Lorenzo battles to another triumph
Added on Sunday, October 31st, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Lorenzo battles to another triumph
As the sun shone down on Estoril this afternoon, Jorge Lorenzo took yet another victory, to enhance his already impressive tally.
After a heavy downpour haltered progress during qualifying yesterday, the MotoGP riders were welcomed by a dry track today, giving them their first taste of dry running this weekend. With the starting grid decided by combined free practice times, Lorenzo enjoyed another pole positions start, which he used to good advantage.
As the lights disappeared at the start of the race, Lorenzo disappeared, as second placed starter Nicky Hayden fought to get away. Hayden settled into second, with Andrew Dovizioso third and Valentino Rossi fourth.
Before long the fight for the top spot was far from decided, when Hayden dived passed the young Spaniard for the lead. Inches behind Casey Stoner had fought his way through to fourth place, with a view to making his mark on the sharp end of the grid. As the front of the field became a hot bed of action, Lorenzo slipped back into the lead in the opening laps, with his FIAT Yamaha teammate, Rossi, right on his tail.
By the fourth lap things changed once again, as Rossi leapt into the lead, and soon began to edge away from his teammate. Not too far behind, drama struck when Stoner slipped off of his Ducati into the final corner, with both him and his bike landing in the gravel.
With twelve laps remaining, the FIAT Yamaha duo were once again running nose to tail, with each keen to out do the other. Rossi’s time out in front soon came to an end however, when Lorenzo pushed passed, from where he never looked back.
Whilst Lorenzo stretched out an eight second gap, the battle for third took over the action, with Marco Simoncelli, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden all fighting for the same piece of tarmac. After struggling with tyre issues, Hayden had slipped back to fifth, where he kept a close eye on the battle in front of him.
After shadowing Simoncelli for a number of laps, Dovizioso sneaked passed with two laps to go, which kicked off a thrilling closing battle. Despite looking comfortable in third place, Simoncelli was determined t steal the position away from the Repsol Honda rider, and so made the position his on the final tour. Regardless of his best efforts, however, Dovizioso swept through to complete the podium as the duo crossed the finish line, with Hayden still in fifth.
Randy De Puniet enjoyed a strong outing to finish sixth, just ahead of Colin Edwards in seventh. On his come back ride, Dani Pedrosa made up ground to finish eighth, after starting twelfth, with Marco Melandri and Hector Barbera sealing off the top ten.
Only two retirements took place over the twenty-eight laps, with Stoner making his exit on the fourth lap, whilst Carlos Checa ended his race in the pits with fifteen lasp to go.
After a strong end to the year, Rossi is on target for runner-up spot in the championship standings, with just the Italian and Pedrosa in with a chance of the position. Pedrosa currently has 236 points, with Rossi closing down on him with 217 points. Second place in the overall standings will be decided at the season finale next weekend (7th November), with Valencia playing host to last race of the year.
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