Lorenzo claims second straight MotoGP win

Jorge Lorenzo won his second consecutive Grand Prix, winning the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini at Misano on Sunday afternoon. The MotoGP World Champion, who took the lead at the start, controlled the pace as championship leader Marc Marquez beat Dani Pedrosa to second position.

Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli has delivered another glorious result for Lorenzo, who has now flourished at the Adriatic venue for three years in a row. The win, which was the 49th of his career and 28th in the premier class, also gave the Mallorcan a sweep of both Italian races on the calendar for a trio of successive seasons.

From second on the grid, Lorenzo shot into the lead as pole-sitter Marquez dropped to third on the opening lap. The latter would put on a spurt in the second half of the race, but by this point had fallen to fourth place due to an unforced error.

Marquez recovered from his turn eight mistake to catch and pass both Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi and his Repsol Honda Team colleague Pedrosa. However, as the two Honda riders engaged in a battle, Lorenzo’s already comfortable lead only grew.

Lorenzo thanked his team for making changes to his bike on Sunday, which he believes were crucial to his GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini victory.

Stepping off the Misano podium Lorenzo stated, “It is important to win, because we don’t lose points but we have only recovered five points, so it is the same as Silverstone. It doesn’t make a big difference to the championship. But I’m very happy for this victory, because we struggled a lot during the weekend especially on braking.”

Lorenzo explained that his team had made a crucial suspension adjustment to improve braking performance. He noted, “We made some changes to the bike in morning session and it really made a big difference.

“So I decided to go with the same strategy as the last four or five races and I was able to do it this time, to go away in the lead from the beginning. It was a very hard race physically because Dani and Marc never gave up, their pace was very constant. Really I want to say a big thanks to my team as they improved the bike a lot for this race.”

The 25 points gained on the Adriatic Coast now put him level in the standings with old rival Pedrosa, although Lorenzo has second in the classification courtesy of more 2013 race wins. However, with Marquez finishing second, Lorenzo still trails the rookie sensation by 34 points overall, with five races left.

Marquez had a typical smile on his face on Sunday afternoon as he reflected on a good job at the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini.

Marquez reviewed his performance on the Adriatic Coast saying, “I knew that I would struggle a bit at the start of the race, because I had throughout the weekend with a full fuel tank. Then in the Warm Up I was struggling and crashed, but in the end I said to myself I just need to do it.

“In the first part of the race we lost too much time and made a couple of mistakes so we lost two seconds. But this is my first year (in MotoGP), it is all about experience and maybe I’m allowed a few mistakes.

“Although we could have fought for the victory we had a good race overall. I felt strong from the middle to the end. The 20 points are key because I was fourth for a lot of the race and eventually was able to finish second, so I think that’s quite important.

“There are still five races ahead with a lot of points still to be won so I will keep the same mentality and you will still see the same Marc on track.”

Pedrosa’s third place finish at Misano may have been a significant improvement on 2012, when he was involved in a first-lap crash, but the Spaniard insisted he could not manage any more.

“It was a hard weekend overall,” Pedrosa commented after the race, adding that edge grip was his chief problem. “I was struggling from the first day and couldn’t really get a good feeling in the corners. I pushed my best today, starting with good motivation.

“I lost a lot on the first couple of laps, but tried to focus and do the perfect race every lap. I was doing a good rhythm, even though I wasn’t feeling comfortable. At the end I had to battle for a couple of laps with Marc, but made one mistake in the last corner and lost touch with about three laps to go. I pushed as much as I could today, but couldn’t do any better.”

Rossi and Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow are the only other two riders who can mathematically still clinch the title; the Italian ended Sunday’s race fourth, while the Englishman fell to sixth on the final lap behind LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl.

Alvaro Bautista was seventh for GO&FUN Honda Gresini, having claimed his maiden MotoGP™ podium at Misano in 2012, while Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso beat teammate Nicky Hayden and Ignite Pramac Racing’s Michele Pirro to eighth spot.

Eleventh was Tech3’s Bradley Smith, while Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) was the leading CRT rider in 12th; the American finishing one position ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar) who, from an impressive sixth on the grid, ran fourth on lap one but was handed a ride-through penalty for jumping the start.

Pol Espargaro won the Moto2™ GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini, denying Takaaki Nakagami a career-first victory on the penultimate lap at Misano. Tito Rabat made the podium as championship leader Scott Redding finished sixth.

On Saturday, Tuenti HP 40’s Espargaro – 38 points behind Redding in the championship following a poor race at Silverstone – had confidently sealed pole position, with his chief rival starting fifth for Marc VDS Racing Team. A clean start saw the Spaniard retain the lead but Italtrans Racing Team’s Nakagami, highly keen to win after finishing second in the last three races, went through on lap four.

As Nakagami’s tires began to drop off the cliff in the final stages of the race, Espargaro relentlessly reduced a two-second gap and posted the fastest lap of the entire Grand Prix on lap 22. The ultimately inevitable pass came at the end of the start/finish straight with only two tours remaining, demoting Nakagami to yet another second place as Espargaro’s teammate Rabat – who ran second in the early stages – completed the rostrum.

Tom Luthi and Dominique Aegerter completed the top five for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing and Technomag carXpert, correspondingly.

For Redding, it was a case of damage limitation. Eventually losing out to the likes of Aegerter, the Englishman narrowly beat Came Iodaracing Project’s Johann Zarco to sixth place; this means his new championship leading margin is 23 points – now less than a single race win.

Alex Rins has claimed his fourth race win of the Moto3™ season, beating Maverick Viñales by just one hundredth of a second. Alex Marquez completed the podium while championship leader Luis Salom limited the points loss, finishing fourth from 10th place on the grid.

Both Viñales and Rins now move back to within one race win’s equivalent of points of Salom. The championship leader is standing on 246 points, with Viñales and Rins respectively 19 and 21 points in arrears.

The MotoGP™ World Championship continues with round 14, the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón, at MotorLand Aragon in north-eastern Spain on Sept. 29.

MotoGP Race Results

MotoGP Point Standings

–From motogp.com

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