Late-Braking MotoGP

by Bruce Allen

11/12/2013            Courtesy of Crash.net

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 30.536s (Lap 75/77)
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 1m 30.768s (58/60)
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 30.948s (67/72)
4. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 1m 30.990s (57/60)
5. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 1m 31.208s (41/72)
6. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 31.397s (77/78)
7. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 1m 31.414s (56/57)
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (GP13) 1m 31.661s (55/62)
9. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 31.836s (66/72)
10. Andrea Iannone ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing (GP13) 1m 31.844s (61/68)
11. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (GP13) 1m 32.114s (53/53)
12. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Team (GP13) 1m 32.473s (47/65)
13. Nicky Hayden USA Power Electronics Aspar (RCV1000R) 1m 32.576s (76/76)
14. Yonny Hernandez COL Ignite Pramac Racing (GP13) 1m 32.800s (26/27)
15. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (FTR-Yamaha M1) 1m 32.847s (17/18)
16. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (FTR-Yamaha M1) 1m 33.149s (21/34)
17. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 1m 33.672s (32/43)
18. Randy de Puniet FRA Paul Bird Motorsport (ART) 1m 33.833s (22/37)
19. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R) 1m 34.541s (22/23)
20. Mike di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (FTR-Kawasaki) 1m 34.618s (29/42)

Interesting notes–

Marquez, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Bradl all lap under 1:31, starting up where they left off on Sunday.

After a full year on the GP13, Andrea Dovizioso is half a second faster than Cal Crutchlow is after one full day.  Nicky Hayden slipped a mere 8/10ths from his qualifying time on the GP13 during his first day on the new Honda lite RCV1000R.  Little Brother Pol Espargaro, riding the Tech 3 satellite Yamaha, beat Big Brother Aleix on the FTR Yamaha  by a full second.  Randy de Puniet shows up out of nowhere and Paul Byrd puts him on the full ART, throwing Michael Laverty back on the so-called PBM-ART, from which Laverty thought he had graduated late last season; the Welshman can’t be too happy about that.  And Hector Barbera, fresh off signing a new two year deal with Avintia Blusens, is too drunk to get on the bike either day, but sober enough to give a gushing interview to the Italian media as to how excited he is by the prospect of finishing 16th most days for the next two years.  Jeesh.

Scott Redding is too banged up to give his new Honda lite a proper whipping.  Valentino Rossi, who unceremoniously threw his faithful and longstanding crew chief Jerry Burgess under the bus last weekend, still finds himself running behind the likes of Bradl, Bautista and satellite Yamaha rider Bradley Smith.  Vale, you’re on the same bike Lorenzo nearly won a third world championship on.  The problem is NOT the crew chief!

Yonny Hernandez, on a factory spec GP13, finds himself running in 14th position.  Wait until he gets the dumbed-down version with the second rate software.  At least he’ll still have the pleasure of getting to burn out a dozen engines during the season, while Crazy Joe Iannone will have to settle for five engines and a fighting chance to run in Q2s and finish in the top ten at some tracks.

This picture of Peter Fonda doing his Captain America bit from Easy Rider  is appropos of nothing, but there’s no editors at Motorcycle.com to take it down.  Gotta love that!  Pretty sure the crack about Barbera being drunk wouldn’t have made it through, either.

Tags: Cal Crutchlow, Dani Pedrosa, Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Honda, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, motogp, Nicky Hayden, Stefan Bradl, valentino rossi, Yamaha

This entry was posted on November 12, 2013 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, MotoGP, MotoGP Valencia, Motorcycle Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.