VOL. 53 ISSUE 43 NOVEMBER 1, 2016 P65
as he face-planted on the track after
a throttle-off high-side. He was out.
A bit further around, it was Mar-
quez's turn to lose the front, at turn
11. He managed to scramble back on
board in 15th, and set about moving
back up the points through the back
markers. "It was nothing to do with
the carbon brakes, they were the
right choice," he said.
Now it was just Rossi and Dovi,
with the Ducati keeping the Ya-
maha very close company. As the
track dried, however, Rossi was in
trouble. "I started to suffer a lot with
my tires, especially the front on the
right." A couple of moments meant
he slackened his pace, and when
he ran wide at the first turn at the
start of lap 14, Dovi was through, and
immediately opened a gap of two
seconds.
With the first three now settled,
"It was a great battle," said Rossi.
"I wanted to be in front because my
gloves were completely wet and I
couldn't keep [hold of] the throttle.
But every time I passed, he passed
me back."
It was not until lap 12 of the short-
ened (by one lap) 19-lapper that he
managed to make it stick. One lap
later, Dovi was also in front of his
teammate, and one lap after that,
Iannone crashed out.
By then, also on lap 12, two
other front-runners left the party.
Crutchlow, nursing hand injuries
from two falls the day before, had
passed Marquez and threatened to
join the leading trio. On lap nine,
Marquez got back ahead. Neither
would last much longer.
The Australian GP winner was the
first to go, on the tight turn-two left-
hander—another painful experience
Valentino Rossi was in the hunt for the win but was
forced to curtail his attack on Dovi at the end.
