(Photo: Dorna Communications)

Title Fight On

The series resumes this coming weekend in Brno, the technical and flowing home of the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic.

Honda riders Pedrosa and Stoner have won four of the last five races, with each of the Repsol pair taking two wins apiece, while championship leader Lorenzo has had a single win and three seconds. But his DNF when taken out on lap one at Assen has allowed Pedrosa to close the gap considerably.

After the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Lorenzo held a 25-point advantage (equivalent to a full race) over Stoner and a 39-point lead over Pedrosa. But as the show prepares for Brno, Stoner, after his two mistakes in the Sachsenring and Mugello and his painful ride to fourth in Indy, is now 39 points back while Pedrosa has made up 21 points and now trails by just 18 points.

Lorenzo has to manage his engines carefully after losing a fresh engine in the Assen crash. He admitted that seeing the smoke billowing out of Spies' exhausts worried him. "We have a problem after losing an engine in Assen, so when I see the smoke, first I worried for Ben. He moved to the left at once, but when I saw he was okay, I thought about my own engine. Our engines are the same so now we have to investigate."

The Engine Situation

In MotoGP riders are allowed six engines for the season. Once an engine is sealed and has left pit lane, it is considered in use and only the most basic maintenance is allowed. If a rider introduces a seventh engine into his rotation, he must start the race where the additional engine has been introduced from the pit lane exit 10 seconds after the start. Each additional engine beyond the sixth is penalized by this pit lane start penalty, but only at the race where the additional engine is first used.

Lorenzo's engine situation is far from dire, as long as he does not lose another engine prematurely. At present Lorenzo has used four engines, three of which are still in use. Engine #1 has run in 34 practice sessions and done 4 races. Engine #2 has run in 37 practice sessions and done 3 races. Engine 3 was destroyed in the Assen crash and had been run in only three sessions and did only a few hundred meters of its first race before Lorenzo was torpedoed by Álvaro Bautista. Engine #4, brought into the rotation in qualifying for Mugello, has now run in six sessions and has done the last three races.

Pedrosa, by comparison, actually has put more engines in use, but two of his engines have not been used recently and, although available, are probably being held in reserve and will not be used again unless Pedrosa loses an engine through mechanical failure or a crash.

Pedrosa's engine #1 has run in 30 sessions and done 5 races and has not been used since Assen, five races ago. Engine #2 has run in 33 sessions and done 2 races and has not been used since Sachsenring, four races ago. Engine #3 has done 11 sessions and 2 races. It was last raced in Mugello and was run in the two Friday free practice sessions at Laguna Seca but was not used in Indy. Engine #4 has run in 9 sessions and was the race motor used by Pedrosa at the back-to-back American races. Engine #5 was used for the first time in qualifying for Laguna and has done only four sessions and no races.

Lorenzo: “Ben belongs in MotoGP”

Asked about the American’s decision to leave Yamaha and MotoGP, Lorenzo said, “He has had very bad luck, but he is a fast rider and deserved to be in this championship. Ben belongs in MotoGP. I think he should stay in here, but I respect his decision, like I do Casey’s.”

The cause of the engine failure has not been revealed and probably won’t be, but that kind of smoke means a combustion chamber full of oil and that means a badly damaged piston, usually the result of either a piston failure or fatal piston and valve contact.

I learned today from a colleague that Spies' Laguna Seca crash at the Corkscrew was not caused by a swingarm failure but rather by a broken shock bolt.

As the saying goes: If it weren’t for bad luck, Spies wouldn’t have any luck at all.