Monday 20th April 2015

PH2: MotoGP round 3 & WSB round 4

Rossi spoils Marc Marquez's American dream

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Like the North American MotoGP last week, the South American one also seemed a foregone conclusion with Marc Marquez the clear favourite after qualifying. But at least a stunning qualifying by Aleix Espargaro on the Suzuki created a bit of a distraction from Marc's domination.

As Marquez's rubber went off Rossi was there

Worryingly for everyone else, when the lights went out Marc cleared off into the distance. Would his softer option tyres last the race? Or would the Yamaha pairing's tactical choice of harder compound prove the deciding factor?

With Marc well clear a flaming Ducati provided a bit of entertainment while Rossi had dispatched with Lorenzo and was starting to close the gap on the two factory Ducatis and Cal Crutchlow ahead. Could he also bridge the gap to Marc in the final laps of the race? He had to get past the Ducatis first...

With 15 laps to go, Rossi breezed past Dovi and the chase was on - could Rossi catch Marquez? According to the time sheets he could, but that doesn't always equal track position.

Eight laps to go and Marc still had just under three seconds over Rossi but his rear tyre was looking very worn and to make matters worse for the Spaniard, Rossi had brought Dovi with him.

The Doctor back on top!

With just three laps to go Rossi was on Marc's rear wheel, but catching and passing are two very different things and Marc wasn't going to make it easy. In fact he made it too hard!

When he should have settled for second, Marc refuse to yield and ended up crashing out of the race when his front wheel touched Rossi's rear. The crowds didn't care, another win for Rossi and Cal Crutchlow in third.

Having removed the first race win monkey from his back, could Sam make it two on the bounce in Moto2? A poor start saw him swallowed into the pack but he soon recovered and a fierce braking move saw him up with the leaders on the first lap. By mid-race Zarco had put clear air between him and Sam in second place and the Brit was coming under pressure from Rins. A mature ride saw Sam hold on to take third place rather than throw it into the gravel trying to chase down the eventual race winner Zarco or second place Rins.

Moto3 and would it be more of the same from Danny Kent? A decent start saw him right up with the leaders and was soon heading the field and breaking the lap record. Like last week, Kent made the break and by mid-race had an enormous advantage while behind there was a hell of a fight for the remaining podium slots. Another win for Kent and a trip to American to remember for a long time.

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Two podiums for Van der Mark in home race

WSB Assen
Over in WSB at Assen, the fast and flowing Dutch circuit seemed to suit the Kawasakis of Rea and Sykes and they led the field in race one followed by Chaz Davies on the rapidly improving Ducati and home town hero Van der Mark. In the end Sykes' challenge faded and Rea took a fairly comfortable win from Davies but you have to hand it to Van der Mark who held off Haslam on a Honda that clearly isn't as fast as the Brit's Aprilia.

Race two was a repeat of race one but this time it was Sykes leading the way for the majority of the race with the same gaggle of riders stacking up behind. A bit of elbow bashing saw Sykes demoted to fifth, handing Jonathan Rea the lead. That was the break Rea needed and held off Chaz Davies to take a double win.

In the supersport race, Kyle Smith narrowly finished in third after a bit of last lap fairing bashing between the race winner Sofuoglu and Cluzel almost gifted him second spot.

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Results:

MotoGPSouth America
1st: Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)
2nd: Dovizioso (Ducati Team)
3rd: Crutchlow (CWM LCR Honda)

Moto2:
1st: Zarco (Ajo Motorsport)
2nd: Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40)
3rd: Lowes (Speed Up Racing)

Moto3:
1st: Kent (Leopard Racing)
2nd: Vasquez (Leopard Racing)
3rd: Vinales (Husqvarna Factory Laglisse)

Brit watch:

Cal Crutchlow (MotoGP) - 3
Bradley Smith (MotoGP) - 6
Scott Redding (MotoGP) - 9
Eugene Laverty (MotoGP) - 18
Sam Lowes (Moto2) - 3
John McPhee (Moto3) - 15
Danny Kent (Moto3) - 1

Previous rounds:
MotoGP USA
MotoGP Qatar

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WSB Round 4 - Assen

Race 1:
1. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Davies (Aruba.IT Racing-Ducati SBK Team)
3.vd Mark (PATA Honda World Superbike Team)

Race 2:
1. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Davies (Aruba.IT Racing-Ducati SBK Team)
3.vd Mark (PATA Honda World Superbike Team)

Brit watch:

Leon Haslam (Aprilia) - 4, 4
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) - 1, 1
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) - 5, 5
Alex Lowes (Suzuki) - DNF, 9
Chaz Davies (Ducati) - 2, 2
Leon Camier (MV Agusta) - 10, 10
Gino Rea (Honda WSS) - 14
Kyle Smith (Honda WSS) - 3

Previous rounds:
WSB Spain
WSB Thailand

[DeltaEvo2]

Rossi = Legend

[DeltaEvo2]

There's an image with the lap times done by Rossi until the overtaking here:

http://www.gazzetta.it/Foto-Gallery/Moto/moto-GP/2...

And some silly ones...