Table of contents for June 20th 2018 in MCN

As the cheap leather jacket-clad rider disappeared (quite slowly) on my slightly-smoking Suzuki AP50, I carefully folded the £120 up and put it cheerfully in my pocket, feeling lucky to have got so much for a fairly soundly thrashed little fifty. More recently, that schoolboy deal done way back in 1985 does not seem like such sound business. Having flirted with the notion of buying back that bike, or something similar, I’ve been astonished with prices topping six grand. I’ve also toyed with other two-stroke blasts from the past and again have been put off by the high prices. At least a 350 LC or RD 400 has a certain level of performance and slightly more palatable prices (around the £5k mark). The most annoying thing I’ve found is bikes…

Building another Triumph frame might not sound like too much hard work for custom supremo Roger Allmond. But this project required a bit more work than usual because the owner is a giant of a man. “It started about a year ago,” says Allmond. “I built it for a friend of mine and he’s a big bloke – about 6ft2in and 20 odd stone. He loves Triumph Daytona 955s and asked if I could build him a bike using one as a base. He wanted something he could ride, not just a show bike. “It started with a completely one-off frame. I always start at the swingarm pivot and move forwards, so I sat the engine on the bench, put a couple of wheels on and thought about it. I…

The fight against moped gangs has been stepped up a gear with police believed to be masquerading as delivery riders in a bid to catch moped thieves operating in the capital. The Met have been putting increasingly large amounts of resources into fighting the moped menace, although when this tactic was put to them they refused to acknowledge it, as they do with all covert operations. The operation came to light just days after it emerged that more than 430 moped-related crimes were committed in London every week in the 12 months to May 2018. In the year to May, there were more than 22,000 such crimes, compared to 14,700 the previous year. The rate at which crime has been growing has been much steeper in previous years however, with…

1 Modular approach The MT-07’s platform is also is used as the basis for Yamaha’s Tracer and XSR700 models 2 Cheap manufacturing Parallel twin layout is cheap to make, compact and can be derived from Aprilia’s existing V4 3 Offbeat power delivery Yamaha’s MT-07 has a 270-degree crank giving a similar character to a V-twin 4 Joined-up thinking The MT is one of a whole family of bikes including 124, 321, 689, 847 and 999c twins, triple and fours…

• All the bikes were built between 1915 and 1930 The Vintage Motor Cycle Club’s annual Banbury Run marked its 70th anniversary this year so MCN went along to soak up the sights, sounds and smells of the world’s largest gathering of veteran and vintage bikes. The Run is essentially a time trial, with entrants tasked to maintain a set average speed between checkpoints in order to complete the course as close to a target time as possible. With all the bikes built between 1915 and 1930 each is a lesson in motorcycle history. “It’s as good an example as you’ll get as to the evolution of the species,” says VMCC President Alastair Alexander. “The early machines, from the dawn of motorcycling, show how manufacturers were experimenting with where to…

Right bike, right time As Carl Fogarty says, success in bike racing is about team, bike and rider; and whilst I don’t for a moment suggest that Jonathan Rea isn’t a top class rider, he has been in the right place at the right time since joining Kawasaki. MCN’s track record says he has won 25% of 232 races. He won 45 of those on Kawasakis in 92 races in the last three and a half seasons, meaning he had 13 wins in the other 140 races since 2008: a 9% success rate. Had he stayed with Honda, he’d almost certainly never have won a WSB title and all the subsequent accolades. Recognise and applaud Jonathan’s talent, but let’s keep a sense of proportion. Michael Price, email It's not an…

With a history rich in rockers and classic British metal, the Ace is the stuff of legends. So this week MCN took to the North Circular as the hunt goes on for Britain’s top biker eatery. The Ace’s art deco façade has been a feature along the A406 since 1938, but it was during the 1950s that it became synonymous with motorcycling, when the ton-up boys would race against the jukebox to complete a circuit to Hanger Lane roundabout and back before the song of choice had played through. These days there’s too much risk to life and licence to even consider such a dangerous feat, but the rock’n’roll heritage lives on and is a big part of what the Ace is all about today. We went for the sausage…

Lorenzo to Honda is an interesting move. The Ducati thing clearly wasn’t working, but I scratch my head about how inconsistent that bike is. Or is it him? How can he go from nowhere one weekend to winning the next? Twice on the bounce. He’s a peculiar bloke, but when everything’s right he is incredible. When he won with Yamaha he could hit the exact same lap time every lap for the whole race. Making that Ducati work isn’t easy. Rossi couldn’t do it, Cal couldn’t do it, the only person who has been able to tame it is Dovi, but it’s taken him seven years. If you were Ducati you’d have to keep Dovi on board, throwing wildcards like Lorenzo in will either work or it won’t, and in…

