MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 15/OCTOBER 12, 2014
TWIN RING MOTEGI/MOTEGI, JAPAN
P48
He was 14 sec-
onds down by the
end, and barely two
ahead of Iannone,
who had spent most
of the race fending
off a persistent LCR
Honda rider Stefan
Bradl. But the Ger-
man faded towards
the end, to come
under pressure from
the Monster Tech 3
Yamahas of Pol Es-
pargaro and Bradley
Smith, the latter los-
ing touch slightly at
the finish.
Comfortably be-
hind, Pramac Duca-
ti's Yonny Hernandez
had been holding
off Alvaro Bautista's
Go&Fun satellite
Honda, only suc-
cumbing to the fac-
tory bike on lap 18.
The Colombian had
trouble coming, how-
ever, as NGM Forward
Yamaha's Aleix Espargaro had
broken free from the next gang,
and by the last lap was ready to
attack for 11th.
He did attack, so successfully
that he ran into the Ducati, caus-
ing Hernandez to crash – an ac-
tion that earned him a reprimand
and one penalty point from Race
Direction.
More than 10 seconds back
by the end, wild card Katsuyuki
Nakasuga, the factory Yamaha
tester, had his hands very full with
the top Open Honda, Hiro Aoya-
ma's Drive M7 bike. He finished
less than a tenth ahead.
Five seconds down, Nicky
Hayden was a brave 14th on the
second Drive M7 Honda, in only
his second race back after un-
dergoing radical surgery to his
right wrist and missing the pre-
vious four rounds. Motegi is the
hardest-braking track of the year,
to the extent that larger 340mm
Nicky Hayden (69)
won this battle of the
Open class Hondas
over Scott Redding
(45) for 14
th
.
