VOL. 55 ISSUE 14 APRIL 10, 2018 P69
push-started, and should, by
rights, have gone to pit lane.
Instead he made a U-turn and
resumed his grid position. The
offence of riding in reverse di-
rection was cited in his subse-
quent ride-through penalty—the
first of three punishments he
would suffer.
Miller set off in a clear lead,
with second qualifier Dani
Pedrosa in pursuit, the place
taken over by Marquez before
the end of the lap.
never to repeat the scenes of
the German GP of 2014, when
14 riders started from pit lane in
a clearly dangerous shambles.
Hasty conferences came
up with an ad-hoc solution: to
form the grid up five rows back,
with only Miller in the correct
place—at least giving him a clear
holeshot as a reward for alone
making the right tire choice.
They finished the warm-up
lap, but Marquez stalled on the
line. He managed to get the bike
IN WITH AERO
While the two factory Ducati riders
perforce used identical wingless
bodywork, against Lorenzo's wishes,
there was no clear agreement else-
where on the value of aerodynamics.
Teammates made different choices. At
Honda, Marquez used the side-ducted
bodywork, while Pedrosa did not (nor
did Crutchlow). Suzuki's Alex Rins
used the aero fairing, teammate Ian-
none did not. At Pramac Ducati, Miller
had the aeros on, Petrucci not.
SUPER SAVER
Cat-like Marc Marquez landed on his
feet again, with an early bid for "save
of the weekend." It happened at the
end of the afternoon session, as he
(along with several others) took the
chance for a bike-swap practice.
He accomplished this with his usual
speed, but on the way out on bike two
he spun the rear up and almost spun
the whole bike, using all his legendary
fast reflexes to avoid a first-gear high-
side in pit lane.
MORE DRUG TESTING
Cal Crutchlow's Qatar comments
about a lack of drug testing in MotoGP
got another airing in Argentina, and
support from his peer group at the
pre-event press conference. "I don't
know if there is any doping in racing,"
he said. "But more testing would be
better for all the riders." The authori-
ties were working on it, he continued,
and racing should be brought into line
with other sports. Rossi's opinion was
shared by others, that "in the history
of motor sport there is not a high risk
of doping." But he was receptive for
more testing. As Marquez said, "With
Briefly...
