Cal Crutchlow (Honda) made a tire gamble at the start of today’s damp race, and it paid off with the first win in the premier class by a British rider since Barry Sheene in 1981. After starting slowly on his “hard wets”, Crutchlow stormed through the field — sometimes looking like a professional among amateurs. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) also made up for a poor start to the race by coming through for second place today, while Marc Marquez (Honda) held on for third.
Defending champ Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) had a miserable outing compounded by a mistaken change of bikes and tires mid-way through the contest. He was the last rider to cross the line. As a result, he drops behind Valentino Rossi in championship points with Marquez still in the lead. For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site. Here are today’s results:
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda | Honda | 47’44.290 |
| 2 | 20 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +7.298 |
| 3 | 16 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +9.587 |
| 4 | 13 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +12.558 |
| 5 | 11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +13.093 |
| 6 | 10 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | +13.812 |
| 7 | 9 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | +23.414 |
| 8 | 8 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | +24.562 |
| 9 | 7 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +24.581 |
| 10 | 6 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | +37.131 |
| 11 | 5 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | +39.911 |
| 12 | 4 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +41.097 |
| 13 | 3 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +43.202 |
| 14 | 2 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +45.687 |
| 15 | 1 | 45 | Scott REDDING | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | +1’02.201 |
| 16 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +1’18.841 | |
| 17 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1 Lap |
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It is really annoying to see tier 2 riders winning races because they have nothing to lose from a tire gamble.This is what i feel anyway.
Teams always seem to have the spare bike set up with completely different tires. What I don’t understand, at Byrno, it seems to me, that having the second bike set up exactly like the first, so late in the race the bike change would be consistent in how it was set up. Just with NEW tires. Of course those that were criticized for having hard / hard tires in the beginning, Rossi, Crutchlow, during the race it went from disaster to Mr. Know-it-all. Am I right in Lorenzos bike also chunking, and when he went out, it was on similar hard hard tires? Just a new one on the front. (boy was his team manager livid when he came in to change bikes) there must be more to the story than what commentators said, calling his call to come in “botched”.
I just read in an interview with Lorenzo that his front (rain) tire had a problem along the lines of Dovi’s. Jorge’s stop during the race seemed ill-advised until I heard that bit of news. Has anyone seen a photo of the tire in question? Or heard more specifics?
I was one to say he had a mental meltdown and just making an excuse, but I have to eat crow after seeing the shredded front tire.
Now Ducati brass gotta be thinkin – “Boy we shouda kept Iannone, this Lorenzo guy may not be as big an asset as we thought. What if it rains on 5 or six races in 2017? or the air gets misty, or gets damp, or the wind blows, or there is a partial eclipse, or there’s a smell of pasta in the air, or there’s more than one bike around him, or….- Oy!”
“there’s a smell of pasta in the air”
The hidden secret has been exposed….
Pasta… yes pasta has been behind VR all this time; that powerful mama mia ala mario bross it’s what’s been pushing more and more the poor italian to those nuts extremes….
Prior to pasta, he was a careful boy… just ride a bike on the street while politely navigate around other persons… no max speed madness… until that day when the pasta trader pt… got him hooked.
Don’t even pastaBout it….
Love the rain every so often as it does give those with nothing to lose a chance to run with the big guys. With perfect weather, the chance of a satellite team getting the set up right and getting their electronics to work like the Factory is not going to happen, even with the same SW available.
The rain equalizes the machines so the tire choice and the talent rise to the top. I like seeing the speed and such, but give the guys their chance and let some new folks win… Everyone made that guess on tires… most figuring a dry line would form, but it never did for some reason…even without fresh rain. Until the very end. It’s a guess, but congrats to those who rolled the dice… they also had the most chance of crashing in the first laps before they could get head in the rubber.
Now… I will say. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a center tread just fly off of a tire like that… WOW!!!
