MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 18 / OCTOBER 18-20, 2019
MOTEGI CIRCUIT / MOTEGI, JAPAN
P78
also ahead of Morbidelli, who
would now lose touch as the fac-
tory pair increased the pace.
Vinales was all over the back
of the Ducati. Time and again
he looked for a way past. Stead-
fast, Dovizioso paid no heed,
relying on his better braking
and acceleration to thwart the
Yamaha's higher corner speed.
That worked until Vinales fi-
nally accepted the inevitable and
dropped back by half a second
back over the line.
Dovi had more drama in his
pocket, as over the last three
laps, he was closing on Quartar-
aro hand over fist. A gap of 2.5
seconds at the start of lap 21 was
less than a second three laps
fortably by second-row starter
Miller, but after five laps or so, he
started to lose ground quickly,
blaming an inexplicable sudden
loss of rear grip, after initially
"feeling comfortable chasing
Marc and Fabio."
Behind him, Morbidelli was
looking strong, heading a press-
ing Andrea Dovizioso (Mission
Winnow Ducati), with Maverick
Vinales (Monster Yamaha) gradu-
ally closing on the pair.
By lap 10 the trio had caught
and were busy passing Miller
who was now conspicuously
slower. Then on lap 14, Dovi
firmly outbraked the Yamaha at
the bottom of the back-straight
hill. Two laps later Vinales was
Vinales and Morbidelli.
Morbidelli was swamped into
the first corner as Marquez led
away, then Quartararo forced
into the lead at Turn Seven. That
lasted just three more corners.
He ran a little wide into Turn 10 as
Marc pushed back inside of him,
and almost crashed as he lost
the front.
The ever-impressive 20-year-
old French rookie quickly
regrouped but had to accept
that, "Marc was faster, maybe
three-tenths a lap," Quartararo
said. He was able to get on with
chasing, losing fractions every
lap, but seemingly safe from the
all-action pursuit.
This at first had been led com-
Marquez
had his new
shadow of Fabio
Quartararo
for company,
but the young
Frenchman just
couldn't hang
with the world
champion.
