ROUND 9/JULY 21, 2013
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA/MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
MOTOGP
P50
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
THE PASS: PART II
The pass of the weekend? Make
that pass of the year, maybe of the
decade. But not of the century,
because it was a close copy of a
famous and very similar pass at the
same tricky Corkscrew corner in
2008, when Valentino Rossi dived
past Casey Stoner inside the curb
and over a drainage grate.
The victim this time was Rossi himself; the perpetrator the man most
likely to assume the mantle worn by
the Italian – greatest racer of his era,
that young scamp Marc Marquez.
Maybe this was the moment Rossi
passed it over to him.
Marquez was characteristically
modest. "I didn't create that move,
and I already told Valentino I will pay
the copyright. His overtake was better than mine, but okay, I enjoyed it
too."
Rossi was more than anything
amused by it, and an interchange at
the post-race conference shared the
humor. "He cut the track. He must
be disqualified," he joked, before
insisting that while he didn't enjoy
being the victim, overtakes like that
were what made racing.
Then he addressed Marquez's
Repsol Honda team director Livio
Suppo, who had led calls for punishment on Stoner's behalf, at a time
when they both worked for Ducati.
"Livio, you and Stoner broke my
