VOL. 52 ISSUE 18 MAY 5, 2015 P73
peat of his life-threatening jump
into the small lake inside the last
fast corners, turning way at the
last moment. Five years before
he had to be rescued after this
headlong leap.
There might have been more
to-and-fro up front if both Ducati
riders hadn't run into trouble.
Andrea Iannone was sixth,
Briefly...
he will be down to three for the year,
with the threat of a pit-lane start
should a sixth engine be required.
Motocross accidents are a constant
threat, but the value of such training
for a MotoGP rider outweighs the
risk, according to a previous victim
Valentino Rossi, whose 2010 season
was spoiled by a shoulder injury—
subsequently requiring surgery—sus-
tained in just such a way. The value,
he explained, was in practicing throt-
tle control, on a bike where wheelspin
and loss of traction goes without say-
ing. That was not all, however. Mo-
tocross was fun, and "a motocross
bike is like a MotoGP bike: a full race
bike," Rossi said. "[Getting hurt] hap-
pened to me and other riders, but it is
part of the risk."
With Dani Pedrosa electing to wait at
least one more race before returning,
the question of Honda's rejection of
double champion Casey Stoner
as a substitute kept on rumbling.
Honda's 2011 champion had volun-
teered to take over the seat, but had
been refused by HRC vice-president
Shuhei Nakamoto, whose reasons
at the time included the view that it
would be impossible to give him the
sort of team backing he would need
to do well, and that it would be to
everybody's discredit if he returned
and was not fighting for a top-three
finish. They called in superannuated
racer and factory tester Hiro Aoyama
instead, but the former 250 World
Champion's results have been dis-
appointing, as he struggles to beat
the production Open Hondas. The
consequence is that Honda have
effectively given away any chances
of retaining the Triple Crown—rider,
team and constructor titles—that they
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