MotoGP 2013 - Rd17 - Motegi
Held at the Motegi Twin Ring Circuit, the Air Asia Grand Prix of Japan presented another opportunity for Marquez to secure the MotoGP world title, but he needed to finish at least eight points ahead of Lorenzo to do so, bringing an 18 point advantage to the penultimate round.
Qualifying
Friday's Free Practise sessions were completely washed out, meaning all testing and bike development ahead of the race had to be squeezed into Saturday's sole Free Practise Session and Qualifying, but the latter was extended to 75 minutes to compensate.
Still recovering from an ankle fracture at Sepang two rounds ago, Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) was quickest in the earlier session, but Lorenzo turned it on for qualifying, his 1'53.471 lap in wet conditions putting him on pole. Marquez was next best, with a 1'54.129, while Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) took advantage of the track conditions to complete the front row of the grid with a 1'54.539.
"I'm really happy," reflected Lorenzo. "We were lucky to have the extended qualifying time to get used to the track. Little by little I got confidence and finally I felt really good with the bike and the grip of the track, especially under braking."
"I took more risks than usual but we did a good job because the target was to finish on the front row - and we did," Marquez said.
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) made up row two of the grid, with Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda), Bradl and Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar - CRT) completing row three. Australia's Damian Cudlin (Paul Bird Motorsport PBM - CRT) qualified 23rd, while fellow Aussie Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini - CRT) and Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project - CRT) both missed the 107-percent qualifying cutoff, but were allowed to grid up in 24th and 25th place, respectively.
Race
Thankfully, race day was bright and clear, free of the rain that had dominated the previous two days. A minor scare in morning practise ahead of the race when Marquez crashed was averted when the 20-year-old appeared uninjured. After the fiasco at the Australian round with disintegrating tyres, the Motegi track could handle softer tyres, and Yamaha chose to take a gamble with an extra soft rear option for Lorenzo for the race.
At the start, Lorenzo got away best, taking the lead into the end of lap one, with Rossi a surprise in second place. The Italian veteran was pushing to hold off the Repsol Hondas, though, running wide at turn 11 on lap 2, then outbraking himself again - at the same turn - a lap later, which put him back into the midfield.
By lap 5, both Marquez and Pedrosa were less than a second behind Lorenzo, while more than five seconds back, Bradl led a freight train consisting of Bautista, and the Monster Tech 3 Yamahas of Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow.
As the 24-lap race neared its midpoint, Marquez closed to within two tenths of a second of Lorenzo, but a pair of miscalculations, at turns 1 and 11, gave Lorenzo extra breathing space that he took advantage of to extend his lead to over a second on lap 18, and by more than two seconds in the closing few laps.
After his earlier mistakes, Rossi had threaded his way back through the pack to be in eighth by lap 10, while Cudlin and Staring benefitted from a mistake by Claudio Corti (NGM Mobile Forward Racing - CRT) to move out of last position on the same lap.
On lap 13, Espargaro crashed at high speed, but was unhurt. Both Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project) and Luca Scassa, filling in for Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Motoracing ART CRT machine, had retired earlier with mechanical issues.
In the last half dozen laps, Lorenzo built a small, but solid 1.2+ second lead over Marquez, while Pedrosa was in a comfortable third place, more than 10 seconds ahead of Bautista. Rossi passed Crutchlow for sixth place on lap 19, but couldn't close the gap to fifth-placed Bradl. Both Cudlin and Staring had been lapped by this stage, the Aussie pair eventually finishing 21st and 22nd, respectively, the final two finishers.
At the chequered flag, Lorenzo's winning margin was 3.188 seconds over Marquez, which also marked Yamaha's 200th premier class victory. More importantly for Lorenzo, the milestone win shaved five points off Marquez's championship lead. Pedrosa completed the podium, 4.59 seconds adrift of the winner, with Bautista and Bradl well back in fourth and fifth place.
Rossi hung on to sixth place, with the rest of the top ten made up of Crutchlow, Smith, Hayden and Dovizioso. Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) was the best-placed CRT entry for the second race in succession, finishing in twelfth place behind the wildcard for this round, Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha YSP Racing Team).
"Winning at Honda's home track with Yamaha's 200th victory in the MotoGP class, when we also took a risk with the soft tyre, was a pleasure," Lorenzo said after his seventh victory of the 2013 season.
"It was a hard race physically but I kept my concentration and I really wanted this victory.
"Until we finish racing we know the championship is not over," the 26-year-old added. "I'm not the leading rider, so it's not all up to me, so let's see how our strategy is at Valencia".
Marquez explained that his morning tumble had limited his ability to chase, and possibly beat Lorenzo at Honda's home track: "At the beginning of the race I was struggling a little bit and it was actually quite a difficult race for me, because already in the morning practice I had a big crash. On the braking points, I was struggling quite a lot.
"In the race I tried to follow Jorge and we did a very good job because we were right there. In the middle of the race it even looked like we could be stronger, but in the end I saw that Jorge was pushing a bit more, I felt I was too much on the limit and I said 'Ok, I'll take 20 points for the championship'".
With one round remaining, the MotoGP title will go down to the wire for the first time since 2006, when Nicky Hayden, then riding for Repsol Honda, won a dramatic finale from Valentino Rossi. Coincidentally, this year's title decider will also be a battle between Yamaha and Honda.
Marquez, with a 13-point lead, is in the box seat, 318 points to Lorenzo's 305 points. Pedrosa, on 280 points, is now no longer a chance to win the title, but is secure in third place from Rossi on 224 points.
Rd 17 - AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan
October 27, 2013
1. Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 42'34.291
2. Marc MARQUEZ Honda +3.188
3. Dani PEDROSA Honda +4.592
4. Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda +19.755
5. Stefan BRADL Honda +22.810
6. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +24.637
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha +27.496
8. Bradley SMITH Yamaha +30.969
9. Nicky HAYDEN Ducati +37.010
10. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +42.944
21. Damian CUDLIN PBM +1 lap
22. Bryan STARING FTR Honda +1 lap
Images: motogp.com
