VOL. 51 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 12, 2014 P49
rest by cutting the curbs tighter
than anyone, and by never mak-
ing a mistake.
It was only by tenths, but his
lead grew with an inexorable in-
evitability.
On lap 17 he set the fastest lap,
a record on the new track. He'd
already stretched the gap to bet-
ter than 1.7 seconds. It was his
winning margin to the end.
Lorenzo all but matched him,
but it had taken him another five
laps to get past Rossi.
"It was too long. By then Marc
was too far."
He was at least clearly the bet-
ter Yamaha rider on this particular
Sunday, which Rossi cheerfully
admitted after finishing eventually
five seconds down.
In their wake, Dovi had suc-
cumbed first to Pedrosa, who
explained he'd been out of sorts
with his bike all weekend; and
then to Monster Tech 3 Yama-
ha's Pol Espargaro, a couple of
seconds behind. He was paying
the price for his softer rear tire,
and by the end would fall victim
also to Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's
Bradley Smith, who was having a
quietly steady race after a crash
in qualifying had ripped open
his left-hand little finger for the
third (or is it fourth?) time, and
for whom sixth was a worthwhile
result.
Briefly...
er Jack Miller, "you could pick up two
or three tenths of a second. There
was a headwind and it really funnels
in between the grandstands."
Belgian teenager Livio Loi's Grand
Prix career is over, at least for the
present, after his Marc VDS team
carried out its threat to axe him af-
ter the first half of the season, after
a series of poor results and a ques-
tioning of his commitment. Loi was
an impressive fourth in round four in
Argentina, but hasn't scored a single
point since. At the last race the team
even replaced their preferred KTM
Kalex with a factory KTM for his final
chance, to no avail. For the second
half of the season they are back with
the Kalex, now ridden by 18-year-old
Spaniard Jorge Navarro, who im-
pressed by qualifying sixth, and rac-
ing to two points for 14th.
One particular hero was fourth-
placed Masbou, who had tangled
with Ajo on the first lap and rejoined
in last place. Most of practice had
been dampish, and he'd crashed in
qualifying, but his guessed-at settings
gave him a bike that was "faster than
the others," and he surged rapidly
through, picking up Miguel Oliveira's
Mahindra on the way, and even taking
the lead for two laps, with four left to
go.
Oliveira (through from 18th on the
grid) was a close seventh, fending
off Juanfran Guevara, Brad Binder
and Jakub Kornfeil, who was 10th.
Importantly, Miller was three
places ahead of Marquez, so his
points lead extended to 21, while
Vazquez took over second on 137
points. Marquez has 133 points,
then comes Fenati with 130 and
Rins with 118.
It took 116 attempts, but Efren
Vazquez finally won his first
Moto3 Grand Prix.
