VOL. 50 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 15, 2013
P49
Briefly...
Cablegate: Amid whispers of improper assembly of the component
on Dani Pedrosa's Honda that had
failed when struck by his teammate
Marc Marquez, Honda admitted both
charges of technical weakness. Talking to press after the decision that
led to the team being docked points
in the manufacturers championship, Repsol team technical director
Takeo Yokoyama said: "The problem was with both the hardware and
the software. In terms of the hardware, the sensor cable was exposed
too much, and it was very easy, even
with just small contact, to cut the
cable. We have added protection
to that cable for this race. From the
software side, of course we do have
a back-up mode. If something happens to the sensor signal, the bike
is supposed to go into safety mode
immediately. However the strategy
was not perfect." It had been modified to be able to detect such failures
earlier, he said. Honda alone uses
its own hardware and software; from
next year they will be obliged to run
control Magneti Marelli hardware.
SCOTT
HY BY GOLD & GOOSE
AYSIAN MOTOGP
The Malaysian MotoGP gets
started with Dani Pedrosa (26),
Jorge Lorenzo (99), Valentino
Rossi (46), Marc Marquez (93)
and the rest jostling for position in
the first corner.
touch to teammate Dani Pedrosa
Jorge Lorenzo's response to
triggered a freak crash that cost the original penalty had been
the older rider dearly.
an ironic suggestion that if rider
And again in the race itself.
safety was less important than
Bad luck hadn't finished with Nicky
Hayden yet. He is now in danger of
running short of engines and suffering a pit-lane start after he suffered a
smoky blow-up in the race while pursuing Bradley Smith's Yamaha in the
early stages. "I heard a funny noise
out of the last corner, and I hoped it
was his engine," Hayden said. "But it
was mine. That was the last good engine. It's gonna be complicated getting to the end of the season. We'll
have to put in one of the older engines. We've got one with some life
in it, but it may not be enough to last
the season. We can't really catch a
break at the moment."
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