VOL. 53 ISSUE 28 JULY 19, 2016 P59
a trend. Next came Loris Baz,
onto a rear slick, only to pit again
after one scary lap.
The next was the still-fading
Marquez, and while other bikes
were being prepared with inter-
mediate tires, he took a better
guess. Or tactics, if you prefer—
both in his early timing, and his
choice of slicks front and rear.
"For my team," he explained
later, "intermediates do not exist.
I could see it would be a flag-to-
flag, and that the line was dry
except for a couple of corners.
I was very careful on those
corners."
He pitted on lap 17, dropping
from eighth to a distant 14th. He
was now more than 38 seconds
behind new leader Dovizioso,
who was concentrating so hard
on managing his lead over a
growing pursuit pack—Rossi,
Barbera, Crutchlow and Miller—
that (he said later) he did not
have time to think about stop-
ping himself for a bike change.
He was one of many to regret
the delay.
Marquez was very soon mak-
ing up time hand over fist, by far
the fastest on the track. By lap
22 he was sixth, still 20 seconds
shy but lapping seven seconds
faster than the leader. And none
of them had stopped yet.
Next time around, all of them
eventually did call in except for
a brave Miller, and the Aus-
Another wet race, another disaster
for Jorge Lorenzo. Aleix Espargaro
(41) beat him, and the champ left
with a solitary point.
