RaceRevo

Jorge Lorenzo took an emphatic home win in front of a passionate Catalan crowd at Montmeló, his third in a row and fifth victory of the season. His Yamaha team also celebrated a superb accomplishment, which now has more wins than any other manufacturer in the four-stroke MotoGP era, with 57.

Starting from pole, also for the third consecutive race, Lorenzo lost ground to Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa into turn one but his fellow Spaniard then ran wide, leaving the Fiat Yamaha man in the lead.

The next few laps saw Lorenzo at the head of a tight trio, as Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati’s Casey Stoner pushed hard to stay with him. Early on lap four the Italian Dovizioso briefly gone in front but Lorenzo got back by him immediately to lead once again on the next lap.

On lap six Stoner ran off track, but it looked like Lorenzo might have a battle on his hands as Dovizioso showed no signs of letting him get away. With ten laps to go however Dovizioso crashed out, leaving Lorenzo nearly six seconds clear of Pedrosa in second.

From then on it was just a case of keeping his head as the tyres started to slide more and more in the extreme heat, but the 23-year-old is a cool customer these days and he eventually flew over the line 4.754 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, with Stoner third.

Lorenzo has taken a hattrick of wins once before in his career, in his 250cc days, and is the first Yamaha rider to take three wins from three poles since Eddie Lawson in 1986.

Lorenzo now has an impressive 52 point lead in the standings ahead of Pedrosa, whilst injured Valentino Rossi drops to seventh after missing four races.

Meanwhile Frenchman Randy de Puniet achieved his highest finish so far with when he crossed the finish line in 4th, riding the LCR Honda.

Lorenzo’s rookie compatriot Alvaro Bautista also scored a career best MotoGP result of fifth, bringing his Suzuki GSV-R home for Rizla Suzuki’s best result of the season. He got a good start from ninth on the grid and was up into sixth place at the end of lap one.

Bautista benefited from Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli crashing out when they were in front of the Suzuki man, but he then never looked like giving up his fifth position, even as he came under pressure from Ben Spies on the final lap.

Debutant Wataru Yoshikawa, standing in for the injured Valentino Rossi, put in a brave performance to finish 15th in extremely hot conditions, taking a championship point in the process.

Jorge Lorenzo : “This is very special. After losing so closely last year I was happy but not completely so and today I can say I am completely happy, winning here at my home race. It was very difficult today because it was so hot and the front tyre was sliding a lot. I thought I was going to have a big battle with Dovizioso because he was pushing very hard but then he crashed and I was alone; it was lucky for me because then I was able to take it more gently to the finish. I think I rode a clever race today. I am so grateful to my team and to everyone at Yamaha and Bridgestone because they are working so hard to make our bike competitive at every track. I also want to say thank you to all the fans that came to watch today, it is a great feeling for me to win here in front of them all.”

Dani Pedrosa : “We’ve linked two good results together which was our target and now we must maintain this consistency and fight for the win at the next races. I made a really good start and was leading towards Turn 1. I had a bit of a front end shake on the way to the first corner but I didn’t think anything of it until I hit the brakes and for a moment there was nothing. I was surprised because it was not such a big shake, but then I pumped a few times and it came back. By then it was too late and I had to run wide. I took it slowly to get back on track because I didn’t want to be to be penalised (for cutting the corner). I tried to recover as quickly as possible and make up the positions I’d lost. I got past Casey when he made a mistake and we raced together for many laps. I was pushing as hard as possible but we had a bit of a front end issue through the race and it was closing in the corners – I think many riders were having this problem today though. I was able to hang on until the end of the race though and I’m happy enough with second place after that first lap.”

