VOL. 54 ISSUE 12 MARCH 28, 2017 P55
Andrea Iannone made a
strong bid to take "ride of the
race" honors, battling with the
leaders until crashing out at half
distance. Contrary to reputation,
the Ecstar Suzuki was not out-
powered on the straight, while
his cornering prowess was in
line with his own reputation for
bravado.
An even stronger claim to the
honors came from Zarco. The
very difficult race, and I suffered
a lot with the front tire. I tried to
manage it and tried not to crash,
because it is just the first race."
Espargaro's run from 15th to
sixth in his first Aprilia outing
was the ride of the race. "In the
second half of the race, my bike
was spectacular. I had much
more traction and I was able to
overtake easily. The bike looks
after the tires really well."
shortened race and slippery
track, and both had suffered.
For Marquez, the change
"turned out to be the biggest
mistake of the weekend. I
couldn't brake hard and after
a few laps the tire was already
wearing off. Braking is my stron-
gest point, so I decided: okay,
let's finish this race and Argen-
tina will be another race."
Pedrosa concurred. "It was a
