VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013
their pace but had no attention to
spare to assess the tires: "I was
on the limit from the first lap."
Pedrosa's had felt comfortable
to attack in the early laps, "but
when I started to push harder immediately I got the first warning
from the front." He waited to lighten the fuel load, then tried again,
"and another warning." He had
no further answer for Lorenzo's
consistent speed.
Pedrosa's problem was his
fast-learning teammate, on his
back wheel. It had been a difficult weekend at a circuit of many
subtleties for Marquez. Even after qualifying "I didn't understand
P59
Briefly...
and his bike had been hastily rebuilt. Something blew as he approached top speed on the pit
straight, and as scorching water
sprayed out he slowed quickly,
and executed a timely, but illegal
U-turn across the pit entrance. Junior Ongetta rider Matteo Ferrari
was exiting at the time, and had to
take avoiding action. Vinales compounded the offense by pushing
his bike the wrong way up pit lane
- to no avail. It was parked for the
rest of the session.
If the cracks are starting to show in
the teammate relationship at Repsol Honda, it is mainly because the
Spanish press are frantically trying
to pull them open. That's the message after reports in Spain quoted
Dani Pedrosa as complaining that
Marck Marquez had "stolen my settings" for the Italian GP. Misquoted,
as Pedrosa insisted at the pre-event
conference, switching to Spanish
to be sure he was in perfect control
of expressing himself as he insisted
he had been misrepresented the
last time. It was normal for Marquez
to see his settings, but not normal
for him to use them, because they
had different riding styles. Pressed
independently, Marquez also tried
to defuse the situation. He had
tried Pedrosa's set-up pre-season,
and "I was not able to ride with that
set-up," he said. If he copied anyone, he continued, it was Casey
Stoner, starting with his electronic
settings and still close to him. But
other settings were not valid. "We
have a different chassis, different
swingarm..."
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