Leonard Smith caught the action for RacerViews at Phillip Island this weekend. Here we take a look at the MotoGP action from trackside
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Rossi started his 250th premier class Grand Prix on Sunday looking for crucial points in the battle for the runner up spot in the 2014 MotoGP™ World Championship. A crash filled race allowed the Italian to mark this historic event with his second win of 2014.
He made steady progress in the opening laps, catching teammate Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and engaging in a heated battle for several laps. Eventually getting the better of the Spaniard, Rossi settled into second as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had a two second advantage ahead of him.
Lap 17 saw the 2014 MotoGP World Champion crash out of a comfortable lead, promoting Rossi to first. By the race finale a huge gap of 10.836s saw Rossi clinch his 82nd premier class win ahead of Lorenzo. Rossi last won at Phillip Island in 2005.
Second in the championship, Rossi now has 255 points, eight more than Lorenzo, who is third. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) suffered a DNF and is 25 points behind the Italian in fourth.
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An elated Rossi explained, “It’s a fantastic day. An amazing result coming after a great race. Sadly I had to start behind but I knew my pace and setting were quite good for the race. On the second corner I saw Marc and Jorge already ahead and I was sixth, I thought this will be hard! I was fast enough to overtake the other riders quickly.”
“I focused on just gaining on Jorge and I got there a little by little. We then had a great battle. Marc wasn’t too far, just two seconds but I settled for second to fight for the championship position. Then Marquez crashed and it was great after that. I came back to victory here almost ten years after my last win, a great achievement at one of the most beautiful tracks of the year,” he concluded.
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“This has probably been the luckiest second place of my life. A lot of faster riders crashed. You struggle all weekend with setup but then you get the wrong tyre on race day. It was a complete drama to even stay on the bike. I managed to stay on the bike, I was very lucky,” explained Lorenzo.
He added, “We would still be competitive in normal conditions, like we were before the race. I could have stayed with Marc if I had a good tyre. Similar happened to Rossi in Austin and me here. A great result for Yamaha, it’s been a long time since they’ve had a 1-2-3.”
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“It’s a crazy result really for me. I did a really good start and tried to push very hard, but I had some big moments. At one point I was going backwards pretty fast. I made some massive mistakes despite a good start. I calmed down a little and focused more. I ended up in the battle with five or six other riders, like Moto2 again. I just missed the incident with Bradl and Aleix, that was close! I got a bit lucky to avoid that,” said a visibly thrilled Smith.
He continued, “I saw my teammate and Cal both go down at Turn 4 in front of me. I didn’t even know I was third on the last lap. I crossed the line and it was just Jorge and Rossi ahead of me so I checked the big screen! I then started making some weird noises in my helmet, but it’s pretty special to have my first podium. A huge thank you to the team having faith in me enough to keep me this year and the next year.”
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Marquez commented, “Today, because I had no pressure on me, I tried a different approach pushing hard from the start to try to open the largest gap possible. We were having a good race, right up until the crash. It was a pity that I went down at a time that I was not riding on the limit or faster than the lap before. It was a race where there were many crashes, and almost all happened the same way, the front wheel locking up. The temperatures were down a lot, something that was also a factor today.”
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Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) clashed with the rear of Aleix Espargaro’s bike, causing the German to fall unhurt. Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) was forced to stop off several corners later due to the damage to his bike. Broc Parks (Paul Bird Motorsport) entered the pits and retired at mid race distance.
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It was a DNF for Broc Parkes at his home race
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Lorenzo took when Cal Crutchlow crashing out ahead of him when in second on the last lap.
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Photos by Leonard Smith, October 2014
Words from press materials
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