VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P71
Briefly...
Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race at the
end of July. The Monster pairing will join
factory tester and sometimes Grand Prix
wild card Katsuyuki Nakasuga. Yamaha
last won the event—Japan's race of the
year for the home-based industry—19
years ago.
Beware the superfit Jorge Lorenzo,
who announced before the weekend
that, "I am in the best condition of my
career. Last week I beat my record
on my mountain bike—and I feel very
proud." Master of a slightly quaint but
always expressive English, Lorenzo had
more choice words to describe his Ya-
maha—this time in relation to the task of
beating not only the Hondas but more
so the Ducatis and Suzukis using soft
tires in qualifying. "It is very difficult," he
said. "Our bike is not like the Honda. It
is not... explosive."
A slightly surprising statistic: in the
last 13 races leading up to the Dutch TT,
Marc Marquez has had six race crashes.
Three this year have been in Argentina,
Italy and Catalunya; in the last six races
of last year, he crashed in Misano, Ara-
gon and Phillip Island, able to remount
for the first two of those.
Andrea Iannone is to visit the doctor
who fixed Valentino Rossi, after pain and
weakness in his injured right shoulder
paid a return visit at Assen. Two weeks
ago, he raced to fourth in Barcelona,
and thought he was all clear. "The feel-
ing with my shoulder was really good—
no pain, plenty power. But this morning
I had some pain again," he said, after
the first day of practice at Assen. His
manager Carlo Pernat said: "After this
race we will go to see Dr. Porcellini, who
treated Rossi. This should not be com-
ing back now."
points to 153. Iannone has 107;
Marquez moves to fourth on 89,
Dovizioso (87) now fifth. CN
MotoGP
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Marc Marquez (Honda)
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
4. Andrea Iannone (Ducati)
5. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha)
6. Cal Crutchlow (Honda)
7. Bradley Smith (Yamaha)
8. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
9. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki)
10. Maverick Vinales (Suzuki)
