VOL. 50 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 15, 2013
(Left) Marquez was also able to
pass Lorenzo, with the championship leader finishing second to his
teammate Pedrosa.
(Below) Valentino Rossi gives
chase to the two factory Hondas
early in the race. Rossi finished
fourth – again.
from being less than four seconds from Lorenzo at the end.
"At the beginning I was
strong: I'm so happy about this,
but in the second half I suffer too
much with the tire going down,"
Rossi said. "It looks like Jorge
[Lorenzo] stresses the rear tire
less than me, with his style, and
he is a bit smaller."
Before half distance the race
up front had become somewhat processional: the fight
was for fifth, where Bautista's
slip put him in the clutches of
Crutchlow's Monster Tech 3
Yamaha, who was struggling
with wheelspin but fast enough
down the straights to hound the
Honda and to get ahead on lap
eight. It was the start of a two
and fro battle, with Bautista regaining the upper hand only to
run a little wide again. Finally he
pounced where he was strongest, down the back straight,
and held on over the line by less
than two tenths.
Crutchlow explained unexpected problems.
"After Aragon I told the guys I
needed more power, and on the
straight the bike was good, but
corner to corner it wasn't. I had
P55
Briefly...
Karel Abraham has finally undergone surgery on the left shoulder injured pre-race at Indy, and ruinously
troublesome ever since. The Czech
ART rider eventually pulled out before the Aragon race for detailed
medical investigation, where specialists eventually came to the conclusion that the only relief from the
instability and pain was to graft a tendon from the forearm to reinforce the
joint. Within two or three weeks he
could start exercising, doctors say,
and the rider says, "I expect to be
fully fit in time for testing next year."
Yamaha was pushed aside when
Dorna chose Honda to supply control engines for the Moto2 class,
but this didn't stop one of a clutch
of local wild cards from branding
his Honda-powered Tech 3 Mistralchassised bike with the brand of
his usual sponsor. Thai rider Decha
Kraisart's blue bike and his leathers
were emblazoned YAMAHA.
South-East Asian racing is set to
boom, much encouraged by the
industry, with on one side record
ticket sales for the GP, and on the
other the foundation of a major initiative to develop young talent, along
the lines of Europe's very fruitful
Red Bull Rookies program. Crowd
figures must have been buoyed by
an unprecedented number of local
riders, especially in Moto2. Regulars Doni Tata Pradita (Indonesia),
Thitipong Warokorn (Thailand), Rafid
Topan Sucipto (Indonesia) and Azlan
Shah (Malaysia) were joined by wild
cards Decha Kraisart (Thailand)
and Hafizh Syahrin (Malaysia), plus
replacement riders Zaqhwan Zaidi
(Malaysia) and Fadli Immammuddin
(Indonesia). Add two more Malaysian
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