VOL. 52 ISSUE 22 JUNE 2, 2015 P71
Briefly...
tradition, Valentino Rossi again won
the contest for the most striking spe-
cial livery. His Italian Grand Prix hel-
met is always special; and this year's
theme was strictly modern, embody-
ing an energy-saving motif, and the
usual cartoony bits (like paw-prints of
his pets) kept unobtrusive. The hel-
met had a simple mirror finish, "to re-
flect the fans at Mugello;" with solar
panels painted on the chin-piece and
a color-coded set of energy bars on
the back. Many other riders (includ-
ing Andrea Iannone, Andrea Dovizio-
so, and several in the smaller class-
es) adopted home-race themes, but
Rossi's VR46-Sky Moto3 team stole
a march on them too. Romano Fe-
nati's bike and the rider were mobile
Tricolore flags: green on the right,
white over the center, red on the left.
Great design work.
Mugello's straight is again officially
the fastest on the calendar, with An-
drea Iannone's Ducati GP15 enjoy-
ing a mild tail-wind in free practice
to clock 218 mph. This just shaded
the previous speed record set at
Qatar earlier this year by Marquez's
Honda, at 217.6 mph. Ducati took
the top three speed-trap figures at
Mugello, with Hector Barbera's GP14
and wild card Michele Pirro's GP15
both faster than 217 mph. Pedrosa's
Honda was next, at 217.2 mph. By
comparison, Aleix Espargaro's Suzu-
ki was second to last, with only Alex
de Angelis's ancient ART slower. The
factory Suzuki recorded a best of
209.4 mph. Espargaro still managed
to qualify second!
The straight is followed by the tight
San Donato corner, with speeds
dropping from around 217 mph to
just 77 mph, according to data sup-
plied by MotoGP brake suppliers
continued on next page
