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Lorenzo
produces ride of his life
to take rousing victory in Jerez
Jorge Lorenzo produced one of the rides of his life to take a superb win
in Spain today, the grandeur of a full-to-bursting Jerez providing a
fitting amphitheatre for his first MotoGP win on home soil. Valentino
Rossi finished third, making it a sixteenth double podium for the Fiat
Yamaha pair since 2008.
Lorenzo got a bad start and had dropped from second to fifth by the
second lap, as he struggled to find a rhythm with a full fuel tank. On
lap five he was able to pass Casey Stoner and then, five laps on, Nicky
Hayden but he looked destined to stay in third as he languished 1.5
seconds adrift of Rossi, who was in turn the same distance from Pedrosa.
With a third of the race to go however the Spaniard picked up pace,
suddenly the fastest man on track as he stormed up on his team-mate. On
lap 22 he despatched the Italian but with only five laps left and a two
second gap a victory still looked unlikely. The tenacious youngster was
not giving up however in pursuit of a sixth premier-class win and he
rapidly gained on his fellow Spaniard to bring himself within striking
distance on his penultimate lap. His first attempt to pass resulted in a
dramatic moment as they both momentarily looked like running off track
and in the end he had to leave it to the last lap to make the definitive
move, passing Pedrosa on the brakes at the end of the back straight and
crossing the line 0.543 seconds ahead. Lorenzo, who turns 23 on
Tuesday, celebrated in hilarious style by leaping into the lake in the
middle of the circuit, much to the rapture of the home fans who were
already celebrating Spanish wins in the 125cc and Moto2 classes earlier
in the day.
Rossi was happy to make the podium, having struggled all weekend to
overcome his injured shoulder and set-up problems with his M1. The World
Champion got a great start from the second row and was second behind
Pedrosa for most of the race. He stayed in touch in the early stages but
began to drop back as his bike started to slide, eventually giving best
to his charging team-mate and settling for the final podium spot and a
valuable 16 points, 0.4 seconds behind Pedrosa.
The Championship is now led by Lorenzo with 45 points, while Rossi is
four points off him in second. The riders now have a three-week break
before the French round at Le Mans on 23rd May.
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1st Time: 45'17.538
"It has always been one of my dreams to win a MotoGP race in Spain
and this was like a movie, everything that could possibly happen did! It
was a very hard race because I made such a bad start and then found it
very difficult in the first laps - I gave myself a tough job to do.
After that I started to feel better and rode like a demon to get to the
front. Once I passed Valentino I knew that I couldn't take it easy, I
had to try everything to win and it was all I could think about. I had a
great fight with Dani and in one moment we nearly crashed so I had to
try again, on the very last lap! I know it's better to win races calmly,
from the front, but lately that hasn't been the way for us and I have
had to fight on every lap. I saw the lake on Thursday and thought it
would be funny to jump in and I think the fans liked it, but I didn't
really think about how heavy I'd be with wet leathers and for a minute I
thought I wasn't going to get out! This has been an amazing day, I
can't believe I've achieved this dream of mine, in front of all the
Spanish fans at this magical place."
Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rd Time: +0.890
"This just wasn't our race this year. We have struggled all
weekend, first with my shoulder and then with the bike, and in the race
today I couldn't do any more than third. I got a great start and was
fast with the new tyre, I tried to go with Dani but then I started to
slide a lot and I just had to play it safe. I made no mistakes and I'm
happy about my race in the circumstances, these 16 points are very
important. At the end I had a front-row seat to the Spanish party and I
admit I was sorry not to be involved, Jorge did a great job today and I
think it was very exciting for all the fans. I want to say thank you to
Dr. Costa and all the staff at the Clinica Mobile, plus everyone back in
Italy who has worked on my shoulder to allow me to be able to race this
weekend. I will hopefully be back to full strength in Le Mans so I'm
looking forward to that."
