VOL. 50 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
P49
Briefly...
and a bad shoulder injury. Since he
was in the hospital at the time, the
first available time for a Race Direction hearing was at Misano, which
the rider participated in by telephone. He was found "responsible
for causing the crash," and was hit
with "a suspension of two races,
being rounds 14 and 15" - Aragon
and Malaysia. He was replaced at
Misano by compatriot Alex Marinelarina.
onto the second row.
"I had a good rhythm and pace, but
in the fourth free practice it changed
so much. Suddenly – no grip, no
grip." His final tire solved the problem.
"It had normal grip and I could jump
up some positions, but it was hard to
focus. Bridgestone said the tires were
all the same… but I don't think so."
Another big jump from a struggling
Cal Crutchlow, sporting an ugly open
wound on a very swollen right forearm
from his Silverstone misadventures,
and blaming a crisis of confidence
on missing the top 10 in free practice, obliging him to run in Q1 to get
through to Q2.
"When I'm buried in sh*&, I get
myself out normally, but I still don't
feel confident on the bike," he said.
"Normally I am the fastest Yamaha in
the fast corners, now I am the slowest
Yamaha there."
(Top left) The two factory Ducatis
were together again: Nicky Hayden
leads Andrea Dovizisio.
(Above) Colin Edwards (5) ended up
as top CRT man in the Grand Prix.
Honda's Stefan Bradl chewed
away at his back wheel. The German waited until the last lap before attacking, and succeeded by
a quarter of a second. Crutchlow
was philosophical after a tough
weekend, not least because he
still has an open wound on his
badly swollen right forearm, and
severely shaken confidence after
three crashes at Silverstone.
"It was a hard race because
Stefan [Bradl] just sat on my back
wheel from the first lap to the
end, and unfortunately managed
to find a way past in the last cor-
The same Avintia Blusen's Moto2
team was in a state of flux, after
the unexpected departure of former Moto2 World Champion Toni
Elias, followed by long-time team
manager Ricard Jove. Former
MotoGP race winner Elias, who
has struggled to regain form, has
moved to World Superbikes and
was replaced by Argentinian rookie
Ezequiel Iturrioz.
With the circuit bearing his name,
memories of the late local hero
Marco Simoncelli were kept alive
at Misano. Not least by Valentino
Rossi, whose special helmet design replicated the Pink Floyd album "Wish You Were Here," carrying the lyrics of the song dedicated
to former departed band member
Syd Barrett – as follows: "How I
wish, how I wish you were here./
We're just two lost souls/Swimming in a fish bowl,/Year after
year,/Running over the same old
ground./What have we found/The
same old fears./Wish you were
here."
The who-goes-where heated up
in the smaller classes, with confirmation at Misano that Australian
charger Jack Miller is to join the
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