Marquez Risks It to Win It
Marc Marquez risked everything in tricky wet/dry conditions in Germany to double his advantage over main title-rival, Jorge Lorenzo, to 48 points. The halfway mark in the 2016 season gave the former MotoGP champ an unprecedented seventh consecutive win at
IT WOULD BE HARD TO manage a more treacherous or chaotic MotoGP race. The 30-lap event started shortly after the Moto2 race, during which there were 19 crashes among the 27 starters. The early laps were much like a normal wet-weather race; a bunch of riders jostling up front, each of them searching for the limit. After a few laps rain-master Petrucci thought he had the measure of the conditions. He passed Marquez, Dovizioso and Rossi, then a few laps later slid off. He remounted, his damaged bike belching flames as he rode back to the pits. His bike swap was dramatic: the Italian jumped on to his second bike as his crew fought to extinguish the fire engulfing his first one.
On lap eight of 30, Marquez ran offtrack at the high-speed Turn Eight and rode sideways through the gravel. “I clicked in motocross mode: full gas, but
there was too much traction control,” said the former champ who had escaped relatively unscathed from a high-speed tumble at the same corner in the rainlashed morning warm-up.
By half distance Dovizioso seemed in command. Meanwhile, Barbera was on fire, metaphorically, not literally; the Spaniard passing Assen winner Miller and then Rossi to slot into second.
From there “it became a crazy race”, said Marquez, whose excursion had dropped him to ninth. A dry line appeared at some corners. Iannone and Baz were the first to swap bikes, Iannone to intermediates, Baz to inter front/slick rear, but the Frenchman was back in the pits a lap later, asking for an inter rear!
Next Marquez came in, the first man to switch to slicks at both ends. This was his call; he had received no communication from his pit board. Was he being very brave or very foolish? Clever, in fact. Like many riders he had started with a super-soft front wet (trucked from France to Germany overnight to cope with ultra-low track temperatures) and the tyre was too soft for his aggressive style, so he had to change.
By the time he rejoined the race, he was way down in 14th. Surely out of contention. But no. After a few laps risking it all to get his slicks up to temperature on the still damp track he was nine seconds faster than the leaders and passing rivals as if they were standing still. “I took a lot of risks because the dry line was very narrow,” he said.