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CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
R
ound black things. Tires
mean everything to mod-
ern racing. Just take the
first five races of this year: the
latest-generation Michelins have
had a huge influence on results,
and from race six onwards will
continue to do so—except in a
different direction, after the first
attempt at a new front tire was
rejected by a vast majority of
riders.
It had already played a big
part. Defending champ Marc
Marquez suffered two race
crashes because of losing the
front. This is not even to mention
his practice spills—two identical
ones at Le Mans alone.
Valentino Rossi had also com-
plained: unable to get rid of that
queasy front feeling with the new
soft-carcass tire, although his
Yamaha—or perhaps his decades
of race-craft)—meant that he was
getting better race finishes. (In
his costly last-lap crash at Le
Mans, by the way, he even took
himself by surprise by losing the
rear rather than the front.)
Both of these have a hard-
braking style, shared with Cal
Crutchlow, and indeed even
forced on the Honda riders
by its all-action short-chassis
characteristics. Jorge Lorenzo,
TIRED AND EMOTIONAL
