MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 17/OCTOBER 26, 2014
SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT/SEPANG MALAYSIA
P44
>>RABAT
CROWNED
One winner, and one champion.
Third was good enough for Tito Rabat
today as his Marc VDS Kalex team-
mate Mika Kallio needed to win the
Moto3 race. And he took over from
Rabat, and did lead for much of the
race.
But there is always a Maverick to
spoil the party. The reigning Moto3
World Champion, a class rookie,
shadowed the teammates in the early
stages, then pulled the pin with four
laps to go. Vinales, on the Paginas
Amarillas Kalex, claimed a fourth win
of his first and only Moto2 season (he
is moving to MotoGP next year with
Suzuki), one more than Kallio, with
perfect clarity.
"I was intelligent in the first part of
the race, saving up for the last laps. We
made that plan and the plan worked,"
the 19-year-old Spaniard said.
The win brought him within 15
points of Kallio for second overall - but
third was more than enough for Rabat
to secure his first title.
"I tried to do my best all season,
and I tried very well," he commented.
The race was typically Moto2;
somewhat processional. But tense all
the same, because the stakes were
so high.
Rabat took off from pole, with Kallio
and Vinales in pursuit, and Dominique
Aegerter on the carXpert Suter busting
through from the third row in close
pursuit.
By lap six it was the three of them,
and Kallio and his Spanish shadow
were closing up on Rabat's early
lead. As they started the tenth Rabat
ran wide into the first corner, and
three corners later he was third. He
would stay there, under no threat from
behind.
Within three laps, Vinales was lean-
ing heavily on Kallio. They swapped
once, and straight back again, but on
the 15th lap the Spaniard was past,
and drawing steadily clear to win by
2.7 seconds.
Marquez and
Rossi eventually
pulled clear from
early leader
Jorge Lorenzo.
