Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/821592
MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4 / MAY 5-7, 2017 CIRCUITO DE JEREZ / CADIZ, SPAIN P84 MOTO2 Take nothing for granted. Franco Morbidelli proved that at Jerez. Winner of the first three races, it seemed to be all over when he took the lead from first-time pole starter, EG-VDS teammate Alex Marquez. That was on lap eight, when the Kalex-mounted pair were al- ready miles ahead of any pursuit. On lap nine, however, Mar- quez was alone. In a rare error, Morbidelli lost the front at the notorious turn nine, scene of any number of similar falls over the weekend. "Alex was faster than me, but I tried anyway," the Italian can- didly admitted later. He had the consolation of a new lap record, set on lap two. It left all the home glory—long awaited—to Marquez, following up his first pole with a first vic- tory, in his third year in the class. Until now, his achievements had been much overshadowed by his older brother's Moto2 domination. Perhaps at Jerez he broke the spell. As so often in this most close- ly matched of classes, the race was tense rather than exciting. The teammates had taken a one-second lead on lap one, and more than doubled it next time around. By the last lap, Marquez was able to relax, and still win by 3.4 seconds. Class rookie Pecco Bagnaia (SKY VR46 Kalex) was leading the pursuit from Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex) and front-row Alex Marquez leads from pole. His was a weekend of pure dominance to take his first Moto2 win. led until half distance by Aegert- er, but now Luca Marini (Italtrans Kalex) took over and escaped, and was within less than a tenth of stealing fourth from his veteran teammate. Fifth was still Rossi's half-brother's best result. Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Suter) had his hands full at the end fending off a resurgent Ae- gerter for sixth. An off-form Thomas Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) had gradu- ally closed in the last laps, but was narrowly out of touch over starter Dominique Aegerter (Kiefer Suter) by lap four; and he stayed there all the way to the finish for an excellent maiden podium, resisting strong mid- race pressure from Pasini in the process. By the finish, Miguel Oliveira had recovered from early lap front-end slides to bring the Red Bull KTM up to attack. He passed the now-fading Pasini with four laps to go for his sec- ond podium of the year. The group behind had been