It’s Britain’s best road test route. A tough 250-mile mix of A and B-roads, a stretch of busy motorway, plus plenty of towns, villages, blind corners, ballistic straights, and a huge range of grippy to slippy tarmac. There are two cafés, an off-road section for adventure and trail bikes, track time for sportsbikes, and Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground and the dyno for hard and fast data when needed. You want answers? We’ve got ’em. WEATHER WATCH Light cloud & drizzle Temp 19°C Wind 14mph North east 1 Setting it up With a full tank it’s time to set the Tracer’s electronic assists to how I want them. There is a general rule with Yamaha power modes: A is for Avoid, B is for Boring, while STD is Select This and Don’t…

I grew up in a small village called Naunton, which is just off the B4068 so this road was my local scratching ground, first on a Kawasaki Z250, then a Yamaha RD400 and finally Honda NC30. And I have the scars to prove it. Dropping down from Stow towards Lower Swell (I worked at the Little Chef in Stow to afford the RD and pushed it up the hill when I ran out of fuel on the way to work) you have to be careful as there is a lot of loose grit on the road, but it’s a great run with tight twists and turns. It’s when you get to the Naunton turn (I broke my collar bone on the right hander just before) that the fun really starts…

1 Checking backplate dimensions Brake pad backing plates are made from high grade steel, dimensionally checked by machine, then copper plated to prevent corrosion and provide a key for the pad material bonding process. 2 Pad material mixing Pads come in five compounds, from 13 raw ingredients, with up to nine in any one pad. 3 Making the ‘compact’ Powder mix is pressed into a pad-shaped ‘compact’ (at over 250 tons of pressure). 4 Stacking the pads Stacks of pads are laid-up by hand on graphite plates, carefully arranged and layered to produce a totally flat stack that can spread the compression loading, and heating and cooling cycle, evenly. 5 In the oven The oven compresses a stack with a hydraulic ram, heats up to 1000ºC for an hour, cools,…

The last time I rode an MV Brutale 800 RR was back in 2014 and I fell in love. Sadly, shortly after, MV got into financial difficulties and at the exact moment they created the near-perfect naked, the supply of bikes almost completely dried up. For 2018 they’re back with new investment and an updated and Euro4-complaint 800 RR. This time they’ve instead focused on improving fuelling and moving peak power lower down the rev range from 13,100rpm to 12,300rpm. There’s also a new quickshifter (both up and down), while the gearbox has been reworked to provide slicker shifts. Chassis-wise, the wheelbase has been lengthened and the steering geometry relaxed to improve stability, and it has lighter wheels and a re-worked Sachs rear shock. All of which sounds promising. But…

Pannier design is a constant source of annoyance to me as an everyday user, and while the SX is one guilty source for my aggravation, you can equally apply this observation to almost every set of panniers offered by every other motorcycle or pannier manufacturer. Why oh why oh why can’t we lock our panniers to the bike, without having to stick a spindly key halfway into a cheap lock every time we want to open and close the pannier lids? I use mine every day, on every journey, and find myself constantly concerned that the lock could fail at any time – and nothing will accelerate that failure quicker than constant use in all weathers. If I’m leaving the bike unattended with kit in the panniers then of course…

CASSINGTON BIKE NIGHT, CASSINGTON, OXFORDSHIRE, JUNE 25 ‘Why we DO like Mondays...’ For one Monday evening a year, the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Cassington comes alive as over 10,000 bikers take over for a fantastic fundraiser for local causes. The route From Cassington it’s a short hop on the A40 to Eynsham then turn onto the B4449 to Hardwick. Take a right for a short blast on the A415 to Brighthampton to rejoin the B4449. At Bampton wiggle through the village to join the A4095 to Faringdon. From here the A417 is tree-lined into the town of Wantage. The road then nudges the North Wessex Downs along to Wallingford, on the banks of the Thames which it crosses before heading north on the A4074 towards Oxford. It’s worth stopping off…

