VOL. 53 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 15, 2016 P63
Repsol Honda.
Vinales had been right with
the gang until the final laps,
dropping away by three seconds
at the end, comfortably clear of
a fierce final battle for sixth. "I
expected more but I just couldn't
keep the pace," he said.
Dovizioso had been left trail-
ing from half distance, and by
lap 20 was almost five seconds
behind Vinales. At that stage he
was the same distance clear of
the Espargaro brothers, Monster
Yamaha-mounted Pol ahead of
Aleix's Ecstar Suzuki, who had
been locked together pretty
much all race long.
Steadily they closed the gap
on the slowing Ducati, and
on the second-to-last lap the
Yamaha was ahead. Dovi used
his horsepower to pull alongside
over the line, but the Yamaha
wide over the curb and finally out
of touch.
"I put all of me into this race,"
said Iannone. "I had a lot of
pain, and when I checked on my
board and there were 16 laps left
…oooooh. The bike was good,
but I had no energy to brake
hard, and the bike is not so fast
in the corners like the Yamaha.
But every time Rossi passed, I
overtake another time."
Rossi blamed tire degra-
dation and "not being fast
enough" for his fourth place,
but with Lorenzo's win it was
enough to secure the team title
for Movistar Yamaha, ahead of
(Left) Valentino Rossi (46) didn't
quite get on the podium but his
fourth ensured Movistar Yamaha
the team title.
Andrea
Iannone won
a small battle
over Rossi
to get on the
podium. Here,
Iannone mixes
it up with
Marquez.
