ROUND 13/SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT MARCO SIMONCELLI/MISANO, ITALY
MOTOGP
P48
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
WHO ELSE?
It's becoming a regular
event. Marc Marquez dominates free practice, leads
qualifying, then seals it with a
single lap that blows everyone
else right away. At Misano,
his sixth pole in 12 races was
already secure when he went
out for the final blitzer. By
the time he'd finished it he'd
set a new outright record for
the circuit, and claimed a massive
advantage over the rest of more than
half a second.
This followed another event that is
not so unusual… a crash earlier in the
day.
"I knew why I crashed, so I was
able to go faster," he said. When
pressed, he explained: he was releasing the brake and opening the throttle
when his finger just brushed the
Marc Marquez earned pole
position again with a record
breaking lap of Misano.
brake lever. "Maybe I was too relaxed."
Until that lap, Jorge Lorenzo had
been pushing closer, much relieved
by the new seamless gearbox, better
(he said) in every way, freeing the bike
from instability in upshifts and allowing
the rider to focus more on riding. "But
I did not find the best set up for
this track yet," he said. "We will
make one more change tomorrow
morning."
Alongside for a home-track celebration, Valentino Rossi – only
his second time on the front row
all year. "I am very satisfied: from
yesterday I was quite fast, and we
worked well on the bike. Usually
in qualifying I suffer more, but this
time I could push."
He was one-and-a-half tenths
off Lorenzo, and almost exactly the
same time faster than a troubled
Dani Pedrosa, heading row two after
a frustrating day, also crashing at a
low-grip circuit where the front end
could be treacherous. But it was tires
that played him foul. There was no explanation from Bridgestone, he said,
but three different tires had such poor
grip that he was struggling even to get
