ROUND 5/JUNE 2, 2013
MUGELLO CIRCUIT/MUGELLO, ITALY
MOTOGP
P72
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Cal Crutchlow
finished on the
podium for a
second straight
race, the Brit
inheriting
third place
when Marquez
crashed out of
second place.
cial one. He and 76,328 raceday fans arrived at the scenically beautiful and technically
challenging 3.2-mile circuit in the
Apennine foothills outside Florence with hopes high. He was
better than usual since his return
to Yamaha in practice and confident on Saturday evening, even
though he was again seventh
on the third row as his qualifying
technique was found wanting.
"We are in a good way, but
some riders were more clever
than me, finding somebody to
follow for a good lap time," he
said. In fact, it was Marquez who
had tagged on behind him to use
his draft and qualify one place
ahead. "Anyway, the race is long
and I have a good pace – not so
fast as Jorge and Dani, but I think
I can fight for the rostrum."
As it turned out, he and a fairly
good chunk of the crowd left early. His race lasted only three corners. Clutch problems meant a
poor start, and he was striving to
make up for it, pushing through in
the first left-right chicane - turns
two and three.
He was alongside and a little
ahead of Alvaro Bautista in the
middle of the chicane when they
collided. The Go & Fun Honda
rider said he hadn't seen him,
Rossi said that Bautista had lost
control before hitting him. But
blame was irrelevant and, as
Race Direction judged after interviewing both and examining the
footage, it was really just one of
those racing incidents. As Rossi
said: "Can happen."
In fact he was lucky, because
he hit the wall hard. "Luckily it
was protected, and I pushed the
bike in front of me, but it was a
big impact with the straw bales,"
said Rossi.
So that was that. Another seminal moment in his career? Well,
we can probably expect a few
more as the season wears on,
and who knows how it will all end
up?
Marquez had a very different
