VOL. 51 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 P53
Rossi's first win at the track al-
most adjacent to his home in five
years.
It was also his first win in more
than a year of racing, and Yama-
ha's first of the year - a one-two,
several times behind early leader
Lorenzo.
Every time Marquez attacked,
Rossi would attack him straight
back. Then the Repsol Honda
rider settled back after both had
disposed of first-time pole quali-
fier Lorenzo, whose chances
had been scuppered by an ec-
centric and exclusive choice of
the hard front tire.
And then, for the first time all
Briefly...
departing Maverick Vinales. In the
week after the British GP, Rins's cur-
rent teammate Alex Marquez was
confirmed to be moving to the Marc
VDS Moto2 team. Marquez and Rins
currently lie second and third be-
hind Jack Miller in the vibrant Moto3
class, having won three races be-
tween them. Vinales, a race winner
in his debut Moto2 season, is leaving
to join the returning Suzuki MotoGP
squad.
Eight-time World Champion Phil
Read was at Misano with Yamaha,
celebrating 50 years to the day since
his and Yamaha's first championship,
in the 250cc class. Read won the
Nations GP at Monza on September
13, 1964, riding a factory RD56 Ya-
maha, and ushering in a new era of
racing. Read had some pithy com-
ments about modern racing, and
about Marc Marquez's tactics in par-
ticular – with reference to his attacks
on Jorge Lorenzo at Jerez last year
(where he forced him off the track at
the last corner to claim second) and
at Silverstone two weeks ago, when
he forced Lorenzo to pick up the
bike in his final decisive overtaking
move. "I think it should be punished,
or at least warned," Read said. It
was one thing having a little rubbing
contact, "but when you force the guy
to pick the bike up, it's too much,"
he said. If that had happened in the
old days, he said, the remedy would
have been simple. "You find the guy
in the paddock later, and punch
him." Asked if there were such riders
in his time, he replied without hesita-
tion: "Derek Minter." The 75-year-old
Read continued: "I suppose the FIM
and Dorna think differently now. But
it is not sporting." Modern tracks are
much safer, of course, compared
surprise, with Jorge Lorenzo
second on the other Movistar
Yamaha.
And it was a great win, as he
affirmed, "better than Assen last
year when Jorge was injured."
Rossi not only beat his team-
mate, having pulled out a lead
of almost three seconds before
slowing on the run to the line,
still 1.6 seconds ahead. He also
dusted up Marc Marquez good
and proper, in a sustained but
merciless early laps skirmish
that saw them change places
year, Marquez crashed. An un-
forced error, and "completely my
fault", after he lost the front run-
ning over the inside curb.
It was a relatively innocuous
tumble on a slow corner, but the
engine stopped. By the time,
with the help of a small pack of
marshals, he'd got it going again,
he was almost a full lap down.
He pressed on and finally
gained 15th and a single point on
the last lap, but acknowledged
that even if he hadn't fallen off,
he didn't think he could have
The moment of truth: Marc
Marquez (93) crashes his Repsol
Honda as Rossi races away.
Marquez remounted, was aided
by marshalls in starting his Honda
and ended up 15
th
.
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