• ‘I can ride it better and get the drive’ Having joined the factory-backed McAMS Yamaha squad for 2018, Josh Brookes headed into this year’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship as one of the favourites for the title. A challenging first few rounds saw the Aussie way off the pace and unable to run at the front, but a left-field attempt at turning things around for Snetterton this weekend enabled Brookes to be back where he should be. Benefitting from an engineer from Yamaha’s race HQ in Italy at Snetterton, Brookes and the McAMS team took a giant leap forward which enabled the 2015 champion to come within 0.1s of the win in the second race despite being down on top speed compared to Leon Haslam’s Kawasaki. The progress has come…

Leon Haslam took control of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike championship with a surprise double victory at Snetterton. The Norfolk circuit has been one of two just tracks on the BSB calendar where Haslam had never stood on the top step, but that all changed as he walked away with an important 50 points and ten podium credits. “Snetterton, along with Thruxton and Brands GP, is a circuit I go to expecting to have a really tough weekend as it doesn’t suit either my style, the bike or the set-up we have,” Haslam told MCN. “This winter we’ve worked really hard on trying to improve that set-up, better our tyre life and adapt my style so we can contend for wins at these tracks. “So to come away with a…

‘Dedicated units are taking robust action’ SUPERINTENDANT JANE BANHAM North Wales Police are targeting loud cans and small plates after a series of crashes in the region. So far in 2018 eight riders have been killed, one more than were killed in the entirety of 2017. “Reducing casualties remains one of our top priorities,” says Superintendent Jane Banham from the Force’s Operational Support Services Unit. “We are doing all we can to ensure our roads are used safely by all, with our dedicated Roads Policing Units taking robust action to prevent fatal or serious road traffic collisions.” As part of ‘Operation Darwen’, patrols are looking at all vehicles and ensuring they are roadworthy and legal. Last weekend a member of the Special Constabulary Road Safety Team stopped a bike…

Prices have risen almost daily since the end of April Britain’s motorcyclists are being overcharged for petrol according to the RAC, which is calling on retailers to pass on recent falls in wholesale prices to hard-pressed consumers. A spokesman said there is “no good reason” for prices being at current levels adding that pump prices have risen almost daily since the end of April, resulting in a current average of £1.29 per litre. That is despite the wholesale cost of petrol coming down by 2.5p per litre since May 24. Fuel prices at the pump aren’t just affected by wholesale petrol prices but a range of factors, including exchange rates. Crude oil is bought and sold in US dollars, so if the exchange rate against the pound weakens, then the…

• Belstaff have worked on one of the custom specials Royal Enfield took part in a dawn raid on London to announce their part in the protection of Asia’s endangered elephants. A fleet of custom vehicles took to the streets for the launch, including six Royal Enfields, tuk tuks and a Gujarati Chagda, which make up the ‘Concours d’éléphant’ – a cavalcade of designer inspired, quintessentially Indian vehicles. The new event sees Elephant Family partner with Elephant Parade, the world’s biggest touring public elephant art exposition. The custom bikes, which have been worked on by famous brands including Belstaff, will be sold to raise money for the charity. Following the launch, the cavalcade will receive the Royal seal of approval when the Duchess of Cornwall joins the celebrations on June…

• ‘If the revs drop to idle the clutch just disengages’ MV have just unveiled the catchily-named Turismo Veloce 800 Lusso SCS but it’s the SCS that’s the exiting bit. SCS stands for Smart Clutch System and it’s a new semi-auto design. In short, the SCS turns the Turismo Veloce into a giant twist-and-go but, unlike a DCT bike such as Honda’s Africa Twin, you still have a clutch lever. The technology in the MV was actually developed by an American company called Rekluse and the key is centrifugal force. Getting in a spin Between the clutch discs there are a set of sprung wedges. At idle the clutch pack spins but the springs keep the wedges at the centre of the clutch. As you rev the engine, the centrifugal…

• 500 pre-1930 machines entered the 2018 event • The VMCC has over 14,000 members • 100 volunteers plus the Warwickshire & Solihull Blood Bikers help run the event • The oldest combined age of bike and rider this year was 188 years: Jeremy Lane at 85 on his 103-year-old Douglas…

Following last year's Distinguished Gentleman's Ride where I told my story about battling prostate cancer and was interviewed for MCN's '20 Questions' slot, a very kind gentleman called Dave Everett from 4everTT rang to say he could help tick the TT off my bucket list. I dropped everything and put some planned surgery on hold so I could attend the greatest race on Earth (as you do!). What followed was a week of riding round the island like a teenager, meeting loads of great people and visiting every bit of the track just like my heroes (albeit a tad slower!). This will be with me forever and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who made it happen. Phillip Green, email…

