VOL. 51 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 P49
"for once," and led away; Mar-
quez tucked in behind him. Dovi
closed a bit on the second lap,
with Rossi now ahead of Aleix
Espargaro and on lap three the
slow-starting Pedrosa was also
past the Open-class Yamaha.
On lap five Rossi finally got
past the Ducati, but in the pro-
cess allowed the front pair to
escape. From then on Lorenzo
and Marquez were alone.
"I rode like an animal," said
Lorenzo, striving to preserve
the pace, and succeeding to
the extent of surprising his pur-
suer, who was riding like a differ-
ent kind of animal - an ambush
hunter, awaiting its moment.
Or was he? There were plen-
ty of slides and Marquez looked
close to the edge, just to stay
in touch. Then just after half dis-
tance the Yamaha opened up a
little gap, almost half a second.
The end, however, was in-
evitable. Marquez gets hap-
pier when the tires start to slide
more; the Yamaha gets more
unsettled.
"Marc is very good at brak-
ing, and now I started to lose my
Briefly...
crucial part of the fast corners."
Cool temperatures and a cooler wind
were also troublesome: on a track
with long straights it meant it was
very difficult firstly to get temperature
in the tires, and then to sustain it. Ac-
cording to Dani Pedrosa after quali-
fying: "Today was warmer than yes-
terday and I tried the hard tire, but I
was not really happy. The problem
is the track changes quite a bit with
different conditions. Today it was 26
or 27 degrees, but one cloud and it
drops to 23, or if it is sunny it goes
to 35. It makes a big difference for
the race."
Japanese Moto2 rookie Tetsuta Na-
gashima was helicoptered to the
hospital after a heavy crash in FP3
that brought out the red flags. He had
tangled with Malaysian Azlan Shah,
who escaped unhurt. Nagashima,
however, may be out for the rest of
the season, after sustaining a dis-
located right shoulder, a fractured
hip, and a compound fracture to his
right tibia and fibula. A CAT scan in
the hospital cleared him of internal
injuries.
[Crutchlow, languishing in 15th, tells a
similar story, but from the wrong side.]
Teammates Scott Redding and
Alvaro Bautista were the pair who
won through to Q1, the Briton on the
production Honda consistently faster
than his doldrum-struck teammate on
the factory bike.
The quick-fire Q2 proceeded to
plan, except for Andrea Iannone, who
seemed set for the front row before
crashing in the final
corners. He was 10th
instead.
Otherwise, an increas-
ingly familiar roll call:
Marquez on his 10th pole,
Dovizioso second for a third
race in a row, and Lorenzo
on row one; Aleix Espar-
garo and Rossi straddling
Pedrosa on row two. Smith
led the third from teammate
Pol Espargaro and Stefan
Bradl.
Marc Marquez earned pole position for the
British Grand Prix – his 10
th
of the season.
Dovizioso and Valentino
Rossi give chase to Dani
Pedrosa in their battle for
the final rostrum spot.
continued on next page
