MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P43
Briefly...
The Crutchlow Conundrum has
the Ducati pit crew scratching their
heads. The rider summed up the
puzzlement by revealing that when
he is riding on the limit, data shows
he is using "four or five degrees less
lean angle than [Andrea] Dovizioso or
[Andrea] Iannone, on every corner."
He explained. "If I leaned the bike
over any more I'll be on the ground.
I'm definitely on the limit," he said.
"Last year at Yamaha I used one
degree less lean angle than [Jorge]
Lorenzo and one degree more than
Valentino [Rossi]." They were so far
at a loss to explain why the other rid-
ers achieved so much leaner angle.
Crutchlow added that he was some-
times going faster than last year.
"Our lap times aren't that bad – it's
just that everyone else is going even
faster. It's really competitive this sea-
son," he said.
All Ducati riders are going to have
to wait until next year for the step-
change they need to be competi-
tive. This was confirmed by Andrea
Dovizioso, himself tight-lipped
about whether he plans to stay on to
see if the expected redesigned ma-
chine will be good enough.
There had been improvements dur-
ing the season, Dovizioso said – new
race boss Gigi Dall'Igna's first – and
"we will have more new parts during
the year. But the big step will happen
next year," he said. He measured the
improvements at Assen by saying the
bike was "more controllable than last
year, on the corner exit, with less
pumping." Most of the changes this
year had been to improve accelera-
continued on next page
The King of the
World: Marc
Marquez won his
eighth straight
MotoGP in trying
conditions in the
Dutch TT in Assen.
