Having won the last three races of the season between them, Spanish powerhouses Lorenzo and Marquez look set to challenge Rossi for the title.
Jorge Lorenzo’s lights-to-flag victory at the Czech Republic has changed the complexion of the championship, putting the Spaniard level on points with seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi in the riders standings.
Although Lorenzo’s most recent triumph was all about his seamlessly smooth transitions between acceleration, braking and cornering, his 2015 campaign as a whole has been full of undulating turns.
After playing second fiddle to Rossi in the first three races of the year, Lorenzo rose to prominence with four victories up till the Barcelona round of the championship.
The following three off-colour races yielded two further podium finishes and a fourth place result, before he bested Honda’s Marc Marquez in a straight fight for Brno triumph.
Lorenzo’s 2015 campaign is in stark contrast to that of his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who has showed remarkable consistency all year long. With podium appearances in each round so far, Rossi held a firm lead in the championship until the most recent race at the Czech Republic.
A season of two halves
Then there’s the case of Marc Marquez - the other Spaniard on the grid with two titles to his name. The Honda rider has seen a reversal of fortunes since he reverted to the 2014 chassis at Assen.
Up till that point, Marquez had crashed in half of the races, with top-two results at Jerez and Austin being the only silver lining. However, the switching of chassis was immediately evident, with Marquez bagging a podium finish at Assen and successive victories at Sachsenring and Indianapolis.
And although he is 52 points off the Yamaha riders in the standings, Marquez has vowed to fight back in a bid to retain his title. With just seven rounds remaining, the Spaniard needs to return to his 2013-14 form that made him a star overnight.
Tyre-test rain washed
Ahead of its return to MotoGP next season, Michelin held a one-day tyre test at Brno to let riders evaluate its 2016 compounds. The prototype tyres had undergone multiple changes since they were first tested at Sepang during pre-season, with further upgrades introduced after the Mugello test.
However, persistent rain at the Czech circuit curtailed the session, with meaningful running possible only on the wet and the intermediate tyres.
Tyres play an integral role in MotoGP, with Marquez’s advantage on Bridgestone rubber in 2014 a well known fact among paddock insiders. Any team looking to gain that sort of advantage knows the importance of retrieving as much data as they can and mending the bike accordingly.
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