Larry Lawrence | August 21, 2016
Gold & Goose Photo
Cal Crutchlow made history Sunday by becoming the first British rider in 35 years to stand on the top step of a premier class Motorcycle Grand Prix podium. He did so in front of 82,000 fans who braved the conditions at Brno in the Czech Republic. Crutchlow made a brave come-from-behind run on a wet to drying Brno Circuit to score the victory over Valentino Rossi. It was a slice of Grand Prix history as Crutchlow accomplished a feat that was last done by the late great Barry Sheene in 1981. It also marked the first MotoGP victory for Crutchlow and his LCR Honda team.
Crutchlow, who used harder-option rain tires, gradually made his way through the field from 15th in the early going, ultimately finishing 7.298 seconds ahead of Yamaha’s Rossi. World Championship leader Marc Marquez took third on the factory Honda.
Even with the momentous occasion Crutchlow had a firm grasp on his priorities.
“I expected probably a different feeling,” said Crutchlow, who is now in his sixth year of MotoGP. “but with Lucy giving birth a couple of weeks ago, that was the best feeling in the world. Don’t get me wrong, winning races is fantastic, but I had the best present a couple of weeks ago as we know. I’m really, really pleased for my team. We worked hard for this.”
Talking about his choice of harder option front and rear tires, Crutchlow said. “I took the gamble. Nobody else did, I don’t know if anybody else did on the grid, but as far as I’m concerned they’re all wimps. I don’t know why if you choose one you don’t choose the other. But yeah, we did the best job we could today and I’m really pleased for my team. I smashed a bike yesterday and honestly they didn’t leave the circuit until midnight last night. It was a good way to repay them today.”
It was a miserable day for series contender and defending world champ Jorge Lorenzo, who made a bad decision to come in and prematurely try to race on slick tires while the track was still wet. He finished 17th. As a result, Lorenzo dropped to third in the series standings.
Marquez now holds a commanding 53-point lead on Rossi (197-144) with Lorenzo in third with 138 points. Dani Pedrosa (109) and Maverick Viñales (100) round out the top five after 11 rounds of the 18-race championship.
A wet track greeted the riders as the race was about to get underway, even though it hadn’t rained for about an hour prior to the start. Tire choice was crucial and a great deal of last-second decision making was going on among team personnel. While the nerves were high among the series leaders, some riders saw the wet track as an opportunity for glory.
Iannone led the pack into the first turn, but Marquez was the bravest and emerged the leader at the exit of the turn.
On the first lap it was Marquez leading the Ducati pair of Dovizioso and Iannone. It was a nightmare start for the Yamaha’s of Lorenzo and Rossi who ran 11th and 12th respectively, the two running hard-option rear rain tires as the leaders of the field selected soft.
At the end of the second lap Dovi took over the lead from Marquez. Iannone still third, but Scott Redding was the fastest man on the track and moved up to third, now past Marquez, who had been pushed back.
As the race progressed it was the Ducati pair of Iannone and Dovizioso and Redding beginning to gap the field, Iannone having taking over the lead on lap four. On lap five Redding moved to second over Dovi and began closing in on Iannone.
Marquez, running fourth, began coming under pressure from Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Viñales and Hector Barbera. By lap seven it was Barbera who moved to the front of that group. He emerged in fourth about two seconds behind the leading trio.
With 13 laps Dovizioso pulled up with tire issues, taking him out of second. LCR Honda’s Crutchlow was the rider on the move, having also selected the hard-option rains, was doing wholesale passing in the middle stages of the race and moving up to sixth 10 laps into the race.
Dovi limped his Ducati into the pits and after some discussion with his crew, re-entered the race on his backup bike, mounted with intermediate tires.
At the halfway it was Iannone still leading, just ahead of Redding and Barbera. Crutchlow, still on the charge, moved by Marquez for fourth with eyes on the podium. Rossi was also on the charge and was now battling with the Suzuki riders Viñales and Espargaro over sixth.
With nine laps to go Bradley Smith pitted the Tech 3 machine for a backup machine mounted with slicks.
Aleix Espargaro went out with nine laps to go.
Suddenly with seven laps to go the going up front became ever more crowded Crutchlow went to the front with Rossi and Marquez moving up to the leaders quickly.
Lorenzo pitted and inexplicably went to his bike with slicks, in spite of the advice of his team. A lap or two later he would pull back in and return to his original rain-mounted machine.
With five to go it was Crutchlow pulling away with Rossi getting by Iannone for second bringing the crowd to their feet. Barbera and Marquez rounded out the top five. The gap from Crutchlow to Rossi was a tad over five seconds with four laps to go.
With three to go there was an intense battle for the final podium position between Iannone, Marquez and Barbera, the three trading positions back and forth. With two to go it was Marquez who gained the upper hand on that trio.
In the closing laps the track was drying and chunks were seen flying off the tires of those with the softer option.
Next up is the Octo British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sept. 4. The ticket takers there are sure to be thrilled with today’s results.
HJC HELMETS GRAND PRIX ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY MotoGP Race Classification 2016 Brno, Sunday, August 21, 2016
