MOTOGP
2015 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 18 / NOVEMBER 8, 2015
RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN
P50
by stopping trying so hard.
With two laps to go, he at-
tacked and passed Marquez.
But it didn't last; he ran wide
on the next corner, and was
third again. But it had given
Lorenzo a fraction of breathing
space.
Marquez came close in the
last corner, but not quite close
enough—much to the suspi-
cion of Rossi and his fans.
Rossi's race was much as
expected. Starting from 25th,
MOTO3: ABOUT TIME!
The race was about two people—
Miguel Oliveira and Danny Kent.
Oliveira had to win. If he did so, Kent
needed to finish no lower than 14th.
The omens were mixed: the Por-
tuguese rider had qualified fourth,
heading the second row behind
first-time pole qualifier John McPhee.
Kent, however, had qualified a deeply
worrying 18th.
The English title leader would play
no part in the race up front, where
Oliveira took an early lead, but was
engaged with the usual brawling
gang.
The first to displace him was Kent's
teammate Efren Vazquez, for one lap,
then a bit later Romano Fenati, for two
laps.
Jorge Navarro also had a couple of
goes up front over the line, once on
lap 13 and again 10 laps later.
But Oliveira was dominant, and
took over again at the first corner of
the final lap.
Navarro followed him home closely,
but mayhem erupted behind them
when Niccolo Antonelli, who had
caught the leading gang, made an
optimistic passing over at the final
corner. He crashed, and took Fenati
and Vazquez with him.
This left a second podium to Jakub
Kornfeil, who had been close all race
long. Brad Binder was inches behind,
having come through from mid-field;
then a second's gap to Enea Bas-
tianini, with Isaac Vinales also through
from the rear, taking sixth ahead of
McPhee.
Almost 10 seconds away, also
promoted three places by the crash,
came the other two Leopard Honda
riders.
Inexplicably Hiroshi Ono had
(Above) Marquez
was thoroughly
booed by his
own countrymen
when he took to
the podium.
(Right) Rossi
took two laps to
get past Brad-
ley Smith and
by then the top
three were gone.
