VOL. 50 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 22, 2013
had a solid run to 12th on the NGM
Mobile FTR-Kawasaki only two
more seconds away, with Yonny
Hernandez a similar distance behind, just saving 13th from Hector. Danilo Petrucci took the last
point narrowly ahead of impressive Luca Scassa, in his second
outing on the injured Karel Abraham's Cardion AB ART.
Bryan Staring concluded a
deeply disappointing home GP
weekend as the second black
flag victim, having made the
same error as Marquez; 20thplaced Hiro Aoyama suffered a
one-place penalty like Pedrosa.
And now the championship
looks a bit tastier, with Lorenzo
boosting his chances of a comeback victory as "up to 20 or 30
percent."
With 50 points left at the final two races and the top three
within that span –Marquez 298,
Lorenzo 280 and Pedrosa 264
- last week's foregone conclusions have been and gone. Rossi is well clear in fourth on 214,
Crutchlow regained a little on
Bautista, 179- 147.
And there's another one in just
a week's time.
CN
MotoGP
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
4. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
5. Alvaro Bautista (Honda)
6. Bradley Smith (Yamaha)
7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
8. Andrea Iannone (Ducati)
9. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati)
10. Randy de Puniet (CRT)
Ducati Fight: Andrea
Dovizioso (04) leads
Andrea Ianonne
(hidden) and Nicky
Hayden (69). Hayden
got the better of the
rest to finish seventh.
P69
Briefly...
a pit error when his throttle jammed
open at Motegi in 2010 ending his
title hopes with yet another costly
injury. This year, another crash was
caused at Aragon, when a touch by
Marquez severed his wheel-speed
sensor cable and disabled his traction control system.
Thai Moto2 replacement rider Thitipong Warokom was lucky to escape a more serious injury when
he speared headlong into the tire
barrier after running off the track at
high speed on the ultra-fast final corner. The qualifying session was redflagged as he was stretchered away,
and there were worrying moments
until it was announced he had escaped with a broken shoulder blade.
While it was an unusual crash, there
will be calls for an air-fence at that
point for next year. A positive change
at the resurfaced track was a swathe
of paved run-off on the outside of the
unforgiving fifth-gear Turn 1 – Doohan Corner. Once there had been
grass, but ten years ago a gravel trap
was installed, ensuring that anyone
who ran off would inevitably fall. The
new addition saved several riders
from this fate, notably front-running
Esteve Rabat in the Moto2 race.
Popular hero of the Australian GP – at
least to the local tabloid press – was
the fastest seagull in the world.
The unfortunate bird was too slow
taking off to avoid Jorge Lorenzo's
Yamaha on his first fast qualifying
run. Unknown to the rider its corpse
was lodged between his brake lines
and his fairing, and it accompanied
him on his record-speed flying lap. It
was removed by worried mechanics
when he stopped, but had done no
significant damage.
