Barcelona win for Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo took an emphatic home win in front of a passionate Catalan crowd at Montmel this afternoon, his fifth victory of the season and third in a row. This means that Yamaha now has more wins than any other manufacturer in the four-stroke MotoGP era, with 57. 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.

Lorenzo leads the pack

Starting from pole, also for the third consecutive race, Lorenzo lost ground to 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 Casey Stoner pushed hard to stay with him. Early on lap four the Italian Dovizioso briefly got his nose in front but Lorenzo soon got back by him to lead once again the next time around. On lap six the trio became a twosome when 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 hat-trick 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.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 1stTime: 43’22.805
“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

Dani Pedrosa played a leading role today at the Circuit de Catalunya in a spectacular race which twisted and turned from the start. A brake problem at the first corner caused him to go off the track and fall back to tenth place, from where he mounted an unstoppable comeback to finish in second place. His team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was less fortunate and finished fourteenth due to a fall ten laps from the end while battling for victory against Lorenzo.

“I made a really good start and was leading towards turn one. 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 bit shake, but anyway I pumped a few times and it came back, but 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]. And then 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 the front end 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. We’ve linked two good results together which was our target and now we must maintain this consistence and fight for the win at the next races”.

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner picked up his second consecutive podium, repeating his third-place finish from Assen eight days ago, whilst his team-mate Nicky Hayden, who struggled to find the right balance for his Desmosedici GP10 in practice, finished in eighth place – a result that lifts him to fourth in the championship.

Stoner, who himself moves up to sixth overall, came through a demanding race after making a good start to follow early leaders Lorenzo and Dovizioso as they opened up a gap over the field. An off-track excursion on the fifth lap ruled him out of the chase for victory but he returned to the track in determined fashion to pull himself back into the podium hunt.

After three back-to-back races the Ducati Marlboro Team now has a week to rest before returning to action on the 18th July at Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team)  3°
“I made a decent start and managed to pull away from the others along with “Dovi” and Lorenzo. Unfortunately after a few laps I made a mistake, without which I think I could have stayed with them for the whole race – I just ran wide under braking and lost a lot of time. The bike felt more balanced in the second half of the race and I was able to make up a bit of ground but once I caught Dani I just couldn’t find a way past him. He rode really well – clean and faultless, without leaving me a single gap. To be honest I am a little disappointed but another podium is good for us and we have to be positive. We are working well, my feeling with the bike is good after the last three races and now we have to start making the most of our potential.