VOL. 52 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 P69
Briefly...
champion Sam Lowes is in action in
Moto2—and his home-race pole posi-
tion was no exception. Lowes was ly-
ing fifth with just over 15 minutes to go
when he coasted to a stop at the most
distant part of the sprawling airfield
circuit. He was out of fuel. He man-
aged to squeeze through the fence
and his bike was returned quickly
enough for a top-up so he could go
out again, first thumping his chest
before surging to a record-speed
pole, his third this year. "I made a little
mistake," he said. "Didn't see my pit
board. We were cutting it a bit fine on
fuel and I went too far."
"Deadly rivals on the track, best of
friends off it." The shaky old cliché
got another outing at Silverstone,
with examination of the relationship
between the two teammates head-
ing the championship—Jorge Lo-
renzo and Valentino Rossi. Once
marked, from Rossi's side after Lo-
renzo joined him at Yamaha, by open
enmity and wall down the middle of
the pit. Since Rossi's post-Ducati
return in 2013, the atmosphere has
become much more cordial, and re-
mained so even when they arrived at
Silverstone equal on points. One rea-
son was because the pair had yet to
clash on the track. As Lorenzo said:
"We want together the same thing,
that our bike is the best possible.
But now we are fighting for a very
important thing, and sure if on the
track there is some… stressful ac-
tion, probably the relationship would
change." Lorenzo's current form
meant he arrived not only ahead on
wins, but title favorite as well. He was
relishing the moment, saying this
was "the best kind of [championship]
fight," because on identical bikes it
full-grid start from pit lane would
have been both silly and danger-
ous, the procedure was aborted
and a new start scheduled 20
minutes later. By now, happily,
it was properly wet rather than
vexingly half-and-half.
shown just before the final
sighting lap. Just then it started
to drizzle, and by the time they
were halfway round it was turn-
ing to real rain. The full field
pulled into the pits to change
to wet bikes, and because a
Rossi (46) set the
pace while Marc
Marquez (93) gave
chase until an error
had the Spaniard in
the gravel, hurting
his chances to catch
up to Rossi in the
points battle.
continued on next page
