MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 17 APRIL 29, 2014 P61
as Rossi was pushed wide at
the end of the straight as LCR
Honda's Stefan Bradl came fly-
ing past under brakes, barely in
control, pushing Rossi back to
sixth and costing him a possible
second podium of the year.
Rossi's recovery ride was
strong, but not as strong as Pe-
drosa's, although he took a bit of
time to get going after taking a
couple of laps to get past Stefan
Bradl, then both of them ahead
of Iannone on lap nine.
"Maybe I saved my tires too
much when I was part of that
group," Pedrosa said later.
By lap 12, the leader was al-
most four seconds ahead and
it looked like another downbeat
Pedrosa race.
Then on lap 13 he started
tramping on, and now the gap
started to shrink by two or three
tenths every lap.
Three laps later it was less
than three seconds and Marquez
got the message. It was time to
move. He firmly outbraked Lo-
renzo at the end of the straight,
and started to pull away. "I knew
Dani was coming, and I wanted
to keep the gap."
Now Lorenzo was again the
prey, and Pedrosa set fastest
lap of the race on the 22nd time
round, now closing rapidly. He
was past on the penultimate lap
into the last corner complex, and
Lorenzo could do nothing but let
him go. Flummoxed or not, he
later opined, "This is probably
the sweetest third place of my
career, after two difficult races."
Briefly...
clutch and coast into the run-off as
the Desmosedici continued to lay a
thick smokescreen. No details were
forthcoming, but on race morning
the engine had not yet been with-
drawn from allocation. Nor had it
been used, with a new one brought
into action. The second was later
in the same session, when Pramac
rider Andrea Iannone had been bar-
reling down the long straight and was
still well over 125 mph and was it in
to the U-turn at the end when his mo-
tor locked solid. He had no time to
declutch, and went tumbling. He too
took another engine – his fourth, af-
ter losing one at Losail.
After being ruled out of their "Open"
category choice, Ducati was re-
stored to Factory status without
losing any of the concessions. They
have 12 engines against the Factory
allocation of five; soft tires and free
development, and 24 against 20 li-
ters of fuel, although they lose two of
those should they win, achieve two
seconds, or simply add two more
podiums to the one already gained
in Texas.
Cal Crutchlow was a prominent ab-
sentee from the third round, working
on getting fit enough to race at Jerez
a week later after surgery in which
doctors inserted a pin in the right-
hand little finger dislocated when he
crashed out of the Austin GP. The
English rider's start at Ducati has
suffered electronically at Qatar in in-
juriously in Texas; and the potentially
troublesome hand injury casts doubt
on the next race as well. His place
was taken by factory tester and regu-
lar substitute Michele Pirro.
AMA Superbike Champion Josh
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