Jorge Lorenzo in sizzling form at Le Mans
Jorge Lorenzo extended his lead over reigning world champion Valentino Rossi to nine points in the MotoGP drivers’ standings after winning his second race of the season at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans yesterday.
It is now three wins out of three for the Fiat Yamaha team, and Lorenzo is now taking the fight to teammate Rossi after losing out in last year’s world championship.
The Italian led from pole position, with the Spaniard starting from second on the grid, but he slipped down to third after the Honda of Dani Pedrosa had a storming start. They made up the top three and quickly pulled away from the chasing pack.
Rossi couldn’t get away from Lorenzo, who waited for his moment to pounce. He tried on lap seven, but couldn’t make the move stick, and The Doctor came straight back. However, Lorenzo got in front again on lap 10, and pulled away from Rossi to open up a significant advantage.
Rossi was quick to heap praise on his teammate, and did not use his shoulder injury from a motocross accident as an excuse.
“I expected to be faster but it wasn't the case today. I tried to stay in front of Lorenzo but it wasn't possible and I couldn't go with him once he was past, congratulations to him because he was very strong today. I can't blame my shoulder, I had expected it to be a bigger problem but in fact it was okay until six or seven laps from the end and by then the race was over for me,” he said.
With the top two positions sealed, the battle was on for third, which was occupied by Pedrosa for the majority of the race, but his teammate Andrea Dovizioso and the Ducati of Nicky Hayden found a way past the Spaniard to take third and fourth on the final lap, with Pedrosa dropping to fifth.
Lorenzo kept up his good record at Le Mans, winning for two years in a row and adding to his second placed position in 2008. For the first time this season he didn’t have to make up many places from the start by falling behind from his starting position.
“I am so happy to win for the second race in a row, it's the first time for me in MotoGP and it makes me feel very confident in myself. Finally I made a good start, which I'm really happy about, then I easily got past Pedrosa. Passing Valentino wasn't so easy because he was braking so deep and I had to be very patient, something that I might not have managed one year ago. Finally I overtook him but I didn't expect to be able to get away like that. My bike and Bridgestone tyres just felt so good and it wasn't difficult for me to keep this pace up,” said the 23-year-old.
While the Fiat Yamaha duo are pulling away at the top of the drivers’ standings, the 2007 world champion Casey Stoner once again didn’t finish the race as – similarly to his fallout at Qatar, the opening race of the season – he crashed out on the second lap.
He now finds himself 59 points off the lead, and the Australian cannot put his finger on his problems so far this season. “I pushed that bike around all weekend and it had been almost faultless. I did need to get it hooked up a little better out of the corners but we had not had a problem with the front end all weekend, so there was no reason for it. I went through that corner and lost the front about halfway through it, and it’s not really a corner where you are pushing. I’m extremely disappointed. We had a really good shot at giving Jorge a run for his money. Obviously he was going to be the one we were going to try and battle with. He made the others look a little silly, and my hat goes off to him. It would have been nice to be up front,” he said.
Next up for the drivers is Mugello for the Italian Grand Prix on June 6th.
“It is fantastic to be leading the championship but there is a long way to go and now we go to Mugello, a track that I love but where my rivals are very strong,” said Lorenzo.
It will take something very special to stop the in-form Spaniard from making it three wins on the spin.
Tags: