andrea Dovizioso and San
Carlo Honda's Marco Simoncelli.
And there was more excitement
to come there as well, as Assen winner Ben Spies picked up
speed at the end to close down
on the pair. The Yamaha-mount-
Fully Fit
A healthy Dani Pedrosa wins as
Lorenzo tops Stoner
Briefly...
Casey Stoner was lucky to escape serious injury in his Friday
morning crash – a vicious highsider at the fast right-hander leading onto the "waterfall" plunge of
the back straight. Like all who fell
there, the problem started when
the front lost grip. "I tried to save
it... I'd have been better off letting
it go," said the Australian. "I lost
the front as I started to change direction," he said of his spill. Fighting to regain control had, in retrospect, been a mistake. "I picked
it up as much as possible, then
the rear came round." He was
launched high in the air to land
heavily on his back alongside the
bike. "I was expecting the bike to
land on top of me – I got lucky today," he said.
Stoner thought that the grippier
rear tire had played a part, spoiling the balance and overcoming
the front grip; while the temperature difference side-to-side at the
heavily left-biased track – only
three of the 12 corners are to the
right – had been the major culprit.
"The temperature on the left of the
front tire was 106 degrees, and on
the right 60 degrees," he said.
Valentino Rossi also crashed
very heavily, on his eighth lap.
"The tires should have been up to
temperature, but the right side of
the tires still looked brand new,"
he said. He was the only rider to
be injured, suffering major gravel
rash "so you can see the muscle"
on his right arm after his leathers
split, and wrenching his injured
right shoulder - but he was out
again at the end of the session.
Would a dual-compound front
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