Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P73 Briefly... that helped him achieve such good corner exit speed at Misano that he was faster than Marquez down the straight "aren't working here," he said. Rossi and teammate Jorge Lo- renzo each blamed "defective" rear Bridgestone tires for poor qualifying performance – forcing Rossi for the first time to have to fight through from Q1 with the slow-coaches, to win the chance to join the top 12 in Q2. Lorenzo, long a critic of the 2014 generation of harder-construction tires, said he had two such on Sat- urday, "one in the morning, and then again in the second exit in qualifying, which meant I couldn't improve my time. We don't have consistent per- formance from every tire, and this worries me." Valentino Rossi had a similar com- plaint: a bad tire in the morning Q3 that condemned him to miss out on the crucial top-10 time. "Fortunately, it doesn't happen a lot," he said. "For me it is the third time this year. It also happened last year, three or four times. It feels as though the tire does not create the temperature. It is as though there is an on-off switch, and it remains off. Bridgestone say noth- ing, and one problem is you cannot get a replacement tire, so you lose one from your allocation. It's danger- ous. This morning I almost crashed." Lorenzo had another complaint, about "losing a bit of speed" com- pared with Rossi and satellite Yama- ha rider Pol Espargaro... because of the poorer aerodynamics of "my helmet and leathers." Suzuki's progress towards its 2015 MAVERICK! Moto2, the only dry race of the day, started in familiar style, with Marc VDS Kalex's Mika Kallio taking off in the lead from the front row. One difference was his im- mediate companion, pole qualifier Maverick Vinales on the Paginas Amarillas Kalex; and after five laps he pounced, and took a lead he would never lose – stretching it to 2.6 seconds until the closing stages. There was a lively battle for second, as both Marc VDS's Tito Rabat and Dominique Aegerter got ahead of Johann Zarco, with rookie Franco Morbidelli tagged on behind. After one-third distance, Kallio started to drop back in this gang, with first Aegerter and then Zarco taking over the chase, the latter for three laps. But as Kallio's pace dropped, in another familiar pattern, his team- mate Rabat was gaining strength, and on lap 12 he was at the head of the group, and after four more had gained a little gap. Now he started chipping away at Vinales's lead, a few tenths each lap. On the 18th, it was less than two seconds, and just over one second as they started the last. But reigning Moto3 World Champion Vinales had it under control, for his second win of his first season in the class. And his only season in Moto2 as next year he's set to join the Suzuki MotoGP team. By now Thomas Luthi had caught the pursuit pack, and worked his way through it to attack front man Zarco in the final stages. Zarco hung on to third by less than two tenths. Aegerter had narrowly lost touch, with Kallio and then Mor- bidelli chasing along. The rookie proved the strongest, passing both for a best yet fifth, half a second clear of Aegerter, who was just a tenth clear of Kallio. Jordi Torres was a distant eighth, managing to stay clear of World Supersport Champion Sam Lowes by less than a second – the Brit picking his way through strongly from 16th on lap one. Placing seventh was a blow to Kallio's title hopes. Rabat now has 278 points to his 245; Vinales is a clear third on 204; then Aegerter (143) and Luthi (116). Maverick Vinales won his second Moto2 race of the season. continued on next page

• Cover