Cycle News

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P53 Go&Fun Honda's Scott Redding was the top produc- tion Honda rider; ahead of a dismal Lorenzo; with the last points going to Abraham and Danilo Petrucci on the Octo Ioda ART. Both Drive M7 Hondas were out of the points, with Aoyama 16th and Nicky Hayden 17th. So what was Lorenzo doing ALEIX'S FIRST Aleix Espargaro won the qualifying lottery at Assen, some clever betting earning the Open Yamaha rider a career-first pole position while the two factory Yamaha riders fell victim to an ill-timed rain shower. Jorge Lo- renzo ended up ninth and Rossi was at the bottom of the elite Q2 qualifying list in 12th. It was all about timing, and significantly the factory Repsol Honda pair got it right: Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa set to start alongside Espar- garo on the front row. Espargaro had been threatening a pole from the start of the year, leading free practice on several occasions. The other threat was rain, which had been spotting several times during the day, although seldom hard enough to be fully wet. Now it started spotting once more as the session began – and a pack of riders all dashed out together, tripping over one another in their haste. "I was ready, but I saw all the others together, like a race, so I thought, 'this is crazy,' " Espargaro said. "So I waited 20 seconds to get a free track. I took risks, it was very slippery, and I got a good time. Then I was lucky, because it continued raining." His margin was huge: fully 1.4 sec- onds ahead. Marquez seized his clear track by pushing strongly to the front of the gang and getting one chance to charge. "It was quite dangerous… easy to make a mistake and get injured," Marquez said. "When I saw my time was near the top I decided the front row is enough." Pedrosa did the opposite, hang- ing back then making a run. His best time came on his third lap, and "it was already getting wetter – the last section I was a bit scared, but it was key to be on the front row." Anyone who hadn't got a decent time by the third lap had left it too late. In this way Andrea Iannone put his soft-tired Ducati fourth and the similarly shod Cal Crutchlow placed fifth, for his best start since his Ducati switch. He considered himself especially lucky, having had to win through from Q1 to get into the final session. Bradley Smith completed row two; Andrea Dovizioso led the third from Ste- fan Bradl and Lorenzo, whose continu- ing complaints about traction and ag- gressive throttle response were all the more enthusiastic after he had joined the others essaying a few laps on wet tires at the end of the session. Lorenzo had been up to speed, however, in free practice. Rossi had taken longer, but was sec- ond to Marquez in FP4, and "expecting a good race." He'd managed half a fast lap in qualifying; "but I had to slow. The rain arrived at the wrong moment." It left him in a world of trouble, given Assen's first tight corner set, and on the far end of row four alongside known hotheads Alvaro Bautista and Pole Espargaro. Karel Abraham was best of the pro- duction Hondas and best of the rest, with Hiroshi Aoyama right with him, then Yonny Hernandez's Ducati. Scott Red- ding led the next row from the returned Petrucci and Colin Edwards. Hayden was down in 22nd, finding the heave on the bars dictated by As- sen's high-speed changes of direction were taking a toll on his troublesome and still post-operative right wrist. "I feel better off the bike and I thought it would be better than Barcelona, but I'm strug- gling more than I anticipated," he said, adding: "But I don't want to rattle off a lot of excuses." The NGM Forward Racing team celebrates its first MotoGP pole position with rider Aleix Espargaro.

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