Jorge Lorenzo dominates the MotoGP world championship takes the pole position
Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo continues to dominate the MotoGP world championship. After winning the British MotoGP, he has now once again secured pole position in the qualifying at the Dutch MotoGP in Assen.
Lorenzo, who has been in supreme form this season, was once again in his element, clocking a lap of 1 minute 34.515 covering the distance of 4.542 km (diameter of the Dutch circuit).
Randy de Puniet was not so far behind, and showed some great control, especially on the tricky turns on the Netherland circuit, and although he could not match the overwhelming pace of Lorenzo, he did hold his own to finish in 2nd on his LCR Honda, with a time of 1 minute 24.797 (within 0.282 seconds of Jorge Lorenzo’s pole time). Following him was Casey Stoner who has not been able to match Lorenzo this season. At the start of the season, after the obvious choice Rossi, Stoner was the man tipped to shine, but a 3rd in qualifying in his Marlboro Ducati was still not a disappointing result.
With Rossi out of the season (due to the leg injury that he suffered in Italy) and Stoner not in his best form, Lorenzo's closest rival for the world championship, Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, finished only 6th, giving Lorenzo a chance to widen the gap on the rider standings on race day.
American rider and rookie Ben Spies, who despite starting far behind did manage to get a shocking 3rd spot at the Silverstone track last race, built on the confidence from that race and finished a career best position, qualifying 4th in his Tech-3 Yamaha bike.
Nicky Hayden, who 2 seasons ago was believed to be coming up leaps and bounds, has just not been able to raise his game over the last few races, and finished a disappointing 5th.
When qualifying began, it was the Former world champion Casey Stoner who set the pace in the early stages, but Lorenzo was gaining momentum with every lap, and by the 7th lap he overhauled Stoner’s best time.
French rider De Puniet, for a short period of time, had the best time before Lorenzo really came into his own and notched it up to some degree to claim the pole position, as qualifying ended with the same 1-2 as the last race at Silverstone.
Lorenzo has gained so much confidence in this season, especially after the last win in Britain, that he has no doubts that he will once again be able to dominate on race day, just as he did at Silverstone where he started and finished the race on pole.
The Spanish rider said that he will do all he can to create distance between himself and the rest of the pack as soon as the race begins, but if he has to do it the hard way and battle it out till the end, he is also prepared to do that.
The 23 year old Championship leader said that even though he is on top, and so is his team, he has no plans of taking it easy, as even the slightest of drops in concentration can result in losing ground in the championship table. Lorenzo is the overwhelming favourite to win on Saturday, when he will be aiming for his fourth victory in six races. Lorenzo said that he knows that there is no room to relax.
Although the season is quite young, with 13 of the 18 races still to go, Lorenzo has established a good lead for himself, with 115 points on the board from 5 races so far. Lorenzo leads his closest rival Dovizioso of Italy by 37 points. Honda rider Dani Pedrosa is on the 3rd spot with 73 points.
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