Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 4, 2013 For one moment I think second is okay, but when he opened a little gap, I thought: it's now or never." Marquez congratulated him heartily on the slow-down lap, and had clearly enjoyed the battle nonetheless for having lost it. "After this morning's crash, I thought my weekend was finished," Marquez said. "But the doctors did a good job, and I took some pills and had an injection. At the beginning of the race pain was not a problem, but at the end I was struggling a little bit on the changes of direction. I passed him, but then went a little wide. But I am so happy to have these 20 points. It is important for the championship." Significantly, it was the first time all year he has spoken of the championship as his target. There was a good battle for getting me out there," he said. Dani Pedrosa led row two until the latter part of the session, when Stefan Bradl knocked him to fifth; the Spaniard had been aiming higher "but I lost the front on my last lap. This track is so long you don't have time for many laps: one mistake and the time runs out." Valentino Rossi was sixth, one row better than his usual, and happier that they'd made progress. "We improved a lot the setting of the bike this afternoon. We have quite a good pace – not fantastic, but we are consistent." Without the long corners, the Ducatis were able to gallop somewhat better than usual, straddling fourth, with three involved until half distance, at which point Bradl started to lose ground. "It was the same as Brno last week," he said. "I started okay, then dropped back too much. We seem to struggle for edge grip, and I cannot carry the same corner speed as the others." This left Rossi and Bautista duking it out, as they had been almost from the start, and at the previous two rounds. With five laps left the Spaniard seemed to have prevailed, opening a gap of better than a second… but Rossi had other plans and rapidly closed again, taking the position four laps later. They carried on changing places several times, with Rossi regaining yet another fourth place, third in a row and fifth this year, only by inches on the final lap. Alvaro Bautista on row three with Andrea Dovizioso the faster by just over a 10th. Nicky Hayden was next. Bradley Smith led row three from Colin Edwards, both having made it through from the first "junior" qualifying run; Aleix Espargaro had earned his place in Q2, but crashed heavily in the morning and did not go out, automatically placing 12th. Randy De Puniet was best of the rest, from Hector Barbera and Michele Pirro, substituting for Spies. Record-setting Marc Marquez earned pole for the British GP after a great qualifying battle with Jorge Lorenzo. P51 "The first three are too strong, especially in the first four or five laps," Rossi said, ruing the fact that while he'd started well, "I was in too much trouble to do their pace. Later when the rear started to slide it took some pressure off the front, and I could do some good lap times, but it wasn't enough." Ever cheerful, Bautista took yet another defeat by Rossi in good part. "I enjoyed the race," he said. "I started from the third row so I had to overtake some riders early on. It was a good battle with Vale, though in the end I was again a short distance behind." A trio had been going for eighth: the Marlboro Ducatis and Monster Yamaha's Bradley Smith - frequent companions during this season. Dovizioso had got

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