VOL. 50 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 12, 2013
Lorenzo was miffed, and this
was a start of his complaints not
about Marquez but about the laxness of Race Direction, in not
making any attempt to control him.
But Marquez was unrepentant,
and leading the championship all
by himself.
This clash was a signal event,
but with Marquez in town almost
every race would have at least
one such.
Take France, for instance. It
rained. Marquez's first time in the
wet on a MotoGP bike and he
nearly spun out at the start (he
was on pole again). The first half
of his race was highly adventurous, as he saved several near
crashes, holding eighth. Soon
after half distance, he'd got the
measure of it and started scything through. He got to third.
Pedrosa now took over the
lead with another win. He was
looking increasingly strong, but
could the experienced but perennially fragile 28-year-old sustain it?
Lorenzo had a dire day in the
wet, blaming mysterious tire
faults (denied for Bridgestone)
for a catastrophic loss of feel,
and a bewildered seventh place.
Take the next round at Mugello. In practice Marquez broke
another record, with the fastestever crash (210 mph), but once
again emerged battered and
Pedrosa started strongly, winning
two of the first four GPs, but his
championship was derailed when
he missed the German round with
a collarbone injury.
scraped, but able to ride again.
The race was Lorenzo's: the
rhythmic track playing to his fast
corner speeds. Pedrosa was
second, until yet another attack
from Marquez. The youngster
was through, though too far behind Lorenzo, when he crashed
again. It was his only non-score
and indeed non-top-three until
the very far end of the season.
Now the defending champion
was on the front foot, and he
would close down Pedrosa's lead
further with another win in Catalunya. Pedrosa had to fight hard for
second in a frenzied last lap, with
Marquez all but hitting his back
wheel in what was becoming a
trade-mark: braking very late,
and getting taken by surprise by
the guy in front going so slowly.
It was at Assen that the first
phase came to a close.
Most of all, it was Lorenzo's
weekend, but not in a good
P59
way. In the wet on the first day,
he touched a puddle at speed,
looped over the bars, and (not
being 20 any more) smashed his
collarbone as he hit the ground.
Plenty tough, he flew to Spain for
instant surgery and came back
for a genuinely heroic damagecontrolling fifth. To his great
relief, Pedrosa had another of
those glum days and was only
fourth, so Lorenzo lost only two
points to the title leader. He was
only nine adrift.
It was Rossi who came through
for a story-book win to close
the chapter, with Marquez second, satellite Yamaha rider Cal
Crutchlow again best of the rest,
for his third rostrum of the year.
Marquez Paints It Purple
Chapter two began with more
than one signal event. First it was
Lorenzo, two weeks stronger
and brimming with purpose as he
