MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 17 / OCTOBER 26-28, 2018
PHILLIP ISLAND / PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA
P56
a massive improvement for the
Bologna bikes, after struggling
to finish 13th here last year.
Temporary teammate Alvaro
Bautista, taking the place of
Jorge Lorenzo, bounced back
from several tumbles as he got
used to the Desmosedici GP18,
and claimed a valuable fourth for
the factory, after running in the
top three most of the race.
The next three—Alex Rins
(Ecstar Suzuki), Rossi (Movistar
But it was not without con-
cern. "In the last laps I was a bit
worried because my tires went
down a lot," he said. Given a few
more, it is not impossibly that
Andrea Iannone might not have
caught up. The Ecstar Suzuki
rider lost too much time in the
battle for second, unable to get
clear of the faster Ducatis, and
on the last lap was still fight-
ing to fend off a hard-pressing
Andrea Dovizioso, who marked
dized practice and qualifying.
While the cream of the crop
bickered behind him, tripping
one another up with a variety
of errors and over-ambitious
lunges, he had smoothly and
gradually drawn clear. He had
a four-second lead, with seven
laps to go. He could let the gap
shrink to 1.5 seconds by the
end. And when he crossed the
line, "there were only tears on
my face."
