Submitted by David Emmett on
Results and summary of the MotoGP race at Barcelona:
Jorge Lorenzo has taken a classic victory in his home race at Barcelona, disposing of Dani Pedrosa after a tense race-long duel with his Spanish rival. With Casey Stoner off the podium for the first time since Jerez last year, Lorenzo's win puts him firmly in charge of the championship, leading Stoner by 20 points.
Pedrosa had taken an early lead, taking advantage of his usual rocket-propelled start to get into Turn 1 in the lead, with a strong Ben Spies right behind him, and Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner not far behind. Andrea Dovizioso would push through past Stoner to 4th, while at the front, Spies began to press Pedrosa. The Texan, determined to make good after a dismal start to the season, was all over the back of the Spaniard, looking for a way past. He thought he had found it at Turn 4 on the third lap, but running wide in his attempt to dive underneath Pedrosa, the Texan just touched the grass at the outside of the turn and tumbled off, escaping unhurt and with his bike relatively undamaged. But Spies was out of contention.
Factory Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo immediately took over where Spies had left off, pressing at the tailpipe of Pedrosa's Repsol Honda. The two gradually started to escape, with only Andrea Dovizioso on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha capable of following. Casey Stoner, after passing Cal Crutchlow, could not match the pace of the front runners.
Dovizioso could at first, but he could never get close enough to pose a serious threat. As the race approached the halfway point, it was clear that the win would go to either of the two men racing at home, to be decided by who wanted it more. Both men were close, with Lorenzo taking over the lead from Pedrosa with a tough pass into Turn 1 at the start of lap 7, then Pedrosa returning the favor at the start of lap 12. A lap later, just how hard the Yamaha man was made clear as he ran wide into Turn 1 and lost over a second to Pedrosa.
But that would not be enough for the Repsol Honda man to keep the lead. Lorenzo hunted Pedrosa down, slowly at first, but faster as he got nearer, pushing hard on lap 20, so hard that he forced Pedrosa into a mistake. The Repsol Honda man ran wide at Turn 10, allowing Lorenzo through. Once past, he was gone, and Jorge Lorenzo went on to win unchallenged, taking his second victory in a row and taking a huge lead in the championship. Pedrosa settled for second, and Andrea Dovizioso was delighted with his first podium in 3rd.
The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man nearly didn't make it, having had a massive moment on lap 15, and lost a lot of time for a couple of laps recovering his composure, but picked up his pace again once Casey Stoner and Cal Crutchlow came uncomfortably close. Stoner's 4th place broke his string of 19 podiums in a row, and puts a big hole between himself and Lorenzo in the championship. Cal Crutchlow pushed hard to get past Stoner, but try as he might, he just could not.
After a strong start, San Carlo Gresini's Alvaro Bautista lost touch with the leading group, and was almost caught by Valentino Rossi. The factory Ducati rider had his best race in the dry this year on the Ducati, but had used up his rear tire in the chase for Bautista.
Stefan Bradl came home in 8th, ahead of the second factory Ducati of Nicky Hayden, while Ben Spies redeemed his early mistake to get back into the top 10, putting a hard pass on Hector Barbera along the way.
Lorenzo's victory leaves him sitting comfortably atop the championship standings, 20 points clear of Stoner, while Dani Pedrosa is another 10 points shy of his Repsol Honda teammate. There is still a very long way to go in the championship, but Lorenzo has gotten off to a very good start.
Results:
Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Time | Diff |
1 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 43'07.681 | |
2 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 43'12.684 | 5.003 |
3 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | YAMAHA | 43'17.042 | 9.361 |
4 | 1 | Casey STONER | HONDA | 43'17.225 | 9.544 |
5 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | YAMAHA | 43'20.187 | 12.506 |
6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | HONDA | 43'21.629 | 13.948 |
7 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | DUCATI | 43'25.236 | 17.555 |
8 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | 43'31.159 | 23.478 |
9 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 43'38.091 | 30.410 |
10 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 43'40.578 | 32.897 |
11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 43'43.825 | 36.144 |
12 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | DUCATI | 44'03.910 | 56.229 |
13 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | 44'15.735 | 1'08.054 |
14 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | FTR | 44'16.456 | 1'08.775 |
15 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | 44'18.164 | 1'10.483 |
16 | 77 | James ELLISON | ART | 44'20.771 | 1'13.090 |
17 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | ART | 44'28.584 | 1'20.903 |
18 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | BQR | 44'28.916 | 1'21.235 |
19 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | IODA | 44'48.888 | 1'41.207 |
20 | 22 | Ivan SILVA | BQR | 44'49.569 | 1'41.888 |
Finished through pits | |||||
5 | Colin EDWARDS | SUTER | 44'55.263 | 1 lap |
Comments
That was a great race. Good
That was a great race. Good duel between Jorge and Pedrosa.
