MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 16/ OCTOBER 22, 2017
PHILLIP ISLAND CIRCUIT / VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
P62
away behind teammate Bradley
Smith, but closed up again and
got ahead with four to go. The
two were 0.01 of a second apart
over the line, for the ever-im-
proving KTM's first double top-10
finish.
Some five seconds behind,
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team),
riding with a fresh ankle injury,
had got ahead of independent
Pull&Bear Ducati rider Karel
Abraham by lap five; and soon
after, Dovizioso was past the
pair. But he had company—slow-
starting Pedrosa, who was well
placed to assist teammate Mar-
quez. They were to-and-fro for
much of the race.
At the same time, Redding
was coming through. With some
ten laps to go he was ahead of
Lorenzo, and chewing away at
the gap. He was on Pedrosa's
heels as they started the last lap,
still it would be hard to win."
Iannone was third with two
laps to go, but he wasn't the only
one ready to push and shove.
Vinales was coming back,
and his run out of the last corner
showed the strength of his tac-
tics as he surged past Zarco and
almost alongside Rossi.
The three Yamahas were over
the line within 0.043 of a sec-
ond.
Crutchlow got the better of
the pursuit, barely two seconds
away, and mere hundredths
clear of Iannone; Miller was
less than two seconds behind,
having chewed his tires with his
early glory run. Then Rins, by
now six seconds away.
Phew!
This absorbing group over-
shadowed an interesting pursuit
race.
Pol Espargaro had dropped
Zarco, Marquez, Vinales, Miller,
Iannone, Crutchlow and Rins, all
inside 1.075 seconds.
There were collisions and
lucky escapes galore; Marquez
into Rossi at the Southern Loop;
Rossi into Zarco at the hairpin;
Zarco and Iannone (both notably
aggressive) into too many others
to count. The level of aggression
escalated; and tactical plans
were put to the test.
Consider cool-headed Vina-
les's story. He'd been saving his
tires, and as Marquez moved
clear he was poised in third to
follow him. But Iannone clattered
into him at the hairpin and he
dropped to seventh, and had to
do it all again.
Self-styled "The Maniac," Ian-
none did the same to Rossi, who
said, "I think I could have gone
with Marquez, then Iannone ar-
rived at the hairpin like crazy. But
Jorge Lorenzo (99) had a shocker
and spent much of the time
defending position against Karel
Abraham on a two-year-old Ducati.
