Spanish one-two with Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa

03 June 2012

MotoGP Race

Keeping one close eye on the sky and the other eye on the ground, teams had rain forecasts for the race. However, they all proved wrong and the race was held in the dry, with asphalt temperatures topping 33ºC and ambient temperatures of 27ºC.

Dani Pedrosa made a shooting start and conquered the lead, with Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo (both on Yamaha) behind. Casey Stoner was fifth, chasing Andrea Dovizioso. Shortly before completing lap 3, Spies fell and the fight for the lead became an all-Spanish affair, to the delight of the local crowd.

With a similar pace, both riders kept Dovizioso and Crutchlow under control, with Stoner increasingly aggressive further down. Lorenzo disposed of Pedrosa as he braked before turn 1 in lap 7, leaving the Catalan rider to defend his position to Dovizioso’s attacks.

Valentino Rossi made up ground by the meter and disposed of Stefan Bradl for 7th place. Bautista was still ahead of him, and Casey Stoner slotted into 4th place ahead of Cal Crutchlow.

By lap 10, things remained unchanged: Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Dovizioso lapping in the same second, and Stoner, Crutchlow, Bautista, Rossi and Bradl further back. Pedrosa skilfully used the slipstream to pass Lorenzo in lap 12 at the end of the pits straight, and they both pulled away from their rivals -even though Lorenzo made a really long line in one turn that drove him away from Dani and allowed Dovizioso to contact him.

Yamaha’s rider found a new pace and slowly eroded Pedrosa’s lead. Pedrosa and Lorenzo seemed the only candidates for victory, and a good local battle was expected for the final laps. With 7 laps to go, the gap between them was less than 3 tenths of a second. Lorenzo pushed turn after turn, braking hard in each corner, until he managed to overtake Pedrosa entering the stadium area in lap 20. From there, he stormed to victory.

The World Championship leader won in dominant fashion and now boasts a comfortable advantage in the standings. Pedrosa collected second place after lapping unchallenged in the final part of the race, and Dovizioso deftly stood up to Stoner, who will not stand on podium for the first time this season.

Jorge Lorenzo: “Winning in front of this amazing crowd is just fantastic. I was taking things a little bit easy at the beginning, because Dani was pushing very hard. It’s been a tough race, and we can’t afford to make mistakes. When I contacted him, we were riding very close, it was easy to touch and I made a point of finding some space. After overtaking him for the second time, I was relentless. The team worked smoothly and, as you can see, the bike is really competitive this year”.

Dani Pedrosa: “It was a good day for the locals. I started well and passed Jorge twice, but at the end I suffered a bit and did not make it to the top of the podium”.

MotoGP™ Classification
1-Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing), 43’07”681
2-Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), + 5”003
3-Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), + 9”361
4-Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda Team), + 9”544
5-Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), + 12”506
6-Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini), + 13”948
7-Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team), + 17”555
8-Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), + 23”478
9-Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), + 30”410
10-Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), + 32”897
11-Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing Team Ducati), + 36”144
13-Aleix Espargaró (Power Electronics Aspar ART), + 1’08’’0544
And so on, up to 20 classified riders.