OFF ROAD
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 12/OCTOBER 10, 2015
TWIN RING MOTEGI/MOTEGI, JAPAN
P60
A CHAMPION'S RIDE
Already crowned champion, Johan
Zarco's plan was to focus on the race
as if nothing had happened. The result
was a champion's performance: pole
position in the dry with a new best-
ever lap and a clear victory in the wet.
Status confirmed.
Thomas Luthi was alongside the
French Ajo Kalex rider on the grid, as
was double race winner Jonas Folger.
Sam Lowes, Alex Rins and Hafizh
Syahrin were on row two.
The track was wet although the
drizzle fitful as they set off, with Folger
making the perfect start to lead Zarco
and Luthi into the first corner.
The German stayed up front for
the first four laps, by when he and his
shadow Zarco were some five sec-
onds clear. Then Zarco decided that,
with the track starting to dry, it would
be safer to go away alone.
This he did with great clarity, slip-
ping past into the notorious turn 11 at
the bottom of the back straight, and
thereafter pulling away at around a
second a lap until he had a comfort-
able cushion, 4.5 seconds at the flag.
Folger had little left to do but to stay
wheels down, since the pursuit was
already more than six seconds adrift
when the lead changed hands; and
sundry dramas would see that gap
extend to a yawning 11 seconds at the
end.
Rins was the first pursuer when
they swapped. Takaaki Nakagami had
been ahead until he ran into the dirt at
turn 11 and fell at the end of lap five.
But Rins, fastest in wet warm-up,
had misadventures in store. He lost
the position to an inspired Azlan Shah
and then ran wide at the first corner
on two consecutive laps to drop all the
way back to 10th.
Syahrin had started well, and
though he never quite caught his
Malaysian compatriot, he was in a
strong fourth until three laps to go. By
now Sandro Cortese arrived, picking
up places steadily from 12th on the
second lap. On the 11th he was firmly
past Syahrin, and rapidly closed a
1.7-second gap on Shah to take third
by the end of the penultimate lap, still
pulling away. Fourth was still a career
best for Shah.
A couple of seconds away, Ricky
Cardus finally got back ahead of Sim-
one Corsi on the last lap for sixth.
Marquez (93)
started to come
good late in the
race and hunted
down Dovizioso for
fourth.