Disc brakes first became popular on bikes in the mid 1970s, but the new technology had a problem: disc brakes didn’t work in the wet. “Remember the Suzuki GT750?” asks DP Brakes’ Technical Director, Frank Edwards. “It had a sticker on the tank warning the brakes could be impaired in wet weather.” So the Government tasked the Transport and Road Research Laboratory to find a solution. “The organic pad compounds of the time didn’t bite through the water on the disc, they just aquaplaned,” says Frank. “The TRRL contacted Dunlop, who supplied sintered metal pads to the aviation industry. They made some for a test bike and they worked.” Sintered metal pad material is a blend of very specific metals, binders and friction modifiers that heat up, trap and evaporate…

• ‘We shouldn’t complain about getting old, because for some people it isn’t an option’ Twenty years ago this August, Carl Fogarty and James Whitham shared the WSB podium in front of a sell-out crowd at Brands Hatch. Unfortunately it wasn’t the top step, Troy Corser bagged that, but it was a race in which the two diehard Brits went elbow to elbow to be the UK’s number one, finishing less than a second apart. Their success on track back in the day and their personalities off it mean that they remain two of the most recognisable motorcyclists in the UK. Whitham is the face of Eurosport for BSB and WSB, and Foggy - well Foggy is Foggy and winning the biggest show on TV - ‘I’m a Celebrity Get…

Let’s be honest, we all think scramblers are cool, right? Whether you conform to the beard-growing, Barbour jacket and turned-up jeans style or not, the return of the scrambler has been a good thing for motorcycling. Ducati’s Scrambler 1100 ramps that level of cool up a gear but it’s nothing to do with its style, and everything to do with how it sounds. Naturally, a 1079cc booming L-twin Ducati is going to sound good, but the Scrambler sounds exceptional. Some of us have to try quite hard to look cool and I pretty much always fail regardless of what bike I’m riding, but you always draw admiring stares on the 1100. The quality of the soundtrack is beautiful, but it is loud, too. I actually feel sorry for my neighbours…

‘You get the waft of wild garlic in wooded sections’ Dartmoor has something for everything: technical, tight sections, epic views and plenty of photo opportunities. Enough, in fact, to keep you occupied for days should you wish to explore, and James Archibald is lucky enough to live right on its doorstep. “The café at Bridge Motorcycles makes a great start for this ride, and is a great meeting point,” says James. “You soon get onto the Moor and will be rewarded with incredible views. Be wary of the 40mph limits after the cattle grids, though, it isn’t uncommon to meet sheep, ponies or even cows in the middle of the road. “At Two Bridges, the road becomes quite narrow. Then, at Widcombe in the Moor you can stop for a…

THE LESSON 1 You’ve got to stop to start again Ria was so concerned by stopping at a junction where she’d have to make a hill-start that she was rolling up to junctions very slowly, hoping to create an opportunity where she could pull out without stopping at all. 2 Get it stopped securely We set out a system for making a secure stop, so that Ria would feel completely confident approaching the hill-start. Trying to avoid stopping was making her unduly nervous and hesitant at junctions. 3 You’ve got to have a system We worked on setting an appropriate speed up to the junction, and planning to always stop in first gear with her left foot down, holding the bike secure on the back brake. This made each hill-start…

Having passed his test at 22, Colin has been mad on bikes since his youth. However, after a brief fling with a Ducati Monster in the 1990s, he was persuaded to give up biking by his parents in exchange for a car. Colin works as a Fleet Manager for Volvo and originally spotted his retro-inspired R NineT Racer at the Geneva Motor Show whilst on a business trip, before purchasing the bike through his local dealership. “I’ve always been a bit of a petrol head,” he said. “I bought my Ducati from a friend who had lost his licence in the early 1990s. He’d been caught speeding and had an original Honda FireBlade and a Ducati Monster. I managed to buy the Monster off him quite cheaply. “I loved the…

1 Snapped it? Don’t stress... Snapping a stud or shearing off the head of a bolt when you’re halfway through a job can halt the process immediately and leave you feeling a little defeated. You might think all is lost, but there is a way to remove the damaged stud. For around £15 you can buy a kit that will allow you to do it yourself and save the cost of taking the job to a dealer. 2 Assess the space available If the part containing the damaged stud can be removed, take it off and place it in a vice. If it’s best left on the bike, assess the space you have to work in; you need to allow for access with a drill and potentially a heat gun…

