Cycle News

FEATURE P60 MOTOGP REVIEW headed the free practice time sheets. Ouch. He fell again, re-breaking the same collarbone and bending the plate. Off for yet more surgery, and this time he succumbed to fate, not only missing this German GP but expressing serious doubt also about the U.S. race in California in just one week. His championship defense was in tatters. Or was it? The next morning Pedrosa also crashed, caught out by a treacherous cold tire. Inevitably (seems to happen every time) he too broke his collarbone, though at first only a partial fracture was diagnosed. He wanted to race the next day, but was ruled unfit after a giddy spell blamed on shock. This arithmetic only added up if you ruled out Marquez. Some still did: he was a class rookie after all sooner or later he'd crash or mess up somehow. Wouldn't he? Or not. In this race and for the next three – Laguna Seca, Indianapolis and the Czech Republic – he swept all before him as his rivals made their way back to full strength. Pedrosa was the better of the pair, with two-second places; Lorenzo's complaints of the unequal technical struggle against the Hondas were growing louder. Marquez had taken the points Valentino Rossi was the only other rider to win a MotoGP in 2013, the Italian climbing to the top at the Dutch GP despite Cal Crutchlow trying to stop him from doing so. Crutchlow had two secondplace finishes and ended up fifth in the title chase. lead with the first of his four-in-arow (youngest ever, wouldn't you know), and by the time he'd added three more he was 26 clear of his teammate. He had a one-race breathing space. And Lorenzo was another 18 points behind Pedrosa. Never-Say-Die Lorenzo Gets Lucky Now the pendulum swung again. Silverstone followed Brno, and Marquez finally made that rookie mistake everyone had been predicting. He was on pole again, and sitting pretty. Pushing hard in morning warm-up he became the latest victim of the cold-Bridgestone trap, falling fast and landing hard on his left shoulder. His collarbone was dislocated. Surely that was it for the day, at least. Not so. As before, he falls… he bounces back. The joint was shoved back into place, he jumped back on the bike, and only failed to beat Lorenzo in their last-lap fight because "I was a little weak" and he ran wide, after overtaking his older rival. All the same, there'd been some sort of turning of the tide. Lorenzo was fully fit, back to strength, and in determined mood. "I always say, never give up. Anything can happen," he said. What did happen was victory at the next race as well, at Misano. Lorenzo had an important boost to his confidence at that race. Finally, after months of entreaty from the riders and months of development and testing in Japan, Yamaha's seamless-shift gearbox arrived. Smoothing the power out of the corners, cutting wheelies and allowing Lorenzo "to shift while still banked over," it suited his style perfectly. Lorenzo's strongest suit is not just speed,

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