to find the limit in the conditions they’d likely
be racing in, and it was an unfortunate fall for
Morbidelli’s main title rival which tilted the title.
Thomas Luthi (Team Interwetten), who had
been closing in on Morbidelli in the championship
and consistently out performing him in wet
conditions, had a heavy fall at the fast turn 8. His
body was literally writhing in agony and surely
dampened his championship aspirations.
With Miguel Oliveira winning his first Moto2
GP from teammate Brad Binder, team KTM had
their best race in over two years. Morbidelli’s
third position in the race taking him to a 29
point lead over his suffering opponent and
fellow Italian with just two races remaining.
MotoGP
There was concern that the 4pm start time
of the main race would cause problems with
the cooler track potentially playing havoc
with trying to keep tyres in their optimum
operating temperature window. But nothing
came of it, the race was a cracker.
In a made-for-home-consumption moment,
Australian Jack Millar (Honda) vaulted into the
lead. Looking strong and only relinquishing when
he thought he’d be better served conserving his
Photo: Mad Love Media
70 KIWI RIDER
tyres. Millar’s early pace was fast, with the second
lap the very fastest lap of the race, ultimately
passed by Johann Zarco (Yamaha) slipstreaming
in the tightly-packed pursuing bunch.
Andrea Dovizioso’s (Ducati) championship
challenge was blunted when he ran wide into
turn one on that lap, dropping from 16th to
20th. Not a good weekend for the Ducati team.
Jorge Lorenzo struggled all weekend too.
Five different riders lead the race at different
stages. First Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and
Maverick Vinales (Yamaha) taking over from Millar
at the end of lap five. Johann Zarco (Yamaha)
and Marc Marquez (Honda) each crossed the
finish line at least twice in the lead at later
stages. The quintet was joined by Cal Crutchlow
(Honda) and Andrea Iannone (Suzuki) to make
a group of seven who were constantly changing
the order around the course. This group was all
within a second of the leader after eight laps
and only spread out on the very last few laps.
Turns four (Honda) and ten (MG) were regular
battle zones, with no particular rider seeming to
have an edge as first one, then another would
make a move at these slower turns. Vinales nudged
Marquez wide at turn four on one lap and Zarco
did the same to Vinales and Marquez at another.
Aussie Jack Millar led early on