VOL. 50 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 29, 2013
P47
Lorenzo had plenty to celebrate.
His win was the 200th premier
class victory for Yamaha and it got
him to within 13 points of Marquez
with one round remaining in the
championship.
"It was my mistake," Rossi
said. "I should have learned the
lesson from the first lap."
This time he was in the gravel,
and another six riders were past
by the time he had regained momentum.
Up front, the order stayed the
same, the distance between the
three measured in tenths. At
half-distance Marquez started to
push harder, almost alongside at
times, while Pedrosa appeared
to be standing off a bit, to wait
and see. Not so. In fact Lorenzo
was responding by upping his
own pace, to take the pair out of
reach.
By lap 18 Marquez had twice
run wide at that same corner, and
suddenly the gap was more than
a second. The race was over, but
for six laps there was more sustained tension.
LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl,
in his first race since breaking
his ankle, had first led the pursuit from fast-starting Smith; but
Go&Fun Honda's Alvaro Bautista
was moving up rapidly from ninth
on lap one, and by the fifth was
fourth and closing on Bradl. Before half-distance he was past,
and though Bradl hung on for a
while he eventually accepted a
worthy fifth.
"My ankle was only 85 percent, so we should be pleased,"
said Bradl.
Smith had fallen back into
the hands of teammate Cal
Crutchlow, who had qualified
poorly in 11th, then overheated
his brake on the first lap.
"I had to stick behind Bradley
[Smith] for a while to cool it off - I
was a bit dangerous in the braking zones," said Crutchlow.
On lap nine he moved ahead at
the first corner, but by now Rossi
was closing rapidly, three or four
tenths a lap, and after nine more
laps he was past both of them. In
the process, Smith dropped off
as Crutchlow chased Rossi for
the next few laps.
Rossi's previous obstacle had
been the Marlboro Ducatis, circulating again in close company.
Nicky Hayden had qualified on
the front row, but lost it all with a
problem off the line.
"I think it may have been
something to do with the clutch,"
Hayden said.
He caught Dovizioso just before Rossi caught and passed
them both, and dogged his
wheeltracks until it was Dovi's
turn to run into the dirt at the bottom of the hill, and Hayden took
