MOTOGP
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 5/MAY 17, 2015
CIRCUIT BUGATTI/LE MANS, FRANCE
P82
LUTHI'S
LE MANS
Yet another race winner went some
way to make up for an austere Moto2
race, with the front four settling the
order in the early stages, and pro-
ceeding steadily thereafter. It may
have been at lap record pace, but the
excitement was all in a battle for fifth.
Star rookie Alex Rins on the Pagi-
nas Amarillas Kalex and Austin winner
Sam Lowes on the Speed Up machine
had tied for pole, the Spaniard get-
ting it because his next-best lap was
quicker. But Rins messed up his start
again, finishing lap one ninth.
It was third front-row start Johann
Zarco on the Ajo Kalex leading from
Lowes by the time they got to the end
of the first lap. Derendinger Kalex'
Thomas Luthi and defending champ
Tito Rabat on the E-G VDS Kalex had
both got ahead of Taka Nakagami on
the Idemitsu Kalex by then. There re-
mained a little sorting out to be done.
Luthi moved straight into second,
and set about the leader. It took until
lap five before he could get ahead for
good, and a new lap record on lap
six and for Zarco to make slip on lap
seven for the gap to grow to better
than one second. From there on he
paced himself steadily, eventually win-
ning by 1.7 seconds.
He credited it to two days of fruitful
testing at Aragon.
"We found a good setup," Luthi
said. "It was good to have this feeling
from the beginning. In the race I could
push very aggressively from the start.
This win was very important for the
championship."
By then there had been a change
for second place.
Lowes had gambled on a soft rear
tire, and it hadn't paid off. He ceded
third to Rabat on lap four. The cham-
pion didn't seem able to quite match
the leaders' pace, but that was decep-
tive. As the race wore on he started
closing up again on Zarco, and finally
he pounced on lap 18. The Frenchman
admitted that he had lost pace.
"Perhaps I was a little tense on the
bike, thinking of a podium in my home
race," Zarco said. "Anyway, I still lead
the points."
He nearly lost third over the line to
Lowes, who had caught up rapidly in
the closing stages.
The excitement was all some 10
seconds behind, where a gang of six
Valentino Rossi (left) and Lorenzo (right) celebrated with Yamaha Boss Kouichi
Tsuji (center) on top of the podium after dousing him with champagne.
