Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 Rossi leads Alvaro Bautista, Bradl and Cal Crutchlow in their battle for third that went to Rossi. renzo by 39 points. With four races left. He can afford a nonfinish and two second-place finishes. If he wins only one of the upcoming closing rounds, he will become the youngest-ever World Champion. A respectable crowd of 61,300 enjoyed warm but partly cloudy weather at the scenic 3.14-mile Motorland Aragon circuit, set in beautiful if arid countryside just over 60 miles from Zaragoza, and were rewarded with a Spanish top three in both smaller classes, and two out of three in MotoGP. The main race, over 23 laps, started as at Misano, with Lorenzo galloping away off the line, leading by a second after one lap; Marquez, Pedrosa, Rossi and Bradl in pursuit, with Bautista and Crutchlow a little way back. No runaway this time, however. Marquez had halved the gap by lap four when Pedrosa pounced on him, and directly closed on Lorenzo. He was poised for another pounce a lap later when the incident ended his race. Marquez had run onto one of the tracks extensive paved areas and lost almost two seconds. But he was again on the charge, whittling away at the gap, and by lap 13 he was on the Yamaha, and one lap later ahead. Lorenzo even closed up again over the next few laps, but by the 20th it was over and he was losing touch. Rossi had close company from Bradl from the start, then by quarter distance Bautista had led Crutchlow to join the pair. The Englishman got ahead of Bautista for a couple of laps, but he was struggling, saying later, "every lap I lose 10 km/h in speed and acceleration, and we don't really know why, because we took a new engine this morning." By half distance Bautista was P71 Briefly... the current harder option unusable. The only complaint? They will have to wait until Valencia before it becomes available. The current hard option, Bridgestone had explained, has been overtaken by improvements in electronics, and has effectively become redundant. The riders are harder in their criticism. Valentino Rossi complained on the first day at Aragon that "after some laps the rear tire slides a lot. "In a normal situation it is very easy to fix this – you use the harder tire. But unfortunately now the hard is not working." Andrea Dovizioso was one of many who agreed. "This hard never worked – not like before, when it was a bit slower but had better endurance. For the last three years it has been slower, and no better than the soft for endurance." A Bridgestone spokesman said the plan was to introduce this seemingly long overdue new tire design only at the last race, but said: "It's not our decision. It has to be made by Dorna and Race Direction." Riders will have to wait even longer for a new front, to address the squishing problems suffered by Rossi and others. They kept it away from Misano tests to avoid confusing the issue, but "Ducati have tested it since then at Mugello. We will probably have it for the Valencia test after the race," he said. Marc Marquez's instant success on the Repsol Honda has been rewarded by HRC, with permission to bring his entire pit crew from his victorious Moto2 career for next year. "I tried to bring my Moto2 group with me this year," he said. Honda only made way for his continued on next page

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