VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P71
The last of an increasingly intense trio of season-
opening flyaways set the scene for a championship battle
of greater variety than the last two years, as evergreen
veteran Valentino Rossi on the Movistar Yamaha rode one
of the best races of the 315 Grands Prix in his long ca-
BOSS!
Briefly...
The return of Dani Pedrosa seems
set to stay on hold for the present,
with hopes fading that he might be
fit enough to rejoin the factory Rep-
sol team for his first home Grand
Prix at Jerez in a fortnight. After
crippling arm-pump struck at the
first race at Qatar, the former 125
and double 250 Champion with-
drew for radical surgery, reported to
have gone well. But Honda team-
sters were tight-lipped on his pros-
pects, suggesting that substitute
Hiro Aoyama might run at least one
more race before Pedrosa is back to
partner Marc Marquez.
Teams and hangers-on were at
skeleton-staff levels for the costly
and arduous journey to the far-flung
Argentine spa town, but the Termas
de Rio Honda circuit itself again
won widespread praise—after hav-
ing made allowances for how dirty
it was. "It's been difficult. The track
changed quite a lot," said Marquez;
while remaining dirt off the racing
line made overtaking difficult. But he
led the chorus of approval for the fast
and flowing nature, a characteristic
shared with other great bike racing
tracks, like Australia's Phillip Island.
Ex-Superbike star and former 250
rider Eugene Laverty was a major
fan, after posting fourth-fastest time
at one stage in FP3, and narrowly
failing to make it into the big-boys'
Q2 qualifying. "I liked the track from
the first time I saw it on a scooter.
The layout really suits my style. It's
dirty, but it's dirty for everyone, and
a fantastic circuit to ride," the Open
Honda rookie said.
When is a concession not a con-
cession? In Argentina for once, it
continued on next page
VALENTINO ROSSI EMERGES ON TOP IN A
BATTLE ROYALE WITH MARC MARQUEZ
