2016 Australian MotoGP: Gritty Crutchlow Emerges Victorious

  • Oct 23, 2016
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Cal Crutchlow recorded his second MotoGP win of his career after a dominating performance at Phillip Island while Valentino Rossi finished second

2016 Australian MotoGP

The 2016 MotoGP season has been a roller-coaster ride with eight different riders winning which is a record for the premiere class of racing. Despite this, the championship was sealed by Marc Marquez in Motegi with three races to spare. So when the MotoGP circus landed in Phillip Island one might think what’s left now? Well it is pride for the riders, desire to better their career standings and give out a statement for the 2017 season. Newly crowned champion Marquez was in top form as he grabbed pole while Rossi was down in 15th his worst qualifying result since 2011. It was Aleix Espargaro who grabbed the race lead with a stonking start but Marquez was quick to react and by turn 4 out braked him to take first place. The Repsol Honda rider was on the charge and going at a blistering pace which saw him magnify his race lead to over a second in the fourth lap itself. Following him in second place was Espargaro while Cal Crutchlow was in third place. The other rider who seemed to have supreme race pace was Rossi who was making blazing progress as he was in fifth place in just six laps. 

2016 Australian MotoGP

The MotoGP legend set the fastest of the race and was soon in the reckoning for a podium place. Crutchlow also hiked his race pace and grabbed second place from the Suzuki rider and was cutting down Marquez’s lead. With 17 laps more to go Marquez still had a healthy lead but he lost the front of his RCV under hard braking and crashed out of the race. It was the second occasion that Marquez has crashed from the race lead at Phillip Island his first DNF and non-podium finish of the otherwise perfect 2016 performance. This handed over the race lead to Crutchlow with a fast charging Rossi in second place just 1.8 seconds behind him. Given the pace at which Rossi was going about and the fact that there was 16 more laps remaining it seemed The Doctor will be able to pass Crutchlow soon. 

2016 Australian MotoGP

But the British rider wasn’t giving it up so easily for Rossi as he upped the ante and was clocking the fastest times on the track which meant the Italian rider couldn’t make much progress. Also it seemed that the initial blitzkrieg had exhausted out Rossi’s front tyre as his pace began to drop a bit. With 10 laps to go, the LCR Honda rider had a three second lead and Rossi ran wide off the track after braking too late which more or less ended his chances of winning the race. There was an intriguing three-way battle for third position between Andrea Dovizioso and the Suzuki pair of Maverick Vinales. 

2016 Australian MotoGP
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The trio kept on exchanging places on a regular basis but the pressure got the better of Espargaro as his front tyre folded ending his race prospect. Vinales emerged the winner of this trio and was able to etch out a healthy lead on Dovizioso. An ecstatic crossed the finish line to register his second Grand Prix class win after Brno signalling the fact to his detractors that the win in the race soaked race wasn’t a flash in the pan. Rossi finished the race in second which should be among his best performances of the career given the circumstances and his torrid qualifying performance while his soon to be Yamaha team-mate Vinales took the last step on the podium. 

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