Puzzle answer

MOTOGP team boss and motorcycling world champion Fausto Gresini died at the age of 60 in Bologna yesterday, two months after contracting COVID19. Gresini won two world titles in the 125cc class in 12 seasons as a rider on the world championship circuit before making a successful move into team management. The Italian was placed in a medically-induced coma at a Bologna hospital when he caught the virus in December but taken out of it when his condition improved in January. Severe respiratory problems persisted, however, and complications forced medical staff to put him in a coma again in midFebruary. “The news we would have never wanted to give, and that unfortunately we are forced to share with all of you,” Gresini Racing said in a statement yesterday. As a rider, Gresini claimed world titles in 1985 and 1987, winning the first 10 races in the latter season to set a record that still stands. He won two world titles as a team boss, the 250cc title in 2001 with Japanese rider Daijiro Kato and the Moto2 championship with Spain’s Toni Elias in 2010. Both triumphs were followed by tragedies for the team, however, with Kato dying in 2003 after a crash at his home MotoGP Grand Prix and Italian rider Marco Simoncelli fatally injured after a fall in the Malaysian round of the 2011 championship.