VOL. 52 ISSUE 18 MAY 5, 2015 P69
Velocidad remaining. But Jerez,
baking in three days of sunshine,
is notoriously slippery when it
is warm. A few scary moments
persuaded the Movistar Yamaha
rider that third place would be
good enough.
Rossi had taken third off fast-
starting Pol Espargaro on the
Monster Yamaha on lap three;
the same lap that CWM Honda's
Cal Crutchlow got ahead of Aleix
Briefly...
planning to save that luxury for the
race. Marquez nonetheless viewed
the injury as a lucky escape. He was
motocross training with a friend, and
fell victim to the "just one more lap"
syndrome, with an innocuous tum-
ble. The injury was caused when his
friend ran right over him, and clearly
could have been a great deal worse.
"I was lucky it was only my finger," he
said. The fracture was just below the
top knuckle, and repaired with metal-
work within less than four hours. After
the warm-up crash, a slightly deflated
Marquez abandoned his planned
three-run strategy for qualifying. "The
front row was enough. I decided to
save my energy for the race," he said.
Marquez's bad luck is not confined
to injury, as he revealed that he has
already lost one of his five allocated
engines at only the second race—
raising fears that he may be obliged
to make a pit-lane start at the far end
of the season. The engine failed very
publicly at the Circuit of the Ameri-
cas, during qualifying. Heading for
a fast lap, he suddenly pulled up by
the pit wall, vaulted over and sprinted
back to the pit to jump on his spare
bike and set pole time. A warning
light had come on, triggering an im-
mediate stop. The engine was sent
back to Japan for investigation, and
when asked about it at the post-qual-
ifying press conference Marquez ad-
mitted he had been told that the en-
gine was no longer available. "I don't
know if it was engine or gearbox, but
I have been told I cannot use it any
more," he said. So far it has not been
officially "withdrawn from allocation."
Given Honda's usual reliability, this
may not be a problem. However, a
safety margin has gone. Should an-
other engine be damaged in a crash,
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