VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P81
Rossi had started well, but was
bumped wide in the first corner
by Dovizioso's teammate Andrea
Iannone, and was eighth.
Ahead of him were also both
Ducatis, CWM Honda rider Cal
Crutchlow, and Pramac Ducati's
Danilo Petrucci.
Over the next laps, Crutchlow
seized second place.
"The plan with Honda was for
me to slow everyone to let Marc
get away," said Crutchlow.
"Then I would have a go at the
end of the race."
The first part worked per-
fectly.
Espargaro dropped away
steadily, Rossi picked up
places one by one; while the
factory Ducatis were soon
both past Lorenzo. On lap five,
Rossi had caught his teammate
and was directly ahead as the
Spaniard continued to lose
ground.
He made short work of the
trio ahead, and was up to sec-
ond on lap 11, with Dovizioso
and Iannone both now ahead
of Crutchlow. He put his head
down, setting a new lap record
on the 20th.
The chase was on, the out-
come magnificent.
Dovizioso went with Rossi,
but in the end couldn't stay with
him.
Behind, Crutchlow had re-
gained fourth and was fending
off not only Iannone but also
now the returned Lorenzo. The
Italian got ahead as they started
the last lap, but Crutchlow had
it all lined up for the last corner
set, and pushed past to claim
an eventual third by five hun-
dredths of a second.
A dispirited Lorenzo had lost
touch again, blaming difficul-
ties with the hardest rear tire,
but adding that on the same tire
"Valentino was unbelievable."
The fast and flowing track
made sure of a good race all
Briefly...
we can try them." The riders will have
to wait a little longer for a solution to
their top speed deficit, with an en-
gine upgrade expected at tests after
round seven in Catalunya.
Valentino Rossi played to the fans
after his classic win, donning a Mara-
donna shirt in tribute to the legend-
ary Argentinean footballer. But he
admitted it was a year later than he
had planned. "I bought it last year,
but I was fourth, and did not make
the rostrum. When I was packing for
Austin, I saw it in the back of my cup-
board, and I thought: 'Why not?!"
With tempers perhaps fraying after
too long on the road, there was a
flurry of penalty points in Argen-
tina, with Moto3 rider and Valentino
Rossi protégé Romano Fenati tak-
ing a record of three at once for an
extraordinary display of public petu-
lance in race-morning warm-up. The
Italian race winner was peeved at
Niklas Ajo, and firstly aimed a kick
at him on a slow-down lap. As if this
wasn't enough to get him in trouble,
he managed to get alongside the
Finn as they all grouped up for prac-
tice starts. Fists flew, and then he
leaned across and flicked the KTM's
kill switch, leaving Ajo stalled in the
middle of the pack. Fenati already
had one point, and with his total now
four he also suffered a back-of-the-
grid start, from which he recovered
strongly to place eighth. Others pe-
nalized were Danilo Petrucci, for
knocking Hiro Aoyama off in the last
corner of the MotoGP race, Miguel
Oliveira for loitering on the line and
Franco Morbidelli for over-exuberant
overtaking in warm-up.
A mistake from
Marquez that landed
the back-to-back
champ on the
pavement and out of
the race meant a sure
victory for Rossi.
