Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/506850
MOTOGP MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4/MAY 3, 2015 JEREZ CIRCUIT/ JEREZ, SPAIN P78 improve things. We are evolv- ing our electronics gradually, so I hope we can become more competitive." Class rookie Jack Miller on the CWM Honda was even worse off, saving more than one near crash as he dropped be- hind 19th-placed Marco Melandri on the Gresini Aprilia. Octo Aprilia's Alex de Angelis and Avintia Ducati's Mike di Meglio trailed in, the latter remounting after slipping off. Hiro Aoyama, replacing the absent Dani Pedrosa again on the factory Repsol Honda, had another race to forget, crash- ing out just as he was picking up speed to get ahead of the Open bikes. Bradl's teammate Loris Baz and AB Honda's Karel Abraham also crashed out. Rossi increased his points lead, now 82 over Dovizioso's 67. More importantly, the main rivals are closing the gap. Lorenzo is on 62, Marquez on 56; with fifth-placed Iannone (50) just three points ahead of Crutchlow. CN MOTOGP 1. Jorge Lorezno (Yamaha) 2. Marc Marquez (Honda) 3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 4. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 5. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) 6. Andrea Iannnone (Ducati) 7. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) 8. Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 9. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 10. Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) Briefly... upgraded NSF250RW for last year went on to win the championship. Hondas won the first four races this year on the trot; forcing KTM to dig deeper into the budget with the redesign—which must be available to all 10 KTM (and two Husqvarna) riders free of charge. It has been successfully tested in national rac- ing by Niccolo Bulega. The change is to take a step back from the stiffer chassis introduced this year. Race chief Pit Beirer said: "We are only allowed one upgrade per sea- son, so we must get it right. We get no second chance." So much for a low-cost Grand Prix class. French sensation Fabio Quar- tararo, who claimed his first pole position in his fourth race at Jerez, will move straight to Moto2 next year if he wins the title at his first at- tempt… at the expense of reigning Moto2 champion Tito Rabat. Quar- tararo was allowed into Moto3 be- low the minimum age of 16 as a re- ward for winning two consecutive national Spanish CEV titles; and proved fast from the start. He is considered a serious prospect for a maiden championship. Should this happen, he has been offered a Moto2 slot alongside 2014 Moto3 champion Alex Marquez in the Es- trella Galicia Marc VDS team. Karel Hanika earned himself a record five penalty points—and a consequent pit-lane start at Le Mans—after an extraordinary at- tack on Mahindra rider Juanfran Guevara. On the slowdown lap he knocked the Spaniard off and broke his collarbone. The pair had clashed during the race, and the red mist descended. According to the official statement, the Czech rider "intentionally rode very close to another rider, resulting in con- tact and causing the other rider to crash, with resulting injuries." This followed a weekend with another flurry of penalty points— eleven by race morning—punished mainly Moto2 riders for loitering on the racing line in qualifying. But the oddest punishment was to for- mer 125 Champion Julian Simon, whose QMMF Speed Up Moto2 bike was found to be slightly below the minimum weight limit for bike and rider. Simon did not get an- other penalty point (he had already earned one this weekend) for the team error, but was condemned to a back-of-the-grid start. The expla- nation was two-fold. The rider had lost weight, and was using a new fairing, and the combination tipped the balance in the wrong direction. Jorge Lorenzo bounced back from a three-race slump in form to dominate practice and qualifying at Jerez, claiming his first pole of the season by almost four tenths from Marc Marquez, and laugh- ing off pre-event suggestions that he was in a crisis after missing out on the front positions in the open- ing rounds. "It shows that in racing you can't say things like 'this guy is down, he's finished', because the next day he is going to be at the front," Lorenzo said; adding as a cautionary note: "The oppo- site is true, too." He attributed the improvement not only to better fit- ness and a better 2015 Yamaha, but also a change in riding style: doing it more by feel and instinct and avoiding being too analytical.