VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P75
On lap 18, five to go, it was
still 2.3 seconds. Next time
round 2.0. And on lap 20 Rossi
broke Marquez' old record to get
within 1.2 seconds.
Through practice Rossi had
shown his race pace was strong
on the Extra-Hard rear, but it
was still not entirely clear that he
would catch him, as Marquez
put in a fast lap of his own to
stay a second clear. And if he
did, he would still need to get
past. The race was set for a
thrilling showdown.
It never got there. Rossi was
on his tail as they started the
second-last lap, and attacked
directly at the second corner.
Marquez passed him straight
back.
The next passage of play was
at the end of the long straight.
Rossi popped out of the draft
to slip past under brakes. Again
Marquez fought straight back
again, trying to force through
inside at the apex of the tight
Briefly...
tory rider made it to the end of the
cool-down lap. He was not out of
fuel, said Dovizioso. "It was another
problem, but we don't want to speak
about it." Race team big chief Gigi
Dall'Igna did however spill the beans
to the Italian press. It had actually
been overheating of the fuel that
caused cavitation, preventing the
pumps from delivering. Heat build-up
from the engine and exhausts acting
on a smaller quantity of fuel promoted
vaporization. This was a known prob-
lem with the previous bike, and a vent
on the left side of the fairing cooled
the tank when the bike was at speed.
On the slow-down lap, however, the
airflow was lost.
The two-stop qualifying strategy
pioneered last year by Marc Mar-
quez came in handy again in Argen-
tina, where the defending double
champion used it, going faster on
each of his three runs to underline
his second straight pole position. To
his wry amusement, surprise early
"I pushed really hard to try to catch
Johann [Zarco]," Lowes said. "But he
was riding really well, and it took a lot
of energy from me and from the bike.
By the last five laps I was losing grip."
Now he deliberately let Rins past,
"because I wanted to have a look at
him," but Lowes didn't get the chance,
because the ex-Moto3 rider pulled
steadily away. In three Moto2 races
Rins has finished fourth, third and
second.
Kallio was just a second behind the
fading Lowes at the finish: another
three seconds away his Italtrans team-
mate Franco Morbidelli had got the
better of the next big group for fifth.
Luthi headed the gang
behind, from Cortese, Athina
Kalex' Baldassarri, the venge-
ful Folger, impressive Hafizh
Syahrin on the Petronas
Kalex, Rins' teammate Luis
Salom, the recovered Rabat
and Dominique Aegerter on
the Technomag Kalex in 13
th
.
QMMF Speed Up's
Anthony West narrowly led
Moto3 champion Alex Mar-
quez (on the Estrella VDS Kalex for the
last points.
Simone Corsi and Louis Rossi were
the only two to crash out.
Zarco took over the points lead
from Rins, 53 to 49; then Lowes (41),
Morbidelli (33) and Folger (32). Rabat
is 11th, with just 17.
continued on next page
Johann Zarco gets his first
win of the season.
