Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 26 JULY 2, 2013 P53 Briefly... dez and Andrea Iannone the next day, but it was the smaller classes that really set the crash pace. Ten Moto2 riders crashed in the wet on Thursday afternoon, and 17 Moto3 riders did likewise on a rainy Friday morning. Later in Moto2 Indonesian Rafid Topan Sucipto had a second crash, bringing out red flags as first the rider was removed and then the track cleared of spilled oil. Valentino Rossi's first race win since 2010 marked a potential turning in the tide in a year of return to Yamaha that seemed to have run out of momentum over the earlier races after his season-opening second place in the first round at Qatar. The reason is a revised fork setting, devised and tested at Aragon after the last round in Catalunya, according to his crew chief Jerry Burgess. A subtle change made a big difference, allowing him to brake as he wants, allowing him to qualify better for a good starting positions, and transforming his chances as he strives to regain ground lost to younger rivals in two years with Ducati. "It's an internal change that gives more support in initial braking," said Burgess. Rossi had been suffering ever since the introduction of the softer/safer front Bridgestone last year (a tire criticized as "dangerous" under braking by both Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner), Burgess explained. The effect on the rider was exacerbated by the lack of qualifying tires: when he braked as he wanted going for a fast qualifying lap, the collapse of the softer tire worked against him, he continued. At Ara- gon they were finally able to make progress, after "putting our heads together with the guys from Ohlins. Until then we'd tried every other rider's settings, but nothing worked for Rossi's style," he said. The setting change was "very delicate – slowing up the front fork response without using harder springs," he said. For Rossi: "From Aragon we made a step and I feel confident. Today we made no change between warmup and the race - that hasn't happened since 2002 or 2003." Rossi narrowly missed a front-row qualifying slot after a season of third-row starts, and went on to take "one of my most special victories." Yamaha has extended its deadline for teams to order lease engines for next season by two weeks, but everything needs to be decided by the next round in Germany, according to racing CEO Lin Jarvis. The original deadline was the end of June, but sundry uncertainties among potential customers had made the deferral necessary, said Jarvis. "The situation is not clear for all, so we have extended the deadline to the Sachsenring - but that is absolutely the cut-off point." Yamaha needed clear orders by then. "If we don't start making the parts we will not be ready for post-season testing," he said. In addition, any delays would have an impact on production of parts for the factory's own machines. This was not a cheap option, Jarvis pointed out; and teams would have to add the cost of a chassis and all ancillaries. There had been interest from teams both within MotoGP and in other classes. "We had three or four meetings this weekend," he said. "But unless continued on next page

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