Photo: motogp.com
The iconic circuit at Mugellow hosted a fiery race past Sunday, as the 6th round 2014 MotoGP championship brought Italian riders in front of their home crowd. What seemed a questionable race start because of the Free Practice 2 hampered by rain finally turned out to be a great weekend for the two-wheeled sport.
The weekend marked the 300th GP race for Valentino Rossi, and his fans expected him to win at Mugello, but ahead of him, Jorge Lorenzo and reigning champion Marc Marquez had their own things to settle. However, Rossi has done an awesome race, after a disappointing 9th position placement on the starting grid, and managed to fight his way towards another podium, which brought him to the second place in the current world standing.
It was great to see Ducati’s Andrea Iannone occupying the second place on the grid, and having a very strong start, leading in the early stages of the race. Still, the big problem of his bike is that tires won’t last for too long, and while others’ rubber only started to grow better and better into the race, his wheels were no longer allowing him to push as hard as he could, slowly falling back.
Mugello saw an epic battle between Marc Marquez, who started the round from his 7th pole in a row and Jorge Lorenzo, who seems to have finally found his pace and racing comfort once more. While the Doctor finished the race more than 2.5 seconds adrift from Marquez, the gap between the two Spaniards across the finish line was of only 0.121 seconds… and this may be a very promising anticipation of what we might see at Barcelona in two weeks.
With multiple attacks and fierce fighting back from both riders, it was Marquez who managed to squeeze through and win his 6th race in a row, making him an even more authoritative leader after the first third of the season. Rossi was followed by Dani Pedrosa and a surprisingly fast Pol Espargaro, while two Ducati machines ridden by Dovizoso and Iannone came from behind, with a very small gap between them. The top 10 was completed by Alvaro Bautista, Aleix Espargaro and Yonny Hernandez’ Pramac Ducati. Ducati test rider Michelle Pirro was also very close to Hernandez in the 11th position.
Hector Barbera and Danilo Petrucci’s substitute Michel Fabrizio had to abandon due to technical problems, while Bradley Smith crashed out of the race in lap 4. Bad luck still sticks to Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow, who also came off his bike after apparently losing front tire grip. His bad luck also extended to Stefan Bradl, whose LCR Honda bike was hit by Crutchlow’s which was sliding down the track. The German was literally shot into the air, and had a very spectacular, breathtaking fall. Fortunately, none of the riders who crashed at Mugello suffered serious injuries.
Next, the MotoGP goes to Spain, for the Fran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, June 13-15. The world standing sees Marc Marquez with whopping 6 consecutive wins and 150 points, followed by Valentino Rossi with 97 and Dani Pedrosa with 96. Jorge Lorenzo is 4th with 65 points, two ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Rookie Pol Espargaro is 6th with 49 points, while his elder brother Aleix has 44. Top 10 is rounded by Stefan Bradl (39), Alvaro Bautista (34) and Bradley Smith (34).
It was great to see Ducati’s Andrea Iannone occupying the second place on the grid, and having a very strong start, leading in the early stages of the race. Still, the big problem of his bike is that tires won’t last for too long, and while others’ rubber only started to grow better and better into the race, his wheels were no longer allowing him to push as hard as he could, slowly falling back.
Mugello saw an epic battle between Marc Marquez, who started the round from his 7th pole in a row and Jorge Lorenzo, who seems to have finally found his pace and racing comfort once more. While the Doctor finished the race more than 2.5 seconds adrift from Marquez, the gap between the two Spaniards across the finish line was of only 0.121 seconds… and this may be a very promising anticipation of what we might see at Barcelona in two weeks.
With multiple attacks and fierce fighting back from both riders, it was Marquez who managed to squeeze through and win his 6th race in a row, making him an even more authoritative leader after the first third of the season. Rossi was followed by Dani Pedrosa and a surprisingly fast Pol Espargaro, while two Ducati machines ridden by Dovizoso and Iannone came from behind, with a very small gap between them. The top 10 was completed by Alvaro Bautista, Aleix Espargaro and Yonny Hernandez’ Pramac Ducati. Ducati test rider Michelle Pirro was also very close to Hernandez in the 11th position.
Hector Barbera and Danilo Petrucci’s substitute Michel Fabrizio had to abandon due to technical problems, while Bradley Smith crashed out of the race in lap 4. Bad luck still sticks to Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow, who also came off his bike after apparently losing front tire grip. His bad luck also extended to Stefan Bradl, whose LCR Honda bike was hit by Crutchlow’s which was sliding down the track. The German was literally shot into the air, and had a very spectacular, breathtaking fall. Fortunately, none of the riders who crashed at Mugello suffered serious injuries.
Next, the MotoGP goes to Spain, for the Fran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, June 13-15. The world standing sees Marc Marquez with whopping 6 consecutive wins and 150 points, followed by Valentino Rossi with 97 and Dani Pedrosa with 96. Jorge Lorenzo is 4th with 65 points, two ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Rookie Pol Espargaro is 6th with 49 points, while his elder brother Aleix has 44. Top 10 is rounded by Stefan Bradl (39), Alvaro Bautista (34) and Bradley Smith (34).
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