The Mugello circuit in Tuscany played
host to Round 9 of the Moto GP World Championship. 19 riders taking to the
track in the resplendent Italian summer sunshine in front of an unusually
sparse Italian crowd (62,000 estimate) who would be giving their voices to
cause Ducati to their second podium of the year.
Dani Pedrosa lined up on pole ahead
of Jorge Lorenzo who suffered an electrical glitch which saw the engine mapping
system get itself into a muddle on where exactly it was on the track. The
surprise of qualifying was Pramac Ducati’s Hector Barbera, who had been the
quickest man in the speed traps yet it was rare to see the speed translate into
an ultimate lap time. On the second row was the factory Ducati of Nicky Hayden,
reigning World Champion Casey Stoner and on his outside was Cal ‘the honey
badger’ Crutchlow. Dovizioso, Bradl and Spies made up the third row whilst
Valentino rounded out the top 10. The quickest of the CRT’s was Aleix Espargaro
and at the back of the field was the bog standard IodaRacing Project bike of
Danilo Petrucci.
The race itself was a relatively
tense affair in the opening laps, with Jorge getting the edge on Dani off of
the marks yet the slightly smaller frame of the pocket rocket meant that he retained
the lead heading into the first corner. Steaming into the first corner was
Dovizioso who managed to grab four places into third heading into the left
right of Luco. Luckily for the leading bunch Hayden managed to grab a slightly
rebellious wiggle from his Ducati that could have seen him taking out a number
of competitors.
The biggest loser on this opening lap
was Stoner who was the only rider in the field who opted for the extra hard
rear tire, a prototype which Dunlop has developed specifically for the higher
deg tracks such as the Sachsenring and Phillip Island. Thus, his pace was
notably slower than those around him for the opening few laps as the tire
warmed up.
Spies performed his seemingly
frequent disappearing act, sinking back behind Randy dePuniet at one point
although his pace picked up once again towards the end of the race. Otherwise
the first two places, occupied by Lorenzo and Pedrosa were all but confirmed
even in this early stage of the race. Such was their pace that they opened a
comfortable gap over the determined Tech 3 rider, Dovizioso, and Lorenzo began
to open a constant three second gap over Pedrosa for the majority of the race.
Dovizioso was pushed hard by Bradl,
the young German rookie even occupying the podium position for a number of laps
after a mistake saw Dovizioso run wide. Their pace was strong, although towards
the end they began to fall back into the clutches of Hayden, which would
suggest that their early sparring resulted in a high level of degradation.
Hayden brought along with him the ever present Rossi and he had plucky Brit
Crutchlow hounding him for the entirety of the race; yet ‘the Doctor’ managed
to prescribe him a sixth place finish.
One of the key scuffles of the race
were between these five riders, which saw Dovizioso pipping Bradl on the
penultimate lap into the first corner. Hayden slid up the inside of the young
German heading into the third and looked to have the place set, the American
opted for the standard line; yet Bradl had other ideas and sent a late move on
the inside into four and pushed Hayden wide, nearly onto the grass. This lack
of momentum allowed his team-mate, Valentino, and Crutchlow through up into
fifth and sixth positions respectively. Leaving Hayden to perhaps muse what
could have been yet again.
Stoner had an unusually poor
performance. He had been scrapping for a top five position before a trip
through the gravel saw him pushed down into tenth, behind Bautista. However
with his tire now heated up, if not a little dusty, he put on a charge for eighth
position. His move on Bautista however was slightly contentious, seeing him
literally driving into the seemingly unawares Spaniard - and it was a lucky
thing that they both remained on two wheels. It was rightly speculated that it
would have been a different thing if such a move had been put on Stoner, yet
both escaped unharmed.
Barbera finished a respectable ninth,
a place which is more fitting for a satellite bike and resulted in the factory
Ducati team leading their ‘field’. His qualifying pace did him a good cause
however, showing there really is pace even in the chassis which both Hayden and
Rossi despised. Bautista finished an otherwise quiet tenth, the Gresini team
removing the black from their bikes after a period of mourning for the late
Marco Simoncelli. Sadly Pirro on their CRT competitor was excluded for using
the chicane, and thus tenth was all they could manage.
Spies recovered for eleventh, ahead
of the leading CRT of dePuniet. We have yet to know of his lack of pace; but
the pace of the other category of machinery is surely a boost for the
organisers.
Espargaro, Ellison, Pasini and Silva
rounded out the finishers.
The retirements included Colin
Edwards who’s Suter seemed to suffer yet another lack of pace, and thus either
the Texan pulled it into the pits in frustration or perhaps for a mechanical
gremlin. Yonny Hernandez fell off the track on lap 9 and Petrucci also suffered
a mechanical hiccup.
In conclusion, another dominant
display by Yamaha puts a marker down for Honda who are testing a ‘completely
new’ bike tomorrow, which they hope will be the answer to Lorenzo’s relentless
pace. With Marquez signing up with
Repsol for next year, it looks like Ducati will keep a hold of Rossi and there is
enough speculation concerning who his teammate will be. Thus that leaves the
dominant marquee of Yamaha with question marks over Spies, why exactly is his
pace so irregular? Why can’t his Saturday pace translate to a strong Sunday
finish?
Hopefully all of these questions will
have been addressed before the next round of the Moto GP which takes place at
Laguna Seca in two weeks time.
Race Report by Liam Stroud aka @ScuderiaStroud
