IN CONJUNCTION WITH

Michelin, race direction’s intentions to give riders an added session before warmup to test the safety compound were dashed by weather. Thus those calling the shots had another dilemma. Riders couldn’t race the safety compound without testing it prior to the race. Michelin were sure the rear compound could withstand 12 laps without any issues so race distance was shortened from 25 to 20 laps. A mandatory pit-stop to swap bikes, and tyres, was included too, riders having the option to enter pitlane between laps nine and 11.

The rain didn’t just play havoc with the schedule. The track surface, which had improved considerably from Friday to Saturday with added rubber laid down, was filthy once again. “Some corners were clean then in others there was dirt everywhere,” said Aspar Ducati’s Eugene Laverty. “You were even getting dirt in your eyes.” Dirt was one thing. Damp patches another. Although a dry race, moisture lingered just off the racing line in several corner. Not only did riders know Michelin’s front offered next to no grip, get a turn wrong, and the consequences were huge.

Turn one was particularly a hotbed of action. Damp just off line and a notorious bump on it, the 180-degree right had been the undoing of Marquez (twice) and Lorenzo (once) on Saturday, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Aleix Espargaro (Ecstar Suzuki) fell foul of its gravel trap’s gravitational pull on lap two, one minute and 43 seconds after Iannone had come close to taking Pedrosa out at the same place.

Amid tense opening exchanges, Marquez led Rossi, the factory Ducatis and Viñales as the rest struggled to hold on. At one point Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda) looked likely to join them, his passing of a struggling Lorenzo on lap three for sixth “giving me too much confidence”. He crashed out at turn three, with turn one proving to be Lorenzo’s undoing once again soon thereafter.

“Normally in dry or with full wet I’m very focused, very concentrated,” said the reigning world champion of his first dryweather fall out of a race since Qatar, 2014. “But today I wasn’t riding very well and couldn’t focus because I wasn’t competitive. Because the patches were there and didn’t dry up.”

At the front Marquez had broken clear, but his lead wasn’t as substantial as his pace in free practice had suggested. Rossi reeled him by lap eight, setting up a spectacular rematch of their infamous Argentine duel a year ago. Twice Rossi tried to get by before they pitted, but twice he failed. Coming into the pit-lane together, it was Marquez who benefited from the switch. “I’m too old to jump from one bike to the next,” joked Rossi. It was ultimately the ensuing out-lap when his chances of victory disappeared.

“With the first bike I didn’t feel good but with the second one I thought,