MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 6 / MAY 22, 2016
AUTODROMO DEL MUGELLO / TUSCANY, ITALY
P80
Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez.
His compatriot did what Rossi
couldn't: got ahead several
times. The battle got fiercer
as the end approached, with
contact between them knocking
Marquez's elbow-scraper flying.
Marquez was riding out of his
skin, and it looked like he had
the race won as he forced past
once again (the third time on the
last lap) into the final corner to
maha within a couple of hours.
Lorenzo's engine had failed in a
similar way in morning warm-up.
"I was lucky," he said later. "One
less lap in warm-up and I would
have raced with that engine."
He was more than lucky. He
was the winner of a thriller. He'd
spent the early laps fending off
his teammate. In the closing laps
he had to do the same again,
from a much fiercer attack by
Clouds of white smoke
replaced it before the race was
half done.
It came from Valentino Rossi's
exhaust. His Yamaha YZR-M1
had blown up. He'd been dog-
ging leader Jorge Lorenzo's
tracks until then. But after eight
laps and several failed out-brak-
ing attempts, it was over.
Amazingly, it was the second
such blow-up for a Movistar Ya-
Rossi (46) was
right there at the
beginning but
it was a case of
boom goes the
dynamite on his M1.