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager
"It's fantastic to win this race in this way. The race itself was
amazing, especially the last ten laps; a fight on the edge. Before the
race started our target was just to be on the podium again and we
managed the highest step, so we could not ask for more! Jorge was so
fast at the end of the race, really amazing. We have wondered why he
seems to get much stronger at the end of races; I think it's a
combination of his riding style and confidence, because from a technical
point of view there doesn't seem to be anything wrong. Apart from a
less than perfect start, he controlled the bike very well during and
kept a very good pace. He was able to keep the pace at the beginning and
never gave up; he just got better. The target for the season remains
the same, to keep aiming for the podium every weekend. We all know there
are a lot of great riders out there and they all want to win, so it
won't be easy. We have always been confident about our potential and now
we are even more so. Well done to Jorge and all the team."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"Considering his recent injury we can see this as a very good
result. The shoulder was okay and in fact the setting was the bigger
problem, but the team did a great job to improve it as much as they
could and we are happy that we made it onto the podium. Valentino got a
fantastic start and was fast in the early stages but later on he
couldn't keep pace with Lorenzo and Pedrosa so 16 points is good for us
today. We have some work to do for Le Mans, when we hope Valentino will
be back to full fitness. Well done to Jorge and all his side of the
garage, he did a great race today."
Tough Spanish MotoGP race for Monster Yamaha Tech 3
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team was left to contemplate what might have
been after a difficult and disappointing Spanish MotoGP race at the
Jerez circuit this afternoon.
Colin Edwards fought a determined battle at the rear of a frenetic
battle for seventh position in front of a sun-drenched crowd of 122,048
passionate Spanish fans.
The Texan eventually had to settle for 12th position after he
encountered small rear grip issues in the crucial final stages that left
him unable to mount a sustained offensive on the exciting mid-pack
dice.
It was also a frustrating first Jerez MotoGP experience for 25-year-old
Ben Spi es, who had started the race with high expectations after a
brilliant performance in practice and qualifying.
The reigning World Superbike champion made a blistering start and gained
two places on the opening lap to sit menacingly behind former world
champion Casey Stoner in sixth position.
But just as Spies looked to consolidate his place in the leading group,
he encountered a front-end issue that saw him unable to maintain his
fast pace.
Despite his valiant efforts to continue and score valuable points for
the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team, Spies opted to retire at the end of lap
eight after he'd fallen out of the top ten.
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team will be hoping for improved fortunes when
the MotoGP world championship resumes in France later this month. The
Le Mans clash is the all-important home race for the Monster Yamaha Te
ch 3 Team, with high hopes of a strong display in the third round of the
2010 campaign.
Colin Edwards - Position: 12th Time: +38.371
“I think I've had one good race at Jerez in my entire career and
today wasn't it. This weekend has been a struggle and I've never been
comfortable on the bike to show the pace I know I am capable of. Right
from the start I had issues with the rear grip and I couldn't hold any
load on the tyre at full lean angle. That also created some problems
with the front-end, so I just struggled with the balance of the bike.
It's the exact same issue that I had in Qatar even though the set-up I'm
running is quite a bit different. I'd just like to be in a race. At the
moment I just feel like I'm riding around and suffering. I can only
look forward to Le Mans knowing that I go really well at that track and
so does the Yamaha."
Ben Spies - Position: DNF
“It's just one of those things that can happen but it's really
unfortunate because after coming here and learning the track really
quick I thought we had a really good package for the race. The Monster
Yamaha Tech 3 Team had worked really hard but I just had some problem
with the front-end. I'm not sure what the problem is but I've looked at
the data and you can clearly see I had an issue. The bike just wasn't
reacting like it should and it is a big shame. I got a really good start
and was right behind Casey but pretty much from the first lap I knew I
had a problem. I tried to round around the problem but at the end of the
day I wasn't going to be scoring any points and I'd have risked
crashing if I'd continued. The consolation is that I know we had the
speed for a good result and there are a lot of positive points to take
from the weekend. We can go to Le Mans confident that I'll be able to
show more of my true potential."
Herve Poncharal – Team Manager
“I won't say it's a disaster but it certainly is a big
disappointment for us. We had high hopes after we saw how quickly Ben
mastered the track and it wasn't unrealistic to hope that he could have
been at least in the top five again like in Qatar. He got a good start
but after a few laps it was obvious that he couldn't maintain his pace
and he was losing ground. He had to pull into the pits and he said he
didn't have any feeling with the front. We'll analyse the data and check
everything with Bridgestone to see if we can find out exactly what
caused the problem. It is a shame for Ben but we have to accept it.
Colin was never really comfortable with the bike all weekend. He had an
interesting fight but it wasn't the result he wanted, so we'll work hard
to understand some of his issues. Hopefully Le Mans will be better
because that is a hugely important race for Tech 3 and Monster.”
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