MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P77
with a long straight and long fast
corners. Because it demonstrat-
ed that Jorge Lorenzo and his
Movistar Yamaha have got their
mojo back.
Of course, one swallow
doesn't make a summer, and one
near-defeat doesn't make Mar-
quez any less of a favorite for a
second successive champion-
Briefly...
improvement. The new motor was
significantly faster, especially in fifth
and sixth gears, said Cal Crutchlow.
"It's a rocket – no doubt about that.
It's supposed to be smoother, but it
doesn't seem to have done that."
Andrea Dovizioso concurred. "It's
unbelievable on the straight," he
grinned. "That is of course a posi-
tive." But with few places on any
tracks where any MotoGP bike was
able to use full power, it did not ad-
dress the bike's greater problems,
of understeer and a difficulty in long
corners.
Marc Marquez continues to show
more depth in his second season,
with a different approach to practice
at the sixth round. Hitherto – and
conspicuously so in Argentina and
then Jerez – he has attacked from
the very start, his stated intention
being to find the giddy limit and then
work backwards to a viable speed.
Not so at the Italian circuit, with a
slow start, although he was up to
the top of the list by the end of the
first free practice. Last year he had
the fastest recorded racing crash
in practice here, losing control at
the end of the straight at some 208
mph (Alpinestars figures) and jump-
ing off without losing much speed.
He fell again in practice, then also in
the race, having just gained second
place. "I had some question marks
in my mind because last year I strug-
gled a lot at this circuit. This year my
strategy was a different mentality - to
change my approach, and be more
calm." In Argentina, his first laps
were accomplished almost com-
pletely sideways, then he sat out the
rest of the session to save his tires;
at Jerez he found a new tactic with
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