Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 26 JULY 2, 2013 a second adrift, and again massively the top CRT bike. Hayden had led his trio up to the back of them by the end, only to lose two places in the final chicane to Smith and Dovizioso. "That's racing," Hayden said. "What's more important is that we were 34 seconds behind the leader." Miles behind, second Power Electronics ART rider Randy de Puniet had caught and passed the battling Pramac Ducati pair of Michele Pirro and Andrea Iannone, who were still scrapping to the line, with Iannone narrowly ahead in 13th. The last point went to Karel Abraham, who had been engaged with the pair until losing touch at half distance. Rossi's win affects the championship only slightly, at this stage, although it might take on a different complexion as the year wears on. Pedrosa still leads on 136 points, Lorenzo threatens on 127, Marquez is closer than before on 113 – then comes Crutchlow 87, who is now under threat from Rossi and his 85 points. CN MotoGP 1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2. Marc Marquez (Honda) 3. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 5. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 6. Stefan Bradl (Honda) 7. Alvaro Bautista (Honda) 8. Aleix Espargaro (ART) 9. Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 10. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) P57 Briefly... Stefan Bradl has joined the rest of the MotoGP grid using Brembo brakes – switching from his Honda in-house Nissins at the post-Catalunya test sessions. The reason had nothing to do with performance and everything to do with convenience: Bradl has already started testing the 2014 Honda, which has a different fork tailored to Brembos, and the factory deem this role more important than work on the Nissin brakes, which will not easily fit. "I tested the 2014 factory bike at Aragon with Brembos, and I felt quite comfortable so we took the decision to try Brembo brakes here," he said. the first in the premier class for a British rider in more than 10 years – the next target is the first victory in 32 years. His pole-sitting predecessor was Jeremy McWilliams, who put the two-stroke Proton fastest at Phillip Island up against the newgeneration MotoGP four-strokes in 2002. It was the last time a twostroke started a premier-class GP from the front. The last winner was Barry Sheene, in Sweden in 1981. To Crutchlow, however, "this isn't a real pole because [Jorge] Lorenzo isn't here. I'm looking forward to having a real dogfight with him when he's back." Ducati's continuing woes were exacerbated at Assen by the harder grade of tires offered this year compared with last, when several riders suffered blistering problems in a warm dry race. "I was one of them," said Nicky Hayden. But this year, especially in cool conditions, the lower grip levels were costing him dearly. "I'm slower than I was last year, which is never good," he said. "This year there is a stronger construction tire. It has less grip, and when the grip is bad we suffer more than the others." Even the Ducati's strength in the wet – exhibited at Le Mans and elsewhere – was not to be relied on, according to teammate Andrea Dovizioso. "Here you have more time at an angle, so our point of good traction [on corner exit] is not so valuable. Our key point is to improve grip on the angle." For Hayden, damp was still better than dry. "I hope it rains tomorrow, though I hate to be the guy to say that." Suzuki's testing plans for next year are still up in the air, less than two weeks after the public announcement that their promised return to the grid in 2014 had been postponed by a year until 2015. "We don't know who will be the rider, and I don't know if I will be running the test team, although Suzuki have been talking to me about next year," said Davide Brivio, the ex-Yamaha/ ex-Rossi functionary appointed to run the test team for this year. The bike performed impressively at postCatalunya tests, in touch with factory-bike times in the hands of parttime tester Randy de Puniet, who lapped faster on the Suzuki than he had the preceding weekend on his ART CRT bike. The French rider is on loan as tester from his Aspar MotoGP team, but the arrangement is for this year only. Brivio revealed that he had known about the delay in Suzuki's return for some time, but while he hoped to continue with the company at his Italian base, and potentially run the 2015 team, "nothing is settled yet." continued on next page Cal Crutchlow's maiden pole was

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