VOL. 53 ISSUE 13 APRIL 5, 2016 P69
Briefly...
The remotest race of the year picked
a high-profile victim to highlight the
travel difficulties that face those mak-
ing the journey—Marc Marquez ar-
rived in the wee hours of Thursday
after a nightmare 60-hour trip, which
included an engine failure. Before
then, one connecting flight had been
cancelled, and he'd missed another
one. The engine failure was the icing
on the cake. Asked before the race if
he was nervous of venturing into the
Argentine streets among possibly
hostile fans, he laughed and said, "I
am not afraid … I was afraid yester-
day on the plane when the engine
stopped."
For the first race, Suzuki's new both-
ways seamless shift gearbox was
adjudged ready to race, and both
Aleix Espargaro and his superfast
teammate Maverick Vinales were
enjoying the benefit of smoother
progress. At the same time, both
took a step backwards. Espargaro
had switched to the 2015 chassis af-
ter warm-up at the opening round at
Qatar. Now Vinales had joined him.
"All four bikes are the same: basi-
cally the 2015 chassis," said team
chief Davide Brivio. "There are some
positive points to the 2016, but it has
final lap. Navarro got him back, saying,
"I knew he would come again so I
made it difficult for him."
Heartbreakingly, Norrodin's final
attack on the penultimate corner found
a damp patch and he fell. Picking the
bike up he pushed over the line to fin-
ish eleventh.
The group behind had been to and
fro, but Binder played it best to lead
Andrea Locatelli (Leopard KTM) by a
couple of tenths, with Joan Mir (Leop-
ard Honda), Hiroko Ono (Team Asia
Honda) and John McPhee (Saxoprint
Peugeot) behind.
Jorge Martin (Aspar Mahindra)
had dropped off the back to
eighth with gearbox trouble, the
battling duo of Jakub Kornfeil
(M7 Honda) and Niccolo An-
tonelli (Ongetta Honda) complet-
ing the top 10, with the unlucky
Norrodin less than three-tenths
behind over the line.
Binder leads on points, 36
to Qatar winner Antonelli's 31,
then Navarro (29), Pawi (25) and
Bagnaia—23rd today—on 16.
Pawi was the surprise of the weekend.
Three GP races in and already a winner!
