VOLUME 56 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 27, 2019 P75
teammate Aleix Espargaro had
been a late retirement with a
blown engine, while fellow KTM
riders Johann Zarco and Miguel
Oliveira crashed out after Zarco
made an ill-judged overtaking
move, for which he was pun-
ished by three grid positions at
the next race.
Pecco Bagnaia (Pramac) was
11th, Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
12th, Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3
KTM) 14th, a tentative returned-
from-injury Jorge Lorenzo 15th.
Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati), the
third front-row starter.
Miller's first-lap difficulties
were followed with bad grip
from similar tire problems that
meant in the last lap he was
unable to defend seventh from
slow-starting Danilo Petrucci's
factory Ducati.
Pol Espargaro (Red Bull
KTM) was ninth, clear by the
end of what had been a big
mid-field battle. Andrea Iannone
was now adrift in 10
th
; Aprilia
to beat him."
Their battle had given the
chasing Vinales a sniff of some-
thing better than third, and he
was only six-tenths behind over
the line. Rossi was more than 10
seconds adrift at the end, two
seconds clear of fifth-placed
Morbidelli, who also had tire
chunking problems.
Another six seconds away,
LCR Castrol Honda rider Cal
Crutchlow eventually triumphed
in a long to-and-fro battle with
Rossi looked good but faded by mid-race distance.
