Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 Rossi had his hands full with Alvaro Bautista (19) in the final laps, but held off the Spaniard to finish third. from his low-blood-pressure dizzy spells, but was nursing a partial fracture that, should he fall off, would almost certain become a full fracture. Both were in pain, Pedrosa sat out both morning practice sessions, while Lorenzo made a better first of it, qualifying sixth, one place ahead. In the end, Pedrosa put in the stronger performance – helped by the fact that the Honda clearly worked better than the Yamaha at this track. They circulated together from the early laps, Lorenzo ahead until the start of lap 12, when Pedrosa outbraked him into the tight turn two. From there he was able to pull clear slowly but firmly, to finish impressively less than 10 seconds down on the leader. been scotched by a faulty front-forkextension sensor that played havoc with the electronics. He only got one flying lap. Another focal point was on the two injured Spaniards. Jorge Lorenzo had changed his mind about attending, and looked as smooth as ever, qualifying sixth. He was again post-operative as at Assen, but with almost a week's grace after the insertion of a new 10-screw plate and a bone graft to his left collarbone. Dani Pedrosa, nursing a partial fracture of the same bone, took a more tentative approach, declining to take part in the cool morning sessions and consequently missing the top 10 in the free practice heats, obliging him to run four laps in the slow-coach Q1 to win his place in the top 12 of Q2. Both were in damage limitation mode, but who could know what race day's adrenalin and painkillers might evoke? Pedrosa led row three from Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati: riding the evolution bike again he had been third after day one. Bradley Smith completed the row; Nicky Hayden – chasing grip and feel over the bumps – led the next from the top CRT bikes of teammates Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet. The last-named had earned his run in Q2 by cannily following Pedrosa. P49 Briefly... concluded a year of dire misfortune (including two chassis failures and an engine blow-up) with complex reconstructive surgery. "I came back too soon," he said, after suffering injury complications at round two that has kept him off the bike ever since. "Sometimes injuries make other injuries." In the continued absence of Spies from the Ignite Pramac squad, the new-this-year "factory B-team," he was substituted at Laguna by moonlighting Moto2 rider Alex de Angelis – who then found himself alone in the pit after second regular rider Andrea Iannone pulled out of the race, with no time to find another sub. Former MotoGP rider de Angelis was on loan from his NGM Forward team while regular substitute Michele Pirro is engaged in important factory tests in Europe, and had tested the hard-to-like Desmosedici at Misano in preparation before the German GP. At the Sachsenring race, Andrea Iannone was one of many crash victims, dislocating his shoulder. He missed the race, and elected to miss this one too for a better chance of full recovery. With Pirro occupied, Spies declining an early return, and rideless John Hopkins nixed by Ducati because he has no experience on the bike, Pramac was unable to find a replacement. AMA racer Blake Young's second wild card entry on the Attack Performance Aprilia came to an abrupt end when the bike somersaulted to destruction on Friday afternoon, bringing out red flags as debris and spilled fluids were cleared. The rider from Madison, Wisconsin scraped in at round two at Austin, continued on next page

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