Jorge Lorenzo romps to British Grand Prix win
Jorge Lorenzo won yesterday’s British Grand Prix to extend his lead at the MotoGP drivers’ standings, taking victory ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in second and Ben Spies in third.
Lorenzo now has a 37-point lead over Dovizioso, and having taken pole position on Saturday cruised to the win, finishing 6.7 seconds ahead of the Italian. Lorenzo is on a hot streak, being on the podium in all five races so far this season and taking three race wins. The Spaniard is on course to become world champion, especially with the injured Valentino Rossi not in his way to mount a challenge.
“This was an important day for me and an important win, because I felt so strong and I enjoyed riding my Yamaha so much. I had a different feeling today. I felt that it was going to be a good race,” said Lorenzo.
The 23-year-old has been the man to beat all season, and not even his Fiat Yamaha teammate Rossi could handle him before breaking his leg at the Italian Grand Prix a few weeks ago.
If someone is to challenge Lorenzo for the championship, then it will be Dovizioso. His second-place finish made it four podiums for the season, with the Honda team growing stronger by the race.
“I’m so pleased with the season so far and I’d like to say thank you to Honda and to the team for the work they are doing. We still need to improve so that we can battle for race wins, but we are one step closer today and it’s a good result for us at the start of a busy period of races. Next stop is Assen [Holland] and we must move forward again so that we have a chance of winning there,” said Dovizioso.
Coming home in third was Spies. The 2009 world superbike champion took his first podium in MotoGP after overtaking the Ducati of Nicky Haden on the final lap. The American admits he is still in shock over it.
“I didn't expect to get my first podium so quickly. That last lap was difficult to pass Nicky but I got a really good drive onto the back straight and tried to pass him, but he came back. On the next straight I managed to get by him and then had to ride quite defensively on the last part of the lap. I was on the edge but I had to go for the podium and it worked out. But on this day I can say I was the third best rider in the world and it is a good feeling,” said Spies.
Casey Stoner has endured a difficult start to the campaign, and his race started in the worst possible way. The Australian lost 10 places at the start but did make his way up the field to salvage fifth, but felt his Ducati team deserved more.
“I’m not happy with fifth place because we were capable of more today. I don’t know if we could have challenged Jorge for the win but we definitely found something in warm-up and made more improvements in the race, but we paid the price for a terrible start,” said Stoner. “As I let the clutch out the bike started jumping and hopping around and I had to pull the clutch in and go again, by which time everybody was past.”
Lorenzo is the man to catch, and on this form, it doesn’t look like anyone can catch the Spaniard.
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