• Riders recall events leading up to Mercer’s collision • Investigation will assess safety standards • Some changes made the day after incident After Dan Kneen’s fatal crash on the Wednesday night of TT 2018 practice week, a tragic evening was made even worse when a course car travelling to the scene collided with Steve Mercer. Mercer was riding behind Dan Cooper in a group of riders who were making their way back around the TT course in the wrong direction after Kneen’s crash at Churchtown, which at the time was the correct procedure for returning riders back to the paddock following an incident. Cooper, who was at the front of the group, explained what happened: “We were stopped at Glentramman when the red flags came out. “There was a…

• ‘Bradley is leaving empty-handed and robbed us of a win’ Glenn Irwin was furious after being wiped out of race two by Bradley Ray when he thought he had the pace to win ‘by a couple of seconds’. Having finished second in the first encounter after using too much of his tyre in the early stages, the Ulsterman tried to ride sensibly in the opening stages of race two but as he began to progress from fifth, Ray tucked the front while making a pass at Agostini’s and wiped the Ducati out. “I’m pissed with that,” Irwin said after the race. “If you look at the lap times at the end of the race they were slower than the times we were doing at the end of race one.…

• ‘I’ve got the speed – I just need that last little bit to get past’ Back-to-back double podiums confirmed young gun Jake Dixon’s 2018 title-fighting credentials as he moved up to fourth in the series standings following another strong weekend with the RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki squad. A late decision to switch to the harder rear tyre in morning warm-up paid off for the 22-year-old who came on strong in the late stages of both races to enjoy the second strongest points haul of the weekend with third and second places. After a tough first two rounds, Dixon has finished on the podium in each of the last four races and is knocking on the door of victory as the series now heads to Knockhill where he took…

Indian are building a road-going version of their flat-track racer. It will make its show debut later this year and go on sale in 2019. Speaking before the Wheels and Waves festival in Biarritz where the FTR1200 was confirmed, Indian CEO Steve Menneto said: “When we unveiled the FTR1200 Custom at EICMA, we said we’d listen to feedback from riders around the world. The response has been overwhelming. We’re proud and excited to announce that we will put the FTR1200 into production.” The FTR1200 Custom concept was a tribute to the FTR750: a purpose-built race bike that, in the hands of the firm’s ‘Wrecking Crew’, has dominated the US flat-track season. Indian say the new bike will have some key differences. “We wanted to make sure that the FTR1200 wasn’t…

Vultures circle, we’ve just one Coke bottle of fuel, over half of Uzbekistan is arid desert and we’ve no choice but to ride from one end to the other to get into Tajikistan. It’s no easy ride, either: roads are peppered with pot holes, bolts shake loose and a brake hose clip fell off. But we’re used to that; since leaving the UK in January, our exhaust snapped, battery died and the suspension broke leaving us stranded in -10C Slovakia. We also cruised the Caucasus, spent 50 hours crossing the Caspian and blasted through Kazakhstan to get here, alone in a sweltering desert. But, right on cue, a trucker comes to a dusty stop beside us, jumps out with a beaming smile and offers petrol and cold water. We’re used…

“Just come back from an amazing tour of Cheddar with my Ducati 899. My girlfriend Zsofia and I travelled two-up with luggage, tent and sleeping bag.” Adam Rabavolgyi “I’m enjoying the scenery on the North Coast 500 at the moment. The highlight is the A821 Trossachs road and onto the A82.” Kevin Fox “Here I am at Reims, on my way to a pool party in Cannes with my GSX-R750 ex-Streetfighter racer. No autoroutes involved.” Rob Wright “I’ve been flat-out getting my Yamaha XJ600F ready for Land’s End to John O’Groats.” Keith Bousfield “Took my tripod to Wales so I could get a shot with myself in it. It’s the brilliant B439.” David Amos “The best way to get to a stag do. A great ride over to Llanberis on…

KTM COMET From the days before KTM were all about Dukes and adventure bikes, here is me on my Comet back in 1974. Chris YAMAHA TY80 Here we are on a TY80 – brothers being brothers! Adam and Gareth Mayfield NORVIN The Norvin that I built based on a Black Lightning engine in a Manx frame. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse for it at the TT back in 1967. Dale Tremble KAWASAKI S1 Me and my best mate with my Kawasaki S1 back in 1973. I loved that bike and I still had hair back then, too. John Waller SUZUKI GT250 X7 My Suzuki X7 in May 1979. Happy, care-free days and some great memories from back then. Malachy Gallagher VINCENT My dad with his Vincent. Such…

