Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 The Pass II: Marc Marquez (93) passes Valentino Rossi (46) through the dirt in the middle of the Corkscrew in an eerily similar move to the one Rossi put on Casey Stoner in 2008. circuit inland from fashionable Monterey, where 46,000 spectators watched Marquez break yet another of Freddie Spencer's records – for youngest-ever backto-back winners. LCR rider Bradl shone brighter of the two: claiming a maiden pole from Marquez to demonstrate his gathering strength in his second season, then took a flying start to secure a lead that lasted beyond half distance. Eventually he succumbed to the pressure of his old Moto2 rival and frequent nemesis, but second was still a fine result for a man striving to hold on to his job. Bautista just missed making it an all-Honda rostrum, the Fun & Go rider pushing and probing at Rossi's Yamaha with increasing vigor in the closing laps. But though he missed third by just .06 of a second, he found the veteran implacable - and pretty pleased with himself at being top Yamaha at a track that clearly favored the Honda. The man threatening these two Honda seats, meanwhile, had an uncharacteristically poor afternoon. Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow slumped to seventh, fading at the end behind the once-again heroic Jorge Lorenzo and his factory Yamaha. Contracts may have colored the race, round nine of 18 and the close of an intensifying half season. So too did the championship, which is taking tensionbuilding twists and turns race by race. Had Lorenzo and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa just been battling one another, both would thankfully have missed this race, as they did the last one, each with his own version of the collarbone blues. In their absence, Marquez had won, making up for his own single no-score in his maiden season to regain a slender points lead. It was intolerable to each of them, and they rose as one from their beds of pain to do what they could to limit the damage. We shall return to the outcome. But first, both of them and all of us must marvel at Marquez. Fresh from a German win that he played down because of the absence of his older Spanish rivals, he was faced with a track notoriously difficult to learn. He'd only seen it before on the TV screens. One of the things he'd watched many times was Rossi's over-the-drainage-grid pass on Casey Stoner at the Corkscrew – infamously aggressive and (but for Stoner) universally admired. He'd promised to "stay calm and learn the track." This entailed topping the time sheets from the second session onwards, and only missing pole by a hair's breadth because he'd finally pushed too hard and fallen unscathed late in final qualifying. P43 Briefly... nhard Gobmeier, with Australian Warren Willing joining back at Bologna, there have been no signs of significant progress so far this year; and little more than vague muttering about a radical improvement in sight at independent factory tests. Ducati progress has not, however, been negative, according to top rider Andrea Dovizioso, who again essayed the latest modified version of the frame that he used in Germany, and felt there were some advantages. Last weekend he completed only four laps on the bike before crashing and bending the chassis. At Laguna he concentrated on a fresh version of the same thing, and managed to claim third-fastest time after the first day of qualifying. He was eighth after the second, less than a tenth quicker than teammate Nicky Hayden in 10th. While the American rider spoke of his usual understeer problems, Dovi opined that the newer chassis improved corner entry… though not by enough to up his race prospects. "We've been faster than on other weekend and a bit closer to the others," he said. "But if we look at the pace of all the riders in front of us, they're pretty far ahead. We don't have much chance of gaining many positions." As reported from the German GP last week, the NGM Mobile Forward racing team has reached agreement with Yamaha to lease M1 engines for two riders for next year. The news that emerged at Laguna was even better: the factory has sweetened the deal by supplying a "basic" chassis as well, comprising Deltabox and swingarm. Suspension, bodywork… the rest of the motorcycle will be continued on next page

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