ROUND 12/SEPTEMBER 1, 2013
SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT/EAST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND
MOTOGP
P50
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Stefan Bradl rode to a lonely sixth.
Magical Marquez
Dry weather, fast track, full
pressure – from Marc Marquez, on
Jorge Lorenzo. And home boy Cal
Crutchlow, on himself.
Marquez had won here before on
a 125, but got beaten in a spectacular scrap with Scott Redding
last year in Moto2. First time on a
full-bore MotoGP bike, however, and
he proved untouchable.
In fact Lorenzo topped the time
sheets on the first afternoon, at a
track where the Yamaha was able to
show its best.
When it came to the crunch time
in Q2, Marquez made it stick, albeit
by only just over a 10th of a second,
at a track with a lap time of more
than two minutes. He even surprised
himself, carving almost half a second off on his second tire, having
thought he'd already found the limit
with the first.
The only dilemma was whether
to choose a hard or soft rear for the
race.
"Both are working quite well – it
will be interesting to see."
Lorenzo thought he had done
enough.
"I almost got it. I made a couple
of little mistakes, but it was still one
of the best laps of my career. It was
a good lap time and I thought I'd
made it - but when I looked at the
classification I was second. I was a
little bit disappointed."
Cal Crutchlow has crashed in
practice for both previous British
GPs, finishing a fighting sixth last
year after a back-row start, with
broken bones in his ankle. He didn't
make quite such demands on the
bulldog spirit this year, but it wasn't
for want of trying. He crashed twice
on Saturday morning, the first time
on an out lap at 181 mph, he said.
Though he emerged relatively
unscathed, his Tech 3 crew had a
frantic time with the wrenches to
get both bikes ready for the final
session.
Crutchlow made it to the front
row, third fastest.
"Every other year here I've
missed the final qualifying. Thanks
to the medical staff and my team for
