VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P63
Perhaps he expected Rossi
to open the door for him. No sir.
The Yamaha was already com-
mitted to the dive into the final
right-left-right corner set. He
held his line.
Inevitably, they collided.
It sent Rossi off at a tangent,
straight across the gravel. "I
didn't know how deep it was,
so I opened the gas," he said.
When he regained the tarmac,
Rossi looked over his shoulder
to see his assailant only now ex-
iting the corner he had missed.
Rossi's win—his 111th, and
his third this year—was a jewel
in his crown, and greeted with
an echoing cheer by 97,000
fans crowding the classic Dutch
circuit.
The atmosphere at the post-
race conference was of forced
joviality, but with a steely under-
Briefly...
a group of ultra-close times, all 12 of
the Q2 elite well inside the previous
best lap, and all within six tenths of a
second. The Yamaha rider's advan-
tage of .231 of a second looked like
a yawning gulf, with the remainder
just tenths or even hundredths apart.
Aleix Espargaro's soft-tired Suzuki
was second; the Hondas of Marquez
and Pedrosa third and fourth, with
Pol Espargaro and Iannone com-
pleting the second row. Crutchlow
in seventh was two tenths off the
front row, and two hundredths ahead
of the session's big loser, Jorge
Lorenzo. Tires were a crucial fac-
tor: Bridgestone had applied a new
heat treatment as the result of mar-
ginal endurance here last year; and
almost all riders (Rossi excepted)
complained that the grip was poor.
Lorenzo was the most vocal, and
seemingly punished the worst: his
accurate style works best when the
grip is higher.
Valentino Rossi and Aleix Espargaro
had led a premature charge out of
the pits at the start of Q2, running
a red light in the process. The rest
the other Red Bull KTM, who had also
been up and down in the group.
Six hundredths behind, Niccolo
Antonelli managed to hold off fellow
Honda rider John McPhee, Mahin-
dra's Pecco Bagnaia, KTM's Andrea
Migno, Honda's Livio Loi, Hiroko Ono
(also on a Honda) and Phillip Oettl on
a KTM, who took the last point. The
group went one more place to Danilo
(Honda), with eighth to 16th all within
1.2 seconds.
Frontrunner Efren Vazquez on the
Leopard Honda was an early casualty,
crashing out of the front group on lap
three. Vinales and on-form Husqvarna
teammate Maria Herrera also
crashed out. Niklas Ajo on
the RBA KTM crossed the
line 17th, to great applause,
sliding alongside his bike on
his knees. He'd high-sided
at the chicane, but didn't let
go, managing to finish the
race while wrestling to regain
control.
Once again, Kent man-
aged to extend his points
lead. He has 165, Bastianini
108, with Oliveira closing on 102.
Then Fenati (86) and Vazquez (76).
(Left to right) Fabio Quartararo, Miguel
Oliveira and Danny Kent topped the
podium in the Moto3 class.
Jorge Lorenzo (99) rode a solid
race in third to join his teammate
Rossi and Marquez on the
podium.
continued on next page
