VOL. 52 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 P75
the race. "I've done it before, and I'll do it again," he
said.
Rossi and Marquez had passed Lorenzo by the end
of lap two, and immediately started drawing away.
Rossi was always in front, but Marquez looked ready
to attack. Rossi thought it would come in the last lap,
"and with Marquez that is always difficult".
Then suddenly he was gone. Rossi glanced at the
big screen, saw his rival in the gravel, and thought that
now he might be able to relax.
Not so. For Petrucci had been picking up places
rapidly. He was impressed to find himself behind
Lorenzo and Pedrosa by lap four, a situation so far he'd
only encountered "on the PlayStation;" but he was
faster. Nervously, he passed them both before half
distance.
At the same time Dovizioso was storming through. A
slip off the line almost put him into pit wall, and he was
last into the first corner. By lap eight he had followed
Petrucci past Lorenzo, and when Marquez fell five laps
later Dovizioso had got ahead of the satellite rider. Only
for two laps, however. Petrucci regained second and
Briefly...
Aki Ajo, has a best result of 10th this
year, but is better known for frequent
crashes, and a viral internet star af-
ter he rode the last few hundred me-
ters at Assen kneeling alongside his
bike after managing to save a major
high-side crash in the final chicane.
Vinales, younger cousin of Maver-
ick, was sacked from the Husqvarna
team mid-season for "poor results,"
in spite of one podium and a strong
top-10 championship position. He
rode as substitute for the injured Ana
Carrasco for the last two races, but
now has found a permanent berth.
KTM has started the Moto3 fight-
back early, after being somewhat
swamped by Honda over the past
two seasons… with a second ver-
sion of an all-new 2016 chassis to be
made available for all from the next
round at Misano. This is a rerun of
an aborted exercise earlier this year,
when promising early tests of the
new chassis went sour when it was
given to faster riders.
Rabat and Rins duked it out behind,
Marquez a close spectator, Folger
also closing for a while. With two laps
to go Rins put his escape plan into
action, and managed to draw a couple
of seconds clear.
Rabat held off Marquez, the
younger brother's best so far; Folger
was fifth.
Pole starter Lowes had dropped
back to ninth, but by the time he finally
got past Lorenzo Baldassari on the
Forward Kalex for seventh on lap six,
he was already more than 10-seconds
adrift.
JPMoto Suter's Ricky Cardus had
come with him; and by half distance
wet specialist Anthony West on the
QMMF Speed Up had
closed up and was start-
ing to cut through.
Lowes got clear to
secure what had become
sixth as they all passed
Luthi; West got the better
of Dynavolt Kalex' Sandro
Cortese for seventh; bat-
tling Luthi regained ninth
from Cardus on the last
lap.
Slick-shod Alt was 24th
at the end, but had the
satisfaction of the fastest
lap, by a handsome margin.
Zarco can do no wrong, it seems,
his title lead over new second-placer
Rins now a massive 85 points, 249 to
164. Rabat has 161, then Lowes (126)
and Luthi (125).
A very happy Petrucci celebrates his MotoGP career best
second-place finish with his Pramac Ducati squad.
continued on next page
