VOL. 50 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
the two Honda riders. When Marquez regained third with 16 laps
left, Pedrosa was the best part
of a second away. Marquez had
already made up a bigger gap on
Rossi, and within three laps he
was on his back wheel and ready
for a typically fierce attack.
It seemed it would be all over,
but Pedrosa fought back, and
four laps later made an equally
strong inside pass to regain second. It lasted only half a lap, however before Marquez returned
the favor. Pedrosa stayed close
until there were only three laps to
go, "then I made a mistake under
braking and ran wide, and lost
touch," he said.
It was the culmination of a bad
weekend, and a bad four races,
when he had been struggling to
find the edge grip he needs. "I
cannot open the throttle as early
as the others," he said. "I had a
good rhythm even though I had
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no confidence, and I did my best.
I made just one mistake in the last
corner, and lost touch. I hope in
the tests tomorrow I can find an
improvement, then maybe start
to win races again," he said.
Marquez was smiling in spite of
his problems early in the race.
"I made a couple of mistakes…
I was struggling with a full tank,"
he said. "But for the second half
of the race I felt strong. After I
passed Dani [Pedrosa] I could
see Jorge [Lorenzo] ahead, but I
decided that to try to catch him
would be too risky. Second was
okay; the 20 points are important."
There was a race-long battle
behind for fifth, with Monster
Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow
holding on steadfastly as LCR
P47
Briefly...
than taking a chance on the unproven Yamaha lease package. For
the first year, this will include frame
and swingarm, with the team needing to build up the rest of the bike
for themselves.
In the midst of major management changes, the Spanish Avintia
Blusens team has added pneumatic valve springs to the Kawasaki engines in its FTR-framed CRT
bikes, ridden by Hector Barbera
and Hiro Aoyama. The cylinder
head comes from Japanese engineering company Akira, and has
added as much as six mph, while
increasing the rev ceiling from
15,200 to 15,500 rpm, according
to team sources. The next plan is to
increase the bore and shorten the
stroke, to release still more rev potential. With this year's CRT bikes
up against factory production racers from Honda and Yamaha, upgrades are vital. Aprilia has already
revealed plans for pneumatic valve
springs, a seamless-shift gearbox
and an all-new chassis for its ART
machine, currently the best of the
CRT bikes.
Spanish Avintia Blusens Moto2
rider Dani Rivas, himself a replacement for sponsorship victim
Kyle Smith, has been suspended
for two races, after causing a potentially horrendous crash at the
end of morning warm-up at Silverstone. Other riders had stopped
at the designated spot to practice
their starts when Rivas came upon
them, turned around and gesticulating at another rider. He ploughed
into Steven Odendaal, who was injured, as well as Simeon and Torres; himself suffering concussion
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