VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013
position to blitz early race leader
Jorge Lorenzo's Yamaha than the
Repsol Honda rider was hit by an
especially freakish misfortune.
Well, actually, he was hit by
his teammate Marquez, who yet
again had overplayed his hand
under braking (a fairly regular
event). But it was only the slightest of glancing blows, the sort of
thing that happens often enough
in racing, and very frequently in
Motos 2 and 3.
It was enough, however, to cut
Marc Marquez (93) caught
and passed Jorge Lorenzo
(99) to win the Grand Prix
of Aragon on Sunday. It
was the young Spaniard's
sixth win of the season
and it came a day after he
earned his seventh pole
position of the year.
P65
Briefly...
In the wake of Valentino Rossi's
complaints of fuel-consumption
problems at Misano, MotoGP riders – at least some of them – are
getting increasingly worried about
next year's cut in fuel allowance
from 21 to 20 liters for factory
bikes. "If we'd had only 20 liters this
year, I would only have finished two
races," said Cal Crutchlow, who
shares Rossi's concerns.
It's a matter of each of the Yamaha
riders' height and weight, and…
riding style also plays a part, for
Jorge Lorenzo is no midget and
no slouch either, achieving faster
lap times while burning less gas.
Looking at his data, Crutchlow believes it is because he is so smooth
and gentle at rolling the throttle on.
"I try to do the same, but it's not
so easy," Crutchlow said. "At the
moment, we have to do the sighting lap in fifth gear at 50 km/h to
save fuel. It means we can't warm
tires." Lorenzo can ride it faster,
warming his tires more and contributing to the blindingly fast first
laps at recent races. Most irritating, said Crutchlow, was sitting on
the grid "and all you hear is Hondas, revving. It'd be okay if we were
10 km/h faster, but we're 10 km/h
slower."
His Monster Yamaha teammate,
rookie Bradley Smith, reported
no consumption issues, which he
attributed to his style. Crutchlow
uses the traction control system
more heavily than him. "I try to ride
under the electronics, which maybe spoils the lap time but definitely
uses less fuel," he said. Rossi
complained after yet another fourth
place at Misano that his height and
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