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/527805
VOL. 52 ISSUE 24 JUNE 16, 2015 P115 There was a long and fierce battle for 10th, finally won by the more experienced Alvaro Bautista on the Aprilia from class rookie Jack Miller on the Open class CWM Honda, who finally settled for a best-yet eleventh, after crashing out of the last two races. Hayden's teammate Eugene Laverty was a couple of sec- onds down, narrowly holding ex-Superbike rival Loris Baz on the Athina Yamaha at bay. Avin- tia Ducati's Di Meglio was next; Ioda ART's Alex De Angelis the last rider on the same lap for the final point. Di Meglio's teammate Hector Barbera had pitted and rejoined in a distant 16th. Hayden's crash came after a troubled start, with launch con- trol issues and a slow getaway, then a run onto the gravel on lap one, where exces- sive wheelspin triggered the electronics to cut the engine. He restarted it to rejoin near the back, but the ECU seemed deranged, and eventually he succumbed. "The front folded on me at turn five." Marco Melandri retired with problems with the Aprilia's new seamless-shift gearbox. With the second third of the season under way, Rossi still leads on points. But only one: 139 to Lorenzo's 138. Iannone moves to third on 94, ahead of no-scorers Dovizioso (83) and Marquez (69); Smith just one point behind. CN Briefly... without them, Andrea Dovizioso ran a test with a strip of foam on the out- side edge, serving a tell-tale func- tion. If this touched down, it would give way without causing a crash. It didn't touch down. The curse of Moto3 qualifying struck in a big way at Catalunya, with almost all riders cruising round at close to walking speed, all waiting for a tow. This practice is severely discour- aged, earning penalty points; but after summoning 30 riders to race control for a serious wigging, Race Direction realized the futility of penal- izing all of them. Now a more effec- tive deterrent will be sought, with an- other meeting scheduled for the next round at Assen. Casey Stoner and family were at the track, and a recent visit to Lam- borghini (like Ducati, owned by Audi) prompted suggestions in the Italian press that the prematurely retired Australian superstar was cozying up to his former team, after Honda had rejected his offer to step in for the absent Dani Pedrosa. These didn't last too long, however, as Casey donned Honda leathers to run a se- date demonstration lap on Honda's new road-going version of the GP bike, the $184,000 RC213V-S. The bike, with a similar chassis and en- gine to the GP bike, but without such fripperies as pneumatic valve springs and a seamless-shift gear- box, was launched on the eve of the Grand Prix. Honda expects to make around 200. Qatar may be having its problems with its football world cup plans, but MotoGP is set to stay there for anoth- er 10 years, with a contract signed at Catalunya until 2026. Italtrans Kalex narrowly got the better of Aegerter, Athina Kalex' Lorenzo Baldassarri and an impressive Alex Marquez on the E-G Marc VDS Kalex, who had come sweeping up to join them at the last minute. He'd been involved in a lap-one tangle, and rode to 11th from 28th. Mika Kallio, Simone Corsi, Hafizh Syahrin and Julian Simon took the last points. Axel Pons, Xavier Simeon and Sandro Cortese were all put out in the first-lap incident; while Franco Mor- bidelli was given a penalty point for his part in knocking Pons down. Maximum championship points extended Zarco's title lead still further, 134 to Rabat's 94. Lowes has 80, Luthi 78 and Rins 74, Johann Zarco came from behind to take the win in the Moto2 race.