VOL. 54 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 8, 2017 P53
sion between a departing Aleix
Espargaro's Aprilia and the in-
coming Ecstar Suzuki of Andrea
Iannone. Iannone fell, and in the
process knocked over team-
mate Alex Rins's bike, damaging
the handlebar slightly. Luckily
neither he nor any members of
rival at the last round in Ger-
many. Jonas Folger's Monster
Yamaha team wasn't ready for a
bike-swap, and he had to go out
and do another lap, ruining his
afternoon.
There were other bike-change
mishaps, a long-feared colli-
grid, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Hon-
da) third, with Andrea Dovizioso's
Ducati leading row two.
Marquez got his bike-swap
timing perfect. A few other riders
followed him in at the end of
lap two, but for some of them
it didn't work, notably his main
Early in the race and
everyone was riding on
eggshells, not knowing
where the grip was.