Foggy and Whit’s paths first crossed at the Manx TT way back in 1985 when Whit gave Foggy a run for his money as fastest newcomer. His pace was noted by Foggy and it kicked off what has become a life-long friendship. At that time Foggy was doing plenty of winning on a 250, while Whit was dominating in 125s. From 1987 onwards they raced together a lot mainly on big 750s, like GSX-Rs and RC30s, but in 1991 they enjoyed one of their most memorable battles in the Supersport 400 category at Oulton Park with Whit on an Suzuki RGV250 and Foggy on a Honda VFR400. Over the next decade they clashed in WSB, culminating in them both being on the podium at Brands Hatch with Foggy on the…

1. PLAN TO STOP Always prepare to make a decisive stop at junctions, so that you stop cleanly in the right place without panicking. 2. BE SECURE Stop in first gear with your left foot down, enabling you to hold the bike securely on the back brake at the junction. 3. RE-EVALUATE Once securely stopped, re-evaluate the junction to spot your exit, without having to worry about road position, gear, or brakes. 4. POWER-UP Ensure you use enough throttle to make a clean stall-free start. Uphill starts require a lot more throttle and clutch slip. 5. MAKE IT CLEAN As the clutch engages the back end will dip. Gently release the rear brake as you add throttle to pull away smoothly. DANGER ZONE A poor stop and being hesitant on…

Luke Mossey avoided disaster by bailing off his JG Speedfit Kawasaki at high speed after a brake failure in the opening race at Snetterton. Reaching for the brake at the end of the 180mph Bentley straight, Mossey found he had nothing there, leaving him with no choice but to run on to the grass and jump off before his bike re-joined the track. A visibly shaken Mossey said: “We’ve had some brake issues before but this time they completely failed. I had nothing there at all, so I had no choice but to bail out. You’re playing with people’s lives when these stupid things are happening. I’m speechless.” Mossey broke a rib in the incident and was forced to sit out the second race.…

Substituting for Shane Byrne in the Be Wiser Ducati team, Andrew Irwin ruffled feathers in his BSB debut due to both his impressive speed and a controversial incident in the opening race. The Ulsterman turned heads by figuring in the top ten throughout free practice before finally qualifying 12th for Sunday’s opening race. But an ambitious move at turn two saw him dramatically crash out taking Dan Linfoot, Jason O’Halloran and Michael Laverty with him. More cautious in race two, Irwin benefitted from a number of retirements to take a nonetheless impressive tenth.…

• ‘Even though I’ve had some issues things are now going well’ Sam Lowes says he’s got his Moto2 mojo back despite a difficult race on Sunday. Starting from the back of the grid after a fuel pump failure only minutes before the start, the Brit was able to cut his way through to a ninth place finish and regain some confidence in the process. “I needed the result. I’m not going to get cocky and start saying that we gave away a podium, but a top five would have been possible if I hadn’t started from the back of the grid. I went to see a sports psychologist after Mugello, and things are working better for me now mentally. He levelled the boat a bit, reminded me that I’m…

Valentino Rossi admits that while able to bag a third consecutive podium in Cataluyna, he and his Movistar Yamaha team, having gone almost an entire year without a victory, are still not ready to win again. The nine-time world champion finished Sunday’s race with another third and was pleased with his podium placing but also admitted that, once again, he had no answer for race winner Jorge Lorenzo. It’s now been 17 races without a win, a run that Rossi feels is unlikely to end anytime soon. “I was good in the start, because I knew I had to try and jump the second row and get with Lorenzo, Marquez and Dovizioso. But from that moment I had two tenths of a disadvantage every lap for the rest of the…

Marc Marquez played it smart to take 20 valuable championship points, having put into practice the lessons learned in 2015 to secure a strong second place behind Jorge Lorenzo and consolidate his 27-point lead over Valentino Rossi. Often the victim of Lorenzo’s stunning pace in 2015 when he crashed out trying to close down his countryman, the reigning champion said after Sunday’s duel that he was more than happy to let Lorenzo do the hard work of breaking the chasing pack as he settled for the runner-up spot. He said: “Of course I pushed hard in the opening laps because it was important to follow Jorge and to open a gap on the chasers. But when we built a comfortable advantage I just managed the pace. “I even slowed down…