Cycle News

FINAL ROUND/NOVEMBER 10, 2013 RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT/VALENCIA, SPAIN MOTOGP P52 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Lorenzo (99), Pedrosa (26), Marquez (93), Alvaro Bautista (19) and Rossi (46). Once he realized no one else could match even the slower pace, Lorenzo took off to win the race by over three seconds. All factory riders except Bautista had chosen the new hard rear Bridgestone, and in the closing stages it cost him. With 10 laps to go he finally lost touch with Rossi, whose stranglehold on fourth place was fully sustained, and the Go&Fun Honda dropped away behind for another fifth. Behind all this, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Bradley Smith had made a blinding start from the second row, and held off the pursuit for the first five laps, at the same time letting the front guys escape. On the sixth his teammate Cal THE MAVERICK MAN Oh, the tension. Any one of three KTM riders could win the title, and they sat alongside one another on the front row. They had hardly been further apart at almost every race this year, and they were all within five points of one another. The winner would take all. They were close again now, with their frequent companion Jonas Folger in close attendance as points leader Luis Salom, Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins circulated together, changing places to and fro. Australian Jack Miller was also with the group, but the ever-impressive top Honda rider was on the limit to stay with them, and finally paid the price, falling on lap 19. By then, one of the three had also gone. Vinales had done most of the leading, but Salom took over for a couple of laps before half distance. The Red Bull rider was in third but poised when he slipped off, his dreams and his title lead ending in the gravel. Folger was a close spectator, declining to get involved, as Rins and Vinales pushed and probed at one another. Rins led over the line for the first time on lap 15, Vinales took it back next time, and they swapped again on the 17th. As in so many races, it would be decided on the last corner. It looked as though the sometimes- Crutchlow was past, a second behind Rossi, but he lasted only three more laps before slipping off for a third race crash of what had been a mainly strong third year on the satellite Yamaha. A lap or so earlier LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl had also passed flaky Vinales would once again lose it on the last lap. He'd led at the start of it, lost the place to Rins, and appeared to be getting flustered once more after regaining the lead briefly in the middle of the lap. Appearances were deceptive. Rins swooped past him into the last looping corner, but Vinales had the better line, and nipped past inside just past the apex to take only his third win of the year, his first since round four, and the most valuable of his career. Worse still, Rins's poor exit meant that Folger also beat him to the line, if only by inches. The top three finished within .187 of a second, with Rins third by .001. His teammate Alex Marquez man-

• Cover