VOL. 53 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 23, 2016 P73
points; Lorenzo was 17th be-
hind Bautista's Aprilia and one
lap down. Smith had retired,
giving up the unequal struggle.
Marquez may have made the
wrong tire choice, but his new
maturity showed all the same,
as he moved further ahead in
the championship. He is now
53 points clear of new second-
placer Rossi, 197 to 144, with
Lorenzo at 138. Pedrosa has
109, Vinales 100.
Is Marquez uncatchable? For
Rossi, yes. He is now battling
Lorenzo for second. "There are
seven races left, and he is very
fast, so I have to try every time."
For Marquez, no. "Fifty-three
points is not enough."
close and Laverty on his heels
in eighth.
Iannone's front tire was now
visibly shedding chunks, and
he had succumbed to Petrucci
and Vinales, though he man-
aged to get back ahead of the
Suzuki by 0.1 of a second on
the final lap.
Rabat claimed a steady 10th,
comfortably clear of Yonny
Hernandez (Aspar Ducati); Dani
Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was
a lackluster 12th, troubled with
his now-familiar difficulty in get-
ting his tires up to temperature,
and saying later: "I am usually
good in the rain, but from the
morning I didn't have a good
feeling."
Pol Espargaro, Stefan Bradl
(Aprilia) and a deeply troubled
Redding took the rest of the
Loris Baz was ecstatic with a come-
from-behind fourth place.
