VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P75
at the end of that lap," Dovizioso
later said, ruefully.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Pol
Espargaro was next, having fall-
en back into the next group, then
escaped again, leaving brother
Aleix engaged with Crutchlow,
second Monster Yamaha rider
Bradley Smith, Go&Fun Honda's
Alvaro Bautista and LCR Honda's
Stefan Bradl scrapping – until
Aleix was the first into the pits.
Now it got confusing, as other
riders followed, but it all ended
up like this: Bradl a close but
lone fourth; Smith a couple of
tenths ahead of Pol, and Bautista
now out of touch.
Briefly...
MotoGP return continues with a fur-
ther two-day test session at Aragon
next week, and then another at Va-
lencia, but there is contradictory
news as to whether they will take up
the option of a wild-card at the last
round this year, also at Valencia. This
follows joint tests with Ducati at Mug-
ello last week, cut short when rider
Randy de Puniet crashed heavily un-
der braking for the last corner. The
bike, according to a team source, is
at a good level chassis-wise. Clear-
ly, from testing lap times, Suzuki
still has some catching up to do in
horsepower and speed. The scale of
the catch-up task is all the worse not
only because of the passage of time
and progress of rivals since Suzuki
unexpectedly quit at the end of 2011,
but also because of the need to join
the rest in using the Magneti Marelli
control ECU.
Suzuki has chosen the Factory op-
tion, meaning they can develop their
own software (an extra concession
for a "new" manufacturer means they
can continue to do so until year's
end, the other factories only until the
end of June). The difficulty has been
to transfer their exclusive Mitsubishi
software to operate with the control
hardware. Unlike the V-four in use
until the end of 2011, the new bike
is a Yamaha-like in-line four, with the
same cross-plane crank making it
a "virtual" V-four, a balance shaft to
quell the consequent vibration, and a
vertically stacked gearbox. As to the
wild card for the final GP, some say
yes, others say only "Maybe."
Moto2's role as a playground for
chassis manufacturers hasn't last-
ed very well. In the first season of
2010 there were 14 different names
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