Larry Lawrence | October 22, 2016
Photo by Gold & Goose
Cal Crutchlow took advantage of a rare error by 2016 MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez and took over the lead 10 laps into the race and pulled away to a 4.2-second victory in the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island over Valentino Rossi. Maverick Viñales came up through the field to finish third, scoring his fourth podium of the season.
It marked Crutchlow’s second MotoGP victory of the season and second of his career. It moved him up a position to sixth-place in the series standings with two races remaining.
American Nicky Hayden, riding the factory Repsol Honda for the injured Dani Pedrosa, was battling inside the top-10 when he was taken out by Jack Miller with just a few laps to go.
Crutchlow watched Marquez crash out of the lead while running the same hard-option front tire and it put him on edge.
“I was terrified,” Crutchlow admitted. “I broke really weak into that corner for the whole race. I knew it was critical towards the end of the race – I crashed there two years ago when I had 10 seconds behind me also. I was quite scared to be honest with that and I didn’t want to make the same mistake. I knew that I had to keep pushing or else I’d lose the heat in the front tire.
“I was quite confident I could have maybe caught Marc, but when he crashed as you saw I thought “What do I do?’ so I carried on trying to keep the same pace and in the last 10-12 laps I didn’t really push, I just made sure I kept the heat in the front tire. I pushed on the laps when the sun was in because I knew I had to keep the heat in the front tire. When the sun came out I was a little bit more relaxed. I know it sounds completely strange, but this is Phillips Island and you never know what is going to happen.
“I’m really pleased for my team. The LCR Honda team has done a great job this weekend. I was confident I could have won, you know, with Marc in the race. Honda has done a good job with our bike, there’s no doubt about that. I look forward to the last two race.”
After a mostly rainy weekend, riders and fans were greeted with mostly sunny, albeit cool and breezy conditions for the start of the 27-lap race. Pol Espargaro got a great jump on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha and led the field early, but Marquez pulled around to take over the point halfway through the first go around. Crutchlow was also aggressive and moved into third by the end of the first lap.
Three laps in and Marquez was already gapping the field, holding just under a two-second lead. Hayden was dropped from ninth to 11th after getting passed by Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales.
On lap four Aleix Espargaro used a double draft perfectly on Crutchlow and his brother Pol Espargaro to put the factory Suzuki into second. Five laps in and there was a great battle over second between Aleix Espargaro, Crutchlow, Pol Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso.
Rossi was the man on the charge, turning in the best lap of the race on lap six. He was now in sixth and looking to join that multi-rider fight over second. Within the span of a lap Rossi dispatched Pol Espargaro and Dovi.
On lap 10 Rossi moved up another position, getting by Aleix Espargaro to third.
Suddenly at turn four leader world champ Marquez went down, his Repsol Honda digging in and flipping violently side over side putting him out. Marquez was OK and walked away from the high-speed crash. It was his first DNF of 2016.
Now with 15 laps remaining it was Crutchlow leading the race over Rossi by 2.4 seconds and Aleix Espargaro third.
With 10 laps to go Crutchlow was able to hold and even slightly extend his lead on Rossi. It appeared the LCR Honda rider was on his way to victory.
Rossi began to have a bit of trouble holding his lines and actually ran well wide at one point with about nine laps to go. That allowed the chasing trio of Dovizioso, Pol Espargaro and Viñales to close in on the second-place rider.
Aleix Espargaro and Dovi had a great battle for the final podium spot, swapping third several times in the closing stages, with the other Suzuki of Viñales right there enjoying the best view in the house. The power of the Ducati allowed Dovi to sweep past on the long straights.
At turn four Aleix Espargaro lost the front end on his with five laps to go to crash out of the third-place fight, as Viñales challenged him for the position. That left Viñales and Dovi to fight over third with Viñales winning that battle.
With two laps to go Hector Barbara crashed the factory Ducati. A few moments later Hayden crashed out at turn four while running ninth, the result of Jack Miller coming into the turn a bit too hot and running into the inside of Hayden and the Repsol Honda.
The series now moves next weekend to Sepang, Malaysia for the penultimate round of the series.
MICHELIN AUSTRALIAN MOTORCYCLE GRAND PRIX
MotoGP Race Classification
Phillip Island, Sunday, October 23, 2016
| 1 |
25 |
35 |
Cal CRUTCHLOW |
GBR |
LCR Honda |
Honda |
176.5 |
40’48.543 |
| 2 |
20 |
46 |
Valentino ROSSI |
ITA |
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP |
Yamaha |
176.2 |
+4.218 |
| 3 |
16 |
25 |
Maverick VIÑALES |
SPA |
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR |
Suzuki |
176.1 |
+5.309 |
| 4 |
13 |
4 |
Andrea DOVIZIOSO |
ITA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
175.9 |
+9.157 |
| 5 |
11 |
44 |
Pol ESPARGARO |
SPA |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
175.5 |
+14.299 |
| 6 |
10 |
99 |
Jorge LORENZO |
SPA |
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP |
Yamaha |
175.1 |
+20.125 |
| 7 |
9 |
45 |
Scott REDDING |
GBR |
OCTO Pramac Yakhnich |
Ducati |
174.5 |
+28.369 |
| 8 |
8 |
38 |
Bradley SMITH |
GBR |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
174.5 |
+28.781 |
| 9 |
7 |
9 |
Danilo PETRUCCI |
ITA |
OCTO Pramac Yakhnich |
Ducati |
174.5 |
+28.792 |
| 10 |
6 |
43 |
Jack MILLER |
AUS |
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS |
Honda |
174.5 |
+28.815 |
| 11 |
5 |
6 |
Stefan BRADL |
GER |
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini |
Aprilia |
174.3 |
+31.809 |
| 12 |
4 |
19 |
Alvaro BAUTISTA |
SPA |
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini |
Aprilia |
173.1 |
+47.734 |
| 13 |
3 |
68 |
Yonny HERNANDEZ |
COL |
Pull & Bear Aspar Team |
Ducati |
173.1 |
+47.749 |
| 14 |
2 |
50 |
Eugene LAVERTY |
IRL |
Pull & Bear Aspar Team |
Ducati |
172.7 |
+54.311 |
| 15 |
1 |
7 |
Mike JONES |
AUS |
Avintia Racing |
Ducati |
172.6 |
+55.875 |
| 16 |
|
53 |
Tito RABAT |
SPA |
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS |
Honda |
171.9 |
+1’06.395 |
| 17 |
|
69 |
Nicky HAYDEN |
USA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
170.8 |
+1’22.604 |
| Not Classified |
|
|
8 |
Hector BARBERA |
SPA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
174.5 |
3 Laps |
|
|
41 |
Aleix ESPARGARO |
SPA |
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR |
Suzuki |
176.2 |
5 Laps |
|
|
93 |
Marc MARQUEZ |
SPA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
176.6 |
18 Laps |
|
|
76 |
Loris BAZ |
FRA |
Avintia Racing |
Ducati |
|
0 Lap |
