After the break, welcome back to the MotoGp show, this time in Brno, Ceck Republic.
Qualifying
One more record for Marc Marquez: with the pole position in Brno, he get the 69th pole in the top class. On the first row, Rossi and Pedrosa, very close to him. Second row with Dovizioso, Crutchlow and Lorenzo, only 7th place for the Yamaha of Viñales.
Wet start
The race started as wet race, but it was immediately clear that this condition would have changed very fast. The start wasn’t that good for Rossi, who wasn’t able to defend the second position on the start grid. Marquez and Lorenzo needed less than a lap to show their potential, Dovizioso behind them and then Rossi, Pedrosa and the rest of the group. On the second lap, Lorenzo tried to increase the gap from Marquez, Rossi found the feeling with his bike and was starting to lead the group closer to the Spanish riders.
Different strategies
With still 20 laps to go, Marquez went to the box to change his bike because the track was already starting to be dry. Was it a brainwave or madness? Well, the choice to put the rear soft-rain tyre was wrong, because after two laps he had already some problems, but it was the key to win the race. Lorenzo, Rossi and Zarco stayed outside for two laps more than Marquez, who marked very fast laps which made the difference at the end. In two laps, the gap between him and the P2 was more than 20 seconds! Strange and dangerous accident for Iannone: entering the box, there was a misunderstanding with Alexis Espargaro and the italian rider felt before he could change the bike.
The second part of the race – The comeback
The last three riders who changed their bikes were Rossi, Lorenzo and Zarco. After the flag to flag, the situation on the track changed completely: dry track, 1° Marquez, 5° Pedrosa, 10° Viñales, 13° Rossi, 14° Dovizioso and 19° Lorenzo! Another race started for both Yahama and Ducati, trying to gain more points they could in this crazy race. Every lap gave us emotions: overtakings, late brakings, a couple of falls. The top riders, excepting Lorenzo, made up a lot of positions and, behind the leader Marquez, the 2nd place (and the personal 150th podium) was for the other Honda Repsol of Pedrosa, the 3rd place for Viñales and the 4th for his teammate Rossi.
The actual championship standing
Marquez is still the leader and he increases the gap from the others: 154 points for him and 140 for Viñales, then the two Italians Dovizioso (133) and Rossi (132), not far from Pedrosa (123).
See you next Sunday
No time to rest: yesterday there was a test in Brno (with a lot of experimental component specially for Yamaha and Ducati) and on Friday back on the track, this time in Zelltweg, Austria. The riders are ready to write another epic page on the book of this championship. Stay tuned.