Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 51 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 21, 2014 P63 boro Ducati - at the same place, af- ter his first front-row start of the year. Crutchlow had passed Lorenzo for second, and his brake-locking disaster was when he had barely half a lap to go for a second rostrum in the last three races. He was, understandably, "gut- ted," and said the same as Marquez: "My mistake was to slow down. The tire must have cooled off." The other common element, to four of the six who crashed, was they had chosen the all-new asymmetric front tire, which had the extra-soft com- pound only on the right-hand side, but the medium on the center, the braking zone. All knew it was a risk, after several Briefly... by bad weather. "Two of our tests last year got rained out, so that was not good," the 2007 and 2011 World Champion said. "We're going to do another test to make up for that, and hopefully I can give some good infor- mation." It would be exactly a year since he last rode the machine. "It'll be a little bit strange," he allowed. Stoner was at Phillip Island along with the two previous Australian premier- class champions Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner for the unveiling of bronze busts of the three stars. "We need more," said Doohan. "Maybe in a few years we can have a bust of Jack Miller here as well." Gardner won the first two races at the Island in 1989 and 1990, and reminded ev- eryone of his part in establishing the race, because his title win in 1987 had spiked interest in racing in his home country. Valentino Rossi was set for his 250th Grand Prix premier-class start at Phillip Island, reminding all that he had already earlier this year outranked the previous most sea- soned rider, Alex Barros. The Brazil- ian retired at the end of 2007, hav- ing clocked up 245 races in 500cc and MotoGP. And another 21 in the 250cc class, after a Brazilian official conspired to lie about his age so he could make an extra-early start. Rossi even further outranks him, with 30 each in 125 and 250, for a grand total of 310 starts. Cal Crutchlow's first front row of the year brought a welcome return of his dry sense of humor to the post-quali- fying press conference. Asked about the prospects of tire degradation in the race, he replied: "We've already continued on next page over second. Kallio made a good recovery to close up on the quartet again. Rabat was third, less than two tenths behind Luthi and some three ahead of Kallio. Lowes lost touch by 1.5 sec- onds over the line. A thriller. Zarco fell back into the clutches of an on-form Marcel Schrotter at the same time Sandro Cortese had pushed through from 10th on lap one. They were fighting it out when Zarco crashed out; Cortese got the better of Schrotter by the narrowest of margins, taking sixth just eight hundredths of a second. Five or so seconds behind, eighth- placed Dominique Aegerter got the better of Xavier Simeon and Jordi Tor- res only on the last lap; with Takaaki Nakagami on his heels, by inches from Louis Rossi, Franco Morbidelli and Jonas Folger - eighth to 15th cov- ered by just over a second. Rabat has 310 points, Kallio 269, with three-time winner Vinales closing in at 249. Luthi displaced Aegerter from fourth by 10 points, 161-151. Maverick Vinales won the Moto2 Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Bradley Smith (38) found himself on the MotoGP podium for the first time in his career with Andrea Dovizioso (04) ending up fourth in the attrition-filled race.