Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 28 JULY 16, 2013 A happy trio on the podium – Crutchlow, Marquez and Rossi. tista ahead of fast-starter Bradley Smith on the second Monster Tech 3 Yamaha. Marquez passed Rossi into the final corner at the end of lap five, and repeated the move on Bradl the next time around. He was never headed, and by lap 14, almost half distance, he was better than two seconds ahead of Rossi. At this point Crutchlow was shadowing Rossi, two laps later he was ahead, and immediately drawing clear. Could he close the gap, now at 2.8 seconds? No, but impressively he did halve it. Bradl was alone from lap 11, comfortably clear of the equally solitary Bautista; Smith passed Espargaro for sixth on lap seven, and drew clear. The Spaniard now found himself in a great battle with Dovizioso, who explained: "He rode very well, he is very aggressive and very hard braker. He could turn better than me, and had more acceleration at the bottom, because his bike has a lot of torque. I could only gain a little at the end of the straight." The factory bike finished less than half a second ahead. Nicky Hayden had a dire afternoon, finishing a lone ninth. He'd had a low-speed spill in warm-up, and it left his preferred bike with a bent chassis. "I had a decent pace, but the P51 Briefly... hours after surgery to plate his freshly broken collarbone. Lorenzo passed all physical and mental tests and proved he was indeed fit to race – finishing fifth, albeit in tears from the pain and effort. But there was considerable disquiet over his participation, and worry about the precedent he had set. "Jorge set the bar, because if someone else is injured in the future and the doctors try to stop him from racing he can say: 'If he [Lorenzo] could race, why can't I?' " Cal Crutchlow said in the pre-event press conference. "I think this is a grey area: one circuit doctor might let you ride, another might not. Lorenzo responded: "Riders should not take my Assen race as an example. You have to listen to your body to know if you are fit to ride." Now Dorna is to take up the question of more formalized medical tests, especially the practice of baseline testing used in other sports, mainly in the United States. Baseline tests compare an athlete's mental fitness after an incident or an anesthetic with a yardstick set in tests before the season. They need to match their earlier results to prove that there is no concussion or other neuropathic problem. The tests include assessment of balance, learning and memory skills, ability to concentrate and speed of problem solving. "We discussed this at the Austin GP and the conclusion was: yes, it is possible, but it would take some implementing. For my mind it is worth doing," said Race Director Mike Webb. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta agreed. "We didn't reflect about this, but it makes sense. I am sure this is something we will study together, and maybe to try to start that. To do something at the beginning of the year, it makes sense." While the final decision over permission necessarily rests with each circuit's medical officer, the medical code was the responsibility of the FIM, he said. "President Ippolito is coming to Laguna. This is one of the issues we want to discuss, among other matters," Ezpeleta continued. "We always want to improve. What we cannot avoid is that the final medical decision is by the local medical people." One suggestion to reduce the pressure on injured riders to race was to revert to a points system tried for one year in 1992, when each rider's worst two results were dropped from the final score. It was not well received, at the pre-race press conference. Lorenzo thought it might even be more dangerous. "If you have the possibility to crash, you will crash more. The safest is when you need to stay on the bike," he said. Pedrosa admitted: "It might have helped me, but I think the championship is 18 races and you have to do it. Also it makes it more complicated especially for the fans to understand the championship." Randy de Puniet will go to Japan in the summer break for further tests of the Suzuki MotoGP machine on August 6 and 7, with test team manager Davide Brivio hoping to tie up further details about the test program for next year, after the factory announced it was to delay its Grand Prix return until 2015. "We will have some discussions there. At the moment nothing is confirmed," said continued on next page

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