Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013 Jorge Lorenzo claimed a small but potentially vital landmark for himself and Yamaha – the first rider to take three wins. Lorenzo had his first tumble of the year in free practice, and clutch trouble meant he missed pole position. His race was a replica of two weeks ago at Mugello: aggressively seizing the lead in the first corner, then reeling off metronome laps until finally driving POL MAN The down-on-power Moto2 class is meant to make for close exciting racing. It didn't work like that at Catalunya. Instead it soon turned into a rather attenuated procession, but for some fitful scrapping going on down where it didn't matter too much. Pole start Pol Espargaro led away, with Tuenti HP40 Kalex teammate Esteve Rabat in tow. At first Takaaki Nakagami led the chase, but Scott Redding was up to third on lap two. At the same time, Thomas Luthi was pushing, and took third off Redding on lap six. Former champion Toni Elias crashed out on lap one; Alex de Angelis was on the move and taking his turn to attack Nakagami. By half distance the order was unchanged: Luthi still close in third, but Redding had started to lose ground. Now Espargaro changed tactics, offering Rabat an easy pass on lap 14. Now it was his turn to be stalked for three laps before a firm-overtaking move gave Espargaro a lead he would never lose. Rabat was still trying to the end, and his final lunge saw him almost alongside over the line. Third and fourth were safe for Luthi and points leader Redding, although Nakagami – pushed by Randy Krummenacher – was closing at the end. Johann Zarco inherited a lonely seventh from de Angelis, and held Pol Espargaro was a happy man after winning the Moto2 race. it to the flag. There was a better brawl behind him, with Marcel Schrotter heading the gang until lap 12, only to fall next time round. The last-lap shuffle gave the place to Dominique Aegerter from Mika Kallio, Simone Corsi and his NGM Fast Forward Speed Up teammate Mattia Pasini. Eighth to 11th was covered by just over half a second. With several fallers there were just 23 finishers of 32 starters. Redding retained his title lead, over new second-place man Espargaro, 114-79. Rabat has 75, Kallio 65, while Aegerter – with 61 points - drops the non-scoring Terol to sixth. P57 Briefly... "Casey Stoner was right." Nobody expected to hear Valentino Rossi ever say that, but in a flurry of complaints that the current Bridgestone front tires were too soft, the Italian recalled the objections of Stoner (and, though he didn't mention it, Dani Pedrosa) when the Japanese company introduced a new softerconstruction front two years ago. All the other riders liked it, but the Honda pair dubbed its squidgy braking performance potentially dangerous. Now the heat at Catalunya brought forth the same Dword from Jorge Lorenzo. "We have been asking Bridgestone for a stronger front," he said. "In some brakings it is dangerous." Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow echoed complaints about the too-weak front. Rossi was clear on the question. "We suffer with the front casing," he said. "They made this casing for safety, to have a better temperature, but that problem was with the 800s. The 1000s are faster and heavier so the tire is too soft. I never agree with this tire, but when it happened I was with the Ducati and in the shit any way. Casey was right. In the race I had a lot of movement from the front; I was very close to crashing three or four times, so it's very dangerous and I had to slow down a little more." Maverick Vinales earned a dubious distinction when he was the first rider to earn penalty points for dangerous behavior. Only one point, after a major indiscretion. He'd crashed early in qualifying, continued on next page

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