MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 6/JUNE 1, 2014
MUGELLO CIRCUIT/MUGELLO, ITALY
P78
ship. But both of these things
can give one hope.
The Mugello race has a history
of being special. Much of that has
been down to local superhero Val-
entino Rossi. Rossi had a good
run here too, in his landmark
300th GP. But again he could be
no better than best of the rest.
The weekend began with the
threat of bad weather: always
possible in the shadow of the
Apennines, in the foothills out-
side Florence. And on the first
day it did rain, robbing MotoGP
riders of one full free practice
session. Happily, that was the
end of it. Conditions improved
the next day, and continued to do
so for Sunday. The result was a
memorable race: one of the best
for several years.
Run over 23 laps of the 3.25-
mile Ferrari-owned circuit, with its
long curvy straight, sinuous ess-
bends and swooping climbs and
descents, it was a thriller from
the start. Among other things,
it proved once again that fast
tracks are a friend to bike racing.
Cars may have closer races with
chicanes and hairpins to slow
them down. Give bikes a chance
to slipstream one another, and
the opposite prevails.
Long live high speed.
Marquez was on pole, Lorenzo
on the other end of the front row,
with the self-styled Andrea "Crazy
Joe" Iannone between them on
the satellite Pramac Ducati. Like
the other Desmosedicis, he had
the benefit of power-up engine
parts – which did nothing to solve
the marque's persistent under-
steer problems, but made them
into rocketships on the straight.
Crazy Joe took off in the lead
as the rest brawled behind him
on the run to the first corner.
Rossi was on the fourth row after
a tire-choice blunder in qualify-
ing, and he was not the only one
to use the pit-lane exit as they all
Things might have been even more
interesting if Valentino Rossi hadn't
started from the fourth row of the
grid. The Italian legend fought
through to third place, but couldn't
quite get to Lorenzo and Marquez.
