MotoGP: AUSTRIA
Finally, the wait is over. Ducati have broken the YamahaHonda stranglehold on the premier class that has endured for a little less than six years and Andrea Iannone posts his long-awaited, much-needed début MotoGP win
ACCORDING TO Dovizioso, the crucial moment of the race came before the flag had even dropped. Iannone’s insistence that Michelin’s medium rear and soft front tyres were the rubber most suited to the 28-lap-long race drew concerned looks from his crew. “It was a big risk,” admitted Iannone soon after. “Yesterday I thought it was the better one and believed in myself, and made this strong decision.”
The move led several hacks to pronounce Iannone would do his best to break clear early on. Only it wasn’t that simple. On Saturday Rossi had spoken of how the “six strongest riders this year are starting from the first two rows”. And so all six — the factory Ducatis, Yamahas, Marquez and Viñales — engaged in a frenetic early scrap, with Lorenzo in particular doing his utmost to puncture the Ducatis’ rhythm.
The Majorcan had done well to recover from an early Marquez shunt at Turn One, which ran him off track. From there it became apparent this was a different beast from the timid figure seen tip-toeing around the Sachsenring in July. Diving under Iannone at Turn Three to briefly snatch the lead on lap four, the reigning world champion was showing the requisite aggression that was so badly lacking in his previous two outings.
Soon Dovizioso would join his teammate at the front, courtesy of a neat move under Lorenzo at Turn Four. Rossi was never far away, ensuring both Movistar Yamahas gave chase with Marquez and Viñales unable to hold the pace. As Dovizioso moved by Iannone at Turn Nine on his way to the fastest lap at that point, Marquez began to struggle.
A mistake at Turn One underlined the futility of riding above and beyond the pale. “I locked the front and nearly crashed at Turn One, then went wide again in Turn Three,” said Marquez. “I thought it was time to come back in my rhythm and manage Viñales.” The Suzuki man was having his own issues with acceleration. Six soon became four.
Still the Yamahas gave chase, with Lorenzo in particular impressing through the third and fourth sectors. While both he and Rossi could maintain a consistent pace in the high one minute 24s, the Ducatis could lap several tenths faster when they needed to most.
In truth, Dovizioso and Iannone had been playing a clever strategy until that point. “We didn’t want to take a risk about the fuel consumption and the tyre
consumption,” said Dovizioso. “So we didn’t push at the beginning. We used a different map. We didn’t use the maximum speed we have.”
A small mistake on the part of Lorenzo on lap 20 gave the Bologna bikes some breathing space. It was then that Iannone began to up the ante. A lap later he perfectly executed a bold move under his team-mate at Turn Nine. There was little sign of the rib injury having any ill-effects, nor his medium rear tyre badly degrading, as the laps ticked away.
Yet in his 250th grand prix start, Dovizioso wasn’t for relenting. As hard as he tried, his hard rear didn’t offer the edge grip his team-mate was enjoying. Thus he was powerless to stop a 0.1-second deficit on lap 21, eking out to nearly a second at the flag. There would be no late, rash moves, such as those witnessed in Argentina, here. Celebrations in pitlane were delirious. The much-maligned Iannone had held his nerve, as had Michelin’s medium rear.
Despite a late push, Rossi couldn’t get close enough to overhaul Lorenzo, with the Yamahas coming home three seconds behind. The Majorcan was almost as jubilant as the winner, another title fight back suddenly not appearing so far off.
“It’s a magic moment,” beamed Iannone, the fifth different winner of 2016. “Dovizioso rode very fast. He was so strong under braking. Also Jorge from the beginning pushed very hard to stay in front. But I tried to manage the best.”
Dovizioso could do little to hide his despondency. “I’m disappointed at the end because the feeling with the bike was special. Everything was really good. In the braking I was better than Iannone, but the point was the risk Iannone took on the grid with the tyre was right.”
The Italian’s disappointment contrasted sharply with Lorenzo, who treated his first podium since Mugello “like a victory”. “Our bike probably destroyed the tyre more,” he said. “And we started losing acceleration [but] I finished in my maximum position today.” And where had his improvement come from? “The circumstances, the conditions and the weather,” came his reply, referring to Michelin’s narrow operating window with temperatures. Had it been cold, Lorenzo may have struggled again.
His podium was to Rossi’s detriment. “In the race, we try to help the rear tyre to arrive at the end. But to make this, we changed the balance of the bike and I was in a bit of trouble in braking because I have a front lock.” The softer front tyre was a better option, he said, and due to the locking, was unwilling to risk a late move.
At least he gained two points on Marquez, leading him to jest, “If we have 100 more races, maybe I can win the championship!” Speaking of the title leader, the Spaniard’s frustrating run to fifth was another sign he was prepared to collect points and limit the damage to his championship lead. The long straights and hairpins exacerbated Honda’s acceleration deficiencies, he said. To do any more would have meant risking too much.
With the Suzuki’s lack of grip at the first touch of throttle limiting Viñales to sixth, Pedrosa [Repsol Honda] recovered well to “take the Honda to its limits” in seventh, a place ahead of first satellite machine Redding. Bradley Smith was the first of the Tech 3 Yamahas, and unhappy with a package “that isn’t up to scratch” compared to his factory competitors. Team-mate Pol Espargaro, one of only two riders not to sample the circuit on a racing bike before the weekend, was 10th.
The early race was complicated by five jump-starts, with Crutchlow the highest placed on the grid to suffer a ride-through penalty. He came home 15th with the Aprilias of Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl, Yonny Hernandez [Aspar Ducati] and Hector Barbera [Avintia Ducati] also at fault.