MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
G
rand Prix racing is meant to be the pinnacle of the sport, and
the MotoGP class the pinnacle of the GPs. The last thing we
want is a foregone conclusion.
Look at the result sheet after the Italian GP, and you might give a
sigh of frustration at the predictability. After all Marc Marquez won
again. His sixth in a row. Yawn.
Look again at the time gap – barely a tenth of a second; look at
the lap chart; look at the TV coverage. And step back in awe.
For once, or at least for the first time this year, the Repsol Honda
rider had a real fight on his hands. He won it by just over a tenth of
a second, and at the last gasp after changing places more than a
dozen times in the closing laps - in a fairing-bashing spectacular. As
VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P75
Briefly...
The memory of MotoGP's last fatal
accident was kept alive at Mugello,
when the late Marco Simoncelli's
parents and sister attended a cer-
emony to induct the rider into the
MotoGP Hall of Fame. FIM president
Vito Ippolito was joined by Dorna
CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, who said:
"We will never forget this great rider."
Rossi had his own tribute: a hash-tag
on the back of his leathers reading
"#thisforSic58." On race day, Loris
Capirossi was cheered to the echo
when he did a tribute lap on Simon-
celli's MotoGP Honda. Simoncelli
won the 250cc championship in
2008, and was making his mark in
his second year in MotoGP, with
rostrum finishes in Australia and the
Czech Republic, when he was killed
in the 2011 Malaysian GP after falling
under the wheels of Valentino Rossi
and Colin Edwards.
Simoncelli is the 21st Hall of Fame
rider. The last inductee was Casey
Stoner at Phillip Island last year. Fel-
low Italians Giacomo Agostini and
Carlo Ubbiali are members; fellow
multi-champion Valentino Rossi will
have to wait until he stops racing.
Cal Crutchlow is still feeling the ef-
fects of the hand he fractured at the
Red Bull Grand Prix of The Ameri-
cas in Austin. "It's still broken," he
said. "It's difficult to get my glove
on, and I can't shake hands. If it gets
squeezed it's really painful. But on
the bike, I can use the brake okay."
Ducati had an engine upgrade to
go with the chassis revision already
used at Le Mans, with both factory
riders greeting another small if not
crucial step as the Desmosedici
GP14 continues a slow but steady
continued on next page
MANO A MANO
