MOTOGP: PODIUM SWEEP AND CRASHES AT AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
1-2-3 for Yamaha as Valentino Rossi takes his second win of 2014 at the Tissot Australian Grand Prix. Jorge Lorenzo and Bradley Smith on the podium as Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa DNF.
The Doctor started from eighth on the grid in his 250th appearance in the premier class and was there to take advantage as Marc Marquez crashed out of the race lead with 10 laps to go. It is Rossi’s 108th career win, 82 in the top class of Grand Prix racing. The race also marks the first all-Yamaha podium since Le Mans 2008.
99 Jorge Lorenzo
“This has probably been the luckiest second place of my life. A lot of faster riders crashed. You struggle all weekend with setup but then you get the wrong tire on race day. It was a complete drama to even stay on the bike. I managed to stay on the bike, I was very lucky.”
38 Bradley Smith
"It’s a crazy result really for me...I didn’t even know I was third on the last lap. I crossed the line and it was just Jorge and Rossi ahead of me so I checked the big screen!"
Starting from his best grid position of the year, Ducati Team’s Cal Crutchlow was in second with just a half lap to go. He had a lock on a podium finish when he crashed out, allowing Jorge Lorenzo to take the second podium spot. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith was next in third, giving him his first MotoGP podium. Nine riders either crashed or failed to finish, many of them frontrunners in the race.
93 Marc Marquez
“Today, because I had no pressure on me, I tried a different approach pushing hard from the start to try to open the largest gap possible. We were having a good race, right up until the crash. It was a pity that I went down at a time that I was not riding on the limit or faster than the lap before. It was a race where there were many crashes, and almost all happened the same way, the front wheel locking up."
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