Casey Stoner : “Without a small mistake of my own I think we could have been pushing for the lead for most of the race. We had the pace to do that and the bike felt quite good, but unfortunately I just got the draft of both of them going into that turn, and the slipstream coming off the back of them buffered me a bit and brought the rear of the bike up. There was no way I was going to stop for that corner. So I thought it was better to play it safe and not hit anyone and finish the race. I’m a little bit disappointed because I thought I could at least have been second. I thought I had the pace to close down on the front two but unfortunately I just couldn’t overtake the people in front of me and that was our biggest battle today. We’ll look forward to next week and try and solve these issues, but we’re feeling a lot more confident with the bike. Dani got all his exits right, he was braking quite consistently but with the gaps he was pulling out of every corner into the next one it was just impossible to close. I was already having small problems with the front end which was wanting to close, so there was no sense in going in there and risking it by doing a daring manoeuvre on the brakes and bringing us both down. It was better for me to pick my point and try and get past, but he didn’t make any mistakes and I give him credit for that.”

Álvaro Bautista : “I am very happy because this fifth position is like winning the race after the last few races we’ve had. We really needed this result, for me, for my team and especially for Suzuki. I was very strong all weekend and was confident that I could do a good race here. I was very concentrated at the start because I knew if I could start well I could stay with the group in front. I did that, but I did have a bit of a problem in the race with the hard-braking places because I didn’t feel that the bike was entering the corners like in the practice. I got a good rhythm in the race and tried to control what was going on behind me and go for a good result. In the last laps I saw that Spies was coming very fast and I tried to push a bit more, but the rear tyre was used up and I couldn’t do any more, so I rode tight for the last lap to make sure I got fifth position. I want to say thank-you to all my team, to Suzuki and the sponsors Rizla and especially everybody that is here to support me, all my fans and family.”

Loris Capirossi : “I want to say well done to the whole team because this is the first real result of the whole year. For sure we did a good job all weekend, but we made a mistake with the tyre for the race. All the information we had said that it was impossible to use the softer tyre for the race and we used our ones in practice because we didn’t think we’d need them for this afternoon, but in the end I was the only rider with a harder tyre in the warm-up and I had a bit of a problem with grip and then in the race I was one of the only ones with the harder compound and I struggled a lot with feeling at the start. It worked well in the middle of the race, but the performance dropped for the last four laps and I struggled to keep a good rhythm. This is the first time this year I have felt that the bike has been right and this for us is a really important thing.”

Wataru Yoshikawa : “It was really hard to ride in the heat plus after eight years without racing and 25 laps is a lot, but I am really happy to finish and to win one point. I hope that this experience will help me at Sachsenring and in my future work. I have really enjoyed working with the best team in the paddock; they were quick and professional at the same time as being relaxed and friendly and the atmosphere in the garage was great. I am glad that I have had the chance to work with them.”

Race Results :

1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 43’22.805
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team + 4.754
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team + 4.956
4. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 18.057
5. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.361
6. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 21.503
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 24.181
8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team + 27.941
9. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 28.046
10. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team + 32.439
11. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 38.406
12. Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team + 58.257
13. Kousuke Akiyoshi (JPN) Interwetten Honda MotoGP + 1’09.348
14. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team + 1’32.402
15. Wataru Yoshikawa (JPN) Fiat Yamaha Team + 1’35.237

DNF :

16. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 12 Lap
17. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team 20 Lap

DNS :

Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team
Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Interwetten-Honda MotoGP

Championship Standings :

1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 165
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 113
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team 91
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 69
5. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 69
6. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 67
7. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 61
8. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 59
9. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 39
10. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 39
11. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 39
12. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team 34
13. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team 28
14. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 25
15. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 25
16. Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team 24
17. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Interwetten-Honda MotoGP 18
18. Kousuke Akiyoshi (JPN) Interwetten Honda MotoGP 4
19. Wataru Yoshikawa (JPN) Fiat Yamaha Team 1

MotoGP now has a weekend off, after the busy three-week back-to-back races, before it heads to Sachsenring in Germany for the next round of the season on Sunday 18th July.

Photo : Fiat Yamaha Team / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / MotoGP
Editorial : Nazim Idris

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