“The lil’ mope is still pouting about Puig getting booted from the team, and now there’s no one here anymore to hold his hand. It’s kinda embarrassing, actually. :rolleyes:
#soontobethree-timeworldchampion
#Jorgeneedstogrowapair
#I’mtypingthisfromthelooinIannone’strailer
#CrazyJoe’sGFhottestsuperfreakinthepaddock” – Marc Marquez
“In! Sooooooo in! Btw, anyone seen Dani? He knew we had a race this weekend, right?” – Andrea Dovizioso’s response
so disappointed in Dani this year. Last year he had the arm pump surgery and was doing well at the tail end of the season. Didn’t get hurt in pre season testing this year. Should have been a good year for him. Nothing but disappointment so far.
I didn’t expect Pedrosa to win the championship this year, but I too am disappointed with how he has done considering his pretty strong comeback towards the end of 2015. I know Marquez makes the calls on the bike decisions that both he and Pedrosa will have to live with many of which Pedrosa has said publicly don’t suit him at all, but you’d think a rider at this premier level on a Repsol Honda would be able to adapt to some degree to the point of being able to put in some respectable performances on Sunday and be a podium threat more often than not.
“I know Marquez makes the calls on the bike decisions that both he and Pedrosa will have to live with, many of which Pedrosa has said publicly don’t suit him at all….”
Now wait a second. mickey always says bullcrap like that doesn’t matter, and that I should have been right there with Dani in ’07 and ’08 despite HRC dropping a Cleveland Steamer on me immediately after I won them a MotoGP world championship.
Yeah, I’m laughing my butt off over here.
Your Pal,
#69
“Whaddya guys think about moving every race next year to Qatar, or maybe even Death Valley? Seriously, I’ll cover the hookers and beer! You with me? :-)” – Jorge Lorenzo’s group text to all the other riders following the morning warm-up session
Ha!
Great race and congrats to Crutchlow!
More, much more than compensated for last week’s boring race. A nail biter, fantastic passing, great fun! If you don’t subscribe, do it. (No affiliation.)
Great race, with many surprises. Crutchlow put on a demonstration. Finally got to see Crutchlow smile. Didn’t know he knew how lol. Man Lorenzo had a melt down didn’t he? That was amusing. I’m surprised Iannone and Marquez finished on those chunking rain tires. Rossi gambled and won handsomely for his bet.
Crutchlow did put on a demonstration. A demonstration on how to gamble with a hard front tire when you have nothing to lose.
Every race is an individual event. He had just as much to lose as everyone else who isn’t in the running for the title. That this combination existed (and he wound up dominating with it) could not have been a “out of left field” surprise to everyone. How was his crew the only one that made the right choice?
PR: AUG 17, 2016
Lorenzo Gets His Confidence Back –
vs
Reality:
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) … miserable ……. last rider to cross the line.
Yes, Lorenzo really botched that one. His lap times just before he pitted were quite fast, and I don’t think it is a stretch to think that he could have finished in the top five or six had he just stayed out there. I think only Crutchlow and Rossi were going as fast or faster when he made the strange decision to pit.
He said he had a chink of rubber come off his front tyre in the post-race interview. If true, then I suppose he had no choice. On the other hand, I have no idea why his team decided to send him back out on slicks. I suppose the second bike was prepped for when a dry line formed if/when it stopped raining so they simply would have lost too much time swapping and decided to gamble on the rain stopping.
Did you see Forcada desperately trying to get Jorge to stay on the bike he was riding on his first entry? The team didn’t make that decision, Jorge did.
How much is that due to diminished trust between Jorge and Yamaha as his tenure comes to a close?
Changing gears:
Worst part is that Ducati’s package is coming to the top, and we’ll have to listed to all of the Rossi haters saying how great Jorge is than Rossi because he could ride the Duck!
Everyone on the soft front was tossing chunks of rubber, and his lap times were pretty fast compared to the rest of the field when he pitted. I don’t know if he rode into the pits expecting to find bike#2 shod with rain tires, but I would think he had to have known and had input on how that bike was going to be prepped should he come into the pits. I think he just had a meltdown and was making an excuse for it.
It would seem that Lorenzo has psychologically lost his nerve in the rain. He needs to work on getting that back. I think he probably will eventually, but it won’t be this season.
No clear run from the front, no good weather, no good tire decisions and JL doesn’t win. No surprise…
Really looking forward to his time with Ducati.
That’s the 2nd wildcard win this year & 5 of the top-10 are Ducatis. Nice.