But Honda made the wrong choice. The soft tire was clearly the best option for the race. It hurt Casey particularly bad. Which is a shame cause he could've made it a threeway fight.
Tyre choice
Tyre choice is rider's preference and not the company's choice. It was stoner's decision to stick with hard Tyre and not Honda's.
?
Tyre compound is chosen by rider decision, not the manufacturer's.
FWIW, Pedrosa was also using the hard(er) compound rear tyre.
By Honda I meant both factory
By Honda I meant both factory riders. I did not mean to imply that I think the factory dictates the tire choice.
Spies
Another race to forget from Spies. When the camera flashed to the pits (after he went down) the look on Lin Jarvis' face said it all. It looks like that's it for him in the factory Yamaha team. Maybe getting the boot and going somewhere else (not exactly sure where as there are only 2 good factory teams left in the series) might reboot his career? It's a real shame as I had pegged him as another Eddie lawson. The again, 2 years with the best team in the business...what more can you ask for? That must be considered more than a fair chance in anyone's books.
There are still a lot of races for Spies to prove his worth
If they like him, they won't replace him just because of a few bad races.
Pedrosa
Then again, 2 years with the best team in the business...what more can you ask for? That must be considered more than a fair chance in anyone's books.
Unless you're a Spaniard on the Repsol Honda team. Pedrosa has had plenty of chances to win a championship too.
No Passion left for Stoner?
If he really doesn't want to be in MotoGP he should quit now before he gets hurt or hurts someone else. His Twitter comments sounded like he was leaving the door open for WSBK tho.
As much as Yamaha might be dissappointed with BS11's results they sure don't want to race against him when he finds his stride.
Great Race
Well, to me it's not surprising that Stoner's results have fallen off since announcing retirement. His pride may inspire him to better results in the future however. After Rossi beat him in the last race on a Ducati and with having pole position, it was Casey's race to lose at the start.
Ben Spies raced better today, but still his best result of the year is 8th. Ben has probably got the word on the streets being Rossi had a Factory Yamaha seat if need be. This maybe the problem that Ben is having. After the win in Assen last year he was basically promoted to "Alien" status, but this year has fully fallen out of that contention.
Personally was hoping that the "Honey Badger" was rise up and Challenge Casey, but it was not to be. Cruthchlow may be the next "Alien"
Great race for the win and Great Race overall. Congratulations to Lorenzo and Yamaha. Honda may well want to be "afraid, very, very afraid" but it is a long racing season.
"Alien"
I have always hated that phrase.
+1
Stands alongside the NBA's penchant to name any team's front-court a "Big Three" as the most lazy and annoying sports marketing gimmick in recent memory. Only as cute and functional as 2008-2010 would allow.
Yawn
Another boring race. Sorry chaps.
After the excellent Moto3 and Moto2 races, MotoGP let the side down again.
And before the bleating, they weren't "fighting" for position passes. They were out and out (rare) mistakes that led to a pass.
Let's face it, the only way for a pass to occur is for a major mistake from a rider.
If you found that race
If you found that race boring, you might want to consider just stop watching the races altogether. The only pass that was due to a major mistake was the last one Lorenzo on Pedrosa.
although i agree, was not a 'great' race by any means
not a fair comparison to expect the kind of action that moto2 and 3 brought. ideally, the four non-ducati factory bikes will be dicing it up a bit at the front. unfortunately, the hondas had tire issues and Ben crashed early.
double post
.
You found the Dani and Jorge
You found the Dani and Jorge battle boring?
There were a few times it looked like they were going to touch, turn 1-2 comes to mind.
And hunting the guy in front to push him into a mistake is a tactic mastered by Rossi in the modern age. I wonder, what golden age of gp racing you'd prefer, because I've seen a lot of highlight films from gp going back 25 years and I haven't seen anything that is head and shoulders above what we see now, nor any era where it came down to more than 1-2 guys up front consistently.
calisdad
Calisdad being someone that is not really into twitter and all that stuff what was Casey exact words on twitter about WSBK .
Stoner's tweet
bushbash I'm not into Twitter either but I got up at 5am to watch the race and Speed posted: (and I paraphrase from from pre-caffiene memory) Stoner:" I'm not tired of racing just the direction MotoGP is going." Feel free to fill in the blanks.
As far as Spies- hey he made 1 mistake today. You could count on one hand the riders he DIDN'T pass. His best days are in front of him.
Stoner's tweet... "Incase
Stoner's tweet...
"Incase anyone misinterpreted why I am retiring, I have lost passion and interest for the sport, not for racing OR riding these bikes."
Hard so say what that means, but I have a hard time seeing that as being open to SBK. And I believe Stoner has been very vocal about only pure prototypes having any interest to him.