Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 P103 and by the end of lap one the Honda was ahead, with Pedrosa and Rossi tagging on behind the red Des- mosedici. By the time they had both got past it was lap four, and Lorenzo was already 2.7 seconds clear. He sailed along imperiously, the gap sometimes under but more often over three seconds. He'd pushed his hardest in the early laps, he said, "but once I saw Marquez had crashed I could breathe more deeply, and I could control the gap more easily." Lorenzo's second lap was his fastest, a new record. Iannone stayed close for a spell, but second was between the two old-timers, and it looked as though Rossi would probably tri- umph, in a familiar stalk-and-pounce fashion. This time, however, it turned out different. After a few tentative stabs at the first cor- ner, he started to attack in earnest with two laps to go. They changed places six or seven times, but Pedrosa responded instantly to every one of Rossi's attacks. "I played every card, and one that I did not expect," said Rossi. Briefly... the same motivation. I don't want to be one of those guys." The attempt to control qualifying- session slowcoaches in Moto3 with extra penalties has not ruled out the practice of loitering on the line by rid- ers looking for a fast slipstream, with five riders penalized at Aragon. They were Isaac Vinales, Maria Herrera, Andrea Migno, Gabriel Rodrigo and Lorenzo dalla Porta; all of whom lost three places on the grid and missed the first 10 minutes of race-morning warm-up. Race direction plans an escalating scale of penalties, if the problem persists. Simone Corsi was penalized for the same offence in Moto2, where the punishment is as before, one penalty point. Tito Rabat was to get his first taste of MotoGP the day after the Aragon race, when he was scheduled to test his Marc VDS team's satellite Honda RC213V—the bike he will race next year, in post-race Michelin tests at the Spanish circuit. With current All weekend he'd seemed a little under par, though he'd managed to qualify on the front row. Now he finished lap one sixth behind Forward Kalex' Simone Corsi, only to lose that place to an at-last fast Alex Marquez on the other E-G VDS Kalex, and then to fall behind Thomas Luthi on the Derendinger Kalex as well. He finished lap three in eighth. And though Corsi would run wide and drop back and Marquez crash out, Zarco would brief- ly lose another spot to the consistently impressive Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin on the Petronas Kalex. By the finish he had recovered to sixth, about to attack Luthi for fifth. It was his first time off the podium since mechanical problems that cost him the lead in the opening round in Qatar. Syahrin was still close, Idemitsu Kalex' Takaaki Naka- gami and the recovered Corsi were not far behind; and a second adrift Lorenzo Baldassarri on the For- ward Kalex completed the top 10. Zarco needed to finish at least two places ahead of Rabat to secure the title here. Now 78 points clear—284 to 206—he needs only to gain three points to do it at the next race. Rins (184) is third, Lowes regained fourth from Luthi, 144 to 142. Tito Rabat held off compatriot Alex Rins to take his second win of the season. Lorenzo (right) needs all the help he can get from Pedrosa (left) to hold off his teammate Rossi (not pictured). continued on page 107

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