VOL. 50 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
P39
Briefly...
RGE LORENZO TURNS IN THE
RFECT RACE IN MISANO
Jorge Lorenzo (99) fired his Yamaha
off the line to lead into turn one over
Dani Pedrosa (26) and the rest of the
MotoGP pack at the Misano World
Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
a large percentage of a crowd
of almost 51,000 – packed the
stands and paddock and invaded
the track in the hope of gaining
a first-hand glimpse of their hero.
But they looked in vain on the
rostrum for that glimpse, and the
new color seemed appropriate.
What is likely to be a mass defection from Honda in Moto3 got under way earlier than expected at
Misano, with the first two customer
Mahindras replacing the Suter
Hondas at the Ambrogio racing
team, where South African Brad
Binder is teamed with German rider
Luca Amato, taken on in place of
Danny Webb. Binder's habitual grin
was broader than ever after his first
outing, and he was up to fifth fastest on the first day, though he later
dropped back. "We're starting from
scratch with chassis settings: what
worked on my old bike doesn't suit
this one, but we'll get there. The
engine is so much better, with real
torque out of the corners, though
still a bit lacking on top end," he
said.
A bigger sensation came from the
Gresini team, announcing the signing of Isaac Vinales alongside
incumbent Niccolo Antonelli for
Moto3 next year. The Italian squad
will be abandoning a years-long
commitment to Honda, switching
to KTM. The surprise move is for
Moto3 only, where former 125cc
World Champion Fausto Gresini
seeks not only to bring up young
riders, but also to achieve race
wins… something that is difficult
in the MotoGP class, where he
necessarily plays second fiddle to
the factory Hondas. Surprising because when he proposed to enter
a CRT Aprilia in MotoGP last year,
Honda firmly insisted he should instead use a CBR1000 engine, the
only one in the class.
Gresini has been close to Honda
since long before the four-stroke
years, and is first in line among satcontinued on next page
