VOL. 51 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 P51
Briefly...
Weeping skies greeted MotoGP at
Misano, and they kept it up for all of
the first day – leading to what might
be a new record number of crashes:
62 in all classes. None were serious:
most taking place locking the front
under braking on a circuit not only
sodden but also (according to most
riders) in urgent need of resurfacing.
The names of the victims included
some of the illustrious: Valentino
Rossi for one, and Marquez, one of
a number to crash twice. It was the
younger Marquez, Alex, however;
Marc stayed on board throughout.
The most destructive session was
Moto2's second outing, with 12 fall-
ers.
Dry weather from Saturday meant
there was no chance of equaling the
crash-tally record, standing at 130,
set at Estoril at the Portuguese GP
of 2010. The stormy weather also
saw cancellation of a pre-event pub-
licity outing – a pedallo race for rid-
ers on the normally millpond-smooth
Adriatic Sea; and prompted wide
criticism of the condition of the track
surface from all classes. "It feels
as though it's been polished," said
Bradley Smith; while Dani Pedrosa
complained about rubber laid down
so thickly that you had to change
your corner line to avoid it. Another
pre-event stunt did go off as planned:
a go-kart race led most of the way
by Andrea Dovizioso, until Valentino
Rossi stuffed him on the final bend.
"It was a good clean race – until the
last corner," Dovi said.
Moto3's pair of Alexes are both off
to Moto2 next year, after Alex Rins
signed to join the Paginas Amarillas
team, owned by former 250cc World
Champion Sito Pons, to replace the
continued on next page
A sea of yellow:
Valentino Rossi won
his home Grand
Prix at Misano on
Sunday, prompting
the partisan crowd
to celebrate well
into the night on
the Adriatic Coast
of Italy.
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
V
alentino, San Marino. Sometimes there is poetry in mo-
torcycle racing. But it's not the rhyming of the words
that inspired a fervent crowd of more than 54,500 sun-
soaked fans at the Misano World Circuit. It was the result.
