VOL. 52 ISSUE 13 MARCH 31, 2015 P61
Dovizioso said. "But the race is long: in
45 minutes you can change your opin-
ion."
To come so close to winning had an
element of frustration.
"How to ride this bike is different from
last year," he said. "I can manage the
tire, I don't have to use so much energy.
I am able to make similar lines to Jorge
[Lorenzo] and Valentino. But we still have
to work. In the last laps, I lost some side
grip, and could not fight like I wanted.
"But with a race like this you can under-
stand many points, and can know how to
work. We can still improve the bike some
more."
With Marquez fifth, Pedrosa had lost
another four seconds in sixth, and after
the race revealed that the same arm
pump that blighted his results last sea-
son had come back strongly. In a bleak
post-race statement, he hinted he might
withdraw from upcoming races to seek a
more permanent solution (see page 28).
Only two seconds down, CWM LCR
Honda's Cal Crutchlow emerged to lead
Briefly...
renzo's Movistar Yamaha: "Smooth."
Aleix Espargaro's Suzuki (rather en-
igmatically): "Small."
Suzuki's return to MotoGP was
about a hundred times better than
expected, given last year's test show-
ings, with both new boy Maverick
Vinales and Aleix Espargaro show-
ing strongly in a convincing chase of
the established factory bikes. Most
impressive was the corner speed, al-
lowing a highly athletic Espargaro to
make up for a significant top speed
difference, in spite of the long .6
mile-plus straight. In qualifying, his
best speed was 203.4 mph, almost
12 mph down on the fastest Ducati
(ridden by a winglet-free Yonny Her-
nandez), which incidentally was bet-
ter than 4 mph faster than Dani Pe-
drosa's top Honda. Clearly access
to softer tires helped the Spaniard,
but he also praised the braking per-
formance, and added: "Last year [on
the Open Yamaha] I really struggled
with a full tank in the early laps, but
the Suzuki is much better."
Aprilia's return, by contrast, could
only generously be described as
"low-key," particularly for former
250cc World Champion Marco Me-
landri, who regularly took bottom slot
on the sheets on the Gresini-run RS-
GP. While teammate Alvaro Bautista
qualified 19th, among the slowest
Open Hondas and two seconds off
pole, Melandri was another 1.8 sec-
onds down in last, beaten even by
Alex de Angelis on the stock ex-CRT
RS. Looking glum, Melandri admit-
ted "I am not riding to my full poten-
tial, and I can feel that. The level now
is incredibly high: as rookies we have
a very difficult challenge before us."
a second. Bagnaia
recovered for ninth,
still less than a
second behind and
Binder was tenth.
Moto3 is alive
and well, in spite of
the departure of the
champion Marquez,
runner up Miller, and
several others.
Fancied new
Red Bull KTM rider
Miguel Oliveira crashed out on the
first corner, but came back for 16th,
just out of the points.
Rookie Remy Gardner had a torrid
afternoon, high-siding heavily out of
22nd position on lap nine.
Niklas Ajo on the RBA KTM also
crashed out; while SKY VR46 KTM's
Romano Fenati retired with one lap
to go.
Alexis Masbou (10) comes out on
top in the Moto3 thriller.
