MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1/MARCH 23, 2014
LOSAIL CIRCUIT/LOSAIL, QATAR
P48
wide and let him through. Try as
he might Hayden couldn't get
back ahead, and the English-
man took a fine debut seventh by
three hundredths.
Seven seconds down, NGM
Forward Yamaha's Colin Edwards
was alone, with tenth going to
the remounted early crashed Ian-
none. Hayden's teammate Hiro-
shi Aoyama and Pramac Ducati's
Yonny Hernandez battled to the
end over 11th; the last points
went to Cardion AB Honda's
Karel, Danilo Petrucci (Ioda ART)
and lonely GP first-timer Broc
Parkes (PBM), defeating team-
mate Michael Laverty, who suf-
fered a ride-through penalty after
a jumped start.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Pol
Espargaro had been chasing the
Dovi/Aleix Espargaro/Crutchlow
battle, but retired with gearbox
problems; Hector Barbera pitted
before half distance.
With 17 more races to go, the
impact on the championship may
be negligible. But Marquez's first
win looked ominous, especially
since it was achieved when he
was at a disadvantage. CN
MotoGP
1. Marc Marquez (Honda)
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
4. Aleix Espargaro (Yamaha)
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati)
6. Cal Crutchlow (Ducati)
7. Scott Redding (Honda)
8. Nicky Hayden (Honda)
9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
10. Andrea Iannone (Ducati)
Briefly...
rode such a slow bike." Lorenzo,
asked if he would like 24 liters, also
injected some irony. "I would like
21," he said. Both complained of a
snatchy response on corner entry
and exit to compound their side-
grip problems, and concerns about
making full race distance. Asked the
same question as Lorenzo, Honda
rider Marquez couldn't help looking
smug as he replied: "My bike is com-
petitive on 20."
Rain doesn't happen often at Qa-
tar, but it made an unwelcome re-
turn to MotoGP on Thursday night
– bringing back memories of the
catastrophic desert storm of 2009
that meant the race had to be post-
poned by a day. A few warning spots
brought out the red cross flags
midway through the second free
practice for MotoGP on Friday; but
heavy rain held off until all practice
was over. Racing is impossible on a
wet Losail track after dark because
of the reflected dazzle of the 3600
floodlights; this year's storm brought
other problems: sand washed out of
the dry desert air coated the track,
rendering it "green" once again.
Badly enough for vacuum trucks to
be deployed to clear the worst of it.
A happy Marquez. And why not?
