MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1/MARCH 23, 2014
LOSAIL CIRCUIT/LOSAIL, QATAR
P44
CREAM RISES
An old saying was confirmed in
MotoGP qualifying: The more things
change, the more they stay the same.
Took a bit of time, and needed further
reinforcement in the race.
The upset came from the lesser
lights, who had enjoyed three days
testing at Losail where the six top
factory riders went to Phillip Island
instead. It was clearly an advantage
on a tricky and variable surface, made
more so by heavy rain on Friday night,
washing sand out of the air and leav-
ing it on the track.
While the lucky ones made hay, the
stars variously struggled, none more
so than Movistar Yamaha's Jorge Lo-
renzo, down in 11th after the first two
sessions and very dismayed, mainly at
the lack of edge grip and bad wheel-
spin. In danger of failing to make the
top 10 for Q2, he finally "took maxi-
mum risk" to move up to seventh.
It was an older Yamaha, using
Open class mandatory electronics,
that made the discomfort more acute.
Aleix Espargaro had been among the
top guys in tests, and was now domi-
nant, leading all three free sessions
and with his eyes on a maiden pole.
It went wrong when it mattered: he
fell twice during the session, leaving
the fast times to satellite riders Alvaro
Bautista and Bradley Smith - until, with
20 seconds to spare, Marc Marquez
put together his own high-risk ef-
fort. The result: pole for a rider who
"couldn't walk five days ago."
The satellite riders were otherwise
unmolested. Smith's first front row was
a significant milestone.
Marquez was half-a-second off
the absolute record, and half-a-tenth
ahead of Bautista and one tenth
clear of Smith, heading a batch of
very close times on a relatively long
track. The top nine were within half-
a-second, and 10th-placed Valentino
Rossi was less than a tenth beyond.
It was not a record, but the first time
since Jerez in 2007 that nine or more
riders have been within half a second
- although on that occasion there were
12 of them.
All riders and everybody else could
comfortably predict a close and excit-
ing race.
Nobody on the front had access to
the soft tire: the sub-Factory Ducatis
did, and Andrea Dovizioso placed
fourth, although expressing reserva-
tions about race pace on the harder
option. "We are better on corner
entry, but we still suffer understeer,"
he said.
Lorenzo finally got himself to-
gether to place fifth, one place up
