My personal feelings are this:
This race was an ideal match up between the old master
and the young - and wildly talented - pretender to the crown.
1) Rossi, with 20 years GP experience, gets to the race setup
much more quickly that almost anybody else - especially Marquez.
2) Thus, Rossi spent much more time in
practice on the "harder hard" tyre than Marquez.
3) Marquez's "spotters" were aware of the
laps Rossi spent on the "harder hard "Tyre.
4) The spotters also easily knew the lap times
Rossi was achieving on those tyres.
5) Marquez "knew" that he could not duplicate Rossi's times
over many laps - at least because Rossi discovered the value
of these "once in a lifetime" tires before Marquez.
6) Marquez looked at his own times, and estimated that his
best chance was to get quickly to the front (something he
was unable to do in the 1st race) and gap the field.
7) Rossi knew that if that was the Marquez strategy,
than Rossi would have to hold back a little to save his tires
WITHOUT letting Marquez get out of reach.
Marquez did in fact gap the field, but used up
too much of his tires - evident in being caught by Rossi in the end.
Also, by the time Rossi arrived, Marquez tyres were gone
to the point that his only hope was to "Block or Barge" Rossi.
9) Instead of trying to drop in behind Rossi
and slipstream him on the last lap, Marquez
elected - perhaps by mistake
(from a 2 times MotoGP champion ?)
the Block or Barge,
and lost all points.
10) Marquez learns fast.
11) Rossi learns faster !
