VOL. 52 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 20, 2015 P69
Briefly...
returned to Barcelona for further in-
vestigation.
Jack Miller was finally able to con-
firm that he will join Rabat in the
expanded Marc VDS team next
season, and that he will take "most
of my crew" for his second year in
MotoGP. This will include crew chief
Cristian Gabarrini, who was instru-
mental in both of Casey Stoner's
titles, in a seamless transition, as his
former LCR team cuts back from two
riders to retain only Cal Crutchlow,
after the arrest and legal problems of
this year's new sponsor CWM. Mill-
er made the announcement at the
pre-race press conference, where
he evoked gales of laughter, talking
about how several of the last races
had fine practice weather then rainy
Sundays. "I don't know what the
curse is. I think this bastard [jerking
his thumb towards Rossi sitting near-
by] is talking to someone up there
and ordering something."
Bridgestone brought a new gen-
eration of asymmetric front tire to
Phillip Island, where the pioneering
type had a flawed debut one year
ago. Back then, when temperatures
dropped at the end of the race, sev-
eral riders crashed with this tire, in-
cluding leader Marquez and (on the
last lap) rostrum-bound Crutchlow.
The change is in continuing the sec-
tion of extra-soft compound across
the middle of the tire, where last year
it was only on the right shoulder. The
harder left shoulder is required in
particular for the very fast two final
left-hand corners.
America's last World Champion
Nicky Hayden is to be made the
Randy Krummen-
acher had dropped
away from this group
to come into the
clutches of Alex Mar-
quez, who prevailed
at the end for ninth.
A long way back
a brave ride yielded
eleventh for Franco Morbidelli–the Ital-
trans Kalex rider back from injury after
missing four races. He was able to stay
over a second clear of the next battle,
where Marcel Schrotter had Simone
Corsi and Ricky Cardus almost along-
side, past the flag in 0.059 seconds.
Cortese crashed out and Luthi took
the last point.
Zarco reigns supreme on 318
points; Rins now has 214 to Rabat's
206 (Rabat will miss the next race as
well). Then it's Lowes (172) and Folger
(145).
Rins was in
smashing form at the
Island and was never
seriously threatened.
continued on next page
