I watched the race on the DVR. Of course Rossi lost time on the leaders working his way through the field, Once Rossi got to 4th and had a clear track between himself and the leaders, I hoped for him to run faster laps to reduce the gap, which was about 12 secs. However he lost time on the leaders every lap, finishing more than 15 seconds back. Lorenzo led from the first lap on, had the hammer down. He knows how to manage the lead once he gets it.
If MM had passed JL, Pedrosa would have still been in between JL and Rossi. They would have tied on points but Lorenzo would have won with the most outright wins. How many times this season did we see MM shadow JL and wait until the last lap or so to make his move? Was he always successful? No. So MM's behavior in this race was completely normal.
Marquez was not in contention for the title. What if he had attempted to pass Lorenzo on the last lap and taken both of them out in a crash? How much controversy would that cause? If MM & DP had pulled over and let Rossi around (pretty obvious move when he is 15 sec behind!), how would that have been perceived?
Norm Kern
