Lorenzo leads Spanish rout at Jerez

2010-05-02 08:22
Jorge Lorenzo branded today's Gran Premio bwin de España at Jerez "a beautiful race" after edging out his compatriot Dani Pedrosa to take the win in front of an enthusiastic Spanish crowd.

Pedrosa brought his Repsol Honda home in second place, to make it a Spanish one-two, with reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi rounding out the podium in third. The 25 points secured today move Lorenzo to the top of the championship standings.

His traditional lightning start to the race saw pole holder Pedrosa lead into the first turn, with Rossi making up two places from the grid to move into second place. Nicky Hayden also got a good start from the second row of the grid to slot into third place as the field headed towards turn two.

Loris Capirossi's race ended at the last turn on lap three, as the veteran Italian pushed just a little too hard, lost the front and crashed uninjured. Aleix Espargaro also crashed shortly after, but was able to return to the race following running repairs in pit lane.

Ben Spies was the next casualty, pitting and retiring from the race after struggling with a front tyre problem on his Yamaha M1 while running in the top ten.

As the midway point of the race approached Pedrosa was leading well at a second-and-a-half ahead of Rossi, with Lorenzo a further two seconds back. The fight for seventh place was a close one, with San Carlo Honda Gresini team-mates Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli battling one another amongst a group of five riders.

At the same time Lorenzo was closing the gap on Rossi and on lap 21 passed his teammate before turning his focus to fellow countryman, Pedrosa. From there a superb duel developed between the two Spaniards.

With two laps to go Lorenzo caught up with the factory Honda rider and made his move to pass, but Pedrosa held his line and the two almost touched as the excitement continued to increase.

In the end it came down to the last lap and as Pedrosa drifted wide at the Dry Sack corner while trying to defend his line Lorenzo swept through to assume the lead, which he held to the chequered flag. Crossing the line the Fiat Yamaha rider was 0.543s ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi placing third to complete the podium.

Lorenzo promptly celebrated his win by jumping fully clothed into the lake in the centre of the Jerez circuit...

"I saw the lake on Thursday and thought it would be funny to jump in. I think the fans liked it, but I didn't really think about how heavy I'd be with wet leathers and for a minute I thought I wasn't going to get out," declared Lorenzo. "The dream nearly turned into a nightmare."

The Fiat Yamaha rider was eventually rescued by marshals and returned to pit lane to continue the victory celebrations.

"After a bad start I rode like a demon to get the front and I had a great fight with Dani when I eventually caught him. When I tried to pass him the first time we nearly crashed, but I knew I had to try again on the final lap. I know it's better to win races calmly from the front; today I had to fight on every lap," concluded the new Championship leader.

Completing the top five were Ducati Marlboro riders Nicky Hayden, who repeated his fourth spot from Qatar, and Casey Stoner, with Andrea Dovizioso taking sixth place.

Mika Kallio completed an impressive rise from last place on the grid to take seventh, with Melandri, Randy de Puniet and Álvaro Bautista also placing inside the top ten.

An eventful Moto2 race saw Toni Elías take his first Grand Prix victory since his win in Estoril back in 2006 after a shortened 17-lap contest following a pile-up on the second lap of the original race.

A coming together between Simone Corsi and Shoya Tomizawa at the Dry Sack corner saw the Japanese rider slide out and deposit fuel on the track surface, which brought down a number of following riders. The race was red flagged and then restarted 30 minutes later, after some frantic work in pit lane to repair the bikes that had been involved in the crash.

With 42 riders fighting for position and all lapping within one second of each other more crashes were inevitable, with Karel Abraham, Andrea Iannone and Joan Olivè all early fallers.

Kenny Noyes was the first rider to get to the front and then try to gap the pursuing pack but, try as he might, the American simply couldn't escape from the clutches of Toni Elias, Thomas Lüthi and championship leader, Tomizawa. With six laps to go, nine riders were still in with a chance of victory.

Overtaking moves were not in short supply as the frontrunners constantly pushed one another, and as the final laps approached Elias, Tomizawa, Lüthi and Takahashi weree nose to tail.

To the delight of the Spanish crowd it was Elías who pulled off a double overtake to take the chequered flag, 0.190s ahead of Tomizawa who maintains his Championship lead with his podium finish. Lüthi, at a further seven-thousandths behind completed the top three in a fantastic grandstand finish, as he moved into third place in the overall standings.

Takahashi and Corsi both finished inside the top five. Sergio Gadea followed Corsi home, meaning the top six riders were all former Grand Prix winners. Noyes, Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up), and Yonny Hernández (Blusens-STX) completing the top ten.

Pol Espargaró kicked off the Spanish domination of all three classes at today's Gran Premio bwin de España by taking a hard fought win and led an all-Spanish 125cc podium at Jerez, ahead of Nico Terol and Esteve Rabat.

There was immediate drama before the opening lap had been completed, as pole position holder and one of the strong favourites for victory on home soil Marc Márquez crashed out, sustaining a dislocation in his right arm in the process.

The early stages of the race saw a group of five riders establish themselves as the main competitors for the podium, and by the midway point it was still Terol , Espargaró, Efrén Vázquez, Sandro Cortese and Tito Rabat who were challenging one another at the front of the race.

Cortese's chances of securing a podium finish ended around lap 16 when the suspension linkage on the rear of his bike broke and he eventually finished in a very creditable 11th place with no rear suspension. Shortly after Cortese dropped back Vázquez crashed out, leaving Espargaró, Terol and Rabat to sort out the final podium positions between them.

Coming into the final lap Espargaró pulled a gap on his pursuers to take the win ahead of Championship leader Terol, who maintains his lead in the overall standings, with Rabat a further 13 seconds back. Bradley Smith took fourth place at the track at which he won last season, with Tomoyoshi Koyama completing the top five.

Alberto Moncayo (Andalucia Cajasol) was sixth as he added another Spanish name to the top ten, with Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing), Alexis Masbou (Team Ongetta) and Jasper Iwema (CBC Corse) also securing top-ten finishes.

Source: Dorna

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